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Berklee College of Music
The Making of Rangi and Papa:
A Reflective Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of
Masters of Music in Scoring for Film TV and Video Games
Supervisor: Alfons Conde
by Benjamin Burrell
Valencia Campus
July 2018
Table of Contents
Abstract
i
Acknowledgements
ii
1. The Assignment
1
2. Finding a Story
4
2.1 Rangi and Papa - The Story
7
3. In the Beginning
10
4. Research - Scores of the Masters
11
5. The Piece - Inspiration
13
5.1 Writing Rangi and Papa
17
6. London - Recording at Air.
19
6.1 The Mix
21
7. On Reflection
23
Multimedia Resources
24
Appendix A
25
!i
Abstract
This project represents the culmination of a years worth of study, the end of the most
intense and rewarding learning experiences of my life. This paper is an account of how I
came to conceive, research and write my final piece for my Masters in Scoring for Film, TV
and Video Games and a reflection on the recording session and the year as a whole. For this
project I had to source a piece of media to write for, research orchestration and form in
classical music and film scoring and prepare to deliver parts to the recording session as well
as conduct the session. the result of this project is that I now have the skills and confidence to
write for large orchestra, I can conduct the session and communicate in a professional manner
with the musicians, I have experience of potential common mistakes made and I am now
prepared to undertake such a project should it arise in the future.
Keywords: Film Scoring, Orchestration, composition, conducting.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my tutors and classmates for their support, good nature and
for making this year the most intense and enjoyable learning experiences both academic and
personal.
Special thanks to my good friend Ana Kstajic for introducing me to the wonderful
world of Russian composers, for encouraging me and believing in me. Thanks for teaching
me to listen and for sharing her love of beautiful music.
Thank you to Tania Valle for reminding me that the world is full of fantastic stories
waiting to be found and pointing me in the right direction.
My deepest gratitude to Jake Jackson and the orchestra at Air Studios for their
professionalism and musicality.
!1
The Making of Rangi and Papa
1. The Assignment
The assignment was to create a 3 minute piece of music for orchestra, written for
picture, text or still image. Before the start of the course it was clear that our final assignment
was going to be special. The chance to record with a world class orchestra in a world class
studio would be one of the highlights of my career. I looked at it not so much as an
assignment but more like the over all reason I came to Berklee, the opportunity to add a piece
of work to my portfolio that would outshine all others.
While deciding whether to come to Berklee I watched videos of previous students and
read the syllabus and it seemed to me that even taking in to account the high cost of tuition, to
have, at the end of the year a piece recorded at a top studio and with outstanding musicians
would be such an incredible thing. We live in a time when musicians must promote
themselves in order to get work. We need websites and Facebook profiles plus many other
avenues to advertise ourselves and make people aware of our abilities. The end product of
this assignment would be such a compelling piece of promotion that it would generate
interest and work enough to justify the cost and possibly pay it back many times over.
!2
My experience of writing for orchestra before Berklee was non existent. I had written
for big band and small jazz ensembles plus some music for solo piano or piano trio but never
anything on this scale. Writing a 3 minute piece of music for fifty-two professional musicians
seemed like a daunting task. The process of learning how to not only write for orchestra but
also produce the printed music and prepare the session for the engineers was, looking back,
over in a flash. In fact there were many different elements that came together during the
course of the year that culminated in the skill necessary to produce a piece of work on this
huge scale. Our orchestration classes of the first semester introduced the principles of
idiomatic writing. We learned through the experience of real musicians what works well,
what is difficult and what is completely impossible for each major instrument of the
orchestra. We learnt what they like to play and what is tedious, how much stamina, air,
strength is involved in playing each instrument and when to let players rest and recuperate.
We also learned about composing simply though the process of writing. Each week were
asked write another short composition with a mood and theme to follow or interpret as we
saw fit. Through this we engaged the writing muscles and started to form our own ideas about
style and form in our own compositions. I see this now as an essential building block that
allowed me to feel confident in my writing, we started small but in the end each small step
combined in to a feeling of security and belief in my abilities.
It is important to know that I was already fairly secure in my abilities as a musician, I
already had a highly developed set of skills, albeit a completely different set. I come from a
background of live music, I am primarily a jazz musician and educator. So at this early stage
!3
in the year I could sit at the piano and play the blues all day but I was now faced with a whole
new set of challenges.
Having reached the time to start thinking about writing the London Piece I was faced
with a few important decisions. What kind of music should I write? It was clear that I had a
choice, I could look for video or media content that would enable me to take one of several
different directions. I had seen previous students write a piece full of energy, something
bombastic to blow the head off any potential new collaborator. I could write something
heartfelt and beautiful, something to tug on the heart strings and show the tenderness and
beauty of the orchestra or I could try to find my own compositional voice and write
something that came from a place of more pure creativity. In the end the decision came down
to a matter of balance. I decided the most important thing would be to have a balanced
portfolio, one that would showcase my talents in as many different styles as possible. In a
way the decision was made for me, I was selected to be involved in writing music for another
project, Lifetime - an animated short movie by the Valencian animation school Primer Frame.
For this project I wrote music for two scenes that were due to be recorded remotely with the
Budapest Art orchestra. As luck would have it, I would have to write for two scenes that
called for romantic music. while at the same time most of my fellow classmates were writing
for a chase or a duel. Once I heard the sound of the orchestra and the exciting music they had
written I knew that I had to try and write something that would be the most exciting of my
portfolio so far. The balance of the portfolio called for it as did my eagerness to try and write
something as exciting as what I had been hearing from my peers.
!4
2. Finding a Story
Once I had decided on the style and approach to the piece I needed to find some
media to match my vision. I still had a few options.
• Find a pre-existing video to re-score
• contact a young director to approach
• write a story or script of my own
• find an inspiring myth or legend to write for
• search for a painting or illustration that would be suitable
I started my search on Vimeo, it’s a platform that generally attracts serious film
makers and young directors to showcase their work, it also has a messaging system where
you can send a message directly to the film maker. I looked at Vimeo for a while and saw that
there were a number of extremely beautiful videos and also some quite special animations. I
started to try and contact directors both through the website and by finding the individual
websites of directors and production companies. I got no replies. It’s hard to say what the
problem was, perhaps the message I sent was too vague or too specific or perhaps the videos I
targeted were too popular. Who knows, my attempt was unsuccessful and after a few days
trying I decided to change strategy.
!5
During the course of the year we had been told many times about the importance of
contacting young up and coming directors and forging relationships with them that may bear
fruit in the professional world. With this in mind I decided to try and contact some film
schools in the UK and America to see if I could work with some masters students. I contacted
a variety of places, Met Film School, Bournemouth University Animation School, The Royal
College of Art and The National Film and Television School. All of which I got responses
from. The most successful was the national Film and Television school which has a dedicated
alumni page and from which I got in contact with a number of different directors especially in
field of animation. I found communicating with directors to be hit and miss, films tended to
be either too much dialogue, too long or completely unsuitable for the type of big orchestral
sound I was looking for. The large orchestra was becoming both a blessing and a burden. I
was struggling to find a film in which I would be able to fully use the orchestra to it’s
potential and at the same time serve the picture with appropriate music. For example one
student sent me a beautiful film about a young dancer struggling to prepare for a performance
and gain the approval of her demanding dance teacher. It was a very beautiful film, with a
good story arc and fairly high production values. I would have loved to score the movie but I
felt restricted in my choice because I still needed to find that balance in my portfolio. I
already had the romance part covered in the previous recording session from Budapest so I
had to keep looking.
My next idea came from a trip to an art gallery I had in 2016. I visited the Whitney
Museum of American Art in Manhattan NY in which there was a portrait exhibition entitled
Human Interest. It was a fascinating exhibition full of strikingly honest portraits, one of
which particularly caught my eye. It was hard to miss.
!6
Standing 8 foot tall, this sculpture by Urs Fischer’s of artist-director Julian Schnabel is
instantly impressive. After a second look I realised that the huge figure was made out of wax
and at the top of its head was a flame, the sculpture was a giant candle. This strong image of
an impressive man seemingly immovable and impenetrable slowly melting and evaporating
in to thin air was completely fascinating for me.
Fig 1. Standing Julian by Urs Fischer
I was intrigued by the idea and wondered if I should base my piece on this image. As
soon as I started a hundred different questions came to mind, what are the central ideas
behind the work? Which of those themes could I portray musically and how? I am not
shamed to say that I immediately decided against the idea. No matter how fascinating it was,
it still didn’t satisfy the criteria I had set myself. I wanted epic music so my subject matter
had to be epic too.
