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Berklee College of Music
Earth In Oblivion:
A Musical Journey To The Unexpected
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Scoring for Films, Television and Video Games
Supervisor: Lucio Godoy
Advisor: Alfons Conde
by Clementine Charuel
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2018
Table of Contents
Abstract
iii
Acknowledgment
iv
Introduction
1
1. The Process
3
1.1 First Steps
3
1.2 Difficulties
4
1.3 Earth In Oblivion
5
1.4 Recording and Mixing
7
2. Earth In Oblivion: Analysis and Fights
8
2.1 Harmonic and Thematic Analysis
8
2.2 Structural Inquiry
10
2.3 A Fight for Nature
16
2.4 My Fight against Standards
17
3. Berklee Insertion
18
3.1 Knowledge and Techniques
18
3.2 Diversity and Inclusion
19
3.3 What is next?
20
Conclusion
21
Appendix 1: Final Progression
23
Appendix 2: First Exposure of the Main Theme
24
Appendix 3: The Impact
25
Discography: Sources and Motivations
26
Bibliography
27
ii
Abstract
Earth In Oblivion is an introspective project willing to represent my personality, my goals
and my doubts. During the writing process, I have faced issues and troubles but in the end it
happened to be one of my best works so far. My piece is a summary of all I learned at Berklee
Valencia, mixed with my childhood memories and hopes for the future. It has been a fight
against standards in music but also a fight for the survival of our beloved planet Earth. As I am
trying to find my own style and push away all kinds of voluntary inspiration, my struggle to make
our planet a better place to stay is stimulating myself in finding a natural inspiration coming from
the heart and not from the books. Classically trained, it has been hard for me to get out of the
classical harmony and orchestration. But I noticed that I didn’t necessarily have to run away
from it. The important thing is that all these rules stay as a starting point to my creativity.
Keywords: film scoring, nature, passion, integrity, reflective paper, orchestration.
iii
Acknowledgment
I am profoundly thankful to everyone who helped me becoming a better person and
musician throughout this year at Berklee Valencia. I would like to thank my teachers for teaching
me so much about scoring but also about their own experiences, showing me that the path can
be long but also extremely rewarded. I thank Sergio Jimenez Lacima for opening the world of
video games to me, bringing another field where I can express my art. I thank Lucio Godoy for
always trusting in me and helping me be more confident about my work. Thank you all for
making all these assignments much more than just obligations, because they were a key in my
adaptation to the Berklee pace and the understanding of my own rhythm and daily needs.
I also want to give special thanks to John Leavitt, our fellow, who was always available for
advices and willing to help in any way. Not only have you been a model for us but you also have
become a wonderful and supportive friend. Thank you for being the person you are.
Then I want to thank my friends here at Berklee Valencia, for always being there for me
when times were hard, and for their enthusiasm during this year. Knowing you all was my best
experience of the year. Sharing your cultures, your languages, meeting your friends, tasting your
traditional food, all the moments we spent together will always remain in my memory.
And to the Berklee staff who helped me spend this year in the best conditions, Andres
Martinez from the front desk who always welcomed us smiling, the IT office for being ready to
help in any situation, thank you. Thanks to all the staff and musicians at Air Studios for making
this moment unique, thanks to Jake Jackson for his kindness and professionalism.
I also want to thank my family for always trusting in me, my parents for the investment they
did in me during this year and my aunt for her incommensurable support.
iv
Introduction
When I finished my thesis in the Master in Musicology, Research and Choir Conducting at
Paris-Sorbonne (http://www.sorbonne-universite.fr), I was also finishing the composition of a
short movie. After writing more than one hundred pages about Deep Purple
(http://www.deeppurple.com )1, I felt like I couldn’t spend my life doing this. I was ready to leave
Paris for one year and to go to Berklee Valencia. I had no idea that everything I would learn here
would open so many doors to me.
At the beginning of the year, everything seemed to go very fast and to be really intense.
Adapting myself to this pace from the beginning was a major advantage as it gave me time to
finish my projects on time, hang out and relax. I guess this is what helped me the most in finding
my way during the first months of my first “abroad” experience. At some point, I was actually
having more time to finish my work and started to feel a bit weaker. I knew I was working better
in deadline situations, and from that point it was confirmed.
For my final project, I went through two phases: I first tried to start working on it in January,
but ended up taking a new direction two weeks before the recording. In a post-process analysis
of my piece, my vision of it is very different from what I thought it would be. Written from
almost nothing, I can find a lot of elements linked to my past and to what I want the future to
be. This project would also have been much more different if I didn’t go through everything I
lived during this year in Valencia. All the people I met, everything I learned opened my world
and my culture. The opportunity of meeting people from all around the world is probably the
best occasion to learn about different types of music, food, way of life and behavior. When you
meet them, you know you will never be alone. Everywhere you go, there is someone you know.
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975: logique vectorielle et analyse des patterns
harmoniques, Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 2017).
1
1
This diversity can also be found in my piece, inspired by nature and landscapes from different
places on earth. As a daughter of earth-friendly parents, I was always taught to respect nature
and to preserve it as much as I can afford it. Talking about nature in my music is a way
defending it even if I am not able to give money to organizations yet.
As it is my final project, it is time to ask myself about what is going to be next, how to plan
my life after Berklee. This is a question I have been wondering about for the whole year: be
scared of leaving Europe and settle down in a new town again, or go back to Paris and create my
network there? All these doubts were part of my final project process. They were in the
background, but were always telling me: “Am I making the right choice?”. It was hard to find a
good solution because either way was hard to picture. My student life has come to an end,
leaving space for my career. This is probably the scariest thing that I am experiencing, but also
the most exciting and I am sure that good things will happen soon.
2
1. The Process
1.1
First Steps
One of the most important step of writing my piece was the whole I have been through
before actually starting writing. The choice of the direction I wanted to take was clear from the
beginning: I wanted my piece to be the consecration of everything I learned during my year at
Berklee, and representing all the styles I can write.
After the Career Seminar in January, I started to think about my piece. As I wanted to have a
complete freedom with the style, I decided to write a script based on a fantasy story. Knowing
myself as working better in emergency situations, I was sure that I was not going to start writing
my piece before the month of May. Therefore I decided to focus on how my music should look
like. I started gathering ideas about the style of my piece, thinking that musical elements would
come progressively. I came up with a structure (see fig. 1) that was built considering our 3minute limitation but also my main inspiration in my music and the construction of the story I
wanted to write.
Figure 1. First structure, January 23.
3
In the next days, as I was starting to think about my project, a few ideas were coming to my
mind. Themes (see fig. 2) harmony, orchestration: I had a clear concept of what my piece would
look like.
Figure 2. First idea for a theme played by Violins for the third part of the piece.
Before the semester break in May, I started to write my script. Willing to compose my piece
during this 7-day break, this script was my base and needed to be locked. Created on a fantasy
story, my script described a dream in a child’s sleep. Exploring a foreign planet, he was facing
encounters and had to succeed to save his friend. With precise timings, my script was finally
ready and I could start writing my music.
1.2
Difficulties
During my writing process, I have faced a lot of difficulties. I thought writing a 3-minute
piece would not be complicated, as we did this same exercise a lot of times through the year. But
the level of pressure for this one was high and I felt like I should write the best piece I’ve ever
written. As I was writing my piece, I was constantly in the doubt of doing something good that
looks like me. I was trying to write with a big orchestration, both to follow my script and to write
a powerful and Williams-style piece. When I was recording in Budapest for the final project of
the Spring Semester, I felt the power of the brass and wanted to reproduce this feeling in my
final project of the year. I started writing violin runs and harp glissandi, big brass sections and
4
woodwind tense bites. As the structure of my piece was almost done, I was still missing a lot of
orchestration elements but I could see that I was heading for disaster. I was not feeling good, I
didn’t want to pursue writing this piece. Every time I was opening my session, I was feeling like I
just wanted to close it again. This made me realize that I was lying to myself with this piece, that
I shouldn’t feel this way for my final project. When I came back from Paris after the break, my
only desire was to start again from scratch. At that moment, I was feeling like my script was
limiting me too much, and started thinking that I might need to get another format for my piece.
