David McSherry

Portfolio Submission One

The first twenty minutes of my hour long portfolio are now finished and handed in. The music I have composed falls into three parts:

SGT – 400
Part one is the soundtrack for the Siemens animation. As I explained in an earlier post, the animation is for corporate purposes and is a slow motion fly-round of a 3D model of a gas turbine engine. I tried to incorporate some recordings I made of the engine sounds but they are full of screaming mid and high frequencies which masked any musical parts I put it near. I managed to squeeze it in near the beginning of the track. The complete artefact is yet to be finished; there’s still a voice-over to record and mix.
SGT – 400 by mandrill1

UD+
Part two is a stand alone music track I composed for the forthcoming Clearnotice compilation album. I really enjoyed working on this track as I was free to take it wherever I wanted. I ditched my usual Logic and wrote the track in Ableton (to which, I’m still a noobie), and mixed it in Pro Tools. Pure Tone did a lovely job of mastering it. The starting point for this track’s composition was a beat I made that was influenced by a Jeff Mills track. There is also a nod to Delia Derbyshire (in some of the little sprinklings on top) and the drones are a mangled Marcel Duchamp sound poem. You can hear a 30 sec preview of the track below. There are some great artists scheduled to appear on the album – I’ll post more information when it is released later this summer.
U?+ Preview by mandrill1

Appointment
The third piece is the one I had the most difficulty with. It is a score for a short film. The film focusses on a WW2 veteran and includes some flashback scenes to significant moments in his wartime experience. I wanted to avoid the obvious orchestral instrumentation as much as possible and create an electronic score but, due to the period setting of some of the scenes, this proved to be difficult and I compromised with a hybrid of the two. This is my first attempt at scoring for film and I found it very tricky; always being mindful of the key points in the narrative and supporting the dialogue or action when required. I discussed the piece at great lengths with my supervisor (the writer/director of the film) and it went through six iterations until we were both happy(ish) with it. I also didn’t have split dialogue and sound effects mixes to work with, meaning some of the dialogue was very low level. You can hear the full score below and, although it works much better with the dialogue/effects track and pictures, I’m still not completely happy with it.
MA Film Soundtrack: Full Score by mandrill1

Gas Turbine Engine Recording

I was asked if I could incorporate some of the sounds of a gas turbine engine starting up and shutting down into the piece of music I’m writing for the engineering animation. Of course I can! I grabbed my headphones, a couple of Beyer Dynamic M201TGs and a Marantz PMD661 from uni and cycled to the Siemens plant in Lincoln. I watched a thrilling health and safety video, was given a pair of steel toe-capped brogues(!), a set of ear protectors and a tour of the plant. It’s huge. Once we were in the testing room, I was shown which of bits of the engine did what and what kind of sound levels I should expect – around 200dB. Right. I attenuated everything as much as I could and tested the mics. I started recording and they fired the machine up, with my ear defenders on all I could do was watch the meters and cross my fingers. Everything looked fine and then the engine wound down, it had failed to switch to its next phase. Great, I thought, more sounds for me. The engine was re-booted and this time it ramped up into its operational phase. It was LOUD. The red clip lights were flashing like mad but there was nothing I could do, the engine would stay in this phase for the rest of the day. Bollocks.

Luckily, there is no obvious clipping in the recordings and, in any case, I’ll probably mangle the sounds into the track. Will they fit the music? God knows, but it was great fun sourcing the sounds and working without clicking a mouse for a couple of hours. Feel free to grab the recording from Soundcloud. Thanks to Mel Fidlin for making this happen.

Gas Turbine Engine by mandrill1

Music For Film

In the past, I have written a lot of music for music’s sake and I now want to try the challenge of writing for a specific purpose. For this task I’ve been given a short film to score.

The film score can have a real say in how a film is shaped and although, ‘in one sense, all (or almost all) music in narrative film functions to create mood music’ (Kassabian, 2001), it serves three broad purposes; identification (a leitmotif identifies character, place, period etc.), mood and commentary (the underscore comments on a character’s situation – think Tom and Jerry).

The film I’ve been given focusses on a WW2 veteran who revisits the battlegrounds of France. As he reflects on his wartime experience, the film uses flashback scenes to tell his story. I wanted to avoid the cliché of big orchestral strings and try a subtle electronic approach. My first task is to spot the film for music. The flashback scenes are dialogue heavy and I didn’t feel an underscore was needed here. I also felt an electronic score wouldn’t be appropriate at these points.

