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Berklee College of Music
Journey of Jonathan Livingston:
Process of creating an original composition and a musical narrative based on a
written story.
Submitted in Partial fullfilment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games
Supervisor: Vicente Ortiz Gimeno
Program Director: Lucio Godoy
by Šimon Tomáš
Table of contents
1.0 _ Abstract
2.0 _ Acknowledgments
3.0 _ Pre-Production
3.1 _ A Story
3.2 _ Themes
3.3 _ Approach and Inspirations
4.0 _ Production
4.2 _ Mockup and Orchestration
4.3 _ Recording Preparations
5.0 _ Recording
5.1 _ London Experience
5.2 _ Conducting
6.0 _ Post-Production
6.1 _ Mixing/Mastering
7.0 _ Outcome and Reflections
8.0 _ Resources/Bibliography
Abstract
This paper is a reflection of a Culminating Experience created for a specific learning outcome as
provided by Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games master program. In this experience an author
was set with a task to create an original piece of music based on a visual media, script or any other
available source material, that could serve as an inspiration for writing music. Once selected, an
author was tasked to compose and orchestrate an original composition, to be recorded at Air Studios
located in London, with a 51 piece orchestra, and mix and master the recording to its final release
form. The complexity of the task is a test of the skills acquired through the academic year, which in
theory a composer for the media should posses and be familiar with. The ability to take the process
from the very first initial stage and successfully finalise the piece of music up to a high standard is a
crucial test for any aspiring professional. Even more so if the composer is dealing with a great
standard of expectations at such professional environment as was provided and expected by Air
Studios. In this document an author will take the reader through all the major stages of a production,
as part of which he’ll explain the process and reflect on the challenges that might have occurred.
Lastly, an author will reflect on the overall outcome of the project and provide an evaluation of the
achievements as well as failures.
Acknowledgments
Firstly I want to thank all my classmates and staff of the Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games
2018/2019, who were and amazing support and inspiration throughout the whole year. Special
thanks to Lucio Godoy - program director, for creating an environment which is incredibly
demanding yet friendly, and supports a rapid progress. Another special thanks goes to my two
directed studies mentors Alfons Conde and Vicente Ortiz Gimeno, who provided me with great
feedback and evaluations directly suited for my personal improvement, particularly in the craft of
orchestration. I want to thank our little group of friends, they know who they are, with whom we
formed a very strong bond. They served not only as friends but as advisors, producers and a
constructive critics of the music I composed and I am incredibly hopeful that we shall maintain this
friendship in a both personal and professional world. Lastly and most importantly I want to thank
my parents and family who are an amazing support and who granted me this amazing opportunity to
pursue my dream of becoming a composer.
3.0 _ Pre Production
3.1 _ A Story
Initial stage of the CE was to pick a representative idea that would allow me as a composer to
improve upon my skills and which would allow my compositional style to be well represented.
Through the year I’ve gone through multiple different forms of writing music, and after evaluation,
my goal was to improve a skill of creating a narration within a musical score. Therefore I’ve chosen
to write a piece of music based on fable novella by Richard Bach in 1970 titled Jonathan Livingston
Seagull. Main reason why I choose this over scoring a different form of visual media is the
abstraction of the written word. My goal was to compose a piece music that would create an
imaginary landscape and story in a mind of the listener based on a narration within the instrumental
music itself. Therefore I am attempting to leave a space for imagination, particularly for anyone
who might not be familiar with the source material. Major themes of the composition which I’m
trying to evoke could be summed up in keywords such as: flight, ocean, beauty, struggles,
happiness, open space, wind and freedom.
For a short synopsis, the book is about a seagull named Jonathan Livingston, who cherishes and
pursues the art and technical knowledge of flight. As opposed to the rest of the “seagull
community” whose main idea is perseverance and a search for food, and are rather ignorant to the
capabilities that the natural selection gave them. Jonathan Livingston could be an embodiment of an
ambitions personality that is striving to achieve a very specific goal, and rather than focusing on the
bear minimum, he wants to explore the possibilities of his world and therefore give his existence a
greater meaning. This whole idea is represented by the theme of a flight, which is a main passion of
Jonathan Livingston. Throughout the book we see him fail as well as achieve and despite the
rejection from the rest of the community, he pursues his dreams without fear, only to reach a point
becoming a teacher and a legend for those who strive for more in life, upon the finale of the book.
3.2 _ Themes
As mentioned in a chapter 3.1, the main theme for the piece was a flight, therefore this became
the core of the idea when I started composing. I wanted to create a dynamic piece with a few
changing motives to represent different situations and moods of the flight of Jonathan Livingston.
At the final stage I composed 3 main motives. I nicknamed them 1st Flying Beyond Horizon
(Tomas Simon, 2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston, bar 3 - 29), 2nd Angry Sea (Tomas Simon,
2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston bar 29 - 60), 3rd Jonathan In the Distance (Tomas Simon,
2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston bar 60 - 75). The goal was to create a narrative and themes
that were memorable. 1st motive is based around A flat major, with an introduction that establishes
the dynamic of the piece up to a bar 17 where I introduced the first theme. The idea here was to
have as best of a representation of a flight as possible as the rest of the narrative would derive from
it. In this part I wanted to give the listener a feeling of a joy from the wind that Jonathan
experiences when he glides, the ambition of a hope, ambition of progressing in life while enjoying
what he really loves and the strong will. 2nd motive titled Angry Sea, was an abrupt transition,
when Jonathan is experiencing a failure and a hardship and his constant battle with it. Therefore I
decided to switch to a darker tone and introduce an independent and dynamic movement to
empower the different struggles that might appear. Lastly the motive named Jonathan In the
Distance served as a conclusion to the composition, capturing the beauty of everything that
Jonathan learned and a goal that he has achieved and might want to achieve in the future. This was
meant to be a soft and an emotional theme, representing hope and a conclusion to everything that
one might experience through a journey.
3.3 _ Approach and Inspirations
Three major names I would reference as an inspiration in creating this particular score would
have to be Alexandre Desplat, John Powell and Bedrich Smetana. More specifically, the
compositional style of Alexandre Desplat, which feels very close to my approach, particularly with
his rather minimalistic structure, very strongly focused around textures of an orchestra. He’s
frequently using an ostinato phrase which creates a rhythmical and textural basis of the music,
around which he creates various harmonies and themes, with a great attention to dynamics between
sections. In my personal observation, despite Alexandre Desplat is being a versatile composer, I
truly admire the way he can capture an emotional theme and even with a use of a larger scale
orchestra, he manages to make it sound rather more intimate and personal. This approach is
definitely inspiring for me and I was trying to capture it in the score in my own way. One of my
greatest inspirations growing up was Minimalism and therefore I feel that my compositions are
strongly inspired by it, although I’m constantly trying to improve my versatility. Also the idea of
having a harmonic and textural basis is very helpful for my process of composing melodies as it
boosts my musical imagination in an orchestral writing and a narrative of the score. I suspect that
this process is also massively influenced by my background in music, which is majorly music
production and electronic music, as opposed to classical background which is considerably more
based around the counterpoint and thinking in melodies. Another piece that was more specific to
this project as an influence was a score to John Powell, 2010, How To Train Your Dragon, Spotify.
