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To begin with I found a clip on you tube of an old Tom and Jerry cartoon that was revolved heavily around music as a basis. It was quite simple to download firefox and video helper, the only negative to this is that you tube videos can often be in quite low resolution so I would find a clip I wanted to do that looked terrible so that was a disadvantage (I found the download helper and isquint very helpful and efficient). When looking at Scott Bradley’s original orchestration for it, it gave me a few ideas of my own. The clip I choose was from the Tom and Jerry episode “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse” by Fred Quimby, very funny and inventive in its entirety.
Firstly I went through and made a list of sound effects that would be needed in the video before I began work on the actual score. Finding the sound to fit to the images was a very amusing part of the process I wanted to use sounds that weren’t associated with the image but because I had fitted them there the audience would not question the sounds placement. For instance when Tom is chasing after Jerry I used the sound of a motor bike starting up about 33 seconds into it. I found it hard to negotiate all the little clips of music within the cartoon for instance key and time changes were hard to match together. After I came across this obstacle I did a little revision into cartoon music by watching a lot more cartoons in order to gain a wider knowledge (not a bad way of revising). I also referred to lecture notes, afterwards I went back to it and erased my disappointing first attempt. In my first attempt I tried using mostly electronic generated sounds but I found this lost character in the visual, and with cartoon music it is often good to stick to the foundations especially on a first attempt at writing for it.
Lately in my lectures I have been noticing an increasing amount of names emerge from the pioneers of 20th century music. Composers, musicians that are responsible for all the small details we take for granted such as Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling etc. Each have influenced the way in which I look at working in music. The lecture itself coincided with a detailed inspection of the characteristics and themes within cartoon music. I found the topic of conversations brought up in the lecture much more productive and I have a lot more confidence vocalizing my opinions on what I believe should be utilized in film music. Below is an example of the chart we used to describe the separate entities in creating authentic cartoon music followed by what process must be taken in the creation of the score to fit these two pieces together as well as possible
What Is There?: How Do I Do It?:
Sound Effects
Footstep Syncing Sync Directly
Radical Mood Shifts Change Of Key/Modulation
Extended Instrumental Techniques Represent Unusual Things
Representing Movement Pulse/Time Change
Dynamics Velocity/Volume/Change of Timbre/Layering Instrumentation
Wall to Wall of Music Divide into Sections
Falling Things (Descending Pitch) Slide Whistle (commonly used)/Descending Scales
On reflection the midi in the soundtrack is still very much in foundations I am pleased with the musical output but the sound of the instruments need slight altering and adjustments to create authenticity. The most satisfying aspect of composing cartoon music is the exaggeration of musical phrases in characters movements and gestures. I could imagine this genre of film composing is extremely rewarding professionally.
Arran
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