!7
History is full of legends, St George and the Dragon, King Arthur and the knights of
the round table, Aladdin’s Cave, the list is endless. These stories contain action, romance
intrigue and deception. What better to base en epic piece of orchestral music on? I didn’t
realise this until one of my fellow class mates, Tania Valle from Lima, Peru, suggested that I
look for a legend. She was basing her piece on a Peruvian traditional story based around the
gods of the indigenous people of Peru and Lake Titicaca. This sparked my imagination as
some years before I had heard the a story of creation from somewhere in the south pacific, I
remembered that these stories are completely different from any other creation story we are
used to in Europe and the West. Being mostly christian Europe does not have variety in it’s
stories about the creation of the world or the universe. The beliefs of the people of the South
Pacific tend often to be polytheistic stories that feature gods that are associated with the land
sea and air, these societies are based upon the elements and peoples relationship with tthe
land that traditionally sustained them. A contrast with Europe where Christianity replaced the
original Pagan religions and gods such as Ostara -the Pagan god of spring- have been
forgotten. I started to research creation stories from these exotic places and came across the
story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.
2.1 Rangi and Papa - The Story
New Zealand was populated by Polynesian people who arrived before 1300AD these
people then forged their own language and culture and became known as the tangata whenua
- the people of the land. Their theology reflects this name and in their story of creation we
see the how the people of the land associate with the world around them. In essence the story
of how the Maori universe came to be revolves around Rangi the sky father and Papa the
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earth mother. It also features their children who are the gods of all the elements of day to day
life for the Maori. We have the god of cultivated food, wild food, the air , water, earthquakes,
war that all come together to tell the story of how the world came to be. This text is complied
from online resources and describes the story (parts of it) of creation as the Maori imagined
it.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku are the primordial parents, the sky father and the earth
mother who lie locked together in a tight embrace. They have many children all of whom are
male, who are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them. These children grow and
discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest
of the children, proposes that the best solution to their predicament is to kill their parents. But
his brother Tāne, god of forests and birds, disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them
apart, to let Ranginui be as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will
remain below to nurture them.
The others put their plans into action - Rongo, the god of cultivated food, tries to push
his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling Haumia-tiketike, the god
of wild food, joins him. In spite of their joint efforts Rangi and Papa remain close together in
their loving embrace. After many attempts Tāne forces his parents apart. Instead of standing
upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done, he lies on his back and pushes
with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief
and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku were pried apart.
!9
Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and winds, is angered that the parents have been torn
apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his parents nor see the tears of Ranginui as they are
parted, he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will have to deal with his anger. To
fight his brothers, Tāwhirimātea gathers an army of his children—winds and clouds of
different kinds, including fierce squalls, whirlwinds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds,
hurricane clouds and thunderstorm clouds, and rain, mists and fog. As these winds show their
might the dust flies and the great forest trees of Tāne are smashed under the attack and fall to
the ground. Then Tāwhirimātea attacks the oceans and huge waves rise, whirlpools form, and
Tangaroa, the god of the sea, flees in panic.
Tāne searched for heavenly bodies as lights so that his father would be appropriately
dressed. He obtained the stars and threw them up, along with the moon and the sun. At last
Ranginui looked handsome. And so the children of Ranginui and Papatūanuku saw light and
had space to move for the first time.
Ranginui and Papatūanuku continue to grieve for each other to this day. Ranginui's
tears fall towards Papatūanuku to show how much he loves her. Sometimes Papatūanuku
heaves and strains and almost breaks herself apart to reach her beloved partner again but it is
to no avail. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papatūānuku's sighs as the warmth of
her body yearns for Ranginui and continues to nurture mankind.
It is an epic story with many of the element we see in a modern Hollywood movie.
The love story, sibling rivalry and an epic battle of superhuman beings. It’s a story that
!10
immediately peaked my interest. I felt that it contained all the ingredients I was looking for to
make my final piece impressive, memorable, exciting but also with some emotional content
that would hopefully help to add some emotional depth to the composition. I was wary that
for film music especially it is very easy to get caught up in the action of the music, this ‘epic’
orchestral sound that we hear so often. I wanted to try and avoid being just another ‘epic’ film
music cue and to try and bring something more to the piece. With this story as my inspiration
I though that I had found something original, a subject that perhaps had not been written
about and a story that had not been heard, at least in Europe.
3. In the Beginning
As I read through the story naturally musical ideas came to mind. With this kind of
dramatic writing you cannot help but imagine the scene, picturing the characters, land scape
and the action. With that comes musical snapshots, I tend to have ideas pop in to my head for
textures and moods rather than melodies. I can imagine orchestral textures and their
orchestration, for example will the violins be sul tasto or sul pont? Do we have a the celli
pizzicato or with the bow, slurred or staccato. All these things are suggested by the picture
that arrives from reading the text. The story of Rangi and Papa has such visceral emotion and
action that it’s very easy to picture the mood of the story as it goes along, from the beginning
of time to the struggle for light and the battle between rival sibling gods.
One part in particular that I had a strong initial reaction to was the opening. The idea
that the world was encapsulated in the space between two loving parents who through their
love for each other were unknowingly depriving their children of space and light, a space
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before the existence of light in the world, before even the sky and the earth as we know them
came in to being. This idea brought to mind a feeling of oppressive tension, an energy with
huge latent potential ready to burst at the seams. I think this kind of imagery is gold for any
composer, the combination of the emotional content and the imagery provides such a strong
starting point for writing it makes the process exciting and enjoyable from the first beat of bar
one.
4. Research - Scores of the Masters
Even before I started the search for a story I had decided to spend at least one
afternoon per week during our hectic schedule to study scores. Reading scores was not a new
concept to me however until the beginning of our second semester I had never had the chance
to devote any serious time to studying orchestration or listening to classical music with
scores. It was a serious gap in my knowledge and so what better time to try and improve
these skills that through my career I had not as yet needed and which had remained
undeveloped . I started by asking my classmates about how they learnt to study scores, I
imagined that there should be a method to studying scores and that there somehow was a
secret to unravelling the mysteries of music hidden on the page. The answer was or course
that there was no special key to unlocking, the key was purely hard work and dedication. I
learnt from a good friend and classmate, Ana Krstajic from Belgrade, Serbia, one analysis
method that involved taking any passage of music that was interesting for any reason and
transcribing all the instruments that were playing on to four or six staves, writing each note at
concert pitch and noting who plays what. From there you can see all the detail of the
!12
orchestration, who is playing what and who is doubling who. You can also then play the
passage on the piano much more easily. This kind of translation from a large score to a more
manageable chunk of information really helps to simplify what is happening in the music.
You can then try and assimilate the sound that you are hearing perhaps by understanding the
movement of the harmony or my picking out the crucial combinations of instruments that is
making a particular interesting sound. In general for me, studying scores is about quantifying
the sounds that we are used to hearing from an orchestra. For example when we hear
something that sounds sad or silky we instantly know or feel that but only by looking at a
score and studying the orchestration, harmony and structure of the melody can we begin to be
able to associate those sounds or textures with a particular technique or combination of
instruments. Here is an example of the type of transcription work I was doing, I chose this
extract from Mercury because it has some very interesting harmony and a flowing woodwind
texture with repeating fast lines.
Fig 2. Mercury from The Planets by Gustav Holst
!13
5. The Piece - Inspiration
It was time to start writing, this was the time I could bring together all my experiences
so far and combine them to write what could be the most important piece of music I had
written in my life. Although that sounds a little over dramatic it was probably in fact true.
When you take in to consideration that with the money spent on tuition which you could have
used to put a deposit on a house or live quite happily for a year in almost any city the world,
this piece represented the culmination of a significant gamble. My classmates and I had come
here hoping to learn enough and meet enough people that by the time we graduated we would
be in a position to earn enough money to make the fees not only justifiable but small in
comparison. This meant pressure, the pressure that comes with sitting down to be creative but
knowing that it must be good and not only good but excellent, impressive, fabulous. For me
this would be the centre piece of my new identity as not just a piano player but also a
composer of film music.
As I started writing I had a plan, I would borrow from the masters as much is could,
follow the events and dramatic arc of the story and try to make my music original. I had
already worked on themes as part of another orchestration assignment and had written themes
starting out for each of the main characters in the story. In the end I went with this as my
main theme. A simple theme that I imagined for the two lovers Rangi and Papa
!14
Adagio rubato q = 68
4
&4 w
5
& w
œ
˙™
b˙
˙
˙™
˙
b˙
˙
b˙
œ
w
w
Fig 3. Rangi and Papa main Theme
10
&
14
œ #œ œ œ
& ˙
#œ #œ
b œ œ œ bœ
n˙
œ œ
œ
n œ # œ bœ
œ #œ bœ nœ
#œ œ
bw
˙
bw
Fig 4. Tane theme
Next I wanted a theme for Tane, the son who pushes them apart. I wanted to show his
effort in pushing the apart but without malice or aggression, simply working for the good of
his siblings.