My major reason was to capture the idea of a flight in a theme. This score has a multiple cues which
I consider beautiful representations of it. While the score has various Celtic and Nordic folk
influences in orchestration and melodies, the main inspiration for me was the density of the
orchestration and the movement, for example on cues such as Test Drive (John Powell, 2010, How
To Train Your Dragon, track 11 Spotify ) and Romantic Flight (John Powell, 2010, How To Train
Your Dragon, track 15, Spotify). These two cues were influencing mostly the first two motives in
my composition. Lastly I listened and analysed the score by Bedrich Smetana, 1874, My Homeland,
The Moldau. Reason why this score seemed as a piece of music to consider for this specific project
was the idea of a wavy textures, the author created at the very beginning of the musical piece.
Bedrich Smetana was supposedly trying to capture the flow of the river, through the capital of
Czech Republic, Prague. This is a piece well known for its musical narrative and a beautiful
orchestration, at least amongst the people that originated from these geographical parts of the world
as myself. Therefore keeping that in mind, it seemed as a viable inspiration for a portrayal of a
water movement, which was part of the story I was capturing. In the 3rd motive I was attempting to
capture that specific texture by giving a slurred ostinato phrase to the strings with a repetitive
crescendo and diminuendo performed by the orchestra to emulate the flow of waves (example A).
This really supported the impression of a flowing water and the softness I intended for the musical
finale, while maintaining the grandiosity of the orchestra.
Example A;
4.0 _ Production
4.1 _ Mockup and Orchestration
This particular stage of the composition was definitely a process of trial and error. As I’ve
mentioned before, I usually start writing in a full orchestral setup to establish a texture before
developing the themes. Nevertheless in this case, the very first idea that I’ve had, was based on a
piano sketch. I’ve initially written 5 different motives rooting around movement in between G
major and G Mixolydian scales, however as I’ve started to progress with the orchestration they’ve
changed immensely and I was constantly struggling to capture the idea of a flight. Only after a few
different variations I’ve realised that my piano writing was perhaps not ideal. While the piano
sketches were capturing the idea of a flight in their own way, I’ve realised that I’m constantly trying
to maintain a rather complicated structure of the composition, initially built for a piano. Therefore
I’ve chosen to abandon the idea as it quickly became unsatisfactory and got me stuck. This is
something I frequently observe, when I start composing a piece. I tend to directly start with an
instrumentation in my head, and then it might become harder for me to abandon the idea. Therefore
when I’ve started with the piano, I’ve composed a piano piece rather than orchestral one. That
caused me a difficulty to translate the sketch into a full orchestration. This doesn’t necessarily cause
the problem in a scenario when I intend to orchestrate a piano sketch written by a different
composer. At that level I’m not as connected to the initial idea, therefore it seems easier to expand
on it. After I’ve abandoned the first draft, I’ve started composing directly in a full orchestral palette.
From then on it went much smoother. As mentioned in the chapter 3.3, I’ve had a clear textures in
my mind which I wanted to achieve. The whole piece started with 4 motives. Initially I had
composed a rather soft violin and cello solos for the beginning, with a held long notes divided
between the rest of the strings and woodwinds, as a gentle introduction of the theme I have
introduced later. Nevertheless due to a time limitation of 3 minutes I had to abandon this
introduction to shorten it and by logical evaluation this part felt the least advanced and effective in
terms of utilising the orchestra to its full potential. After shortening I was left with the 3 motives the
listener can hear on the final master. 1st motive I’ve started with the ostinato phrases, in strings and
woodwinds. In this part I was attempting to establish the pace and the dynamic of the cue,
expanding on the density of the score rapidly by immediately introducing a thicker instrumentation
with a brief 8 bar introduction moving towards bar 17 where the listener can hear the first theme.
The idea here was to capture the listener in the very beginning, with a full sound of an orchestra and
transfer his mind into the narration of the piece, or in other more abstract words, directly into the
flight. The theme from bar 17 is majorly performed by violins with some doubling in oboe and
flutes to enrich the timber, while the rest of the orchestra is mostly performing a harmonic bed, and
violas are performing an ostinato to maintain the effect of the motion. At bar 29 there is a sudden
contrast, rapid change of the mood. I’ve instantly reduced the density of the orchestra with a sudden
tonal change towards a more ominous sound. This part is mostly held by contrabass section with a
rest of an instrumentation performing short phrases to empower the atmosphere, however I’m only
introducing and preparing the listener to what is about to come. This section leads to a crescendo
towards bar 36. This in my view was the section which meant to, for the first time, introduce the
idea of “Angry Sea”. Therefore I’ve chosen to write an ominous, ostinato based motive in a
complex 7/8 (3+2+2) performed with a thiner density yet, higher dynamic to really exaggerate the
change in a mood and let the woody timber of the strings take over. This short 4 bar introduction
than progresses back to a dense 6/8 for a grandiose battle of phrases. Following part was meant to
represent a battle with the struggles, with waves and strong winds on an open sea. This metaphor is
representing the idea of Jonathan crossing the boundaries and his comfort zones and to add a drama
to the narrative. Therefore the movement is becoming much more aggressive. In bar 40 I’m
introducing a form of a musical dialogue, exaggerating 3rd beat of a bar with an accent amongst
most of the instruments, while trumpet 1 is performing a melody in a flutter tongue to add harshness
and general impression of an ongoing battle. During the next four bars the trumpet and the rest of
the orchestra is having an argument. This serves as a representation of an unpredictability of the
weather conditions during the flight. I’ve imagined Jonathan flying in the rain and heavy wind,
avoiding high waves and being overwhelmed by the wind. Only to build up towards a last stand at
the beginning of a bar 48 where I’m introducing a forte ostinato phrase evolving between the
majority of the orchestra. Here a listener should hear a sense of panic, fear, a last instance of a
constantly evolving battle, yet also a dedication to win. This leads to a massive accented crescendo
in a unison for the whole orchestra as a finale to the ominous motive. It should represent the idea of
a finish, where the listener shouldn’t know what has happened with Jonathan. I’ve tried to emulate
this tension with a sul tasto high note held on the violins, which also serves as a bridging note into
the next motive. The last motive starting at bar 60, is a conclusion of the narrative, at this stage I’m
trying to take the listener into a picture of Jonathan flying out of the storm and into a sunset and
clear skies, however he is changed by what he has learned and achieved on the way. He has matured
in the process, understanding not only the enjoyability, but the dangers of the goals that he has set
for himself. This motive was meant to represent beauty, maturity and dedication. The listener should
hear that Jonathan is now one with the both positive and a negative aspects of his ambition, and
therefore is able to teach and guide those who’d listen. The wavy textural movement in strings and
woodwinds is the pinnacle of this motive along with a new theme introduced and doubled by
violins and flutes. Brass is providing the thick harmonic texture in long notes, along with the
softness of the pizzicato in contrabass, and playfulness of a glockenspiel. Another element which
differentiates this motive from the rest is an introduction of a piano and harp into the overall timber.