There are two key moments of reflection when the character is an old man where I wanted to subtly use the music for dramatic effect, to heighten emotion and to guide the narrative through the internalised world of the central character.

MA Film Score Track 1 – mixed for dialogue by mandrill1

MA Film Score Track 2 – mixed for dialogue by mandrill1

Composition Portfolio

My first three essays are done (and I’m really pleased with the grades: 70/75/80!) and now, to complete the first phase (Post Graduate Certificate), I must write 20 minutes of music. It’s been a while since I last made a serious attempt at composition and, as I want to try new approaches, I’ve moved over to Ableton (from Logic) as my primary tool. I’ve chosen to submit a hybrid portfolio, meaning the music in it has various functions. It can be an underscore for a film, for example, or simply a stand-alone piece.

My first piece is a soundtrack for an animation for an engineering company. This is a real-world brief that came to me through my job at the university (there’s no payment in it, unfortunately!) and the requirements are very, well, brief: ‘mainly bed with energy (not excessive) and with instrumentation to sit behind commentary.’ The animation is for corporate purposes and is a slow motion fly-round of a 3D model of an engine – the odd panel floats off to reveal what’s underneath. Exciting stuff.

My first attempt is at something quite neutral sounding in terms of genre (other than it’s an electronic piece). With its steady pace it is cold and detached but also quite hi-tech sounding. It is minimal with arpeggiators that float throughout the piece with a few glitchy random rhythmic elements. These could be interpreted as machinery coughing and spluttering – not what I imagine the client is hoping to evoke, I’m sure! I’ve not heard back from them yet so there may be a major tweak or re-write ahead.

16m 19s to go.

Engineering Animation Soundtrack (tweaked) by mandrill1

So, Where Were We?

Analysis essay handed in. I chose David Lynch’s The Straight Story as a case study for a discussion around the function of music in narrative film. I’m a big Lynch fan, however, this isn’t your typical Lynch fare but it is a great film nonetheless. I’ve listened closely to the soundtrack a number of times and, aside from Badalamenti’s non-typical score, what strikes me most about it is the minimal use of dialogue and (but for the sound of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees) the huge swathes of silence.

Critical Evaluation presentation is done and the essay is nearly finished. This is the tricky one. The title ‘Does the prevalence of sampling in today’s popular music signal the triumph of ‘pseudo culture’, in the sense of Adorno’s definition?’ meant a lot of reading around theories and issues that are completely new to me. I wanted to include an artist’s perspective and I contacted Tim Exile via Twitter. He was, luckily for me, delayed at Gatwick airport during the bad weather just before Christmas and he very kindly agreed to answer a few questions. He provided me with some very useful material, so thanks very much, Tim and glad you (eventually!) made it safely to your destination.

Industry Studies essay is also nearly done. For this one I’ve focussed on artists and musicians who are building relationships with their audience in order to create sustainable, independent careers without need for a recording contract.

Next… some actual writing of music!

The Best Laid Plans…

This blog hasn’t really turned out as planned. I intended to post an update after each weekly trip to Leeds but there is just too much material to select from and with the present workload for my job, finding the time to write anything meaningful has proved impossible.

The sessions in Leeds have been incredibly stimulating and enjoyable. The three modules of the first trimester (Industry Studies, Critical Evaluation and Composition Analysis) have introduced me to huge areas of philosophy, ideologies, cultural and critical theory, and, of course, music that I’ve never come across before. I’ve loved it.

My task over the Christmas break is to write an essay for each of these modules (and present a conference style paper in January) followed by a 20 minute music composition for hand-in in May. Hopefully, I’ll be uploading work in progress and thoughts about the composition process as I go along.

I’ve been to the library, Amazon and raided the university’s e-resources ready to fill my brain with a Christmas book gorge. Have a happy Christmas, see you in 2010.

Authorship

Unfortunately, ditto last week. Work demands mean I’m too busy to write anything meaningful.

Critical Evaluation session was discussions around reading of the following:

Drummond and Cauty: ‘The Manual’

Barthes: ‘Death of the Author’

Foucault: ‘What is an Author?’