So in order to follow the first part of my plan I started to identify parts of pieces of
music that I could identify as moods that would suit sections of my piece. from these
selections I would analyse the structure and orchestration to use it in my own way in my
piece. One such section was the opening to Prokofiev’s Promethee: Le Poeme de Feu, I spent
some time listening to the opening chord. It has a fascinating, dark unsettled feeling to it with
low woodwinds playing in the low register and strings holding a long sustained tremolo.
Harmonically it is also very interesting as it is made of what Jazz musicians would describe
as an A13b9#11/G chord.
!15
w
w
#
#w
w
? ##w
w
w
w
w
#w
w
&
This chord combines the openness of 4ths in the upper register
with close dark intervals in the lower voices. But the real magic of
the opening of this piece is the low pedal played on the timpani
and accompanied by the bass drum. It creates a low rumble that
continues for many bars and creates this tension that persists until it
is almost unbearable. This is one of the elements I wanted to create in my piece, the feeling
that there is a huge power lurking just under the surface.
I played with many different variations of this chord, combining two different tonalities until
settled on using a combination of B and C major triads with the all important orchestration
borrowed from Poeme de Feu.
In the first movement of Mahler’s 9th symphony I encountered writing for string
section like I had never seen before. Mahler used the strings in such creative formations and
structures, creating textures and counter melodies that I had not encountered, especially in
film scores. In particular the following extract got my attention.
Fig 5. Mahler’s 9th Symphony
!16
The basses are playing pizzicato on the first beat every two bars and the harmony is
split between the celli, violas and occasionally he 2nd violins. The tremolo between two notes
creates a feeling of movement in the harmony, it outlines the chord but with an unsettled
feeling, nothing is stationary apart from the double bass which anchors the music
rhythmically. Add to this that the harmonic tremolos are passed around the string section
creating a further stereo panning effect that further adds to the motion of the music. The final
addition to this texture puzzle is the harp that plays low in it’s register which is less often
associated with the harp. In film music we are used to hearing the harp used as harmonic
filler, playing arpergios or as an accent with high glissandos. In this section we have the harp
playing low chords adding to the darkness of the timbre and bringing a round bounce and
added weight to the pizzicatos.
For my battle scene I decided to dip in to the world of film scoring and who better to
learn from than the master John Williams. I studied the score from a piece called The
Asteroid Field which comes from a collection called The Star Wars Saga. What struck me
about this piece was the use of one or two rhythmic cells that continued through out the piece.
It the case of The Asteroid Field Williams chose an extremely simple rhythm.
¿
Œ
¿
Œ
Œ
¿
Œ
¿
Fig 6. John Williams’ clave from The Asteroid Field
It is the way that he manipulates the orchestration and scructure of the music to
highlight the rhthn in a variety of different ways that really makes the piece impressive. It is
!17
also a great example of how a simple rhythm can give a piece energy and drive. I think we
often associate exciting music with complex rhythm and odd time signatures but this is a
perfect example of less is more, the rhythmic cell is straight to the point while allowing space
for the piece to have flare and variety.
There are many other pieces that I listened to in the time I spent researching my piece,
they are too numerous to write about them all but a few more are worth a special mention.
Stravinky’s Rite of Spring and the Firebird, Scriabin Promethius and Poeme d’Extase,
Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Daphnise and Chloe, Elgar’s Nimrod, Tchaikovsy’s 6th
Symphony. Alongside listening to these pieces I went see both the Rite of Spring and
Tchaikovsy’s 6th in concert at the Palau de la Musica here in Valencia. There is something so
special about seeing the pieces performed live, especially for someone like me with a huge
appreciation but not necessarily a huge experience of the sound of the orchestra. Watching
these pieces be performed taught me so much about he timbre and dynamics of each section
and the orchestra as a whole.
5.1 Writing Rangi and Papa
My piece came together like a puzzle, each prepared piece fell in to place. I took
around 7 days to write the piece spending around 3 or 4 hours each day working on the
outline then the more detailed orchestration following the script I had written (see appendix
A) I chose this time to work exclusively in Sibelius, normally we had a requirement to
produce a presentable mockup of our music to submit along side the score however this time
it was not a requirement. My background in live music meant that I am not a natural score
reader, it takes me time to transpose and to remember the ranges of certain instruments. I am
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also an improviser at heart and so my preferred way of writing for picture is in the DAW with
the video in front of me, this way I can hear the real sound (or close to) as I write and my
piece is born from sound rather that notation. This has one major drawback for me, it means
that I write what I can play. My ideas become governed by the sounds I can make in the
DAW. When using synthesisers and other electronic or keyboard instruments this is not a
problem, however with orchestral music it is a huge disadvantage. My music becomes limited
to the small range of sound that you are able to produce convincingly with sample
instruments and also by my own knowledge and technique when it comes to mockups. In
reality no matter how good the sample library is you cannot hope to get close to the
expression, accuracy and agility of a musician who has been learning their instrument since
the age of 4. So for this piece, considering there was no video to follow, I decided to write
directly on to the score. My process would be to write at the piano and transfer and
orchestrate as I went along. I used themes that I had previously written, took inspiration from
the music I had been researching and followed the shape of the story. My biggest problem
was that I came to a point near the end where it was clear that I had to start to finish the piece.
We were told that the piece must be no longer that 3 minute and that union rules prohibited
even one second more. So I effectively had written myself in to a corner where I didn’t have
enough time to write an ending without disturbing the flow of the the piece. This last 10 bars
of music probably took me longer to write than the previous 100 bars put together. In the end
I came to a solution that I was less than satisfied with but as I saw it I had no choice. Little
did I know at the time that in fact half our class had been given no such restriction and had
written pieces that crossed the supposed 3 min barrier by up to 20 seconds.
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6. London - Recording at Air.
I realise that I had a quite unique perspective when it came to traveling to london to
record, I was born there and have lived there all my life and although I had never done
anything like this before, certain things would be familiar to me.
I was going home after 5 months away from London, the longest I had ever stayed
away from home in one go. I would be heading back to a country where everybody speaks
my langue and dialect, back to a city that I knew well enough to feel at home in almost any
part of it and of course to the place where I grew up and which had formed me as a person
through my experiences. This privilege was not lost on me I felt blessed to be able to feel
confident in what was an extremely stressful situation and thankful that things has worked out
so well.
Our last hours in Valencia were frantic, even with what I thought had been careful
planning I had been working right up until the deadline to prepare and submit my parts and
scores. There is always pressure to make sure everything to perfect when it comes to parts
and scores but this would be different. Our whole year had been building up to these 18
minutes of recording time. If you chose to work out how much we would be spending per
minute at Air Studios it would bring a tear to the eye. So our preparation was thorough and
the attention to detail had to be meticulous. Any mistake in the parts or Pro Tool session
could lead to lost time on the podium, and lost time on the podium leads to unsatisfactory
recordings which would be awful after a long year preparing for this moment.
!20
We left Valencia on the first flight and battled our way across London to my home, I
had offered to host as many people as I could, the place I have been staying for the past three
years belongs to a friend of the family who lives in Brazil. This five bedroom house in South
East London would be the base for me an a few of my friends. It became a hive of activity,
parts and scored covered almost every surface and every available space was filled with
somebody doing part preparation or conducting practice. In comparison to a couple of my
classmates I was prepared and relaxed, everything had been put in place and so my only task
was to concentrate to preparing to conduct my piece and lead the recording session. We were
all anticipating the all important running order for the session at Air Studios, who would be
first, who would be after lunch and who would be last. Although in theory all sessions should
have been equal in quality irrespective of time of day, in reality it is human nature for
concentration and energy levels to rise and fall throughout at day and so the position in the
running order was of great interest. In my mentoring sessions in the build up to coming to
London I had been told that my piece would be a contender for first up to bat. It was hard but
not impossible and energetic but not exhausting, a good piece to warm up the orchestra and
get the day off to a good start and so it was that I would be the first student up on the podium
at air studios.
One thing that I count as an advantage in situations where I have to speak to
musicians is my experience as a professional musician. I have been gigging, teaching and
touring for over 10 years and that experience gives me a lot of comfort when speaking to
!21
musicians, I went in to the session knowing that I would be able to make myself understood
and get my point across precisely and with a calm and professional manner.
The session it’s self was a blur, it went by even faster than our tutors had warned us it
would. I am thankful for the support of my producers Sergio Lacima and Vanessa Garde
because I was completely blown away by hearing my music played by such an awesome
orchestra. I had no idea where to start with giving notes on the performance but luckily for
me I had two fantastic pairs of ears guiding the session from the control room.