Both perform an ostinato phrase to enrich the palette and make the motive more matured, elegant
and texturally different from the rest of the composition. Last motive is gradually growing until the
last bar, with a sudden cutoff at the end, to empower to continuity of the story. In more poetic
words, while the music ends, the story continues. “No limits, Jonathan? he thought, and he smiled.
His race to learn had begun.” (Richard Bach, 1970, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, p.28)
4.2 _ Preparation for the Recording
Getting to this point I’ve finalised established my idea and the narrative of what I’ve intended
for the composition to represent, therefore from this point I was trying to be much more technical
and critical about the possible outcomes and obstacles. First general idea was to properly evaluate
my orchestration, as from a past experiences, a recording scenario and purely digital form of
composing can be different in various ways. Firstly DAW allows a composer to add as many layers
and density as a composer might crave, as opposed to a live recording with an ensemble of a
specific size without a possibility of an overdub. Therefore I’ve reduced dividing in strings and
woodwinds, and simplified it particularly with the themes, to really achieve a strong balance in the
phrases and to exaggerate the intentional parts. This required me to transfer and properly notate the
physical score early in the process. I was generally satisfied with the way I treated the orchestration
towards the goal, apart from the specific flutter tongue melody from bar 40 to bar 43 which was not
as exaggerated as was originally intended. This would’ve been probably easily fixed by letting both
trumpets play in a unison instead of dividing them into two separate phrases. Additional process
was to make sure that, my voicing is correct and I’m fully utilising the orchestra, as this specific
recording opportunity provided us with players of an exceptional quality. Voicing is something I
was especially vigilant about, as it can be tricky particularly translating from the layering
capabilities of the DAW and I acknowledged during a learning process with my supervisors at
Berklee that this aspect I tended to underestimate in my previous works. Therefore once I had the
piece notated I simplified the bass and its distribution between instruments in lower registers. I also
generally simplified harmonies, as I’ve had a few complex added chords in a mid registers which I
figured might cause an unwanted result as it became very dense and I wanted to save it especially
for the main themes. Utilisation of the orchestra was another goal. As I’ve mentioned all of my
pieces begin in a rather more minimalistic, timbral way, therefore this time I wanted to explore the
movement of the orchestra, and add as much detail to it as it seemed appropriate for the
composition. Therefore once I’ve established the basis of the harmonies and the themes, I tried to
observe the score in a more visual aspect and utilise instruments equally through the score without
overcrowding it. The composition was quite heavily dependent on the string section and dividing
timbers between woodwinds and brass, therefore I always had a space to add small additional
phrases and details onto resting instruments just to exaggerate the movement or create an extra
timber, while maintaining the main idea of the motive. At the end of the process I became quite
satisfied with the general movement of the score and an utilisation of the players for the purpose of
this composition. Nevertheless, personally I felt I perhaps shouldn’t have abandoned the complex
chords, for that extra spark and the uniqueness of the colour they might’ve brought to it. Lastly one
of the challenges was a dynamic marking of the phrases. This is something I had to revise on a
multiple opportunities prior to the recording as it was a challenge to make them as detailed as I’ve
intended them to be, particularly as it was the first time dealing with such a size of an orchestration.
In the process I’ve learned that this is something that really requires a very keen self discipline, as
particularly between multiple staves and parts, small mistakes and imperfections are truly lurking in
the darkness from the eye of the composer.
5.0 _ Recording
5.1 _ London Experience
The recording was set to happen at Air Studios’s Lyndhurst Hall. This phenomenal studio
located in London with it’s spacious 300 square meter live room provided an exceptional
environment to record the final piece of the academic year. The musician and recording team of an
astounding quality were to participate, therefore it was imperative that the preparation was very
attentive and to a high industry standard. This was particularly important with the preparation of the
parts for the performing musicians. Based on an advice from our staff we were preparing special
sizes and specific type of yellow non-reflective papers for the music parts. Details which seemed
subtle and yet made a massive difference in a comfort of the musicians and the general perception
of our approach and professionalism. These details served as ones, amongst the many valuable
lessons towards the future. Air Lyndhurst Hall provided a very special environment along with a
pressure that came with the idea of conducting an ensemble of this size but especially quality. The
live room is located in the building of a church, with only a subtle acoustic treatment to suppress
resonances that might occur in the room, therefore the sound during the recording is fairly amplified
and lively. Air studios is famously know for it’s reflective capabilities to exaggerate the size of an
orchestra. This particular feature provided a challenge in form of monitoring, due to the
amplification in the room the monitor mix was set to exaggerate click track, and therefore it was
rather difficult to truly focus on the performance of the orchestra. This really took an amateur
conductor like myself a minute to adjust to. This and for the first time experiencing an ensemble of
that size. The recording process went smoothly in my case, this is by all means a merit of the
orchestra. I truly cherished the responsiveness and the questions of the players, who really seemed
to be trying their best to perform the music as best as they could. However during my recording a
few mistakes had occurred on my behalf which I definitely shall improve, and all of them are
connected to the revisions of the score and the little mistakes lurking in the dark as I’ve mentioned
in a chapter 4.2. Mistake number one, were that parts of the oboe and the cellos, which were on one
occasion missing some accidentals in a repetitive phrases, and a few unmarked slurs that were
obviously intended. These small details hadn’t caused too big of headache to the orchestra of
professional musician, yet the fact that they had to confirm with me something so obvious truly
made me slightly embarrassed and I shall be even more attentive to these kind of details in a future.