I started seeking for stock videos as it was too late to find an original project and all the
people I had contacted before didn’t allow me to use their movies. The most logical solution for
me was to find landscape videos and time-lapses so my piece could be both free in writing and
also very attached to specific pictures. I had the desire that this piece can inspire images without
needing them. After finding bites of videos in various places, I assembled them and began to
work on it.
1.3
Earth In Oblivion
When I started making the video, my idea was to write a linear piece which would be an
ambience background to the video, like an exhibition of landscapes accompanied with big and
emotional music. In order to feel it this way, I thought it would be a better idea to actually write
the music without the picture as it didn’t need a lot of synchronization.
The music arrived really fast to me. I was improvising on the piano and everything came
naturally. As I was not trying to be inspired by anyone, I was giving my full trust to my fingers
on the keyboard and was feeling the meaning of each note and each chord progression. I could
manage to do a full piano sketch of my piece in 2 hours. At that point, I already felt like I
5
reached my main goal: write something in my own style, that nobody else can write. I attached a
great importance to be original in this work, not to steal or copy anything.
Des dessinateurs et des peintres viennent, chaque jour, au jardin national, pour y dessiner des
plantes étrangères lorsqu’ils ont à représenter des sites d’Asie, d’Afrique et d’Amérique. Les
animaux des mêmes climats leur seront aussi utiles ; ils en étudieront les formes, les
attitudes, les passions. Ils en ont déjà, dira-t-on, des modèles en plâtre. Mais d’après quel
plâtre Puget a-t-il sculpté le lion dévorant qui déchire les muscles de Milon de Crotone ?
Artistes, poètes, écrivains, si vous copiez toujours, on ne vous copiera jamais. Voulez-vous
être originaux, et fixer l’admiration de la postérité sur vos ouvrages ? N’en cherchez les
modèles que dans la nature.
[Illustrators and painters come, every day, to the national garden, to draw foreign plants
when they have to picture Asian, African or American sites. Animals from these same
climates would be also helpful; they would study their shapes, their attitudes, their
passions. They already have, from what we say, plaster molds. But from which plaster
did Puget sculpt the devouring lion tearing Milo of Croton’s muscles?
Artists, poets, writers, if you always copy, nobody is ever going to copy you. Do you
want to be original, and make the admiration of posterity fix on your works? Only seek
for models in nature.]2
The point here is not about being copied. It is about staying independent from any influence
to be recognized for my own style. Of course, learning about past works from historic
composers and studying how the modern ones changed the game is an important starting point,
but the hardest is to go away from the standards once we learned them. How to be inspired
without stealing? When learning orchestration, we go through a lot of pre-made formulas used
by the greatest composers but the main point is to take it into account and reinterpret them with
our own hand, to create a new world of sound from the heritage that was given to us.
My piece is not ground-breaking. The harmony doesn’t have anything revolutionary, the
orchestration is made in a very classical way. But I wrote it with devotion and passion, and it
made a large difference with the first sketch I did.
Jacques Bernardin Henri de Saint-Pierre, Mémoire sur la nécessité de joindre une ménagerie au
Jardin des plantes de Paris, ed. Didot (Paris 1793), 642. Translation: Clementine Charuel.
2
6
For my orchestration, I decided to try something different: I was always sequencing the whole
piece before making the score. For this piece, I decided to make the score at the same time. And
I was really surprised how the ideas were coming once in the score editor. It was another
perception: having Digital Performer 9.5 on a screen and Sibelius Ultimate on the other one was
duplicating my creativity. When the ideas were not coming in the sequencer, I was looking at the
score, filling blanks there and adding the new parts back to the sequencer. Same thing happened
on the other way: when I knew I wanted one instrument to play at a precise measure but didn’t
know what to write, I was looking back to my sequence and listening my piece while recording
ideas with a good VST sound.3 I don’t think we should ever be limited by the quality of the
libraries, but if we have the possibility to work with good sounds we should always take it.
Because if working with mediocre libraries is a restriction, working with quality ones can be a
booster for creativity.
1.4
Recording and Mixing
Until the very last minute before going on the podium, I was still not confident about my
piece. I was hearing my classmates pieces that were all sounding amazingly epic and thick. I
started to think that my piece was going to sound weak and empty, and despite the fact that my
friends were comforting me, I had the feeling that it was not going to work. We were a little
group to think that we didn’t understand the exercise, the purpose of this recording, because our
pieces were not sounding the same. They were different. But from the moment the orchestra
started to play, all doubts were gone. At the end of the first take, I knew this piece was one of
my best works so far. This was confirmed by all the good feedback I had during and after my
session.
Virtual Sound Technology, created by Steinberg originally for Cubase. It is now a standard
format for all sequencers.
3
7
The feeling in front of the orchestra was astonishing. The power that releases from the
ensemble is duplicated when conducting it. It is like a gigantic wave of sound going through our
body. We don’t feel this inside the booth, and it is probably the best moment of all the process
of writing and recording our own music. When my session had come to an end, the only thing I
wanted was to conduct again. Now, I am more motivated than ever to go on writing beautiful
music for pictures and be able to record with an orchestra again.
When I came back in Valencia, I went straight to school to get my session. Filled with
enthusiasm and motivation, I mixed it in six hours. After a few revisions with a friend and our
teacher Pablo Schuller, I am really happy with the result and cannot wait to share it with my
friends.
This recording made me realize one thing for good, probably the most important thing that I
have been struggling with during the whole year: most of us were always in the doubt because of
each other’s works, associating our own style to our talent. But it doesn’t matter how good we
are compared to the others, the important is to believe in ourselves and our music.
2. Earth In Oblivion: Analysis and Fights
2.1
Harmonic and Thematic Analysis
At the beginning, I didn’t want to make a pure analysis of my piece. But actually, while
writing this paper, I noticed that some elements were unconsciously written making sense with
my past researches4. Last year, I have been studying the harmonic progressions in Deep Purple’s
music. With charts and percentages, I established a list of the most used patterns in their works,
4
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975.
8
related to patterns classified by the musicologist Allan F. Moore.5 As I was having a
retrospection on my piece, I noticed that some progressions I wrote were also existing in my
thesis: my final progression is the same as one of the songs I analyzed for this paper, “Highway
Star.”6 Indeed, the chorus of this song is partially written in aeolian/dorian mode on the
following progression:
III-IV-VI-VII-I
This is also the path I chose to take for the end of my piece. In my thesis, I explain how useful is
the third degree to “create a bridge between the first and fourth to give a lighter feeling [of the
progression], getting closer to a pentatonic scale”.7 In this piece, this third degree also gives a
strong feeling of power, breaking the minor triads with the A natural (see Appendix A, measure
40). I also explained the role of sixth degree in chord progressions, always giving the opposite
feeling of the overall: in major, it darkens the atmosphere whereas in minor it lights it.8 The
seventh is considered as a substitute to the fifth degree, so as a dominant degree. In aeolian and
dorian modes, it is associated to stabled and accessible degree allowing more freedom than a
fifth.9
Obviously, I didn’t think about all these parameters when I wrote my piece. This
unconscious process is due to the feeling I wanted this part to express: after a dark central
Allan F. Moore, “Patterns of Harmony.” Popular Music, Vol. 11, n°1 (Cambridge: University
Press, 1992), 73-106.
5
6
Deep Purple, “Highway Star,” Machine Head, EMI, Purple Records (1972).
7
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975, 64.
8
Ibid, 56.
9
Ibid, 50, 53.