It was a very smooth session with no serious problems. I had a few questions about
notation and accidentals but nothing that took up any considerable time. Looking back at the
session I don’t think I would have changed anything at all, it was a life changing experience
that I have learnt a huge amount from. The main lesson I will take away is that my place in a
recording session is in the booth, although I enjoy conducting my ears are far more developed
and the job of conveying the shape and emotion of the piece should probably be left to
someone more experienced.
6.1 The Mix
After the session I had no idea of what to expect from the recording, the only
feedback I had about the sound of the session was from my classmates who had lots of
positive feedback but nothing detailed about the performance or the sound. I had had two
days of listening to the orchestra from the gallery in the hall and from the booth so I had an
!22
idea of what to expect. The players were very high level as were the engineer and equipment
in the studio. So I was expecting the recording to be perfect or very near perfect. In fact it
was less impressive than I had thought. Sometimes as a composer it is hard to be objective
about your recordings, they are either not as good as you thought, having got used to the
perfectly in tune samples and perfectly in time rhythms or they are much better because of the
real life expression of the players. For the london recording I was a little disappointed with
the sound, mainly the accuracy of the rhythmic elements and the clarity between sections of
the orchestra and I think it is a classic case of falling in love with the clarity of the midi
sounds. In reality the orchestration of the piece was very thick and complex, with lots of
overlapping rhythms and melodies. I think If I could go back I would try to reign in the urge
to keep adding to the composition and try simplify and focus the energy and power of each
section of the orchestra. One thing I think my piece lacks is very strong idiomatic writing for
each section of the orchestra. However this approach is much more of an academic one,
assuming that the piece is being approached as an exercise in writing for orchestra, as a piece
of music to be performed I actually think it works really well.
In my mix I tried to concentrate on getting more clarity and definition from each
section as well as balancing the sound a little more, cutting out competing mid frequencies
and boosting the string while lowering the brass. I added some good reverb and some parallel
compression to give a little more punch.
In fact the session needed very little mixing, we were given a pro tools file containing
the gain and panning information that Jake Jackson, the engineer for our sessions, used
!23
himself in the studio. With this information and a little basic EQ we were able to get a great
mix with very little work needed. This is one of the great benefits of recording at a studio like
Air, it has a built in fantastic sound right out of the room.
7. On Reflection
As I look back now on the project my over riding emotion is one of pride, I feel that the
project as a whole was a success and I am happy with the end product. From the very
beginning I planned and prepared well starting with the research and analysis, I then worked
solidly and professionally on the writing of the music. The music it’s self follows the media
well although I have a slight regret that I wasn’t able to find a video or artwork to go with my
story however I know that this is something that can always be done later on. The session it’s
self holds good memories, I learnt a lot in those 18 minutes up on the podium, not least how
difficult I find it to conduct and listen at the same time. The most satisfying part of the
process though was the amount I learnt about orchestration and the way I was able to
translate that information into well written orchestral music, that is something that I never
imagined would have been possible and I am so thankful for that.
!24
Multimedia Resources
Rangi and Papa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangi_and_Papa-Wikipedia.com
Saltz, Jerry “This 8-foot candle portrait mesmirized me” May 16th 2016. http://
www.vulture.com/2016/05/urs-fischer-julian-schnabel-wax-sculpture.html (Accessed
June 2018)
Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, 'Māori', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://
www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori (accessed 27 June 2018)
Mahler, Gustav “Ninth Symphony” imspl.com (Accessed april 2018)
!25
Appendix A
Rangi and Papa script
Benjamin Burrell
Animation: Ink droplets on watery canvas.
0:01 DARKNESS, THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND SPACE. WE SEE
POWERFUL MUSCULAR GODS CRAMMED TOGETHER IN DARKNESS, RESTLESS.
MONOTONE BODY SHAPES CURLED IN TO FOETAL POSITIONS REST AND
SLUMBER.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku are the primordial parents, the sky father and the
earth mother who lie locked together in a tight embrace. They have many sons, who
are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them.
0:18 WE SEE SOME MOVEMENT, AN IDEA GROWS AND WE SEE A SOFT
GLOW. THE GODS COMMUNICATE. SOFT SHAPES MOVE BUT ARE
INDISTINGUISHABLE.
These children grow.
!26
0:24 PANNING SHOT AROUND THE FACES OF THE CIRCLE OF GODS, THEY
SIT CROSS LEGGED IN DEEP DISCUSSION, SERIOUS EXPRESSIONS AND
GRAVE FACES.
The god children discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in
the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest of the children, proposes that the best solution
to their predicament is to kill their parents. But his brother Tāne, god of forests and
birds, disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them apart, to let Ranginui be
as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will remain below to
nurture them.
0:33 TU THE GOD OF WAR FLEXES HIS MUSCLES AND WE SEE COLOUR
FOR THE FIRST TIME, RED EYES AND HANDS
0:41 WE SEE THE FACES OF THE SKY FATHER AND EARTH MOTHER AND
THEIR ARMS WRAPPED TIGHTLY AROUND EACH OTHER. RANGI WITH HIS
LONG FLOWING HAIR THAT CHANGES FROM DARK BLUE TO LIGHT BLUE
AND PAPA WITH HAIR LIKE ROOTS THAT CHANGE TO TREES AND LEAVES
AT THE ENDS.
Rangi and Papa remain locked in their loving embrace.
1:11 WE SEE RONGO, TANGAROA AND HAUMIA-TIKETIKE MOVING QUICKLY
SPIRALLING AROUND EACH AND PUSHING UPWARDS WITH THEIR ARMS.
!27
The others put their plans into action—Rongo, the god of cultivated food,
tries to push his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling
Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, joins him.
1:33 WE SEE TANE ON HIS BACK STRAINING AND SWEATING. AS HE
PUSHES WE SEE A CRACK OF DAYLIGHT APPEAR IN THE DISTANCE. THE
CRACK SLOWLY WIDENS AS RANGI IS PUSHED UPWARDS, THE LIGHT GETS
BRIGHTER AND BRIGHTER UNTIL DAYLIGHT FLOODS THE SPACE.
After many attempts Tāne forces his parents apart.
Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done,
he lies on his back and pushes with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne
pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku
were pried apart.
1:36 FOCUS ON TĀWHIRIMĀTEA AS HE BECOMES ANGRY. HE SUMMONS THE
ELEMENTS TO AID HIM. DARK SKIES GATHER BEHIND HIM BEFORE WE
FLIES SKYWARD ACCOMPANIED BY HUGE GREY CLOUDS FULL OF
LIGHTNING.
Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and winds, is angered that the parents have
been torn apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his parents nor see the tears of
Ranginui as they are parted, he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will
have to deal with his anger. To fight his brothers, Tāwhirimātea gathers an army of
his children—winds and clouds of different kinds, including fierce squalls,
!28
whirlwinds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, hurricane clouds and thunderstorm
clouds, and rain, mists and fog.
1:49 WE SEE A MONTAGE OF DESTRUCTION AND FURY, WITH
TĀWHIRIMĀTEA SOARING ABOVE DIRECTING THE MAYHEM.
As these winds show their might the dust flies and the great forest trees of
Tāne are smashed under the attack and fall to the ground. Then Tāwhirimātea
attacks the oceans and huge waves rise, whirlpools form, and Tangaroa, the god of
the sea, flees in panic.
2:25 AS THE BATTLE SUBSIDES WE SEE A TIME IN FAST FORWARD,
GREEN SHOOTS BEGIN TO APPEAR WHERE THE TREES WERE KNOCKED
DOWN, GRASS STARTS TO COVER THE ROLLING HILLS, THE SEAS CALM
AND START TO SPARKLE.
And so the children of Ranginui and Papatūanuku saw light and had space to
move for the first time.
2:36 PANNING DOWN AS THE CLOUDS START TO CLEAR WE SEE A WIDE
OPEN LANDSCAPE WITH HILLS AND VALLEYS AND BEAUTIFUL OCEAN
SPARKLING WITH SUNLIGHT IN THE DISTANCE.
Tāne, in his anguish and pain caused by the separation of his loving parents,
searched for heavenly bodies to adorn his robes so that his father would be
appropriately dressed. He obtained the stars, using all his strength he gathered the
celestial bodies, hauling together the moon and the sun.
!29
2:38 WE SEE TĀNE, A GRIMACE ON HIS FACE LOOKING UP TO HIS
FATHER AND DOWN TO HIS MOTHER BOTH OF WHOM WEAR AN EXPRESSION
OF GRIEF AND PAIN. TANE THROWS A ROPE AROUND THE SUN MOON AND
STARS AND PULLS THEM TO HIM. THEY ARE TINY IN HIS GARGANTUAN
GRASP.
3.00
With one final gargantuan effort, he threw them up in to the sky….