One thing that I truly appreciated, as engineering is one of my backgrounds, was the speed with
which these professionals, specifically engineers, were dealing with the workflow. A fact that our
main engineer Jake Jackson was providing us with a valuable production notes along with our
college staff, and was dynamically controlling the click in the monitor to be compatible with the
orchestra was stunning. The click is a small yet a very handful detail that I’ve observed for the first
time. Amongst other things the delivery of the Pro Tools sessions was brought to an amazing
standard, providing us with a desk print mix, a pre-made compilation of the best takes and a
document marking the takes, along with a possible issues we might come across during the mix.
This is something I’ve always saw a producer do in my previous experiences, and yet the fact that
an engineer is doing it makes a lot of sense, as it provides the producer with an extra focus span.
5.2 _ Conducting
In a role of a conductor, I was trying to first and foremost step on the scoring stage with a good
attitude and a strong presence. However I could not deny that the adrenaline took control during the
first take. Generally to self evaluate I have to admit that as a conductor, I wasn’t really satisfied with
my performance, as I’ve made quite a few mistakes which I will aim to eliminate before my next
conducting experience. So while it was an incredible moment that I cherish, the self realisation of
the gap that I still have to cross in order to become a good conductor is enormous. With me it all
starts with the reactions and a sight reading of the score which, especially under that kind of a
pressure, simply become insufficient. While I am fairly confident that I can maintain the energy and
a mood of the score with my gesture, I have to improve my attention towards sections and specific
instruments and also the proficiency, with which I can answer questions in between the takes. All
the issues feel connected to the ability of sight reading a score and instantly thinking and evaluating
the composers intention. Conducting is a craft that takes years to perfect, and I’ve just started my
journey. I truly want to become an effective conductor, therefore this experience was incredibly
exciting, very humbling and definitely most informative for a future progress.
6.0 _ Post Production
6.1 _ Mixing and Mastering
Process of mixing the piece was very pure and rather simplistic due to the acoustical nature of
the Lyndhurst Hall, the quality of the engineers and the equipment which provided a very balanced
sound. The Decca tree and the wide stereo microphones as well as the surrounds provided a sound
image with only a few minor resonances. The only challenge in the mix was to create a realistic
balance between the multiple spot mic techniques and a room. String section was recorded in a
dividing technique that gave us an opportunity to focus the spot mics on the first chairs of the string
ensemble, along with an additional spot mics focused on the back chairs and a central mic creating
an overall image of the section. This technique is very useful in the mix particularly for the thematic
material and a general control of the density of the string section. In my case I’ve created a rather
equal balance between all of the spot mics. Focusing majority of my mix on enhancing the room.
EQ was generally very surgical amongst all of the mics, with most of the dominant resonances
happening in the fundamental notes of the instruments. This could have possibly caused a certain
struggle for a less experienced mixing engineers who are not specifically trained to find frequencies
and therefore might take a wrong decision of reducing a major portion of them, as a result of what a
section might loose its timber, resulting in an unbalanced mix. Nevertheless in a world of a spectral
EQ plugins with a visual analyser such as Fab-Filter Q series, this hardship might be significantly
lowered. One of the major procedures in the mix was to control a bleed of the additional frequencies
in between the sections to achieve a clean sound. It was imperative to reduce the spot mics to
fundamental frequencies of the specific section. One struggle that occurred was mixing the
percussions, specifically timpani, which were recorded with overhead microphones, without any
proper isolation. Therefore the bleed in the spot mics, and a very distant image in the room mics,
forced me to double the timpani with a stems from the sample library. That gave me a better control
over the attack and a presence in the mix. I’ve added stems of a piano and a harp from a mockup,
which I treated with a large hall reverb resembling the sound of the live room to emulate the
placement and I’ve sent the overall mix into an additional reverb to emphasise the space and also
blend all of the sample based instruments into the live recording. The only instruments that I’ve
treated with a light compression in the mixing phase were low strings and timpani, to achieve a
thicker more present sound, which is characteristic to the film music. Generally the room sounded
rather bright, particularly on violin mics, therefore I’ve reduced some of the more significant
frequencies in a high mid register, as I’ve felt they were overpowering. The brightness of the room
was very special compared to the most of the spaces I’ve experienced. Recordings tend to generally
sound darker in an initial phase. In my mastering chain I’ve applied more EQ, where I’ve reduced a
number of frequencies in mids and high mids, to reduce the overpowering brightness of the mix,
and also applied more significant cuts in lower frequencies, as the bass seemed too resonant and out
of control, particularly at around the area of 100 Hz nevertheless I really liked the frequencies
below, as they felt, even without any significant processing, very well rounded. After this I’ve
treated the mix bus with an emulation of an 1176 Universal Audio compressor, reducing only about
1-1.5 gain at the loudest peaks. This created a more glued and interlocked mix. Lastly I’ve applied
Ozone 8 in which I’ve added a surgical amount of dynamic EQ in high mids, where there were a
few resonance that I felt still needed control. After this I’ve introduced a multi band compression,
again very softly, controlling mostly the low mid range, then a tape machine emulation softly
saturating highs and lows, and finally a maximiser targeting an integrated LUFS around the area of
-18dB.
7.0 _ Outcome and Reflections
I have to say that I’m generally satisfied with the outcome of the process. It had provided me with a
very valuable piece for my portfolio. The highlight of it was undoubtedly the London recording
experience which pushed the boundaries and attention to detail to a higher standard. It was a very
humbling experience to observe such a high standard of quality, and it made me personally realise
that there is still a long journey, before I can truly feel confident being in front of such experienced
players, nevertheless it also represented the progress we’ve achieved in a year of studying at
Berklee which lead to this unforgettable experience. The musicians really did manage to make
everything sound beautiful. Looking back as I’ve mentioned in previous chapters, there were but a
few struggles and mistakes that served as a very good learning experience for the future progress.
I’m definitely convinced that my orchestration skills became much better during the year, as much
as I’m very convinced that there is still a lot to improve upon in my orchestral writing. The
complexity of the process gave me a very detailed insight on these things. One thing that I’ve
proven to myself is that I can truly handle a musical narrative with care and detail, and create an
abstract idea using only music as my tool. However any creative mind is only as good as the
knowledge it possesses. Therefore the message I’ve got is the one to be expected. Learn more, and
constantly work towards an improvement. Not unlike Jonathan Livingston Seagull who I’ve
introduced among these pages.
8.0 _ Resources/Bibliography
Bach Richard, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, USA, Macmillan, 1970
Adler Samuel, Study of Orchestration: Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016
Desplat Alexandre, Imitation Game, Sony Music Entertainment, 2014
Powell John, How To Train Your Dragon, Dream Works Animation L.L.C., 2010
Smetana Bedrich, Má Vlast, Orbis Praha, 1958
Word count: 5600
Journey of Jonathan Livingston:
Process of creating an original composition and a musical narrative based on a
written story.