9
section, the end must have been powerful and shining. The use of the pentatonic scale in the
main melody (see fig. 3) is also not a coincidence even if it is totally unconscious: my main goal
was to represent nature and landscapes by my melody. I guess my brain probably linked these
beautiful images to my culture and education. An important part of my childhood was based on
Miyazaki’s movies10 and Hisaishi’s music11, that usually picture nature a lot. As Hisaishi often
uses the pentatonic scale, my vision of nature was probably always connected with it. This is the
kind of inspirations that I am not trying to avoid as long as they don’t become too important.
Furthermore, if this inspiration comes from nature or my conception of nature, it is an
inspiration I want to follow.
Figure 3. Main Theme from Earth In Oblivion (Violins)
2.2
Structural Inquiry
For the structure of the piece, I actually stuck a bit to the structure of my first idea (see fig.
1): my idea was to have a big crescendo from the beginning to the end with a break in the
middle. I wrote the first part as an introduction, installing an emotive and calm climate. I also
wanted to avoid using the whole orchestra just because I had a big ensemble. Sometimes, a small
instrumentation creates a bigger emotion.
10 Hayao Miyazaki’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/.
Joe Hisaishi’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386749/.
11
10
The theme arrives measure 16 (see Appendix B), as a relief of the tension that was created in the
measure before. Still in a calm pace, the mood is broken by the brass entering at 20 (see fig. 4).
This brass accompanied by the cymbal and timpani rolls are giving another dimension to the
piece, making it wider and more dramatic.
Figure 4. Trombones and Tuba, measure 20
As I was coming up with this second part with the theme and an opening of the general
atmosphere, I really wanted to include a counterpoint that would be the “cherry on the cake”.
This line (see fig. 5) came naturally to my fingers playing above my string orchestration with a
flute patch. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was the good one. It was strong and was adding a lot
to my melody in this second part. I decided to reinforce it by adding piccolo and oboe on this
same line.
11
Figure 5. Woodwinds counterpoint for the melody
I thought the third part of the piece as a break point between the emotional first exposition
of the theme and its explosion on the fourth part. I thereby decided to write it as a suspension
point, still full of tension but a moment of “calm before the storm”. I guess I was once again
inspired by nature but in a different way: this part had to be darker and questioning. When I
think about it now, I can see a strong influence by the video game Ori and the Blind Forest
(Moon Studios, 2015) and its music by Gareth Coker.12 The timbre of the oboe is in my ear
something that can be as cheerful as it can inspire enigmatic thoughts, but stays also very close to
nature. As a blend of my visions, I came up with this oboe line (see fig. 6).
Figure 6. Oboe line measure 26
Gareth Coker’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3731132/.
12
12
The fourth part was supposed to be an explosion of emotions and power. I achieved it with
this blend between my main theme and my counterpoint (see fig. 3 and 5) and by applying a
thicker orchestration. It was the first time in my life that I was actually going to record a full
orchestra, I wanted to take advantage of it as much as I could. To make this part sound even
bigger, I used running lines on different instruments. It had to be powerful, but not steady. To
fill the emptiness created by the slow tempo and the melody, I added a flute line (see fig. 7) that
was dovetailed between the flutes I could afford, in order to avoid all kind of blank.
Figure 7. Flutes dovetailing
As my theme was easy to memorize and quite repetitive, I needed some elements to make
the ensemble sound varied. Everywhere I could add something, I was finding a short
counterpoint that would stick out and break the melody. This is how I added the trumpets line at
measure 36 (see fig. 8). Sounding heroic and open, this line allowed me to regenerate the drive
after the new exposition of the theme.
13
Figure 8. Trumpets counterpoint
In my last progression (see 2.1 Harmonic and Thematic Analysis) the intensity had to grow
more and more, even if it was already on a high point before that. The solution I found was to
change something. Thus I decided to vary the high strings motives by adding runs (see fig. 9). I
obviously didn’t choose the same rhythm for each line in order to create a real motion in this
short part.
Figure 9. High Strings runs and motives
14
While keeping this motion until the very end, I also had a horn line (see fig. 2.2.7) that was
preventing it from staying in the background. This way, the music still had a meaning until the
end of the piece. I came up with this line the same way as the melody counterpoint, by letting my
fingers play above the whole orchestration.
Figure 10. Horn line measures 40-41
To finish my piece I had two solutions: the first one was to close it as it started, as a calm
and soft outro. I liked this first option but I thought my piece would be too charming and I
wanted it to make an impact. When I thought about this word, the second solution came to my
mind: I was actually going to write an impact (see Appendix C). I wrote a low D to all the
instruments able to play it and added a bass drum hit and a cymbal roll to make it vibe and shock
harder.
This work on the structure was also a bit unconscious, as I wrote the sketch without asking
myself too many questions. But now that I studied it, I found the link between what I wanted my
piece to be and what it really is. I think it’s always interesting to have a reflection about our own
work, to know why we wrote something, if there is a musical, harmonic or historic reason to the
progression and melodies we write.
15
2.3
A Fight for Nature
One of the things that surprised me the most during this whole year was the use of our
natural resources on campus and more generally in Spain. My struggle to find an organic food
shop, the tons of plastic bottles thrown every day and the excessive usage of paper. I am not an
activist, nor I live limited from all kind of non-degradable materials. But as hard as I can, I try to
be as earth-friendly as I can. Reusable bottles, recycled paper and paper bags, there are so many
ways to live in a better environment that respects nature.
During this year at Berklee, I couldn’t stop thinking that all the paper we use for our score,
parts, or even temporary documents could be recycled paper. We don’t need a good quality
paper for everything and we should have this choice available in the library.
Our nature is endangered. Multiple deals were made between industrialized countries13 to
reduced their greenhouse gas emissions. The French minister of environment decided to “ban all
petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040”.14 All these measures are taken by governments, but we can
also make a change in the way we live everyday by varying some of our habits: closing the tap
when washing the dishes, drinking tap water, turning off the lights when leaving a room and so
many other things.
As composers, we can’t think that this is not our fight. It is a fight for us and our future
generations who are going to live in this world the same way as we do. It is not because we are
sitting in front of our computer that we can’t do anything. We all have a power to change things.
13 Paris Agreement, 2016, accessed June 27, 2018, https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/theparis-agreement/the-paris-agreement.
Accessed June 27, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/france-petrol-dieselban-vehicles-cars-2040-a7826831.html.
14
16
Being an Artist is probably one of the closest work to nature. Art has always been a part of us
and, as a composer, being inspired by nature is possibly the best way to thank it. If we go on
writing music and making documentaries about nature, maybe people will realize how real is the
emergency of this situation.
2.4
My Fight against Standards
I have always tried to stay away from taking inspiration from other composers. I don’t listen
to a lot of orchestral music because I am afraid of my subconscious and it already happened that
I unconsciously copy someone else’s melody. This can happen as a pure coincidence, but most
of the time you realize that something you listened a few days before accidentally ended up on
your score.
But once again, this is not about copying. Without getting too inspired by past music, we can
actually create a style that is our own. Writing something that has always been written is not
going to bring us anything. Most of the successful composers that we know have very different
styles. If we compare John Williams15 and Hans Zimmer16, we can see a lot of distinctive things
in orchestration, harmony or even volume.
We had the chance to make a skype interview with Alexandre Desplat17 who told us something
that probably will mean a lot for some of us:
John Williams’ IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002354/.
15
Hans Zimmer’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/.
16
Alexandre Desplat’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006035/.
17
17
There shouldn’t be any difference between the music you write for concert and
for film, as both are your music.18
Why being afraid of writing in our own style? If people don’t like what we do, what is the point
of writing something that don’t look like us? It has been a while since I strongly believe that our
own style is our ticket to success. How many people know how to write like what we hear
everywhere?
