@Leon Willett said:
Hi guys,
Another awe-inspiring spear of knowledge is that you don't have to use only II-V-I's when you write music. You can use chords that move by thirds, like Gerry Goldsmith. He states how this realisation changed his life for ever. There is no further explanation.
Leon
hey all,
leon's frustration bought back a great part of the class for me.
during the course, i was in the same class as fred story in ny, this II-V-I and progressions in 3rd parts was very interesting. The larger context was about writing cues that sound like they're progressing but not resolving. Throwing in V-I relationships tend to slow down the forward movement in the cue. it's great for stacking 4 bar and 8 bar phrases in song form but not enhancing a long and gory battle between the forces of good and evil or a torrid love scene. scott referenced off the II-V-I in the context of the history of movie and tv scores--alot of the composers from the 60's and 70's were jazz cats who wanted to settle down, so they went to LA. II-V-I's
were rampant. One of scotts personal battles was to help these guys expand their pallet of colors. He personally fought off composers dogmas in the trenches off hollywood, so when he mentions moving away from II-V-I's or other techniques, it not a tip or a trick or rule it's a personal victroy. scott personaly lead the conversion from transposed scores to concert scores in hollywood. so when he mentions using concert scores it not just an obvious tid bit, it's his history.
Does everyone who takes his course sound like a member of a cult? Hail the mighty scott!!!! How dare you question the devine knowledge?!?
sorry about the tone. I'm gonna have to learn how to use the smiley faces.
Often scott just gets unharmonized lines and instument indications for a cue that emotionally goes all over the map. By progressing in major or minor 3rds (throw in a minor chord when you need dark and major chord when you need bright) you get great color change and drama but don't have to work so hard avoiding tonic resolutions which can slow the pace down. if one had 7 french horn attacks to accompany parts of a building blowing up that leads to a chase scene, it's a great technique. no where to go but forward. smally applied this technique when harmonizing the main batman theme.....a very successful theme.
a short five note english horn theme (i love the vsl english horn) played while someone is going through a dresser and is afriad they might find body parts(which is the least of this persons problem because the audience can see the killer is watching her from the closet and quitetly muttering "no mother, no") might be harmonized like this...Cmin to Abmin to Emin to Bbmin to Dmaj. The major chord is for when she finds a picture of herself as a child, the E to Bb is just a matter of skipping over a possible G root.
to help the chords flow a bit use an independent bass line. ...Cmin/Eb to Abmin/Eb to Emin to Bbmin/F to Dmaj/F#. Scott showed examples of how alan silvestri uses this technique (with the seperate bass lines) to the point of obsession.
These colors are no secret, you can hear them all over, from Giant Steps to Forest Gump. One of Smallys points was, when you get the cue from the composer at 10:58PM and the down beat for the recording session is at 8AM the next morning, speed and sysetems will get you through the night in a less fickel manor than inspiration.
sorry about the long post it's lunch time and it's too cold to leave the damn building.
James