The Making of Rangi and Papa:
A Reflective Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of
Masters of Music in Scoring for Film TV and Video Games
Supervisor: Alfons Conde
by Benjamin Burrell
Valencia Campus
July 2018
Table of Contents
Abstract
i
Acknowledgements
ii
1. The Assignment
1
2. Finding a Story
4
2.1 Rangi and Papa - The Story
7
3. In the Beginning
10
4. Research - Scores of the Masters
11
5. The Piece - Inspiration
13
5.1 Writing Rangi and Papa
17
6. London - Recording at Air.
19
6.1 The Mix
21
7. On Reflection
23
Multimedia Resources
24
Appendix A
25
!i
Abstract
This project represents the culmination of a years worth of study, the end of the most
intense and rewarding learning experiences of my life. This paper is an account of how I
came to conceive, research and write my final piece for my Masters in Scoring for Film, TV
and Video Games and a reflection on the recording session and the year as a whole. For this
project I had to source a piece of media to write for, research orchestration and form in
classical music and film scoring and prepare to deliver parts to the recording session as well
as conduct the session. the result of this project is that I now have the skills and confidence to
write for large orchestra, I can conduct the session and communicate in a professional manner
with the musicians, I have experience of potential common mistakes made and I am now
prepared to undertake such a project should it arise in the future.
Keywords: Film Scoring, Orchestration, composition, conducting.
!ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my tutors and classmates for their support, good nature and
for making this year the most intense and enjoyable learning experiences both academic and
personal.
Special thanks to my good friend Ana Kstajic for introducing me to the wonderful
world of Russian composers, for encouraging me and believing in me. Thanks for teaching
me to listen and for sharing her love of beautiful music.
Thank you to Tania Valle for reminding me that the world is full of fantastic stories
waiting to be found and pointing me in the right direction.
My deepest gratitude to Jake Jackson and the orchestra at Air Studios for their
professionalism and musicality.
!1
The Making of Rangi and Papa
1. The Assignment
The assignment was to create a 3 minute piece of music for orchestra, written for
picture, text or still image. Before the start of the course it was clear that our final assignment
was going to be special. The chance to record with a world class orchestra in a world class
studio would be one of the highlights of my career. I looked at it not so much as an
assignment but more like the over all reason I came to Berklee, the opportunity to add a piece
of work to my portfolio that would outshine all others.
While deciding whether to come to Berklee I watched videos of previous students and
read the syllabus and it seemed to me that even taking in to account the high cost of tuition, to
have, at the end of the year a piece recorded at a top studio and with outstanding musicians
would be such an incredible thing. We live in a time when musicians must promote
themselves in order to get work. We need websites and Facebook profiles plus many other
avenues to advertise ourselves and make people aware of our abilities. The end product of
this assignment would be such a compelling piece of promotion that it would generate
interest and work enough to justify the cost and possibly pay it back many times over.
!2
My experience of writing for orchestra before Berklee was non existent. I had written
for big band and small jazz ensembles plus some music for solo piano or piano trio but never
anything on this scale. Writing a 3 minute piece of music for fifty-two professional musicians
seemed like a daunting task. The process of learning how to not only write for orchestra but
also produce the printed music and prepare the session for the engineers was, looking back,
over in a flash. In fact there were many different elements that came together during the
course of the year that culminated in the skill necessary to produce a piece of work on this
huge scale. Our orchestration classes of the first semester introduced the principles of
idiomatic writing. We learned through the experience of real musicians what works well,
what is difficult and what is completely impossible for each major instrument of the
orchestra. We learnt what they like to play and what is tedious, how much stamina, air,
strength is involved in playing each instrument and when to let players rest and recuperate.
We also learned about composing simply though the process of writing. Each week were
asked write another short composition with a mood and theme to follow or interpret as we
saw fit. Through this we engaged the writing muscles and started to form our own ideas about
style and form in our own compositions. I see this now as an essential building block that
allowed me to feel confident in my writing, we started small but in the end each small step
combined in to a feeling of security and belief in my abilities.
It is important to know that I was already fairly secure in my abilities as a musician, I
already had a highly developed set of skills, albeit a completely different set. I come from a
background of live music, I am primarily a jazz musician and educator. So at this early stage
!3
in the year I could sit at the piano and play the blues all day but I was now faced with a whole
new set of challenges.
Having reached the time to start thinking about writing the London Piece I was faced
with a few important decisions. What kind of music should I write? It was clear that I had a
choice, I could look for video or media content that would enable me to take one of several
different directions. I had seen previous students write a piece full of energy, something
bombastic to blow the head off any potential new collaborator. I could write something
heartfelt and beautiful, something to tug on the heart strings and show the tenderness and
beauty of the orchestra or I could try to find my own compositional voice and write
something that came from a place of more pure creativity. In the end the decision came down
to a matter of balance. I decided the most important thing would be to have a balanced
portfolio, one that would showcase my talents in as many different styles as possible. In a
way the decision was made for me, I was selected to be involved in writing music for another
project, Lifetime - an animated short movie by the Valencian animation school Primer Frame.
For this project I wrote music for two scenes that were due to be recorded remotely with the
Budapest Art orchestra. As luck would have it, I would have to write for two scenes that
called for romantic music. while at the same time most of my fellow classmates were writing
for a chase or a duel. Once I heard the sound of the orchestra and the exciting music they had
written I knew that I had to try and write something that would be the most exciting of my
portfolio so far. The balance of the portfolio called for it as did my eagerness to try and write
something as exciting as what I had been hearing from my peers.
!4
2. Finding a Story
Once I had decided on the style and approach to the piece I needed to find some
media to match my vision. I still had a few options.
• Find a pre-existing video to re-score
• contact a young director to approach
• write a story or script of my own
• find an inspiring myth or legend to write for
• search for a painting or illustration that would be suitable
I started my search on Vimeo, it’s a platform that generally attracts serious film
makers and young directors to showcase their work, it also has a messaging system where
you can send a message directly to the film maker. I looked at Vimeo for a while and saw that
there were a number of extremely beautiful videos and also some quite special animations. I
started to try and contact directors both through the website and by finding the individual
websites of directors and production companies. I got no replies. It’s hard to say what the
problem was, perhaps the message I sent was too vague or too specific or perhaps the videos I
targeted were too popular. Who knows, my attempt was unsuccessful and after a few days
trying I decided to change strategy.
!5
During the course of the year we had been told many times about the importance of
contacting young up and coming directors and forging relationships with them that may bear
fruit in the professional world. With this in mind I decided to try and contact some film
schools in the UK and America to see if I could work with some masters students. I contacted
a variety of places, Met Film School, Bournemouth University Animation School, The Royal
College of Art and The National Film and Television School. All of which I got responses
from. The most successful was the national Film and Television school which has a dedicated
alumni page and from which I got in contact with a number of different directors especially in
field of animation. I found communicating with directors to be hit and miss, films tended to
be either too much dialogue, too long or completely unsuitable for the type of big orchestral
sound I was looking for. The large orchestra was becoming both a blessing and a burden. I
was struggling to find a film in which I would be able to fully use the orchestra to it’s
potential and at the same time serve the picture with appropriate music. For example one
student sent me a beautiful film about a young dancer struggling to prepare for a performance
and gain the approval of her demanding dance teacher. It was a very beautiful film, with a
good story arc and fairly high production values. I would have loved to score the movie but I
felt restricted in my choice because I still needed to find that balance in my portfolio. I
already had the romance part covered in the previous recording session from Budapest so I
had to keep looking.
My next idea came from a trip to an art gallery I had in 2016. I visited the Whitney
Museum of American Art in Manhattan NY in which there was a portrait exhibition entitled
Human Interest. It was a fascinating exhibition full of strikingly honest portraits, one of
which particularly caught my eye. It was hard to miss.
!6
Standing 8 foot tall, this sculpture by Urs Fischer’s of artist-director Julian Schnabel is
instantly impressive. After a second look I realised that the huge figure was made out of wax
and at the top of its head was a flame, the sculpture was a giant candle. This strong image of
an impressive man seemingly immovable and impenetrable slowly melting and evaporating
in to thin air was completely fascinating for me.
Fig 1. Standing Julian by Urs Fischer
I was intrigued by the idea and wondered if I should base my piece on this image. As
soon as I started a hundred different questions came to mind, what are the central ideas
behind the work? Which of those themes could I portray musically and how? I am not
shamed to say that I immediately decided against the idea. No matter how fascinating it was,
it still didn’t satisfy the criteria I had set myself. I wanted epic music so my subject matter
had to be epic too.