Before my recording I had so many doubts about my piece and even about myself because I
was unable to write like them. But the truth is that being different is probably the best thing that
happened to me during this session. I will never be grateful enough to the people that helped me
believe in myself and my music during this year, until the very last minute before the beginning
of my recording.
3. Berklee Insertion
How is this project including in my year at Berklee? How did I apply my freshly learned
knowledge? How did Berklee help me becoming a better version of myself?
3.1
Knowledge and Technique
This final project was the consecration of my year at Berklee. I wanted it to gather all the
elements I learned through all the classes we had. I learned so much in how to make a good
mockup, make a good mix, what kind of orchestration to apply on a given style, how to make a
score from a sequenced piece. The truth is that I didn’t do a good mockup, didn’t follow precise
18
Alexandre Desplat, Skype Interview with Berklee SFTV students, June 16, 2018.
18
orchestration rules, didn’t use a template for my score. And still, this is the piece that people
generally enjoyed the most from all my works. Probably it would have taken me less time to stick
with these indications, but would this piece have been the same? I guess this situation was too
different from a professional position and I wanted to be completely free and not set any
boundaries to my creativity. It was probably not the best option but in the end I can’t be happier
with the result. The most important among all technical aspects is to write with heart and
passion.
The one thing I really applied in my work is everything I learned in Mixing class. When I
arrived at Berklee, I don’t think I was even panning my mixes. The amount of things I learned in
this class is incredible and truly unexpected compared to what I thought I could be able to do
with my own music. I still don’t have the level of an expert mixer, but I am now able to make my
music sound good and professional.
3.2
Diversity and Inclusion
It was quite new for me to experience demonstrations of inclusion throughout the year. In
France, we don’t usually talk about diversity because we are used to live with it. I grew up in a
district where diversity is very well represented. I was going to school with all kinds of cultures
and religions embodied. The synagogue in my street, the church near my conservatory and the
muslim bakeries around my house always taught me that there is no difference beyond the color
of the skin or the beliefs of our mind. I grew up in a family teared by two extremes: my parents,
respectful and open-minded, and my grand-father, intolerant and bitter. I imagined the fear of
being rejected as my brother was trying to find his own identity, I became aware of women’s
position while listening to my abused friends. But I never thought that declaring your tolerance is
a way to change things. We all have the power to break the clichés and establish a respectful
environment around us, not by saying loudly that we respect each other but by considering
19
everyone as anyone and showing ourselves as we are. We shouldn’t be “nicer” to disabled people
because they are disabled, we should just be nice because they are normal people. We shouldn’t
include more minorities in our groups because of what they are, we should just include them
because of who they are. We shouldn’t respect more women because they need to be respected,
we should respect them as they need to be respected on the same level as men. I don’t think the
solution is to create diversity awards and scholarships because then it becomes positive
discrimination. If there is an award for the outstanding woman, then why not an award for an
outstanding man? A scholarship for South-American students? How about a scholarship for
Eastern-European students? If we want to offer equality, let’s first offer equity.
When I recorded my piece, I deliberately decided to wear a pink dress. I don’t often dress
like this but I wanted to show that the way we look is nothing related to what we are capable of.
The impact at the end of my piece (see Appendix C) was a blow to all the clichés in this world
that are making us identities that we are not.
3.3
What is next?
At the beginning of the year, I fixed my goals with the International Career Center (ICC). I
had to improve my orchestration and find my style, but also get better skills in networking.
Before that, I thought I would never be able to network properly. I had the feeling of being fake
every time I was trying to meet a director, a composer, or else. But one of the best opportunities
I had during this year was to be able to see and listen to people networking. I quickly understood
that networking was not different from meeting new friends: it is all about learning from each
other and showing ourselves as the person we are and not who we pretend to be.
I am now much more confident about networking. I would lie if I would say that I am stress-free
about this situation but I know that I want to start working as soon as possible and find beautiful
and promising projects, and this is helping me being more assured about creating my network.
20
My recording at Air Studios opened many more doors to my ambition than I would expect. I
had recorded small ensembles in home studios or school studios before. It was the first time that
I was listening my music in such a professional venue, surrounded by walls that captured a big
amount of the soundtracks that gave me the desire to score movies.
This was the best experience of my life so far, and my only wish is to experience it again and as
soon as possible. For this I know the path will probably be long and hard but there is nothing
preventing me from reaching this goal, except my own ability to sell myself.
Conclusion
Earth In Oblivion has been the consecration of my year at Berklee, in everything I decided to
apply in it and in the devotion I brought to the writing process. This process I have been
through was not common and it is probably one of the things that made my piece different.
It was not ground-breaking in the harmony or the melody, but I wrote it with all my heart and I
hope that people will listen to it with the same emotion than I do.
In music, there is no such thing as the emotion. Feeling the music, one note after another, is
something that is not given to everyone and we are really lucky when we are able to express
passion through it. Some people don’t feel music. They don’t see pictures when they listen to
imaginative music, they don’t make a difference between a major or a minor chord, they don’t
enjoy listening to masterpieces. They could live without music, and everything would still be the
same. But once we get this strong link between ourselves and art, then it’s quite impossible to
live without it.
21
Making beautiful music is for me a way to show people what I feel, to express what I can’t
express with words. It is the bridge between the world and my personality. This was my goal
with Earth In Oblivion: write a piece that represents myself. I don’t think I ever took a bigger
risk than the one I took here. I could have written something that was going to work for certain
and avoid the doubts I have been through before the recording, but how could this piece be true
to myself? In the end, all these doubts are also part of myself: I don’t think I was ever entirely
convinced by something I did, and probably this will always be hard for me to be confident. But
now that I realized it I know it will be easier to be less severe with myself.
One thing that Berklee did for sure is open my mind in so many fields. I knew I would learn
a lot when I came here but I had no idea it would be such a big amount of things. Not only did I
learn about music production but also about myself, who I was and who I wanted to be.
22
Appendix A: Final Progression
23
Appendix B: First Exposure of the Main Theme
24
Appendix C: The Impact
25
Discography : Sources and Motivations
Deep Purple. “Highway Star”, track 1 in Machine Head. EMI, Purple Records, 1972, CD.
Deep Purple. “Child In Time”, track 3 in Deep Purple In Rock. Harvest, 1970, CD.
Coker, Gareth. Ori and the Blind Forest. Microsoft Studios Music, 2015, CD.
Hisaishi, Joe. “Ashitaka Sekki”, track 1 in Mononoke Hime. Studio Ghibli Records, 1997, CD.
––––––––. “Kaze no Toorimichi”, track 13 in Tonari no Totoro. Studio Ghibli Records, 1988, CD.
Zimmer, Hans. “Dream Is Collapsing”, track 3 in Inception. Reprise Records, 2010, CD.
Desplat, Alexandre. “Griet’s Theme”, track 2 in Girl with the Pearl Earing. Decca Records, 2003,
CD.
Rombi, Philippe. “Dans la maison”, track 1 in Dans la Maison. BOriginal, 2012, CD.
Williams, John. “Hedwig’s Theme”, track 19 in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Atlantic, 2001,
CD.
Silvestri, Alan. “Forrest Gump Suite”, track 18 in Forrest Gump, Disk 2. Paramount, 1994, CD.
26
Bibliography
Burns, Gary. “A Typology of ‘Hooks’ in Popular Records.” Popular Music. 6, n°1. Cambridge:
University Press. 1987: 1-20.
Charuel, Clementine. Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975: logique vectorielle et analyse des patterns
harmoniques. Paris: Sorbonne Université, 2017.
Chion, Michel. La Musique au cinéma. Les Chemins de la musique. Edited by Fayard, Paris 1995.
Deep Purple. Official website. http://www.deeppurple.com.
Desplat, Alexandre. Skype Interview with Berklee SFTV students, June 16, 2018.
Farand, Chloe. “France will 'ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040’.” Accessed June 27, 2018.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/france-petrol-diesel-ban-vehicles-cars2040-a7826831.html.