Submitted in Partial fullfilment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games
Supervisor: Vicente Ortiz Gimeno
Program Director: Lucio Godoy
by Šimon Tomáš
Table of contents
1.0 _ Abstract
2.0 _ Acknowledgments
3.0 _ Pre-Production
3.1 _ A Story
3.2 _ Themes
3.3 _ Approach and Inspirations
4.0 _ Production
4.2 _ Mockup and Orchestration
4.3 _ Recording Preparations
5.0 _ Recording
5.1 _ London Experience
5.2 _ Conducting
6.0 _ Post-Production
6.1 _ Mixing/Mastering
7.0 _ Outcome and Reflections
8.0 _ Resources/Bibliography
Abstract
This paper is a reflection of a Culminating Experience created for a specific learning outcome as
provided by Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games master program. In this experience an author
was set with a task to create an original piece of music based on a visual media, script or any other
available source material, that could serve as an inspiration for writing music. Once selected, an
author was tasked to compose and orchestrate an original composition, to be recorded at Air Studios
located in London, with a 51 piece orchestra, and mix and master the recording to its final release
form. The complexity of the task is a test of the skills acquired through the academic year, which in
theory a composer for the media should posses and be familiar with. The ability to take the process
from the very first initial stage and successfully finalise the piece of music up to a high standard is a
crucial test for any aspiring professional. Even more so if the composer is dealing with a great
standard of expectations at such professional environment as was provided and expected by Air
Studios. In this document an author will take the reader through all the major stages of a production,
as part of which he’ll explain the process and reflect on the challenges that might have occurred.
Lastly, an author will reflect on the overall outcome of the project and provide an evaluation of the
achievements as well as failures.
Acknowledgments
Firstly I want to thank all my classmates and staff of the Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games
2018/2019, who were and amazing support and inspiration throughout the whole year. Special
thanks to Lucio Godoy - program director, for creating an environment which is incredibly
demanding yet friendly, and supports a rapid progress. Another special thanks goes to my two
directed studies mentors Alfons Conde and Vicente Ortiz Gimeno, who provided me with great
feedback and evaluations directly suited for my personal improvement, particularly in the craft of
orchestration. I want to thank our little group of friends, they know who they are, with whom we
formed a very strong bond. They served not only as friends but as advisors, producers and a
constructive critics of the music I composed and I am incredibly hopeful that we shall maintain this
friendship in a both personal and professional world. Lastly and most importantly I want to thank
my parents and family who are an amazing support and who granted me this amazing opportunity to
pursue my dream of becoming a composer.
3.0 _ Pre Production
3.1 _ A Story
Initial stage of the CE was to pick a representative idea that would allow me as a composer to
improve upon my skills and which would allow my compositional style to be well represented.
Through the year I’ve gone through multiple different forms of writing music, and after evaluation,
my goal was to improve a skill of creating a narration within a musical score. Therefore I’ve chosen
to write a piece of music based on fable novella by Richard Bach in 1970 titled Jonathan Livingston
Seagull. Main reason why I choose this over scoring a different form of visual media is the
abstraction of the written word. My goal was to compose a piece music that would create an
imaginary landscape and story in a mind of the listener based on a narration within the instrumental
music itself. Therefore I am attempting to leave a space for imagination, particularly for anyone
who might not be familiar with the source material. Major themes of the composition which I’m
trying to evoke could be summed up in keywords such as: flight, ocean, beauty, struggles,
happiness, open space, wind and freedom.
For a short synopsis, the book is about a seagull named Jonathan Livingston, who cherishes and
pursues the art and technical knowledge of flight. As opposed to the rest of the “seagull
community” whose main idea is perseverance and a search for food, and are rather ignorant to the
capabilities that the natural selection gave them. Jonathan Livingston could be an embodiment of an
ambitions personality that is striving to achieve a very specific goal, and rather than focusing on the
bear minimum, he wants to explore the possibilities of his world and therefore give his existence a
greater meaning. This whole idea is represented by the theme of a flight, which is a main passion of
Jonathan Livingston. Throughout the book we see him fail as well as achieve and despite the
rejection from the rest of the community, he pursues his dreams without fear, only to reach a point
becoming a teacher and a legend for those who strive for more in life, upon the finale of the book.
3.2 _ Themes
As mentioned in a chapter 3.1, the main theme for the piece was a flight, therefore this became
the core of the idea when I started composing. I wanted to create a dynamic piece with a few
changing motives to represent different situations and moods of the flight of Jonathan Livingston.
At the final stage I composed 3 main motives. I nicknamed them 1st Flying Beyond Horizon
(Tomas Simon, 2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston, bar 3 - 29), 2nd Angry Sea (Tomas Simon,
2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston bar 29 - 60), 3rd Jonathan In the Distance (Tomas Simon,
2019, Journey of Jonathan Livingston bar 60 - 75). The goal was to create a narrative and themes
that were memorable. 1st motive is based around A flat major, with an introduction that establishes
the dynamic of the piece up to a bar 17 where I introduced the first theme. The idea here was to
have as best of a representation of a flight as possible as the rest of the narrative would derive from
it. In this part I wanted to give the listener a feeling of a joy from the wind that Jonathan
experiences when he glides, the ambition of a hope, ambition of progressing in life while enjoying
what he really loves and the strong will. 2nd motive titled Angry Sea, was an abrupt transition,
when Jonathan is experiencing a failure and a hardship and his constant battle with it. Therefore I
decided to switch to a darker tone and introduce an independent and dynamic movement to
empower the different struggles that might appear. Lastly the motive named Jonathan In the
Distance served as a conclusion to the composition, capturing the beauty of everything that
Jonathan learned and a goal that he has achieved and might want to achieve in the future. This was
meant to be a soft and an emotional theme, representing hope and a conclusion to everything that
one might experience through a journey.
3.3 _ Approach and Inspirations
Three major names I would reference as an inspiration in creating this particular score would
have to be Alexandre Desplat, John Powell and Bedrich Smetana. More specifically, the
compositional style of Alexandre Desplat, which feels very close to my approach, particularly with
his rather minimalistic structure, very strongly focused around textures of an orchestra. He’s
frequently using an ostinato phrase which creates a rhythmical and textural basis of the music,
around which he creates various harmonies and themes, with a great attention to dynamics between
sections. In my personal observation, despite Alexandre Desplat is being a versatile composer, I
truly admire the way he can capture an emotional theme and even with a use of a larger scale
orchestra, he manages to make it sound rather more intimate and personal. This approach is
definitely inspiring for me and I was trying to capture it in the score in my own way. One of my
greatest inspirations growing up was Minimalism and therefore I feel that my compositions are
strongly inspired by it, although I’m constantly trying to improve my versatility. Also the idea of
having a harmonic and textural basis is very helpful for my process of composing melodies as it
boosts my musical imagination in an orchestral writing and a narrative of the score. I suspect that
this process is also massively influenced by my background in music, which is majorly music
production and electronic music, as opposed to classical background which is considerably more
based around the counterpoint and thinking in melodies. Another piece that was more specific to
this project as an influence was a score to John Powell, 2010, How To Train Your Dragon, Spotify.