!7
History is full of legends, St George and the Dragon, King Arthur and the knights of
the round table, Aladdin’s Cave, the list is endless. These stories contain action, romance
intrigue and deception. What better to base en epic piece of orchestral music on? I didn’t
realise this until one of my fellow class mates, Tania Valle from Lima, Peru, suggested that I
look for a legend. She was basing her piece on a Peruvian traditional story based around the
gods of the indigenous people of Peru and Lake Titicaca. This sparked my imagination as
some years before I had heard the a story of creation from somewhere in the south pacific, I
remembered that these stories are completely different from any other creation story we are
used to in Europe and the West. Being mostly christian Europe does not have variety in it’s
stories about the creation of the world or the universe. The beliefs of the people of the South
Pacific tend often to be polytheistic stories that feature gods that are associated with the land
sea and air, these societies are based upon the elements and peoples relationship with tthe
land that traditionally sustained them. A contrast with Europe where Christianity replaced the
original Pagan religions and gods such as Ostara -the Pagan god of spring- have been
forgotten. I started to research creation stories from these exotic places and came across the
story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.
2.1 Rangi and Papa - The Story
New Zealand was populated by Polynesian people who arrived before 1300AD these
people then forged their own language and culture and became known as the tangata whenua
- the people of the land. Their theology reflects this name and in their story of creation we
see the how the people of the land associate with the world around them. In essence the story
of how the Maori universe came to be revolves around Rangi the sky father and Papa the
!8
earth mother. It also features their children who are the gods of all the elements of day to day
life for the Maori. We have the god of cultivated food, wild food, the air , water, earthquakes,
war that all come together to tell the story of how the world came to be. This text is complied
from online resources and describes the story (parts of it) of creation as the Maori imagined
it.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku are the primordial parents, the sky father and the earth
mother who lie locked together in a tight embrace. They have many children all of whom are
male, who are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them. These children grow and
discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest
of the children, proposes that the best solution to their predicament is to kill their parents. But
his brother Tāne, god of forests and birds, disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them
apart, to let Ranginui be as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will
remain below to nurture them.
The others put their plans into action - Rongo, the god of cultivated food, tries to push
his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling Haumia-tiketike, the god
of wild food, joins him. In spite of their joint efforts Rangi and Papa remain close together in
their loving embrace. After many attempts Tāne forces his parents apart. Instead of standing
upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done, he lies on his back and pushes
with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief
and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku were pried apart.
!9
Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and winds, is angered that the parents have been torn
apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his parents nor see the tears of Ranginui as they are
parted, he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will have to deal with his anger. To
fight his brothers, Tāwhirimātea gathers an army of his children—winds and clouds of
different kinds, including fierce squalls, whirlwinds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds,
hurricane clouds and thunderstorm clouds, and rain, mists and fog. As these winds show their
might the dust flies and the great forest trees of Tāne are smashed under the attack and fall to
the ground. Then Tāwhirimātea attacks the oceans and huge waves rise, whirlpools form, and
Tangaroa, the god of the sea, flees in panic.
Tāne searched for heavenly bodies as lights so that his father would be appropriately
dressed. He obtained the stars and threw them up, along with the moon and the sun. At last
Ranginui looked handsome. And so the children of Ranginui and Papatūanuku saw light and
had space to move for the first time.
Ranginui and Papatūanuku continue to grieve for each other to this day. Ranginui's
tears fall towards Papatūanuku to show how much he loves her. Sometimes Papatūanuku
heaves and strains and almost breaks herself apart to reach her beloved partner again but it is
to no avail. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papatūānuku's sighs as the warmth of
her body yearns for Ranginui and continues to nurture mankind.
It is an epic story with many of the element we see in a modern Hollywood movie.
The love story, sibling rivalry and an epic battle of superhuman beings. It’s a story that
!10
immediately peaked my interest. I felt that it contained all the ingredients I was looking for to
make my final piece impressive, memorable, exciting but also with some emotional content
that would hopefully help to add some emotional depth to the composition. I was wary that
for film music especially it is very easy to get caught up in the action of the music, this ‘epic’
orchestral sound that we hear so often. I wanted to try and avoid being just another ‘epic’ film
music cue and to try and bring something more to the piece. With this story as my inspiration
I though that I had found something original, a subject that perhaps had not been written
about and a story that had not been heard, at least in Europe.
3. In the Beginning
As I read through the story naturally musical ideas came to mind. With this kind of
dramatic writing you cannot help but imagine the scene, picturing the characters, land scape
and the action. With that comes musical snapshots, I tend to have ideas pop in to my head for
textures and moods rather than melodies. I can imagine orchestral textures and their
orchestration, for example will the violins be sul tasto or sul pont? Do we have a the celli
pizzicato or with the bow, slurred or staccato. All these things are suggested by the picture
that arrives from reading the text. The story of Rangi and Papa has such visceral emotion and
action that it’s very easy to picture the mood of the story as it goes along, from the beginning
of time to the struggle for light and the battle between rival sibling gods.
One part in particular that I had a strong initial reaction to was the opening. The idea
that the world was encapsulated in the space between two loving parents who through their
love for each other were unknowingly depriving their children of space and light, a space
!11
before the existence of light in the world, before even the sky and the earth as we know them
came in to being. This idea brought to mind a feeling of oppressive tension, an energy with
huge latent potential ready to burst at the seams. I think this kind of imagery is gold for any
composer, the combination of the emotional content and the imagery provides such a strong
starting point for writing it makes the process exciting and enjoyable from the first beat of bar
one.
4. Research - Scores of the Masters
Even before I started the search for a story I had decided to spend at least one
afternoon per week during our hectic schedule to study scores. Reading scores was not a new
concept to me however until the beginning of our second semester I had never had the chance
to devote any serious time to studying orchestration or listening to classical music with
scores. It was a serious gap in my knowledge and so what better time to try and improve
these skills that through my career I had not as yet needed and which had remained
undeveloped . I started by asking my classmates about how they learnt to study scores, I
imagined that there should be a method to studying scores and that there somehow was a
secret to unravelling the mysteries of music hidden on the page. The answer was or course
that there was no special key to unlocking, the key was purely hard work and dedication. I
learnt from a good friend and classmate, Ana Krstajic from Belgrade, Serbia, one analysis
method that involved taking any passage of music that was interesting for any reason and
transcribing all the instruments that were playing on to four or six staves, writing each note at
concert pitch and noting who plays what. From there you can see all the detail of the
!12
orchestration, who is playing what and who is doubling who. You can also then play the
passage on the piano much more easily. This kind of translation from a large score to a more
manageable chunk of information really helps to simplify what is happening in the music.
You can then try and assimilate the sound that you are hearing perhaps by understanding the
movement of the harmony or my picking out the crucial combinations of instruments that is
making a particular interesting sound. In general for me, studying scores is about quantifying
the sounds that we are used to hearing from an orchestra. For example when we hear
something that sounds sad or silky we instantly know or feel that but only by looking at a
score and studying the orchestration, harmony and structure of the melody can we begin to be
able to associate those sounds or textures with a particular technique or combination of
instruments. Here is an example of the type of transcription work I was doing, I chose this
extract from Mercury because it has some very interesting harmony and a flowing woodwind
texture with repeating fast lines.
Fig 2. Mercury from The Planets by Gustav Holst
!13
5. The Piece - Inspiration
It was time to start writing, this was the time I could bring together all my experiences
so far and combine them to write what could be the most important piece of music I had
written in my life. Although that sounds a little over dramatic it was probably in fact true.
When you take in to consideration that with the money spent on tuition which you could have
used to put a deposit on a house or live quite happily for a year in almost any city the world,
this piece represented the culmination of a significant gamble. My classmates and I had come
here hoping to learn enough and meet enough people that by the time we graduated we would
be in a position to earn enough money to make the fees not only justifiable but small in
comparison. This meant pressure, the pressure that comes with sitting down to be creative but
knowing that it must be good and not only good but excellent, impressive, fabulous. For me
this would be the centre piece of my new identity as not just a piano player but also a
composer of film music.
As I started writing I had a plan, I would borrow from the masters as much is could,
follow the events and dramatic arc of the story and try to make my music original. I had
already worked on themes as part of another orchestration assignment and had written themes
starting out for each of the main characters in the story. In the end I went with this as my
main theme. A simple theme that I imagined for the two lovers Rangi and Papa
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Adagio rubato q = 68
4
&4 w
5
& w
œ
˙™
b˙
˙
˙™
˙
b˙
˙
b˙
œ
w
w
Fig 3. Rangi and Papa main Theme
10
&
14
œ #œ œ œ
& ˙
#œ #œ
b œ œ œ bœ
n˙
œ œ
œ
n œ # œ bœ
œ #œ bœ nœ
#œ œ
bw
˙
bw
Fig 4. Tane theme
Next I wanted a theme for Tane, the son who pushes them apart. I wanted to show his
effort in pushing the apart but without malice or aggression, simply working for the good of
his siblings.