Henri de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Bernardin. Mémoire sur la nécessité de joindre une ménagerie au
Jardin des plantes de Paris. Edited by Didot, Paris 1793: 642.
Moore, Allan F. “Patterns of Harmony.” Popular Music. 11, n°1. Cambridge: University Press,
1992: 73-106.
United Nations. “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Paris
Agreement.” Accessed June 27, 2018. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-parisagreement/the-paris-agreement.
27
Earth In Oblivion:
A Musical Journey To The Unexpected
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Scoring for Films, Television and Video Games
Supervisor: Lucio Godoy
Advisor: Alfons Conde
by Clementine Charuel
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2018
Table of Contents
Abstract
iii
Acknowledgment
iv
Introduction
1
1. The Process
3
1.1 First Steps
3
1.2 Difficulties
4
1.3 Earth In Oblivion
5
1.4 Recording and Mixing
7
2. Earth In Oblivion: Analysis and Fights
8
2.1 Harmonic and Thematic Analysis
8
2.2 Structural Inquiry
10
2.3 A Fight for Nature
16
2.4 My Fight against Standards
17
3. Berklee Insertion
18
3.1 Knowledge and Techniques
18
3.2 Diversity and Inclusion
19
3.3 What is next?
20
Conclusion
21
Appendix 1: Final Progression
23
Appendix 2: First Exposure of the Main Theme
24
Appendix 3: The Impact
25
Discography: Sources and Motivations
26
Bibliography
27
ii
Abstract
Earth In Oblivion is an introspective project willing to represent my personality, my goals
and my doubts. During the writing process, I have faced issues and troubles but in the end it
happened to be one of my best works so far. My piece is a summary of all I learned at Berklee
Valencia, mixed with my childhood memories and hopes for the future. It has been a fight
against standards in music but also a fight for the survival of our beloved planet Earth. As I am
trying to find my own style and push away all kinds of voluntary inspiration, my struggle to make
our planet a better place to stay is stimulating myself in finding a natural inspiration coming from
the heart and not from the books. Classically trained, it has been hard for me to get out of the
classical harmony and orchestration. But I noticed that I didn’t necessarily have to run away
from it. The important thing is that all these rules stay as a starting point to my creativity.
Keywords: film scoring, nature, passion, integrity, reflective paper, orchestration.
iii
Acknowledgment
I am profoundly thankful to everyone who helped me becoming a better person and
musician throughout this year at Berklee Valencia. I would like to thank my teachers for teaching
me so much about scoring but also about their own experiences, showing me that the path can
be long but also extremely rewarded. I thank Sergio Jimenez Lacima for opening the world of
video games to me, bringing another field where I can express my art. I thank Lucio Godoy for
always trusting in me and helping me be more confident about my work. Thank you all for
making all these assignments much more than just obligations, because they were a key in my
adaptation to the Berklee pace and the understanding of my own rhythm and daily needs.
I also want to give special thanks to John Leavitt, our fellow, who was always available for
advices and willing to help in any way. Not only have you been a model for us but you also have
become a wonderful and supportive friend. Thank you for being the person you are.
Then I want to thank my friends here at Berklee Valencia, for always being there for me
when times were hard, and for their enthusiasm during this year. Knowing you all was my best
experience of the year. Sharing your cultures, your languages, meeting your friends, tasting your
traditional food, all the moments we spent together will always remain in my memory.
And to the Berklee staff who helped me spend this year in the best conditions, Andres
Martinez from the front desk who always welcomed us smiling, the IT office for being ready to
help in any situation, thank you. Thanks to all the staff and musicians at Air Studios for making
this moment unique, thanks to Jake Jackson for his kindness and professionalism.
I also want to thank my family for always trusting in me, my parents for the investment they
did in me during this year and my aunt for her incommensurable support.
iv
Introduction
When I finished my thesis in the Master in Musicology, Research and Choir Conducting at
Paris-Sorbonne (http://www.sorbonne-universite.fr), I was also finishing the composition of a
short movie. After writing more than one hundred pages about Deep Purple
(http://www.deeppurple.com )1, I felt like I couldn’t spend my life doing this. I was ready to leave
Paris for one year and to go to Berklee Valencia. I had no idea that everything I would learn here
would open so many doors to me.
At the beginning of the year, everything seemed to go very fast and to be really intense.
Adapting myself to this pace from the beginning was a major advantage as it gave me time to
finish my projects on time, hang out and relax. I guess this is what helped me the most in finding
my way during the first months of my first “abroad” experience. At some point, I was actually
having more time to finish my work and started to feel a bit weaker. I knew I was working better
in deadline situations, and from that point it was confirmed.
For my final project, I went through two phases: I first tried to start working on it in January,
but ended up taking a new direction two weeks before the recording. In a post-process analysis
of my piece, my vision of it is very different from what I thought it would be. Written from
almost nothing, I can find a lot of elements linked to my past and to what I want the future to
be. This project would also have been much more different if I didn’t go through everything I
lived during this year in Valencia. All the people I met, everything I learned opened my world
and my culture. The opportunity of meeting people from all around the world is probably the
best occasion to learn about different types of music, food, way of life and behavior. When you
meet them, you know you will never be alone. Everywhere you go, there is someone you know.
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975: logique vectorielle et analyse des patterns
harmoniques, Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 2017).
1
1
This diversity can also be found in my piece, inspired by nature and landscapes from different
places on earth. As a daughter of earth-friendly parents, I was always taught to respect nature
and to preserve it as much as I can afford it. Talking about nature in my music is a way
defending it even if I am not able to give money to organizations yet.
As it is my final project, it is time to ask myself about what is going to be next, how to plan
my life after Berklee. This is a question I have been wondering about for the whole year: be
scared of leaving Europe and settle down in a new town again, or go back to Paris and create my
network there? All these doubts were part of my final project process. They were in the
background, but were always telling me: “Am I making the right choice?”. It was hard to find a
good solution because either way was hard to picture. My student life has come to an end,
leaving space for my career. This is probably the scariest thing that I am experiencing, but also
the most exciting and I am sure that good things will happen soon.
2
1. The Process
1.1
First Steps
One of the most important step of writing my piece was the whole I have been through
before actually starting writing. The choice of the direction I wanted to take was clear from the
beginning: I wanted my piece to be the consecration of everything I learned during my year at
Berklee, and representing all the styles I can write.
After the Career Seminar in January, I started to think about my piece. As I wanted to have a
complete freedom with the style, I decided to write a script based on a fantasy story. Knowing
myself as working better in emergency situations, I was sure that I was not going to start writing
my piece before the month of May. Therefore I decided to focus on how my music should look
like. I started gathering ideas about the style of my piece, thinking that musical elements would
come progressively. I came up with a structure (see fig. 1) that was built considering our 3minute limitation but also my main inspiration in my music and the construction of the story I
wanted to write.
Figure 1. First structure, January 23.
3
In the next days, as I was starting to think about my project, a few ideas were coming to my
mind. Themes (see fig. 2) harmony, orchestration: I had a clear concept of what my piece would
look like.
Figure 2. First idea for a theme played by Violins for the third part of the piece.
Before the semester break in May, I started to write my script. Willing to compose my piece
during this 7-day break, this script was my base and needed to be locked. Created on a fantasy
story, my script described a dream in a child’s sleep. Exploring a foreign planet, he was facing
encounters and had to succeed to save his friend. With precise timings, my script was finally
ready and I could start writing my music.
