Composing

PART 1 — BEFORE INTENTION: WHAT FUNCTION DOES THE MUSIC SERVE IN THE STORY’S SYSTEM?

Every score begins with a function, not a feeling.

When the function is named, the emotional palette becomes inevitable instead of guessed.

PART 2 — BEFORE THEME: WHAT BEHAVIOR MUST THE MUSIC MAKE IMPOSSIBLE?

Theme isn’t decoration — it’s constraint.

A strong theme removes options the story should never take, which is why clarity begins with subtraction, not addition.

PART 3 — BEFORE MOTIF: WHAT PRESSURE IS THE SCENE ACTUALLY CARRYING?

Motifs don’t emerge from characters; they emerge from pressure.

Once the pressure is named, the motif becomes a structural response, not a stylistic choice.

PART 4 — BEFORE PALETTE: WHAT IS THE STORY’S NATURAL FREQUENCY?

Every narrative vibrates at a specific frequency — tonal, emotional, rhythmic.

The palette is simply the instrumentation that resonates with that frequency instead of fighting it.

PART 5 — BEFORE CUES: WHAT IS THE SYSTEM’S RULE FOR WHEN MUSIC IS ALLOWED TO ENTER?

Most scores fail not because of the notes, but because of the timing logic.

When the entry rule is named, the score stops feeling arbitrary and starts feeling inevitable.

PART 6 — BEFORE TRANSITIONS: WHAT IS THE STORY’S ENERGY ECONOMY?

Transitions aren’t musical problems — they’re energy problems.

Once you understand how the story spends and restores energy, transitions write themselves.

PART 7 — BEFORE THE FINAL MIX: WHAT IS THE SCORE’S GOVERNING PROMISE TO THE AUDIENCE?

Every score makes a promise — tension, restraint, propulsion, mystery, intimacy.

The final mix is simply the enforcement of that promise across the entire system.

Hey Composing Lounge,

I want to take a moment to share some very sad news with this community.

Four-time Emmy nominated composer Guy Moon has passed away at the age of 63. According to his family and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, Guy was killed Thursday morning in an accidental traffic collision and succumbed to traumatic injuries.

Guy’s music shaped the childhoods and creative imaginations of millions. He was the Annie Award winning composer behind Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents, and also composed for two more Butch Hartman created series, Danny Phantom (including its unforgettable theme) and T.U.F.F. Puppy. His work carried an incredible sense of personality, humor, and emotional clarity that many associate with why those shows still resonate today.

Beyond those iconic series, Guy’s career spanned an extraordinary range of projects. He contributed music to Big Time Rush, Netflix’s Johnny Test, Back at the Barnyard, Cow and Chicken, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. On the film side, his credits included The Brady Bunch Movie, A Very Brady Sequel, The Crash, and the live-action Fairly OddParents films, along with contributions to soundtracks for Minority Report, Fight Club, and Mystic Pizza. More recently, he expanded further into live action with his original score for The Green Veil.

For those who want to hear directly from Guy about his journey, I highly recommend this interview with Butch Hartman, where Guy talks about breaking into music and his time working with Nickelodeon. It’s a generous, inspiring conversation and a wonderful way to remember him:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFGNq7vqkm0

Guy Moon leaves behind an enormous musical legacy, one built on joy, craft, and a deep understanding of how music supports story and character. His work will continue to inspire composers, animators, and storytellers for generations.

If his music shaped your creative path or left a mark on you growing up, feel free to share a memory or favorite cue below.

PART 1 — BEFORE INTENTION: WHAT FUNCTION DOES THE MUSIC SERVE IN THE STORY’S SYSTEM?

Most composers begin by asking what the music should feel like. Upstream, the real question is what the music is for. Every score operates inside a story system, and that system assigns the music a function long before a cue is written.

Is the score:

- stabilizing emotional volatility

- revealing what the characters can’t say

- countering the scene’s surface energy

- binding disconnected narrative threads

- creating pressure the visuals can’t carry alone

When the composer identifies the function first, the music stops being expressive and becomes structural infrastructure.

The score isn’t “supporting” the film — it’s performing a job the story cannot complete without it.

Upstream clarity begins with function, not feeling.

PART 2 — BEFORE TEXTURE: WHAT IS THE STORY’S THERMAL STATE?

Every story has a temperature — not emotional, but energetic.

Is the narrative running hot, cold, or oscillating between the two?

This thermal state determines the textures the score can sustain.

Hot stories demand:

- density

- propulsion

- harmonic friction

- rhythmic instability

Cold stories demand:

- spaciousness

- restraint

- tonal minimalism

- slow harmonic metabolism

Most composers discover this halfway through the project, after cues start contradicting each other.

Upstream, naming the thermal state early creates a coherent sonic climate.

Texture becomes inevitable.

Instrumentation becomes obvious.

The score stops drifting and starts behaving like a single organism.

Upstream clarity means the music’s texture is not chosen — it is dictated by the story’s temperature.

A theme isn’t just a melody — it’s a constraint.

It tells the story what it cannot do without breaking its own emotional physics.

Upstream composers define this constraint early:

- What behavior must the protagonist abandon for the score to resolve

- What emotional shortcut the music refuses to allow

- What tonal “escape hatch” the harmony closes off

- What false identity the instrumentation exposes under pressure

When you identify the behavior your score makes impossible, the theme becomes:

- a governing condition

- a narrative boundary

- a pressure system

- a structural truth

This is how a score stops reacting to the story and starts shaping it.