So in order to follow the first part of my plan I started to identify parts of pieces of
music that I could identify as moods that would suit sections of my piece. from these
selections I would analyse the structure and orchestration to use it in my own way in my
piece. One such section was the opening to Prokofiev’s Promethee: Le Poeme de Feu, I spent
some time listening to the opening chord. It has a fascinating, dark unsettled feeling to it with
low woodwinds playing in the low register and strings holding a long sustained tremolo.
Harmonically it is also very interesting as it is made of what Jazz musicians would describe
as an A13b9#11/G chord.
!15
w
w
#
#w
w
? ##w
w
w
w
w
#w
w
&
This chord combines the openness of 4ths in the upper register
with close dark intervals in the lower voices. But the real magic of
the opening of this piece is the low pedal played on the timpani
and accompanied by the bass drum. It creates a low rumble that
continues for many bars and creates this tension that persists until it
is almost unbearable. This is one of the elements I wanted to create in my piece, the feeling
that there is a huge power lurking just under the surface.
I played with many different variations of this chord, combining two different tonalities until
settled on using a combination of B and C major triads with the all important orchestration
borrowed from Poeme de Feu.
In the first movement of Mahler’s 9th symphony I encountered writing for string
section like I had never seen before. Mahler used the strings in such creative formations and
structures, creating textures and counter melodies that I had not encountered, especially in
film scores. In particular the following extract got my attention.
Fig 5. Mahler’s 9th Symphony
!16
The basses are playing pizzicato on the first beat every two bars and the harmony is
split between the celli, violas and occasionally he 2nd violins. The tremolo between two notes
creates a feeling of movement in the harmony, it outlines the chord but with an unsettled
feeling, nothing is stationary apart from the double bass which anchors the music
rhythmically. Add to this that the harmonic tremolos are passed around the string section
creating a further stereo panning effect that further adds to the motion of the music. The final
addition to this texture puzzle is the harp that plays low in it’s register which is less often
associated with the harp. In film music we are used to hearing the harp used as harmonic
filler, playing arpergios or as an accent with high glissandos. In this section we have the harp
playing low chords adding to the darkness of the timbre and bringing a round bounce and
added weight to the pizzicatos.
For my battle scene I decided to dip in to the world of film scoring and who better to
learn from than the master John Williams. I studied the score from a piece called The
Asteroid Field which comes from a collection called The Star Wars Saga. What struck me
about this piece was the use of one or two rhythmic cells that continued through out the piece.
It the case of The Asteroid Field Williams chose an extremely simple rhythm.
¿
Œ
¿
Œ
Œ
¿
Œ
¿
Fig 6. John Williams’ clave from The Asteroid Field
It is the way that he manipulates the orchestration and scructure of the music to
highlight the rhthn in a variety of different ways that really makes the piece impressive. It is
!17
also a great example of how a simple rhythm can give a piece energy and drive. I think we
often associate exciting music with complex rhythm and odd time signatures but this is a
perfect example of less is more, the rhythmic cell is straight to the point while allowing space
for the piece to have flare and variety.
There are many other pieces that I listened to in the time I spent researching my piece,
they are too numerous to write about them all but a few more are worth a special mention.
Stravinky’s Rite of Spring and the Firebird, Scriabin Promethius and Poeme d’Extase,
Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Daphnise and Chloe, Elgar’s Nimrod, Tchaikovsy’s 6th
Symphony. Alongside listening to these pieces I went see both the Rite of Spring and
Tchaikovsy’s 6th in concert at the Palau de la Musica here in Valencia. There is something so
special about seeing the pieces performed live, especially for someone like me with a huge
appreciation but not necessarily a huge experience of the sound of the orchestra. Watching
these pieces be performed taught me so much about he timbre and dynamics of each section
and the orchestra as a whole.
5.1 Writing Rangi and Papa
My piece came together like a puzzle, each prepared piece fell in to place. I took
around 7 days to write the piece spending around 3 or 4 hours each day working on the
outline then the more detailed orchestration following the script I had written (see appendix
A) I chose this time to work exclusively in Sibelius, normally we had a requirement to
produce a presentable mockup of our music to submit along side the score however this time
it was not a requirement. My background in live music meant that I am not a natural score
reader, it takes me time to transpose and to remember the ranges of certain instruments. I am
!18
also an improviser at heart and so my preferred way of writing for picture is in the DAW with
the video in front of me, this way I can hear the real sound (or close to) as I write and my
piece is born from sound rather that notation. This has one major drawback for me, it means
that I write what I can play. My ideas become governed by the sounds I can make in the
DAW. When using synthesisers and other electronic or keyboard instruments this is not a
problem, however with orchestral music it is a huge disadvantage. My music becomes limited
to the small range of sound that you are able to produce convincingly with sample
instruments and also by my own knowledge and technique when it comes to mockups. In
reality no matter how good the sample library is you cannot hope to get close to the
expression, accuracy and agility of a musician who has been learning their instrument since
the age of 4. So for this piece, considering there was no video to follow, I decided to write
directly on to the score. My process would be to write at the piano and transfer and
orchestrate as I went along. I used themes that I had previously written, took inspiration from
the music I had been researching and followed the shape of the story. My biggest problem
was that I came to a point near the end where it was clear that I had to start to finish the piece.
We were told that the piece must be no longer that 3 minute and that union rules prohibited
even one second more. So I effectively had written myself in to a corner where I didn’t have
enough time to write an ending without disturbing the flow of the the piece. This last 10 bars
of music probably took me longer to write than the previous 100 bars put together. In the end
I came to a solution that I was less than satisfied with but as I saw it I had no choice. Little
did I know at the time that in fact half our class had been given no such restriction and had
written pieces that crossed the supposed 3 min barrier by up to 20 seconds.
!19
6. London - Recording at Air.
I realise that I had a quite unique perspective when it came to traveling to london to
record, I was born there and have lived there all my life and although I had never done
anything like this before, certain things would be familiar to me.
I was going home after 5 months away from London, the longest I had ever stayed
away from home in one go. I would be heading back to a country where everybody speaks
my langue and dialect, back to a city that I knew well enough to feel at home in almost any
part of it and of course to the place where I grew up and which had formed me as a person
through my experiences. This privilege was not lost on me I felt blessed to be able to feel
confident in what was an extremely stressful situation and thankful that things has worked out
so well.
Our last hours in Valencia were frantic, even with what I thought had been careful
planning I had been working right up until the deadline to prepare and submit my parts and
scores. There is always pressure to make sure everything to perfect when it comes to parts
and scores but this would be different. Our whole year had been building up to these 18
minutes of recording time. If you chose to work out how much we would be spending per
minute at Air Studios it would bring a tear to the eye. So our preparation was thorough and
the attention to detail had to be meticulous. Any mistake in the parts or Pro Tool session
could lead to lost time on the podium, and lost time on the podium leads to unsatisfactory
recordings which would be awful after a long year preparing for this moment.
!20
We left Valencia on the first flight and battled our way across London to my home, I
had offered to host as many people as I could, the place I have been staying for the past three
years belongs to a friend of the family who lives in Brazil. This five bedroom house in South
East London would be the base for me an a few of my friends. It became a hive of activity,
parts and scored covered almost every surface and every available space was filled with
somebody doing part preparation or conducting practice. In comparison to a couple of my
classmates I was prepared and relaxed, everything had been put in place and so my only task
was to concentrate to preparing to conduct my piece and lead the recording session. We were
all anticipating the all important running order for the session at Air Studios, who would be
first, who would be after lunch and who would be last. Although in theory all sessions should
have been equal in quality irrespective of time of day, in reality it is human nature for
concentration and energy levels to rise and fall throughout at day and so the position in the
running order was of great interest. In my mentoring sessions in the build up to coming to
London I had been told that my piece would be a contender for first up to bat. It was hard but
not impossible and energetic but not exhausting, a good piece to warm up the orchestra and
get the day off to a good start and so it was that I would be the first student up on the podium
at air studios.
One thing that I count as an advantage in situations where I have to speak to
musicians is my experience as a professional musician. I have been gigging, teaching and
touring for over 10 years and that experience gives me a lot of comfort when speaking to
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musicians, I went in to the session knowing that I would be able to make myself understood
and get my point across precisely and with a calm and professional manner.
The session it’s self was a blur, it went by even faster than our tutors had warned us it
would. I am thankful for the support of my producers Sergio Lacima and Vanessa Garde
because I was completely blown away by hearing my music played by such an awesome
orchestra. I had no idea where to start with giving notes on the performance but luckily for
me I had two fantastic pairs of ears guiding the session from the control room.