1.2
Difficulties
During my writing process, I have faced a lot of difficulties. I thought writing a 3-minute
piece would not be complicated, as we did this same exercise a lot of times through the year. But
the level of pressure for this one was high and I felt like I should write the best piece I’ve ever
written. As I was writing my piece, I was constantly in the doubt of doing something good that
looks like me. I was trying to write with a big orchestration, both to follow my script and to write
a powerful and Williams-style piece. When I was recording in Budapest for the final project of
the Spring Semester, I felt the power of the brass and wanted to reproduce this feeling in my
final project of the year. I started writing violin runs and harp glissandi, big brass sections and
4
woodwind tense bites. As the structure of my piece was almost done, I was still missing a lot of
orchestration elements but I could see that I was heading for disaster. I was not feeling good, I
didn’t want to pursue writing this piece. Every time I was opening my session, I was feeling like I
just wanted to close it again. This made me realize that I was lying to myself with this piece, that
I shouldn’t feel this way for my final project. When I came back from Paris after the break, my
only desire was to start again from scratch. At that moment, I was feeling like my script was
limiting me too much, and started thinking that I might need to get another format for my piece.
I started seeking for stock videos as it was too late to find an original project and all the
people I had contacted before didn’t allow me to use their movies. The most logical solution for
me was to find landscape videos and time-lapses so my piece could be both free in writing and
also very attached to specific pictures. I had the desire that this piece can inspire images without
needing them. After finding bites of videos in various places, I assembled them and began to
work on it.
1.3
Earth In Oblivion
When I started making the video, my idea was to write a linear piece which would be an
ambience background to the video, like an exhibition of landscapes accompanied with big and
emotional music. In order to feel it this way, I thought it would be a better idea to actually write
the music without the picture as it didn’t need a lot of synchronization.
The music arrived really fast to me. I was improvising on the piano and everything came
naturally. As I was not trying to be inspired by anyone, I was giving my full trust to my fingers
on the keyboard and was feeling the meaning of each note and each chord progression. I could
manage to do a full piano sketch of my piece in 2 hours. At that point, I already felt like I
5
reached my main goal: write something in my own style, that nobody else can write. I attached a
great importance to be original in this work, not to steal or copy anything.
Des dessinateurs et des peintres viennent, chaque jour, au jardin national, pour y dessiner des
plantes étrangères lorsqu’ils ont à représenter des sites d’Asie, d’Afrique et d’Amérique. Les
animaux des mêmes climats leur seront aussi utiles ; ils en étudieront les formes, les
attitudes, les passions. Ils en ont déjà, dira-t-on, des modèles en plâtre. Mais d’après quel
plâtre Puget a-t-il sculpté le lion dévorant qui déchire les muscles de Milon de Crotone ?
Artistes, poètes, écrivains, si vous copiez toujours, on ne vous copiera jamais. Voulez-vous
être originaux, et fixer l’admiration de la postérité sur vos ouvrages ? N’en cherchez les
modèles que dans la nature.
[Illustrators and painters come, every day, to the national garden, to draw foreign plants
when they have to picture Asian, African or American sites. Animals from these same
climates would be also helpful; they would study their shapes, their attitudes, their
passions. They already have, from what we say, plaster molds. But from which plaster
did Puget sculpt the devouring lion tearing Milo of Croton’s muscles?
Artists, poets, writers, if you always copy, nobody is ever going to copy you. Do you
want to be original, and make the admiration of posterity fix on your works? Only seek
for models in nature.]2
The point here is not about being copied. It is about staying independent from any influence
to be recognized for my own style. Of course, learning about past works from historic
composers and studying how the modern ones changed the game is an important starting point,
but the hardest is to go away from the standards once we learned them. How to be inspired
without stealing? When learning orchestration, we go through a lot of pre-made formulas used
by the greatest composers but the main point is to take it into account and reinterpret them with
our own hand, to create a new world of sound from the heritage that was given to us.
My piece is not ground-breaking. The harmony doesn’t have anything revolutionary, the
orchestration is made in a very classical way. But I wrote it with devotion and passion, and it
made a large difference with the first sketch I did.
Jacques Bernardin Henri de Saint-Pierre, Mémoire sur la nécessité de joindre une ménagerie au
Jardin des plantes de Paris, ed. Didot (Paris 1793), 642. Translation: Clementine Charuel.
2
6
For my orchestration, I decided to try something different: I was always sequencing the whole
piece before making the score. For this piece, I decided to make the score at the same time. And
I was really surprised how the ideas were coming once in the score editor. It was another
perception: having Digital Performer 9.5 on a screen and Sibelius Ultimate on the other one was
duplicating my creativity. When the ideas were not coming in the sequencer, I was looking at the
score, filling blanks there and adding the new parts back to the sequencer. Same thing happened
on the other way: when I knew I wanted one instrument to play at a precise measure but didn’t
know what to write, I was looking back to my sequence and listening my piece while recording
ideas with a good VST sound.3 I don’t think we should ever be limited by the quality of the
libraries, but if we have the possibility to work with good sounds we should always take it.
Because if working with mediocre libraries is a restriction, working with quality ones can be a
booster for creativity.
1.4
Recording and Mixing
Until the very last minute before going on the podium, I was still not confident about my
piece. I was hearing my classmates pieces that were all sounding amazingly epic and thick. I
started to think that my piece was going to sound weak and empty, and despite the fact that my
friends were comforting me, I had the feeling that it was not going to work. We were a little
group to think that we didn’t understand the exercise, the purpose of this recording, because our
pieces were not sounding the same. They were different. But from the moment the orchestra
started to play, all doubts were gone. At the end of the first take, I knew this piece was one of
my best works so far. This was confirmed by all the good feedback I had during and after my
session.
Virtual Sound Technology, created by Steinberg originally for Cubase. It is now a standard
format for all sequencers.
3
7
The feeling in front of the orchestra was astonishing. The power that releases from the
ensemble is duplicated when conducting it. It is like a gigantic wave of sound going through our
body. We don’t feel this inside the booth, and it is probably the best moment of all the process
of writing and recording our own music. When my session had come to an end, the only thing I
wanted was to conduct again. Now, I am more motivated than ever to go on writing beautiful
music for pictures and be able to record with an orchestra again.
When I came back in Valencia, I went straight to school to get my session. Filled with
enthusiasm and motivation, I mixed it in six hours. After a few revisions with a friend and our
teacher Pablo Schuller, I am really happy with the result and cannot wait to share it with my
friends.
This recording made me realize one thing for good, probably the most important thing that I
have been struggling with during the whole year: most of us were always in the doubt because of
each other’s works, associating our own style to our talent. But it doesn’t matter how good we
are compared to the others, the important is to believe in ourselves and our music.
2. Earth In Oblivion: Analysis and Fights
2.1
Harmonic and Thematic Analysis
At the beginning, I didn’t want to make a pure analysis of my piece. But actually, while
writing this paper, I noticed that some elements were unconsciously written making sense with
my past researches4. Last year, I have been studying the harmonic progressions in Deep Purple’s
music. With charts and percentages, I established a list of the most used patterns in their works,
4
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975.
8
related to patterns classified by the musicologist Allan F. Moore.5 As I was having a
retrospection on my piece, I noticed that some progressions I wrote were also existing in my
thesis: my final progression is the same as one of the songs I analyzed for this paper, “Highway
Star.”6 Indeed, the chorus of this song is partially written in aeolian/dorian mode on the
following progression:
III-IV-VI-VII-I
This is also the path I chose to take for the end of my piece. In my thesis, I explain how useful is
the third degree to “create a bridge between the first and fourth to give a lighter feeling [of the
progression], getting closer to a pentatonic scale”.7 In this piece, this third degree also gives a
strong feeling of power, breaking the minor triads with the A natural (see Appendix A, measure
40). I also explained the role of sixth degree in chord progressions, always giving the opposite
feeling of the overall: in major, it darkens the atmosphere whereas in minor it lights it.8 The
seventh is considered as a substitute to the fifth degree, so as a dominant degree. In aeolian and
dorian modes, it is associated to stabled and accessible degree allowing more freedom than a
fifth.9
Obviously, I didn’t think about all these parameters when I wrote my piece. This
unconscious process is due to the feeling I wanted this part to express: after a dark central
Allan F. Moore, “Patterns of Harmony.” Popular Music, Vol. 11, n°1 (Cambridge: University
Press, 1992), 73-106.