My major reason was to capture the idea of a flight in a theme. This score has a multiple cues which
I consider beautiful representations of it. While the score has various Celtic and Nordic folk
influences in orchestration and melodies, the main inspiration for me was the density of the
orchestration and the movement, for example on cues such as Test Drive (John Powell, 2010, How
To Train Your Dragon, track 11 Spotify ) and Romantic Flight (John Powell, 2010, How To Train
Your Dragon, track 15, Spotify). These two cues were influencing mostly the first two motives in
my composition. Lastly I listened and analysed the score by Bedrich Smetana, 1874, My Homeland,
The Moldau. Reason why this score seemed as a piece of music to consider for this specific project
was the idea of a wavy textures, the author created at the very beginning of the musical piece.
Bedrich Smetana was supposedly trying to capture the flow of the river, through the capital of
Czech Republic, Prague. This is a piece well known for its musical narrative and a beautiful
orchestration, at least amongst the people that originated from these geographical parts of the world
as myself. Therefore keeping that in mind, it seemed as a viable inspiration for a portrayal of a
water movement, which was part of the story I was capturing. In the 3rd motive I was attempting to
capture that specific texture by giving a slurred ostinato phrase to the strings with a repetitive
crescendo and diminuendo performed by the orchestra to emulate the flow of waves (example A).
This really supported the impression of a flowing water and the softness I intended for the musical
finale, while maintaining the grandiosity of the orchestra.
Example A;
4.0 _ Production
4.1 _ Mockup and Orchestration
This particular stage of the composition was definitely a process of trial and error. As I’ve
mentioned before, I usually start writing in a full orchestral setup to establish a texture before
developing the themes. Nevertheless in this case, the very first idea that I’ve had, was based on a
piano sketch. I’ve initially written 5 different motives rooting around movement in between G
major and G Mixolydian scales, however as I’ve started to progress with the orchestration they’ve
changed immensely and I was constantly struggling to capture the idea of a flight. Only after a few
different variations I’ve realised that my piano writing was perhaps not ideal. While the piano
sketches were capturing the idea of a flight in their own way, I’ve realised that I’m constantly trying
to maintain a rather complicated structure of the composition, initially built for a piano. Therefore
I’ve chosen to abandon the idea as it quickly became unsatisfactory and got me stuck. This is
something I frequently observe, when I start composing a piece. I tend to directly start with an
instrumentation in my head, and then it might become harder for me to abandon the idea. Therefore
when I’ve started with the piano, I’ve composed a piano piece rather than orchestral one. That
caused me a difficulty to translate the sketch into a full orchestration. This doesn’t necessarily cause
the problem in a scenario when I intend to orchestrate a piano sketch written by a different
composer. At that level I’m not as connected to the initial idea, therefore it seems easier to expand
on it. After I’ve abandoned the first draft, I’ve started composing directly in a full orchestral palette.
From then on it went much smoother. As mentioned in the chapter 3.3, I’ve had a clear textures in
my mind which I wanted to achieve. The whole piece started with 4 motives. Initially I had
composed a rather soft violin and cello solos for the beginning, with a held long notes divided
between the rest of the strings and woodwinds, as a gentle introduction of the theme I have
introduced later. Nevertheless due to a time limitation of 3 minutes I had to abandon this
introduction to shorten it and by logical evaluation this part felt the least advanced and effective in
terms of utilising the orchestra to its full potential. After shortening I was left with the 3 motives the
listener can hear on the final master. 1st motive I’ve started with the ostinato phrases, in strings and
woodwinds. In this part I was attempting to establish the pace and the dynamic of the cue,
expanding on the density of the score rapidly by immediately introducing a thicker instrumentation
with a brief 8 bar introduction moving towards bar 17 where the listener can hear the first theme.
The idea here was to capture the listener in the very beginning, with a full sound of an orchestra and
transfer his mind into the narration of the piece, or in other more abstract words, directly into the
flight. The theme from bar 17 is majorly performed by violins with some doubling in oboe and
flutes to enrich the timber, while the rest of the orchestra is mostly performing a harmonic bed, and
violas are performing an ostinato to maintain the effect of the motion. At bar 29 there is a sudden
contrast, rapid change of the mood. I’ve instantly reduced the density of the orchestra with a sudden
tonal change towards a more ominous sound. This part is mostly held by contrabass section with a
rest of an instrumentation performing short phrases to empower the atmosphere, however I’m only
introducing and preparing the listener to what is about to come. This section leads to a crescendo
towards bar 36. This in my view was the section which meant to, for the first time, introduce the
idea of “Angry Sea”. Therefore I’ve chosen to write an ominous, ostinato based motive in a
complex 7/8 (3+2+2) performed with a thiner density yet, higher dynamic to really exaggerate the
change in a mood and let the woody timber of the strings take over. This short 4 bar introduction
than progresses back to a dense 6/8 for a grandiose battle of phrases. Following part was meant to
represent a battle with the struggles, with waves and strong winds on an open sea. This metaphor is
representing the idea of Jonathan crossing the boundaries and his comfort zones and to add a drama
to the narrative. Therefore the movement is becoming much more aggressive. In bar 40 I’m
introducing a form of a musical dialogue, exaggerating 3rd beat of a bar with an accent amongst
most of the instruments, while trumpet 1 is performing a melody in a flutter tongue to add harshness
and general impression of an ongoing battle. During the next four bars the trumpet and the rest of
the orchestra is having an argument. This serves as a representation of an unpredictability of the
weather conditions during the flight. I’ve imagined Jonathan flying in the rain and heavy wind,
avoiding high waves and being overwhelmed by the wind. Only to build up towards a last stand at
the beginning of a bar 48 where I’m introducing a forte ostinato phrase evolving between the
majority of the orchestra. Here a listener should hear a sense of panic, fear, a last instance of a
constantly evolving battle, yet also a dedication to win. This leads to a massive accented crescendo
in a unison for the whole orchestra as a finale to the ominous motive. It should represent the idea of
a finish, where the listener shouldn’t know what has happened with Jonathan. I’ve tried to emulate
this tension with a sul tasto high note held on the violins, which also serves as a bridging note into
the next motive. The last motive starting at bar 60, is a conclusion of the narrative, at this stage I’m
trying to take the listener into a picture of Jonathan flying out of the storm and into a sunset and
clear skies, however he is changed by what he has learned and achieved on the way. He has matured
in the process, understanding not only the enjoyability, but the dangers of the goals that he has set
for himself. This motive was meant to represent beauty, maturity and dedication. The listener should
hear that Jonathan is now one with the both positive and a negative aspects of his ambition, and
therefore is able to teach and guide those who’d listen. The wavy textural movement in strings and
woodwinds is the pinnacle of this motive along with a new theme introduced and doubled by
violins and flutes. Brass is providing the thick harmonic texture in long notes, along with the
softness of the pizzicato in contrabass, and playfulness of a glockenspiel. Another element which
differentiates this motive from the rest is an introduction of a piano and harp into the overall timber.