An Introduction To ‘Aura’ and ‘Pseudo Culture’

Too much to write and not enough time this week, I’m afraid.

Critical Evaluation session was discussions around reading of the following:

Walter Benjamin: ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’

Mike Figgis: ‘Is there too much culture?’

Bill Drummond: ‘The 17’

The Tail Wagging The Dog

Industry Studies

A lively debate around copyright and (in my opinion) how overzealous copyright laws obstruct the development of new music and culture. If you’ve not heard it before, Nate Harrison’s Can I Get An Amen? (2004) is an excellent investigation of these issues using the iconic Amen break as a case study.

Analysis

The following is a series of notes taken from reading and discussion around Kasdan and Appleton’s rather paranoid text on the influence of technology on the composition process Tradition and Change: The Case For Music (1970).

In traditional Western music there is a division of labour between the composer, the performer and the audience. In the West, the score narrowly defines how piece should be performed.

Systems of the East, however (India, Indonesia, Japan), are much looser allowing for variation on the part of the performer. In ‘World Music’, for example, the audience can be much more a part of the composition itself.

The rise of the virtuoso performer saddles the composer with a burden. The virtuoso tended to neglect the score and in an attempt to reach the audience with an accurate recreation of their work, composers would clutter their scores with instructions to the musician. This would result in complex demands on their performance and musicians would gravitate to earlier, simpler works. Commercial considerations, such as the cost of a symphony orchestra, would also impinge on the compositional process.

This separation of roles of the composer, performer and audience have been changed with technological innovation. Technology allows the composer to communicate directly with their audience without an intermediary. In electronic music the composer is also responsible for the performance, every beat, texture or fragment of sound is intended, or at least edited, to sculpt the composition and performance to the desired shape.

As an electronic music composer, how much do your tools of choice inform your music making? Who (or what) is in control, you, or the technology?

By processes of continual sonic metamorphosis on the single ‘clink’ of two wineglasses, Trevor Wishart’s Imago (2002), constructed with self-designed software, is an attempt to answer this challenge in sonic art.

Published in 1970, the Kasdan and Appleton text amusingly and perceptively predicts an “instantaneous realization” available to the composer of the near-future in a “semicomputerized studio”:

“A small keyboard, similar to that of a typewriter, would be used to specify the original, electronically generated material. Once specified, the sound would be played and the composer could make any changes desired. This material could then be stored on a computer memory and could be instantly recalled should the composer want to hear it again or develop the idea further. Once completed the work would be transferred from the computer memory to recording tape and made available to various ‘performance’ media: radio, record companies etc. The composer could carry out this process in his own home using a data-phone connection. The significance of electronic music, in which the composer deals direct with sound, lies not in the use of new material but in the fact that the composer is communicating directly with his audience without an intermediary.”

It’ll never happen

Sharks, Tossers And Unpaid Tax

Today, I have absolutely zero interest in trying to sell my music as an end product. In my experience, concern over how many ‘units’ you have shifted (physical or digital) and taking that as some kind of measure of success can only ever impact negatively on the relationship you have with your own music, the relationships you have with those you make music with and, ultimately, on the music itself.

This week’s Industry Studies session was taken by guest speaker Stefan Gordon. Stefan had been a member of the 90s/2000s, Anglo/American, male/female, rock/hip-hop band Brassy. Although I’d never heard of them, Brassy had enjoyed some American chart success and a substantial number of syncs for film, TV and advertising.

Stefan’s story is very interesting but try as he might, he couldn’t paint a positive picture of his experiences in the ‘industry’. Tales of sharks, tossers and unpaid tax bills abound. As we all know, the music industry is in terminal flux and the traditional model record companies are, well, fucked basically. However, on hearing about desperate, major label style tac-tics such as 360 deals discussed in today’s session, it seems that the sharks and tossers are still lurking and sniffing out fresh blood. Fledgling artists signing one of these contracts are possibly far worse off than with the traditional record companies’ ‘instant huge debt’ deal.

If your aim is to make a living through the music you make (the word is monetize, I believe), there’s a whole spectrum of strategy, manifesto and opinion out there (see Andrew Dubber, Gerd Leonhard, Bobby Owsinski) but far too wide ranging to discuss here.

The DIY approach is now more doable than ever and, in my opinion, is the only way to go but, take it from me, you’ll still have to remember to pay your tax bill.