Musical Interlude

So here I am, trying to put together the first two minutes of my short to show my Kittian compadre, Dele Adams, what his voicework looks like with Boris. I was excited as I stitched the existing scenes together…then I did a runthrough….but something was missing….just watching the clip and hearing the voices seemed….incomplete…there was no mood, no atmosphere….there was no music! MUSIC!
It was amazing to me how incomplete the entire thing was without the music bed. Music is indeed life! Without it, the scenes just seem dead somehow. The voices were still very rough, the sound effects I managed to scrounge together for the footsteps and background were…ok….but the music was missing. Even though I am NOWHERE near completing this beast of a project, I realized that at some point, time needed to be put in for the composing of music. So off I went to the internet searching for sheet music to arrange into my special digital Orchestral concoction.

I know it is very early on to start thinking about scoring an unfinished project, but it gives me an excuse to switch gears a bit and evade the monotiny of keyframing, rendering and compositing. Music is also a driving force behind my creative process. It helps me to visualize the scenes and set the mood.

Now before anyone starts screaming, COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, I did a lot of research into the matter. It turns out that once a composer has been…living impaired… for a certain number of years (like 100 years), his work becomes public domain. BUT, that is just the raw sheet-music….The copyright infringement would only come in if I used the music as performed by an Orchestra. So say for example…I am using Camille Saint Saens’ piece “Aquarium” from Carnival of the Animals…If I used the performance of that piece from say, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, then I would be infringing on the copyright of the London Philharmonic orchestra….BUT if I get the  public domain sheet-music and perform it myself, then I am ok and good to go. So hopefully, I’ve settled that and edumacated some folks.

Now I know I am perfectly capable of creating my own music…but there two classical pieces I think are appropriate, that I would love to put into this short. One is the above mentioned “Aquarium” from Camille Saint-Saens, and the other is Beethoven’s 7^th Symphony, 2^nd Movement.

Now I do not have the luxury of a large live orchestra, but I do have music composing software and a bit of musical know-how. I used to play the piano, my mom’s a music teacher and my brother is an audio engineer. With a last name like “Singer” music was bound to be in our blood :p

So thankfully, I won’t be drowning in this ocean of confusing lines and symbols. I can’t play them in real-time (once upon a time, maybe)…but thankfully there’s the step sequencer…All hail the step sequencer!

The downside of using samples to create music, is that it never does sound like the real thing. Recently the Royal philharmonic came to Jamaica to perform….alas, I, being poor, was not able to get a ticket to attend….and even with the help of Lady Natalie Thompson, the tickets were hotter than pavement in July and sold off in a flash.

I’ve always wanted to hear a live Orchestra perform. I desperately wanted to attend so I could hear the music as it ought to be…that  way I could return to base and adjust all my sliders and equalize the sound accordingly….meh….I guess for now, Youtube is as close as I’ll get to a live Orchestra. 

Speaking of Lady Thompson, I need to record her voice for Akoulah in this first scene. Then once this first scene is done, I will put out a rough version of it to let you guys see what is going on. Music and all.  😀