Last year I wrote a lot of compositions. Roughly a hundred and fifty, judging by my Apple Music playlist, minus a few compositions that showed up in multiple versions. The game I started last June was simple: each day I would write a new composition on Logic Pro. The composition had to be at least 1 minute long, and I had to export into into my Apple Music playlist. I often exceeded one minute, but this was a good low bar to keep things manageable. I took anywhere from 20 or 30 minutes to several hours to write that day’s exercise. As time passed, I removed the requirement to write a new piece each day. This helped me focus longer on pieces that warranted it. I often shared the result on here via Soundcloud. All in all, the “music composition train” rolled on with great joy and ease.
This year I’m in a new phase of writing: film scoring! To date, I have worked on three projects: two self-assigned and one a short-lived commission that didn’t end up working out. Now I am on my fourth film scoring project, also self-assigned. So far, these projects are short, less than ten minutes. For film footage, I have been using archive.org. The projects are taking longer, because I’m writing for a particular scene rather than writing whatever comes to mind that day. I also want them to be high-quality, since I’m also sharing them when I’m done. With the” Captain America” and “The Three Musketeers” clips, I loved writing short cues for the different scenes. “Captain America” was 3 1/2 minutes long, “The Three Musketeers” was about 6 1/2 minutes (with some dialogue with no music under it).
My latest project, a clip from “The Passion of Joan of Arc” (1923), is currently 9 minutes long. The length poses its own challenge. So does the dramatic content. The film is beautifully shot, with many close ups on the faces of Joan and her accusers. The scene is tense, the stakes are high, and the feeling is personal and emotional. I am writing music trying to evoke Joan’s transcendence in the face of her circumstances. There’s an ethereal, atmospheric quality to the score, though it also follows the story to some degree.
I am having a blast, even in moments of confusion over musical problems I have yet to solve. But I’m used to that. And the breakthrough that is forthcoming will be awesome.
Stay tuned.