Both perform an ostinato phrase to enrich the palette and make the motive more matured, elegant
and texturally different from the rest of the composition. Last motive is gradually growing until the
last bar, with a sudden cutoff at the end, to empower to continuity of the story. In more poetic
words, while the music ends, the story continues. “No limits, Jonathan? he thought, and he smiled.
His race to learn had begun.” (Richard Bach, 1970, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, p.28)
4.2 _ Preparation for the Recording
Getting to this point I’ve finalised established my idea and the narrative of what I’ve intended
for the composition to represent, therefore from this point I was trying to be much more technical
and critical about the possible outcomes and obstacles. First general idea was to properly evaluate
my orchestration, as from a past experiences, a recording scenario and purely digital form of
composing can be different in various ways. Firstly DAW allows a composer to add as many layers
and density as a composer might crave, as opposed to a live recording with an ensemble of a
specific size without a possibility of an overdub. Therefore I’ve reduced dividing in strings and
woodwinds, and simplified it particularly with the themes, to really achieve a strong balance in the
phrases and to exaggerate the intentional parts. This required me to transfer and properly notate the
physical score early in the process. I was generally satisfied with the way I treated the orchestration
towards the goal, apart from the specific flutter tongue melody from bar 40 to bar 43 which was not
as exaggerated as was originally intended. This would’ve been probably easily fixed by letting both
trumpets play in a unison instead of dividing them into two separate phrases. Additional process
was to make sure that, my voicing is correct and I’m fully utilising the orchestra, as this specific
recording opportunity provided us with players of an exceptional quality. Voicing is something I
was especially vigilant about, as it can be tricky particularly translating from the layering
capabilities of the DAW and I acknowledged during a learning process with my supervisors at
Berklee that this aspect I tended to underestimate in my previous works. Therefore once I had the
piece notated I simplified the bass and its distribution between instruments in lower registers. I also
generally simplified harmonies, as I’ve had a few complex added chords in a mid registers which I
figured might cause an unwanted result as it became very dense and I wanted to save it especially
for the main themes. Utilisation of the orchestra was another goal. As I’ve mentioned all of my
pieces begin in a rather more minimalistic, timbral way, therefore this time I wanted to explore the
movement of the orchestra, and add as much detail to it as it seemed appropriate for the
composition. Therefore once I’ve established the basis of the harmonies and the themes, I tried to
observe the score in a more visual aspect and utilise instruments equally through the score without
overcrowding it. The composition was quite heavily dependent on the string section and dividing
timbers between woodwinds and brass, therefore I always had a space to add small additional
phrases and details onto resting instruments just to exaggerate the movement or create an extra
timber, while maintaining the main idea of the motive. At the end of the process I became quite
satisfied with the general movement of the score and an utilisation of the players for the purpose of
this composition. Nevertheless, personally I felt I perhaps shouldn’t have abandoned the complex
chords, for that extra spark and the uniqueness of the colour they might’ve brought to it. Lastly one
of the challenges was a dynamic marking of the phrases. This is something I had to revise on a
multiple opportunities prior to the recording as it was a challenge to make them as detailed as I’ve
intended them to be, particularly as it was the first time dealing with such a size of an orchestration.
In the process I’ve learned that this is something that really requires a very keen self discipline, as
particularly between multiple staves and parts, small mistakes and imperfections are truly lurking in
the darkness from the eye of the composer.
5.0 _ Recording
5.1 _ London Experience
The recording was set to happen at Air Studios’s Lyndhurst Hall. This phenomenal studio
located in London with it’s spacious 300 square meter live room provided an exceptional
environment to record the final piece of the academic year. The musician and recording team of an
astounding quality were to participate, therefore it was imperative that the preparation was very
attentive and to a high industry standard. This was particularly important with the preparation of the
parts for the performing musicians. Based on an advice from our staff we were preparing special
sizes and specific type of yellow non-reflective papers for the music parts. Details which seemed
subtle and yet made a massive difference in a comfort of the musicians and the general perception
of our approach and professionalism. These details served as ones, amongst the many valuable
lessons towards the future. Air Lyndhurst Hall provided a very special environment along with a
pressure that came with the idea of conducting an ensemble of this size but especially quality. The
live room is located in the building of a church, with only a subtle acoustic treatment to suppress
resonances that might occur in the room, therefore the sound during the recording is fairly amplified
and lively. Air studios is famously know for it’s reflective capabilities to exaggerate the size of an
orchestra. This particular feature provided a challenge in form of monitoring, due to the
amplification in the room the monitor mix was set to exaggerate click track, and therefore it was
rather difficult to truly focus on the performance of the orchestra. This really took an amateur
conductor like myself a minute to adjust to. This and for the first time experiencing an ensemble of
that size. The recording process went smoothly in my case, this is by all means a merit of the
orchestra. I truly cherished the responsiveness and the questions of the players, who really seemed
to be trying their best to perform the music as best as they could. However during my recording a
few mistakes had occurred on my behalf which I definitely shall improve, and all of them are
connected to the revisions of the score and the little mistakes lurking in the dark as I’ve mentioned
in a chapter 4.2. Mistake number one, were that parts of the oboe and the cellos, which were on one
occasion missing some accidentals in a repetitive phrases, and a few unmarked slurs that were
obviously intended. These small details hadn’t caused too big of headache to the orchestra of
professional musician, yet the fact that they had to confirm with me something so obvious truly
made me slightly embarrassed and I shall be even more attentive to these kind of details in a future.
