Composing for Commissions

In the last few weeks I have had a series of commissions to fulfil, most of which cannot be shared here as musical examples due to permission and rights:

  • 4 and 1/2 minute score for an animation, which shows an old dam being converted to provide hydroelectric power. This was used for a presentation within days of completion and I hear it went extremely well.
  • Three short promo film scores for an existing client. 
  • Six instructional videos to demonstrate bespoke cleaning products, to be used at an internal company event next Wednesday. 
  • A welcome song for a play group age 0-3 years, still in development. 
  • Three minute track in preparation for a montage edit of a live event next week.
  • Stings for the start/end of videos for an existing corporate client.

Scoring is always a challenge because you have to subordinate the musical idea to the needs of the images, without it appearing to be compromise. You can learn how to do it better, but you still have to face unique corners in every film. In some ways, dramatic scoring is much easier than corporate because in drama the composer has licence to impose and make grand gestures. The best corporate scoring is only felt and never heard. It has to be very tight and to the point, without any scope for so-called "artistic" temperament. 

The song has been an enjoyable counterpoint to these scores and a great opportunity to spend an hour or two recording again. It's 15 years since I was handing in my A Level composition coursework, including a multi-tracked musical number I had written for The Little Princess. 

Rhuddlan Castle: Gateway to Wales

Rhuddlan Castle: Gateway to Wales is the latest Lost in Castles feature-documentary. The score is just under 70 minutes long. It follows on from the 45 minute score for Middleham Castle, 75 minute score for Sandal Castle and 90 minutes for Conwy Castle. The score for Rhuddlan will soon be available to buy / download. As with the previous films, it is a rich and melodic orchestral score. Before the DVD of Rhuddlan Castle is available, I will have the pleasure to score a short extra feature on Dyserth Castle, to appear on the same DVD. Here is a sneak preview of the Dyserth Castle reconstruction by Lost in Castles:

Diserth Castle 23.jpg

RepeatRepeat

English pottery company RepeatRepeat had previously commissioned a score for this video and were not completely satisfied with the end result. In such a case, as a replacement composer, it is vital to take onboard what a client requires because trust and expectation are fragile. This is the finished and accepted video for this lovely pottery collection.

Mail Boxes Etc. and the happy track

One of the challenges in meeting the needs of corporate clients is the request for happy music. This was the case for Mail Boxes Etc. The solution to compose "happy music" is not as simple as choosing a major key signature because the resulting composition can be hideously cheesy and undermine the branding of the company.

Through experience, I have observed that when clients request happy music they do not mean music that sounds happy but music that makes people feel happy. It is surprising that there is a difference and it is that difference that makes the composer's job difficult. 

People perceive that popular music makes them feel happy, even if it is in a minor key, in the same way that people may listen to a sad love song and come away feeling uplifted. Is that happiness? This personal wedding edit was done to the track "Happy":

Compose a similar piece with the same ingredients and juxtapose it with a corporate promo and you will not necessarily produce the feeling of happiness. Much of the feel good quality of popular music comes from familiarity, unbroken rhythm and association with a famous artist. Take away the celebrity and the notoriety and you are left with music. And - more often than not - in isolation to those factors, it will not produce happy feelings.

It is not possible to write a piece of faux popular music for a corporate video because it will still lack the celebrity identity of the musician and the track's pre-existing place in culture. So how to solve the problem?

When a popular work is used by big business as soundtrack to adverts, the music plays, regardless of the images. And so I apply the same technique to corporate needs. It is not as much scoring as writing a piece of music that runs as though on tracks. It does not hit points as score should. It maintains a continuous rhythm and exploits tiny variations to avoid becoming tedious. This is not about optimum scoring, as though a composer is commissioned to be an artiste. This is about accommodating to a client's perception. And the one problem every composer faces in corporate work is that most clients like music, perhaps play music and regard themselves as expert enough to be far more critical than they would in another sphere of production.

The end result in this case is wallpaper music that is hardly perceived at all, but fills a gap with a warm and positive vibe.