5
6
Deep Purple, “Highway Star,” Machine Head, EMI, Purple Records (1972).
7
Clementine Charuel, Deep Purple de 1968 à 1975, 64.
8
Ibid, 56.
9
Ibid, 50, 53.
9
section, the end must have been powerful and shining. The use of the pentatonic scale in the
main melody (see fig. 3) is also not a coincidence even if it is totally unconscious: my main goal
was to represent nature and landscapes by my melody. I guess my brain probably linked these
beautiful images to my culture and education. An important part of my childhood was based on
Miyazaki’s movies10 and Hisaishi’s music11, that usually picture nature a lot. As Hisaishi often
uses the pentatonic scale, my vision of nature was probably always connected with it. This is the
kind of inspirations that I am not trying to avoid as long as they don’t become too important.
Furthermore, if this inspiration comes from nature or my conception of nature, it is an
inspiration I want to follow.
Figure 3. Main Theme from Earth In Oblivion (Violins)
2.2
Structural Inquiry
For the structure of the piece, I actually stuck a bit to the structure of my first idea (see fig.
1): my idea was to have a big crescendo from the beginning to the end with a break in the
middle. I wrote the first part as an introduction, installing an emotive and calm climate. I also
wanted to avoid using the whole orchestra just because I had a big ensemble. Sometimes, a small
instrumentation creates a bigger emotion.
10 Hayao Miyazaki’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/.
Joe Hisaishi’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386749/.
11
10
The theme arrives measure 16 (see Appendix B), as a relief of the tension that was created in the
measure before. Still in a calm pace, the mood is broken by the brass entering at 20 (see fig. 4).
This brass accompanied by the cymbal and timpani rolls are giving another dimension to the
piece, making it wider and more dramatic.
Figure 4. Trombones and Tuba, measure 20
As I was coming up with this second part with the theme and an opening of the general
atmosphere, I really wanted to include a counterpoint that would be the “cherry on the cake”.
This line (see fig. 5) came naturally to my fingers playing above my string orchestration with a
flute patch. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was the good one. It was strong and was adding a lot
to my melody in this second part. I decided to reinforce it by adding piccolo and oboe on this
same line.
11
Figure 5. Woodwinds counterpoint for the melody
I thought the third part of the piece as a break point between the emotional first exposition
of the theme and its explosion on the fourth part. I thereby decided to write it as a suspension
point, still full of tension but a moment of “calm before the storm”. I guess I was once again
inspired by nature but in a different way: this part had to be darker and questioning. When I
think about it now, I can see a strong influence by the video game Ori and the Blind Forest
(Moon Studios, 2015) and its music by Gareth Coker.12 The timbre of the oboe is in my ear
something that can be as cheerful as it can inspire enigmatic thoughts, but stays also very close to
nature. As a blend of my visions, I came up with this oboe line (see fig. 6).
Figure 6. Oboe line measure 26
Gareth Coker’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3731132/.
12
12
The fourth part was supposed to be an explosion of emotions and power. I achieved it with
this blend between my main theme and my counterpoint (see fig. 3 and 5) and by applying a
thicker orchestration. It was the first time in my life that I was actually going to record a full
orchestra, I wanted to take advantage of it as much as I could. To make this part sound even
bigger, I used running lines on different instruments. It had to be powerful, but not steady. To
fill the emptiness created by the slow tempo and the melody, I added a flute line (see fig. 7) that
was dovetailed between the flutes I could afford, in order to avoid all kind of blank.
Figure 7. Flutes dovetailing
As my theme was easy to memorize and quite repetitive, I needed some elements to make
the ensemble sound varied. Everywhere I could add something, I was finding a short
counterpoint that would stick out and break the melody. This is how I added the trumpets line at
measure 36 (see fig. 8). Sounding heroic and open, this line allowed me to regenerate the drive
after the new exposition of the theme.
13
Figure 8. Trumpets counterpoint
In my last progression (see 2.1 Harmonic and Thematic Analysis) the intensity had to grow
more and more, even if it was already on a high point before that. The solution I found was to
change something. Thus I decided to vary the high strings motives by adding runs (see fig. 9). I
obviously didn’t choose the same rhythm for each line in order to create a real motion in this
short part.
Figure 9. High Strings runs and motives
14
While keeping this motion until the very end, I also had a horn line (see fig. 2.2.7) that was
preventing it from staying in the background. This way, the music still had a meaning until the
end of the piece. I came up with this line the same way as the melody counterpoint, by letting my
fingers play above the whole orchestration.
Figure 10. Horn line measures 40-41
To finish my piece I had two solutions: the first one was to close it as it started, as a calm
and soft outro. I liked this first option but I thought my piece would be too charming and I
wanted it to make an impact. When I thought about this word, the second solution came to my
mind: I was actually going to write an impact (see Appendix C). I wrote a low D to all the
instruments able to play it and added a bass drum hit and a cymbal roll to make it vibe and shock
harder.
This work on the structure was also a bit unconscious, as I wrote the sketch without asking
myself too many questions. But now that I studied it, I found the link between what I wanted my
piece to be and what it really is. I think it’s always interesting to have a reflection about our own
work, to know why we wrote something, if there is a musical, harmonic or historic reason to the
progression and melodies we write.
15
2.3
A Fight for Nature
One of the things that surprised me the most during this whole year was the use of our
natural resources on campus and more generally in Spain. My struggle to find an organic food
shop, the tons of plastic bottles thrown every day and the excessive usage of paper. I am not an
activist, nor I live limited from all kind of non-degradable materials. But as hard as I can, I try to
be as earth-friendly as I can. Reusable bottles, recycled paper and paper bags, there are so many
ways to live in a better environment that respects nature.
During this year at Berklee, I couldn’t stop thinking that all the paper we use for our score,
parts, or even temporary documents could be recycled paper. We don’t need a good quality
paper for everything and we should have this choice available in the library.
Our nature is endangered. Multiple deals were made between industrialized countries13 to
reduced their greenhouse gas emissions. The French minister of environment decided to “ban all
petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040”.14 All these measures are taken by governments, but we can
also make a change in the way we live everyday by varying some of our habits: closing the tap
when washing the dishes, drinking tap water, turning off the lights when leaving a room and so
many other things.
As composers, we can’t think that this is not our fight. It is a fight for us and our future
generations who are going to live in this world the same way as we do. It is not because we are
sitting in front of our computer that we can’t do anything. We all have a power to change things.
13 Paris Agreement, 2016, accessed June 27, 2018, https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/theparis-agreement/the-paris-agreement.
Accessed June 27, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/france-petrol-dieselban-vehicles-cars-2040-a7826831.html.
14
16
Being an Artist is probably one of the closest work to nature. Art has always been a part of us
and, as a composer, being inspired by nature is possibly the best way to thank it. If we go on
writing music and making documentaries about nature, maybe people will realize how real is the
emergency of this situation.
2.4
My Fight against Standards
I have always tried to stay away from taking inspiration from other composers. I don’t listen
to a lot of orchestral music because I am afraid of my subconscious and it already happened that
I unconsciously copy someone else’s melody. This can happen as a pure coincidence, but most
of the time you realize that something you listened a few days before accidentally ended up on
your score.
But once again, this is not about copying. Without getting too inspired by past music, we can
actually create a style that is our own. Writing something that has always been written is not
going to bring us anything. Most of the successful composers that we know have very different
styles. If we compare John Williams15 and Hans Zimmer16, we can see a lot of distinctive things
in orchestration, harmony or even volume.
We had the chance to make a skype interview with Alexandre Desplat17 who told us something
that probably will mean a lot for some of us:
John Williams’ IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002354/.