PART 1 — BEFORE THEME: WHAT EMOTIONAL BOUNDARY DOES THE SCORE ENFORCE?

Most composers think their job is to express emotion.

Upstream composers understand their job is to enforce the emotional boundary the story cannot cross without consequence.

Every score creates a perimeter — a line the audience can feel but not articulate. When you define that boundary before writing a single cue, three things happen:

- the theme stops being decorative and becomes structural

- the harmony stops wandering and starts enforcing identity

- the instrumentation stops being aesthetic and becomes narrative pressure

A score doesn’t guide emotion.

A score polices it.

Once you name the emotional boundary your music enforces, the entire sound world becomes inevitable.

Motifs don’t create meaning.

Meaning comes from consequence — what the music enforces every time it appears.

A motif can enforce:

- truth

- danger

- inevitability

- longing

- transformation

- corruption

- hope

When consequence is undefined, motifs become decoration.

When consequence is upstream, motifs become narrative law.

Upstream clarity question:

What consequence does your music enforce every time it enters the story?

This is the decision that gives the score authority.

Harmony is downstream.

Upstream is behavior — the way the sound world moves, reacts, and evolves under pressure.

Behavior determines:

- rhythmic identity

- harmonic tendencies

- textural density

- dynamic shape

- emotional volatility

A sound world can be:

- restrained or explosive

- fragile or unyielding

- unstable or grounded

- human or elemental

When behavior is undefined, cues feel inconsistent.

When behavior is upstream, the score becomes a coherent organism.

Upstream clarity question:

How does your sound world behave under pressure — and what does that behavior reveal about the story?

This is the decision that gives the score identity.

PART 1 — BEFORE THE FIRST NOTE: WHAT FORCE IS THE SCORE RESPONSIBLE FOR REVEALING?

Most composers begin with musical ideas.

Upstream composers begin with narrative force.

Every story contains a force the audience must feel but cannot see:

- the protagonist’s internal engine

- the world’s governing pressure

- the emotional truth beneath the dialogue

- the threat that never speaks

- the longing that shapes behavior

The score is often the only department capable of revealing that force.

When the force is undefined, the music becomes decorative.

When the force is upstream, the music becomes structural.

Upstream clarity question:

What invisible force must your score reveal so the story can function?

This is the decision that gives the score purpose.

Are you someone who hears the cue before touching an instrument…

or does it reveal itself note by note?

I’ve noticed both approaches lead to very different results.

Instrumentation is not a palette.

It’s a world‑building decision.

Every sound world has a nature:

- organic or synthetic

- intimate or expansive

- fragile or imposing

- human or elemental

- stable or volatile

This nature determines:

- harmonic language

- rhythmic behavior

- textural density

- dynamic architecture

- the emotional physics of the score

When you define the nature of the sound world upstream, the entire score becomes self‑consistent — scenes stop feeling like separate cues and start feeling like one authored musical universe.

Upstream clarity question:

What is the inherent nature of the sound world your score lives in — and what rules govern it?

This is the decision that gives the music identity.

PART 1 — THE DECISION BEFORE MELODY: WHAT IS THE SCORE RESPONSIBLE FOR IN THE STORY?

Most composers begin with musical ideas.

Upstream composers begin with narrative responsibility.

A score is not “music that fits the scene.”

A score is a structural function inside the story’s architecture.

Every score must answer one upstream question:

What is the score responsible for stabilizing that nothing else in the film can?

It might be:

- the protagonist’s internal engine

- the governing pressure of the world

- the emotional physics of a relationship

- the tonal spine of the narrative

- the unseen threat or unspoken truth

When you define the score’s responsibility first, melody becomes inevitable instead of guessed.

Upstream clarity question:

What narrative function must your score hold so the story doesn’t collapse without it?

This is the decision that gives the music purpose.

PART 1 — The First Structural Choice: Are You Composing a Moment or Designing a System?

Most composers begin with melody, harmony, or emotion.

Upstream, the real beginning is a structural choice:

“Is this piece serving a single moment… or supporting an entire system?”

A moment‑based composition is built to heighten a specific beat, emotion, or scene.

A system‑based composition is built to generate multiple cues, variations, motifs, and expansions.

These two identities behave differently in:

- thematic development

- orchestration

- motif design

- stem strategy

- collaboration with directors

- long‑term catalog value

When a composer doesn’t name the identity upstream, the music drifts — too small for a system, too broad for a moment.

Upstream clarity begins with naming the scale of the composition before writing a single note.

⭐ PART 2 — The Functional Role: What Job Is the Music Actually Doing in the Project?

Music doesn’t just “support the story.”

Upstream, every piece of music has a functional role inside the project’s architecture:

- Emotional Anchor — defines the project’s emotional vocabulary

- Rhythmic Engine — drives pacing and momentum

- Atmospheric Frame — shapes tone and world identity

- Character Signature — marks presence, intention, or transformation

- Structural Glue — binds scenes, sequences, or acts together

If the composer doesn’t declare the function upstream, collaborators will assign their own — and the notes will reflect their assumptions, not the composer’s intention.

Upstream clarity is simply this:

Define the job of the music before you compose it.

Once the function is clear, the creative decisions downstream — motif, instrumentation, dynamics, texture — finally have a stable foundation.