writing soundtracks

[Ericka_Eve_Kammerer@ub.cc.umich.edu]

Re: writing soundtracks, Jonathan Druckman mentions that:

> it apparently is very good money and relatively easy work, and thus
> artists like doing them.
 
    From what I've heard, the money is very good, but the work is
pretty tough most of the time, especially for the kind of scores John
Williams puts out.  Scores that are essentially variations on one or
two pop songs with a little incidental music aren't too bad, but
something like Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark (both John
Williams soundtracks) are an amazing amount of work.  I talked to one
composer who is currently booked with commissions until 1998 and is
considered a fairly prolific composer who said he was absolutely
amazed that anyone could write soundtracks like that.  Composers (of
the more or less classical variety) are doing well to produce 15-30
seconds of finished music in a day.  Soundtrack writers normally have
only a few weeks to write and record the entire soundtrack.  Most fall
back on writing what is known as "adagio music" (i.e., slow music so
that you only write a few notes but they take up a lot of time) in
order to fill up the time.  Even granted that some composers have a
battalion of arrangers and copyists working for them, it is amazing
that any quality soundtracks get produced in such a short amount of
time.  Most composers I know who are trying to do soundtrack work
would kill to have John Williams' chops!  If you've got them, though,
and can work under that kind of time pressure, the money is great.
 
...Ericka Kammerer
   The University of Michigan (for only a few more days!!!!!)
   Ericka_Kammerer@ub.cc.umich.edu