"Baby stepping" the way to an awesome soundtrack style composition!
This unit of work is based on Hans Zimmer's soundtrack, "Time" from the 2010 film, Inception. It's a simple yet emotionally moving and complex piece which incorporates use of thematic development in a unique way. The musical concepts I focused on were:
PITCH: melodic ostinato, chord progression
STRUCTURE: thematic development
TEXTURE: composing layer by layer
I've created a website for this unit of work on Cinematic Music Composition that can be used for both Stages 5 and 6. It breaks down the different aspects and compositional devices used in Zimmer's soundtrack, "Time" as a model for students to write their own minimalist film score. (Students can even collaborate with visual art/design students to create a short film!)
The website requires students to work through a number of activities following a step-by-step process to build their composition. Embedded are tutorial videos, worksheets and interactive activities providing clear instructions on each task.
Task 1: Listening to TIME. This page provides students with questions to guide them through an analysis of the model before jumping straight in to composing. Students are to listen and focus on particular musical concepts which they will explore in their own compositions.
Task 2: Choosing a KEY. Limiting students' choice of notes is useful in getting them started on a composition. However, they do have the opportunity to use chromatic notes outside of the chosen key if they wish later on.
Task 3: The Ostinato. Instead of starting by coming up with a theme, students are asked to play around with the notes in their chosen key and come up with an ostinato. Composing a pattern may be easier than jumping straight into the theme.
Task 4: The Chords. Similarly, setting a structure for the composition (e.g. looped chord progression like in "Time") may make it easier for students to improvise a motif/theme on top of it.
Task 5: The Motif. Here, students are to compose a main theme/motif to be developed throughout the composition. Instructions and tips on writing a melody are provided.
Task 6: Developing the Motif. With accompaniment provided by the chord progression and ostinato, students are encouraged to develop the motif they had composed in the previous task using compositional devices. Examples of such are provided on tutorial videos and a worksheet activity.
Challenges faced when designing this unit of work:
This was definitely not my first draft! Initially, I wanted "graphic notation" to be the composition stimulus as I was deeply inspired by this version of Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. However, as I began my own composition following the initial baby steps I had, I found that graphic scores limited students' choice of notation - what if they wanted to work in a DAW? Or Sibelius? I was not content with my original composition as I did not know what direction to take, thus into the bin it went.
I initially built this film composition project using Google site, however realised that embedding audio and video was more complicated than I thought it would be. It took a while to set up a new site on WIX (which I'm familiar with) but it was worth it!
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