One thing that I truly appreciated, as engineering is one of my backgrounds, was the speed with
which these professionals, specifically engineers, were dealing with the workflow. A fact that our
main engineer Jake Jackson was providing us with a valuable production notes along with our
college staff, and was dynamically controlling the click in the monitor to be compatible with the
orchestra was stunning. The click is a small yet a very handful detail that I’ve observed for the first
time. Amongst other things the delivery of the Pro Tools sessions was brought to an amazing
standard, providing us with a desk print mix, a pre-made compilation of the best takes and a
document marking the takes, along with a possible issues we might come across during the mix.
This is something I’ve always saw a producer do in my previous experiences, and yet the fact that
an engineer is doing it makes a lot of sense, as it provides the producer with an extra focus span.
5.2 _ Conducting
In a role of a conductor, I was trying to first and foremost step on the scoring stage with a good
attitude and a strong presence. However I could not deny that the adrenaline took control during the
first take. Generally to self evaluate I have to admit that as a conductor, I wasn’t really satisfied with
my performance, as I’ve made quite a few mistakes which I will aim to eliminate before my next
conducting experience. So while it was an incredible moment that I cherish, the self realisation of
the gap that I still have to cross in order to become a good conductor is enormous. With me it all
starts with the reactions and a sight reading of the score which, especially under that kind of a
pressure, simply become insufficient. While I am fairly confident that I can maintain the energy and
a mood of the score with my gesture, I have to improve my attention towards sections and specific
instruments and also the proficiency, with which I can answer questions in between the takes. All
the issues feel connected to the ability of sight reading a score and instantly thinking and evaluating
the composers intention. Conducting is a craft that takes years to perfect, and I’ve just started my
journey. I truly want to become an effective conductor, therefore this experience was incredibly
exciting, very humbling and definitely most informative for a future progress.
6.0 _ Post Production
6.1 _ Mixing and Mastering
Process of mixing the piece was very pure and rather simplistic due to the acoustical nature of
the Lyndhurst Hall, the quality of the engineers and the equipment which provided a very balanced
sound. The Decca tree and the wide stereo microphones as well as the surrounds provided a sound
image with only a few minor resonances. The only challenge in the mix was to create a realistic
balance between the multiple spot mic techniques and a room. String section was recorded in a
dividing technique that gave us an opportunity to focus the spot mics on the first chairs of the string
ensemble, along with an additional spot mics focused on the back chairs and a central mic creating
an overall image of the section. This technique is very useful in the mix particularly for the thematic
material and a general control of the density of the string section. In my case I’ve created a rather
equal balance between all of the spot mics. Focusing majority of my mix on enhancing the room.
EQ was generally very surgical amongst all of the mics, with most of the dominant resonances
happening in the fundamental notes of the instruments. This could have possibly caused a certain
struggle for a less experienced mixing engineers who are not specifically trained to find frequencies
and therefore might take a wrong decision of reducing a major portion of them, as a result of what a
section might loose its timber, resulting in an unbalanced mix. Nevertheless in a world of a spectral
EQ plugins with a visual analyser such as Fab-Filter Q series, this hardship might be significantly
lowered. One of the major procedures in the mix was to control a bleed of the additional frequencies
in between the sections to achieve a clean sound. It was imperative to reduce the spot mics to
fundamental frequencies of the specific section. One struggle that occurred was mixing the
percussions, specifically timpani, which were recorded with overhead microphones, without any
proper isolation. Therefore the bleed in the spot mics, and a very distant image in the room mics,
forced me to double the timpani with a stems from the sample library. That gave me a better control
over the attack and a presence in the mix. I’ve added stems of a piano and a harp from a mockup,
which I treated with a large hall reverb resembling the sound of the live room to emulate the
placement and I’ve sent the overall mix into an additional reverb to emphasise the space and also
blend all of the sample based instruments into the live recording. The only instruments that I’ve
treated with a light compression in the mixing phase were low strings and timpani, to achieve a
thicker more present sound, which is characteristic to the film music. Generally the room sounded
rather bright, particularly on violin mics, therefore I’ve reduced some of the more significant
frequencies in a high mid register, as I’ve felt they were overpowering. The brightness of the room
was very special compared to the most of the spaces I’ve experienced. Recordings tend to generally
sound darker in an initial phase. In my mastering chain I’ve applied more EQ, where I’ve reduced a
number of frequencies in mids and high mids, to reduce the overpowering brightness of the mix,
and also applied more significant cuts in lower frequencies, as the bass seemed too resonant and out
of control, particularly at around the area of 100 Hz nevertheless I really liked the frequencies
below, as they felt, even without any significant processing, very well rounded. After this I’ve
treated the mix bus with an emulation of an 1176 Universal Audio compressor, reducing only about
1-1.5 gain at the loudest peaks. This created a more glued and interlocked mix. Lastly I’ve applied
Ozone 8 in which I’ve added a surgical amount of dynamic EQ in high mids, where there were a
few resonance that I felt still needed control. After this I’ve introduced a multi band compression,
again very softly, controlling mostly the low mid range, then a tape machine emulation softly
saturating highs and lows, and finally a maximiser targeting an integrated LUFS around the area of
-18dB.
7.0 _ Outcome and Reflections
I have to say that I’m generally satisfied with the outcome of the process. It had provided me with a
very valuable piece for my portfolio. The highlight of it was undoubtedly the London recording
experience which pushed the boundaries and attention to detail to a higher standard. It was a very
humbling experience to observe such a high standard of quality, and it made me personally realise
that there is still a long journey, before I can truly feel confident being in front of such experienced
players, nevertheless it also represented the progress we’ve achieved in a year of studying at
Berklee which lead to this unforgettable experience. The musicians really did manage to make
everything sound beautiful. Looking back as I’ve mentioned in previous chapters, there were but a
few struggles and mistakes that served as a very good learning experience for the future progress.
I’m definitely convinced that my orchestration skills became much better during the year, as much
as I’m very convinced that there is still a lot to improve upon in my orchestral writing. The
complexity of the process gave me a very detailed insight on these things. One thing that I’ve
proven to myself is that I can truly handle a musical narrative with care and detail, and create an
abstract idea using only music as my tool. However any creative mind is only as good as the
knowledge it possesses. Therefore the message I’ve got is the one to be expected. Learn more, and
constantly work towards an improvement. Not unlike Jonathan Livingston Seagull who I’ve
introduced among these pages.
8.0 _ Resources/Bibliography
Bach Richard, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, USA, Macmillan, 1970
Adler Samuel, Study of Orchestration: Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016
Desplat Alexandre, Imitation Game, Sony Music Entertainment, 2014
Powell John, How To Train Your Dragon, Dream Works Animation L.L.C., 2010
Smetana Bedrich, Má Vlast, Orbis Praha, 1958
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