Composing

Bruce Bray YEY!!! Yes, yes, love all of those!!!!! And I will now watch "Under the Skin", oooh looks like something I would looove. Agree, Danny Elfman is a master, oh and I also forgot to add Hans Zimmer, particularly "Dark Knight" soundtrack, it chills me, and I use it a lot for acting preparation. Oh! And, another one: motion picture soundtrack for "Black Hawk Down"...it moves me so, tears always, always fall, it's really powerful. Again, Hans Zimmer...

And I am not someone you apologize too for adding scene descriptions, an actor / screenwriter / dancer / singer / love all of it! So, loved it!

And agree, the entire music for "Gladiator" is overlooked because it takes a paused moment to sit and let it come in, but it just transports you to another dimension.

Thank you for this amazing conversation!!!! Love composers!!!

Maurice Vaughan Oh my gosh, you're totally right, that music is amazing for writing. The tempo is great, that's becoming a throughline here...tempo. The tempo, really determines what you write with. Love it!!!

Kat Spencer HANS ZIMMER!! !Yes, I mentioned it to Bruce too. There is just something about his scores, I automatically listen to them again, and again...powerful alchemizing there. Oh, "The Goonies"!!! I love, love, love this movie!!! And the music is sooooo good! I always watch this move to remember how amazing life is, and that as children, we knew, the power was within us. I love your list of movies and soundtracks, I totally agree about the humanity being the most beautiful thing of a composition...the feelings, the emotions...

If we really are being honest here, the soundtracks of movies, are the most vital language...they are the universal code, the magic imprint that literally, ANYONE, and EVERYONE can understand. The heart speaks here : )

Oh, and "The Piano", yup, have to add that one for my "acting prep" list, I really lose it with that one.

"Titanic"...girl, epic...it's a moment in our lives that marked a really, truly important story that took us somewhere else. We all dreamed of being Rose, of having our own Jack Dawson...I love this : )

Thank you for this, I really enjoy this, gushing over here!

Unlike typical superhero OSTs, Hans Zimmer’s The Dark Knight score tells a story through atmosphere rather than just melody. It perfectly encapsulates the duality of Batman: a hero who isn’t looking for applause, but is willing to be the villain Gotham needs. Zimmer’s work is a masterstroke of darkness, heroism, and epic scale, proving that a score can be just as complex as the character it represents.

Subin Karkani Absolutely, I completely agree, it really is so much more. The score feels like a living, breathing thing in The Dark Knight, and also The Dark Knight Rises, but this one even darker, taking that journey of the story with it, the darkness taking over Gotham... It's a transition from one to the other, but I can't help but get completely immersed, and my emotions react immediately to the rhythmic changes of the percussion, the strings, and the brass...it's just an epic, living, speaking character.

I've experienced that when listening to music and working on scripts, Kat Spencer. Sometimes I use the emotion and pain in scripts.

Music as trigger… deifinitely the dissonant chords in The Never Ending Story when Gmork appears. The ASMR-style horror music of The Shining also incites dread. In another genre, I love the OSTs to The Rock and Crimson Tide as the music really supports the action, gives an adrenaline rush. That's my favorite kind of music.

Every Time You Go Away by Paul Young always reminds me of someone from my younger days

Shape Of My Heart goes straight .... to my heart. It's a Trigger.

In the cinematic world, I have a recent example of music I was expecting to be a Trigger but was unfortunately more a Support, IMHO, and it's Avatar 3. The soundtrack by Simon Franglen is truly outstanding, but I was precisely expecting some thrilling themes in the movie. I lacked those moments when music suddenly steps out of the screen for a moment and moves you deeply.

There are pieces that have brought tears, such as Mark Growden's song, "Killing Time," a sad, sweet-sounding number with a tragic bite. Also, the closing bars of the 1st movement of Shostakovich's 8th Symphony is a tear jerker with the trumpets restating the movement's opening theme as a bleak, defiant fanfare in the wake of an epic but horrifying battle depicted by the orchestra--its buildup, climax and devastating aftermath.