15
Hans Zimmer’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/.
16
Alexandre Desplat’s IMDB profile, accessed June 27, 2018,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006035/.
17
17
There shouldn’t be any difference between the music you write for concert and
for film, as both are your music.18
Why being afraid of writing in our own style? If people don’t like what we do, what is the point
of writing something that don’t look like us? It has been a while since I strongly believe that our
own style is our ticket to success. How many people know how to write like what we hear
everywhere?
Before my recording I had so many doubts about my piece and even about myself because I
was unable to write like them. But the truth is that being different is probably the best thing that
happened to me during this session. I will never be grateful enough to the people that helped me
believe in myself and my music during this year, until the very last minute before the beginning
of my recording.
3. Berklee Insertion
How is this project including in my year at Berklee? How did I apply my freshly learned
knowledge? How did Berklee help me becoming a better version of myself?
3.1
Knowledge and Technique
This final project was the consecration of my year at Berklee. I wanted it to gather all the
elements I learned through all the classes we had. I learned so much in how to make a good
mockup, make a good mix, what kind of orchestration to apply on a given style, how to make a
score from a sequenced piece. The truth is that I didn’t do a good mockup, didn’t follow precise
18
Alexandre Desplat, Skype Interview with Berklee SFTV students, June 16, 2018.
18
orchestration rules, didn’t use a template for my score. And still, this is the piece that people
generally enjoyed the most from all my works. Probably it would have taken me less time to stick
with these indications, but would this piece have been the same? I guess this situation was too
different from a professional position and I wanted to be completely free and not set any
boundaries to my creativity. It was probably not the best option but in the end I can’t be happier
with the result. The most important among all technical aspects is to write with heart and
passion.
The one thing I really applied in my work is everything I learned in Mixing class. When I
arrived at Berklee, I don’t think I was even panning my mixes. The amount of things I learned in
this class is incredible and truly unexpected compared to what I thought I could be able to do
with my own music. I still don’t have the level of an expert mixer, but I am now able to make my
music sound good and professional.
3.2
Diversity and Inclusion
It was quite new for me to experience demonstrations of inclusion throughout the year. In
France, we don’t usually talk about diversity because we are used to live with it. I grew up in a
district where diversity is very well represented. I was going to school with all kinds of cultures
and religions embodied. The synagogue in my street, the church near my conservatory and the
muslim bakeries around my house always taught me that there is no difference beyond the color
of the skin or the beliefs of our mind. I grew up in a family teared by two extremes: my parents,
respectful and open-minded, and my grand-father, intolerant and bitter. I imagined the fear of
being rejected as my brother was trying to find his own identity, I became aware of women’s
position while listening to my abused friends. But I never thought that declaring your tolerance is
a way to change things. We all have the power to break the clichés and establish a respectful
environment around us, not by saying loudly that we respect each other but by considering
19
everyone as anyone and showing ourselves as we are. We shouldn’t be “nicer” to disabled people
because they are disabled, we should just be nice because they are normal people. We shouldn’t
include more minorities in our groups because of what they are, we should just include them
because of who they are. We shouldn’t respect more women because they need to be respected,
we should respect them as they need to be respected on the same level as men. I don’t think the
solution is to create diversity awards and scholarships because then it becomes positive
discrimination. If there is an award for the outstanding woman, then why not an award for an
outstanding man? A scholarship for South-American students? How about a scholarship for
Eastern-European students? If we want to offer equality, let’s first offer equity.
When I recorded my piece, I deliberately decided to wear a pink dress. I don’t often dress
like this but I wanted to show that the way we look is nothing related to what we are capable of.
The impact at the end of my piece (see Appendix C) was a blow to all the clichés in this world
that are making us identities that we are not.
3.3
What is next?
At the beginning of the year, I fixed my goals with the International Career Center (ICC). I
had to improve my orchestration and find my style, but also get better skills in networking.
Before that, I thought I would never be able to network properly. I had the feeling of being fake
every time I was trying to meet a director, a composer, or else. But one of the best opportunities
I had during this year was to be able to see and listen to people networking. I quickly understood
that networking was not different from meeting new friends: it is all about learning from each
other and showing ourselves as the person we are and not who we pretend to be.
I am now much more confident about networking. I would lie if I would say that I am stress-free
about this situation but I know that I want to start working as soon as possible and find beautiful
and promising projects, and this is helping me being more assured about creating my network.
20
My recording at Air Studios opened many more doors to my ambition than I would expect. I
had recorded small ensembles in home studios or school studios before. It was the first time that
I was listening my music in such a professional venue, surrounded by walls that captured a big
amount of the soundtracks that gave me the desire to score movies.
This was the best experience of my life so far, and my only wish is to experience it again and as
soon as possible. For this I know the path will probably be long and hard but there is nothing
preventing me from reaching this goal, except my own ability to sell myself.
Conclusion
Earth In Oblivion has been the consecration of my year at Berklee, in everything I decided to
apply in it and in the devotion I brought to the writing process. This process I have been
through was not common and it is probably one of the things that made my piece different.
It was not ground-breaking in the harmony or the melody, but I wrote it with all my heart and I
hope that people will listen to it with the same emotion than I do.
In music, there is no such thing as the emotion. Feeling the music, one note after another, is
something that is not given to everyone and we are really lucky when we are able to express
passion through it. Some people don’t feel music. They don’t see pictures when they listen to
imaginative music, they don’t make a difference between a major or a minor chord, they don’t
enjoy listening to masterpieces. They could live without music, and everything would still be the
same. But once we get this strong link between ourselves and art, then it’s quite impossible to
live without it.
21
Making beautiful music is for me a way to show people what I feel, to express what I can’t
express with words. It is the bridge between the world and my personality. This was my goal
with Earth In Oblivion: write a piece that represents myself. I don’t think I ever took a bigger
risk than the one I took here. I could have written something that was going to work for certain
and avoid the doubts I have been through before the recording, but how could this piece be true
to myself? In the end, all these doubts are also part of myself: I don’t think I was ever entirely
convinced by something I did, and probably this will always be hard for me to be confident. But
now that I realized it I know it will be easier to be less severe with myself.
One thing that Berklee did for sure is open my mind in so many fields. I knew I would learn
a lot when I came here but I had no idea it would be such a big amount of things. Not only did I
learn about music production but also about myself, who I was and who I wanted to be.
22
Appendix A: Final Progression
23
Appendix B: First Exposure of the Main Theme
24
Appendix C: The Impact
25
Discography : Sources and Motivations
Deep Purple. “Highway Star”, track 1 in Machine Head. EMI, Purple Records, 1972, CD.
Deep Purple. “Child In Time”, track 3 in Deep Purple In Rock. Harvest, 1970, CD.
Coker, Gareth. Ori and the Blind Forest. Microsoft Studios Music, 2015, CD.
Hisaishi, Joe. “Ashitaka Sekki”, track 1 in Mononoke Hime. Studio Ghibli Records, 1997, CD.
––––––––. “Kaze no Toorimichi”, track 13 in Tonari no Totoro. Studio Ghibli Records, 1988, CD.
Zimmer, Hans. “Dream Is Collapsing”, track 3 in Inception. Reprise Records, 2010, CD.
Desplat, Alexandre. “Griet’s Theme”, track 2 in Girl with the Pearl Earing. Decca Records, 2003,
CD.
Rombi, Philippe. “Dans la maison”, track 1 in Dans la Maison. BOriginal, 2012, CD.
Williams, John. “Hedwig’s Theme”, track 19 in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Atlantic, 2001,
CD.
Silvestri, Alan. “Forrest Gump Suite”, track 18 in Forrest Gump, Disk 2. Paramount, 1994, CD.
26
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Desplat, Alexandre. Skype Interview with Berklee SFTV students, June 16, 2018.
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