It was a very smooth session with no serious problems. I had a few questions about
notation and accidentals but nothing that took up any considerable time. Looking back at the
session I don’t think I would have changed anything at all, it was a life changing experience
that I have learnt a huge amount from. The main lesson I will take away is that my place in a
recording session is in the booth, although I enjoy conducting my ears are far more developed
and the job of conveying the shape and emotion of the piece should probably be left to
someone more experienced.
6.1 The Mix
After the session I had no idea of what to expect from the recording, the only
feedback I had about the sound of the session was from my classmates who had lots of
positive feedback but nothing detailed about the performance or the sound. I had had two
days of listening to the orchestra from the gallery in the hall and from the booth so I had an
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idea of what to expect. The players were very high level as were the engineer and equipment
in the studio. So I was expecting the recording to be perfect or very near perfect. In fact it
was less impressive than I had thought. Sometimes as a composer it is hard to be objective
about your recordings, they are either not as good as you thought, having got used to the
perfectly in tune samples and perfectly in time rhythms or they are much better because of the
real life expression of the players. For the london recording I was a little disappointed with
the sound, mainly the accuracy of the rhythmic elements and the clarity between sections of
the orchestra and I think it is a classic case of falling in love with the clarity of the midi
sounds. In reality the orchestration of the piece was very thick and complex, with lots of
overlapping rhythms and melodies. I think If I could go back I would try to reign in the urge
to keep adding to the composition and try simplify and focus the energy and power of each
section of the orchestra. One thing I think my piece lacks is very strong idiomatic writing for
each section of the orchestra. However this approach is much more of an academic one,
assuming that the piece is being approached as an exercise in writing for orchestra, as a piece
of music to be performed I actually think it works really well.
In my mix I tried to concentrate on getting more clarity and definition from each
section as well as balancing the sound a little more, cutting out competing mid frequencies
and boosting the string while lowering the brass. I added some good reverb and some parallel
compression to give a little more punch.
In fact the session needed very little mixing, we were given a pro tools file containing
the gain and panning information that Jake Jackson, the engineer for our sessions, used
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himself in the studio. With this information and a little basic EQ we were able to get a great
mix with very little work needed. This is one of the great benefits of recording at a studio like
Air, it has a built in fantastic sound right out of the room.
7. On Reflection
As I look back now on the project my over riding emotion is one of pride, I feel that the
project as a whole was a success and I am happy with the end product. From the very
beginning I planned and prepared well starting with the research and analysis, I then worked
solidly and professionally on the writing of the music. The music it’s self follows the media
well although I have a slight regret that I wasn’t able to find a video or artwork to go with my
story however I know that this is something that can always be done later on. The session it’s
self holds good memories, I learnt a lot in those 18 minutes up on the podium, not least how
difficult I find it to conduct and listen at the same time. The most satisfying part of the
process though was the amount I learnt about orchestration and the way I was able to
translate that information into well written orchestral music, that is something that I never
imagined would have been possible and I am so thankful for that.
!24
Multimedia Resources
Rangi and Papa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangi_and_Papa-Wikipedia.com
Saltz, Jerry “This 8-foot candle portrait mesmirized me” May 16th 2016. http://
www.vulture.com/2016/05/urs-fischer-julian-schnabel-wax-sculpture.html (Accessed
June 2018)
Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, 'Māori', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://
www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori (accessed 27 June 2018)
Mahler, Gustav “Ninth Symphony” imspl.com (Accessed april 2018)
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Appendix A
Rangi and Papa script
Benjamin Burrell
Animation: Ink droplets on watery canvas.
0:01 DARKNESS, THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND SPACE. WE SEE
POWERFUL MUSCULAR GODS CRAMMED TOGETHER IN DARKNESS, RESTLESS.
MONOTONE BODY SHAPES CURLED IN TO FOETAL POSITIONS REST AND
SLUMBER.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku are the primordial parents, the sky father and the
earth mother who lie locked together in a tight embrace. They have many sons, who
are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them.
0:18 WE SEE SOME MOVEMENT, AN IDEA GROWS AND WE SEE A SOFT
GLOW. THE GODS COMMUNICATE. SOFT SHAPES MOVE BUT ARE
INDISTINGUISHABLE.
These children grow.
!26
0:24 PANNING SHOT AROUND THE FACES OF THE CIRCLE OF GODS, THEY
SIT CROSS LEGGED IN DEEP DISCUSSION, SERIOUS EXPRESSIONS AND
GRAVE FACES.
The god children discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in
the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest of the children, proposes that the best solution
to their predicament is to kill their parents. But his brother Tāne, god of forests and
birds, disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them apart, to let Ranginui be
as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will remain below to
nurture them.
0:33 TU THE GOD OF WAR FLEXES HIS MUSCLES AND WE SEE COLOUR
FOR THE FIRST TIME, RED EYES AND HANDS
0:41 WE SEE THE FACES OF THE SKY FATHER AND EARTH MOTHER AND
THEIR ARMS WRAPPED TIGHTLY AROUND EACH OTHER. RANGI WITH HIS
LONG FLOWING HAIR THAT CHANGES FROM DARK BLUE TO LIGHT BLUE
AND PAPA WITH HAIR LIKE ROOTS THAT CHANGE TO TREES AND LEAVES
AT THE ENDS.
Rangi and Papa remain locked in their loving embrace.
1:11 WE SEE RONGO, TANGAROA AND HAUMIA-TIKETIKE MOVING QUICKLY
SPIRALLING AROUND EACH AND PUSHING UPWARDS WITH THEIR ARMS.
!27
The others put their plans into action—Rongo, the god of cultivated food,
tries to push his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling
Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, joins him.
1:33 WE SEE TANE ON HIS BACK STRAINING AND SWEATING. AS HE
PUSHES WE SEE A CRACK OF DAYLIGHT APPEAR IN THE DISTANCE. THE
CRACK SLOWLY WIDENS AS RANGI IS PUSHED UPWARDS, THE LIGHT GETS
BRIGHTER AND BRIGHTER UNTIL DAYLIGHT FLOODS THE SPACE.
After many attempts Tāne forces his parents apart.
Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done,
he lies on his back and pushes with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne
pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku
were pried apart.
1:36 FOCUS ON TĀWHIRIMĀTEA AS HE BECOMES ANGRY. HE SUMMONS THE
ELEMENTS TO AID HIM. DARK SKIES GATHER BEHIND HIM BEFORE WE
FLIES SKYWARD ACCOMPANIED BY HUGE GREY CLOUDS FULL OF
LIGHTNING.
Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and winds, is angered that the parents have
been torn apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his parents nor see the tears of
Ranginui as they are parted, he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will
have to deal with his anger. To fight his brothers, Tāwhirimātea gathers an army of
his children—winds and clouds of different kinds, including fierce squalls,
!28
whirlwinds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, hurricane clouds and thunderstorm
clouds, and rain, mists and fog.
1:49 WE SEE A MONTAGE OF DESTRUCTION AND FURY, WITH
TĀWHIRIMĀTEA SOARING ABOVE DIRECTING THE MAYHEM.
As these winds show their might the dust flies and the great forest trees of
Tāne are smashed under the attack and fall to the ground. Then Tāwhirimātea
attacks the oceans and huge waves rise, whirlpools form, and Tangaroa, the god of
the sea, flees in panic.
2:25 AS THE BATTLE SUBSIDES WE SEE A TIME IN FAST FORWARD,
GREEN SHOOTS BEGIN TO APPEAR WHERE THE TREES WERE KNOCKED
DOWN, GRASS STARTS TO COVER THE ROLLING HILLS, THE SEAS CALM
AND START TO SPARKLE.
And so the children of Ranginui and Papatūanuku saw light and had space to
move for the first time.
2:36 PANNING DOWN AS THE CLOUDS START TO CLEAR WE SEE A WIDE
OPEN LANDSCAPE WITH HILLS AND VALLEYS AND BEAUTIFUL OCEAN
SPARKLING WITH SUNLIGHT IN THE DISTANCE.
Tāne, in his anguish and pain caused by the separation of his loving parents,
searched for heavenly bodies to adorn his robes so that his father would be
appropriately dressed. He obtained the stars, using all his strength he gathered the
celestial bodies, hauling together the moon and the sun.
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2:38 WE SEE TĀNE, A GRIMACE ON HIS FACE LOOKING UP TO HIS
FATHER AND DOWN TO HIS MOTHER BOTH OF WHOM WEAR AN EXPRESSION
OF GRIEF AND PAIN. TANE THROWS A ROPE AROUND THE SUN MOON AND
STARS AND PULLS THEM TO HIM. THEY ARE TINY IN HIS GARGANTUAN
GRASP.
3.00
With one final gargantuan effort, he threw them up in to the sky….
Media of
