My first film score I had to use real players because there was no such thing as MIDI, or at least it hadn't gotten to me - Dave Smith was working on it still?   1985.  [:O]

"My first film score I had to use real players because there was no such thing as MIDI..."

...You poor man.

---JC

I don't believe MIDI or samples are the problem really.  I often wish I had access to today's technology when I was a college music student.  I almost blame the producers in a way in the sense that they seem to demand a life-like rendering of what the music will sound like.  If that weren't the requirement perhaps more composers and orchestrators would work in notation software to begin with if the final is to be done with live players.

@Suntower said:

"My first film score I had to use real players because there was no such thing as MIDI..."

...You poor man.

---JC

 That's a good one!  I didn't mean that the way it sounded.  On the other hand, if you heard those players you might put it that way too!

Watching those 'artist videos', one can really see some bitterness. They're being made part of a 'team' as opposed to being 'the composer'. I personally think it's made for a dreadful reduction in the quality of film music. But films are one of the few places where one can hope to get anything approaching notated/orchestral music played by real people---and get paid.

Money aside, it's ridiculously hard to get pieces played by -any- real people. From high school to local orchestra to -whatever-. Just doesn't happen.

Every generation rebels agains the previous,. but ours is the first that has decided that 'art is whatever I say it is' (Witness "William"s statement equating Trent Reznor with John Williams with 'any composer who ever lived'.) If people think NIN is great art? Well, then it's great art. I personally could not agree less. I personally cannot imagine John Williams thinks of his work as being even in the same ballpark as Schubert or Stravinsky or Mozart. But if people think an Andy Warhol painting sells for 50m... and a Van Gogh sells for 50m? I guess they're the same artistic value. NOT.

In my area, many schools don't even -have- an orchestra. They have a -band-,... for the sports teams... but not an -orchestra-. So the pipeline will dry up unless more asians immigrate. :D (That's no joke. Go to a high school orchestra concert in America nowadays? It's like the NBA... except with asian kids.)

Notated music may be a dodo, but I would submit that, overall, having the skill helps with the overall quality. In -general- I find the scores of Danny Elfman (well, the 1st 10 years or so) MUCH more interesting as music than those of less 'traditional' composers. What I think tends to happen to everyone is that, as McLuhan warns, the medium becomes the message. Everyone using the same tools and subject to the same committees start creating stuff that sounds much the same. Plus, we all get old and boring unless we're extremely careful. :D

'Classical' music died for most people in the Great Depression. It just reached a limit. The 'legends' were beat up from the wars and they made deeply unhappy, complicated music that is just not big fun to listen to.

When I went to school, I was astounded by how DREADFUL was the music composed by my teachers. They were so disconnected from any real 'audience'... it was like talking to a priest today about life back when Jesus walked. They never expect anything miraculous (like actually getting played) to happen in their own time. Even Stravinsky... who was still alive... was just a 'legend'.

People flock to Glass or Adams now because, frankly, it's about the level of complexity they can cope with. It's repetitious and dull, but like Warhol, you can feel smart for liking it... because it's IRONIC. It doesn't surprise me how well that crap fits into a lot of movie scores.

But going back to "Willam"s comment, people really think that Trent Reznor = John Williams = Schubert. They -really- think that it's all at the same level of 'artistic expression.' And if that's the case? If you really believe people can make art as cool as Mozart with an Akai MPC... why on -earth- would -anyone- in their right mind take 10,000 hrs to learn to read/write/play concert music?

---JC