Composing
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Liked by Mark Gosney and 3 others
Liked by Nicola Tirelli and 4 others
July
I wrote this song years ago, after losing my cat during a difficult stretch of my life. At the time, I didn’t know the song would stay with me the way it has — or that it would quietly resurface when loss showed up again.
This week, after losing Shade, I found myself thinking about how certain songs...
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- 2 days ago
I love this song, Kat Spencer. It's beautiful and moving. Incredible job on it!
- 1 day ago
Thank you Maurice Vaughan - I appreciate that!
- 19 hours ago
You're welcome, Kat Spencer.
Do you hear music fully formed—or discover it while writing?
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.
- 2 weeks ago
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.
- 1 week ago
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, v...
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- 4 days ago
I’m a bit late to this thread, but for what it’s worth I always discover musical ideas while writing. I might have an idea (e.g. I want something staccato and jolly sounding) beforehand – but I have n...
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- 1 day ago
Ditto to that Libby Wright !!!
- 1 day ago
That's exactly how I compose Thomas Owen!
When One Musical World Takes Over
Have you ever found yourself so immersed in one sound, artist, or musical world that everything else fades into the background—not from being stuck, but from a kind of quiet contentment?
- 2 weeks ago
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 Gentlem...
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- 4 days ago
All the time!! And I count myself very lucky that music does that to me.
- 1 day ago
Haha Darrell Pennington! Yes . . . I swear I'll spend decades on a favorite band. Never bother with the radio.
- 1 day ago
Thomas Owen Ditto!
Composer Spotlight & Creative Courage
I wanted to share this short but fascinating video where Hans Zimmer talks about discovering the unforgettable voice behind Dune.
In the clip, Zimmer explains how a friend stumbled across Loire Cotler on YouTube and immediately recognized something extraordinary. What struck me most wasn’t just her t...
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- 2 days ago
I feel most tempted to play it safe with scenes I write, Ashley Renee Smith. I've written scenes that were risky choices for the story, and they ended up being better than the safe scenes I planned....
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Favorite Movie or Television Compositions / Soundtracks: Why, and how has it impacted your own work
Composers!
I'm visiting in from the acting and screenwriting lounges, since I also studied music, composition, and can boast to absolutely obsessing over certain movie and television soundtracks, recognizing the instruments, the type of conducting, and even occasionally pretending to be the conductor...
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- 3 days ago
Hey Juliana Philippi - as far as favs go..
The Asteroid Field: The Empire Strikes Back
Ignition: Man of Steel
Gap: X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Surprise Attack: Star Trek 2:TWoK
Vespertilio: Batman Begins
Anything A...
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- 3 days ago
Leonardo Ramirez Oh yes! STAR WARS! How could we forget that epic music? Hans Zimmer...everyone here...he just has connected with stories and humanity so viscerally, it's amazing so many different peo...
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- 3 days ago
Yes Juliana Philippi - I do love me the pew-pews! #YaSabes
- 3 days ago
Leonardo Ramirez #wegother , #wefoundone...#alientango? lol!!!!
- 3 days ago
Hamnet Composer Spills on His Process!
2025 had many great scores, and composer Max Richter just spoke with Finneas to break down his score for HAMNET. Read their conversation here: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/max-richter-takes-finneas-inside-his-hamnet-score
I found it interesting that he found using a female voice, such as Ch...
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Music as Comfort vs. Trigger
We talk a lot about music as something that soothes or supports—but what about when it does the opposite?
Have you ever had a piece of music unexpectedly stir up old emotion or past pain and hit harder than you anticipated?
I’m curious how others experience that line between music as comfort and music...
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- 1 week ago
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...
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- 1 week ago
Every Time You Go Away by Paul Young always reminds me of someone from my younger days
- 1 week ago
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, an...
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- 5 days ago
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...
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- 4 days ago
Generally, I haven't been triggered, but I sometimes pick a piece of music that evokes the mood of what I'm writing and I'll loop that over and over...
PART 2 — “The Three Engines Every Composer Must Separate”
PART 2 — “The Three Engines Every Composer Must Separate”
Most composing overwhelm doesn’t come from lack of talent or inspiration. It comes from a structural collapse:
you’re trying to run three different engines at the same time.
When these engines collapse into one moment, the composer experience...
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- 1 month ago
Good points, Baron. HNY!
- 1 month ago
Thanks, Michael — appreciate that.
Wishing you a strong start to 2026.
Always happy to share upstream tools that make the composing process feel lighter.
- 1 week ago
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 !
- 1 week ago
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...
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Where do I find Musical Theatre composers willing to collaborate "on spec?"
I'm trying to find composers for more than a dozen speculative copyrighted Musical Theatre projects. Are there any willing to collaborate with me for deferred payment? I can't afford to pay out of pocket, but when a show is optioned, we would split the Author's Advance 50-50 and ALL ROYALTIES in mos...
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- 2 weeks ago
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
"The Real Work Happens Before You Write a Note"
Most composing problems aren’t musical — they’re upstream. The cue only stabilizes once you define the job it’s supposed to do.
A few quick anchors:
- What job is the cue hired for in the story
- What pressure the scene applies (escalation, containment, misdirection, etc.)
- What the cue’s identity...
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THE FOUR CONDITIONS BEFORE MUSIC CAN CARRY NARRATIVE WEIGHT A 4‑Part Upstream Clarity Series for the Composing Lounge
PART 1 — BEFORE SOUND: WHAT PRESSURE IS THE STORY ASKING THE MUSIC TO HOLD?
Music doesn’t begin with melody — it begins with pressure.
Every story contains a tension the audience must feel before they understand it.
When that pressure is named upstream, the score stops being decorative and becomes s...
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- 4 weeks ago
Does this music meet these requirements? https://www.stage32.com/media/3980441338943384161?ref=search&autoplay=1...
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- 4 weeks ago
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...
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- 3 weeks ago
YES! Music can add so muchto that build!
- 3 weeks ago
Exactly — once the cue is carrying the story’s pressure, the build becomes inevitable rather than decorative.
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I'm not surprised that Ludwig Göransson got top honors for his score to Sinners and shared an award for original song written for a dramatic project, Amanda Toney. The score and song are incredible! T...
Expand commentI'm not surprised that Ludwig Göransson got top honors for his score to Sinners and shared an award for original song written for a dramatic project, Amanda Toney. The score and song are incredible! The score and music play a big part of the movie!
1 person likes this
Yea me either Maurice Vaughan he has really exploded on to the scene in the past few years, working on The Mandalorian, Oppenheimer, Black Panther and now Sinners, also working in many games too. Quit...
Expand commentYea me either Maurice Vaughan he has really exploded on to the scene in the past few years, working on The Mandalorian, Oppenheimer, Black Panther and now Sinners, also working in many games too. Quit impressive..
I still need to check out The Mandalorian and Oppenheimer, Mark Gosney. I'm looking forward to hearing more of Ludwig's work!