For me, comfort music would include Bach cantatas, late Brahms piano pieces and albums by the Modern Jazz Quartet, to name a few--anything smooth & structured but still captivating. However, I also like such artists as Stravinsky and Schoenberg (the forefather of "don't go in the basement" music), as well as numerous other genres, from indie hip-hop to ancient and tribal.

There is one type of music that triggers annoyance in me: the formulaic soundtracks that have neither any dissonance nor catchy thematic material. (I'll be posting a rant about that, later.)

Good points, Baron. HNY!

Thanks, Michael — appreciate that.

Wishing you a strong start to 2026.

Always happy to share upstream tools that make the composing process feel lighter.

Thank you for those tips ! Amazing and clear. I feel point 1 more as the Static aspect of the emotion, point 2 as the Dynamic aspect = where the music will lead us or how it will move us, and point 3 is the HOW. Correct me if I've misunderstood. Really nice !

You’re reading it correctly, Julien.

Point 1 is the fixed emotional boundary — the condition the score must not violate.

Point 2 is the directional pressure — how the moment needs to move the audience.

Point 3 is the execution layer — the musical choices that express the first two.

When those three stay separated, the composer never loses clarity.

It depends on the kind of lyrics I'm writing. I always begin writing songs with lyrics. I can imagine a melody in my mind after I've finished the lyrics. If it's a slow melody, I imagine piano or keyboard. If it's a more upbeat song, I imagine guitar, drums, harmonica, sometimes saxophone.

I'm a pantser in screenwriting and composing. I'm usually the one who is most surprised at the end of a composition!

In my next life I want to be a fly on Jacob Collier’s shoulder.

I'm more of a screenwriter than a song writer, but I do write poems and songs sometimes, out of interest and it varies sometime its the cue, sometimes note by note or many different notes merged together and sometimes the lyrics and the concept and then the musicals.

Visual material and scripts give me fuzzy ideas but it's not really musical, rather I feel beats and what kind of instruments I'll choose, whether it's fully orchestral or blended with synthesizers, voices, traditional instruments. Then I put myself behind the keyboard, and very often, the timbre of the instruments lead me to ideas that I develop further until I have the full score. But for every single project I make, I always have the fear of the blank page, and I'm myself highly surprised by the result.

Hi Robert, my name is Andy Alston. I play Kbs with the band Del Amitri with whom I had a top 10 chart single in USA. I write songs that get international radio play. I have worked in musical theatre, but it has not been my area recently. I may be interested

Kat Spencer OMG Kat you are talking one of my love languages, haha. It happens so frequently that I wonder when it doesn't happen if I am not investing myself emotionally. When I first saw The Gentleman and heard the song Cumberland Gap, I listened to that song on non stop play for 72 hours. I've done that often haha. Music IS my soul.

Does this music meet these requirements? https://www.stage32.com/media/3980441338943384161?ref=search&autoplay=1

Vladimir, the way to check is to measure the cue against the upstream conditions.

Does the music hold the story’s pressure?

Does it express the character’s emotional contradiction?

Does it prevent the behaviors the scene can’t allow?

And does it guide the audience toward the decision the moment is forcing?

If the cue satisfies those four functions, it’s aligned with the requirements.

YES! Music can add so muchto that build!

Exactly — once the cue is carrying the story’s pressure, the build becomes inevitable rather than decorative.

Ashley Renee Smith This is so sad....

That is so sad. My condolences to his friends and family.

So sad to here this!

Kat Spencer That depends on the scene. It’s imperative that the music support the scene. If there is a lot of dialog then the music needs to be more subtle less melody and movement, because that will distract from the dialog. If emotions are high in the scene then that also needs to be supported with bigger action musics or a soaring string line playing a beautiful melody, but again the scene dictates the musical needs and musical narrative!

Thanks for your response Mark Gosney !

I think I read the scene first and see what kind of emotion it evokes. From there, it's almost always lyrics first for me.