I remember reading a quote by the famous English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams addressing a class of composition students on the merits of composing for film. He said that having a defined deadline meant the composer didn’t have the luxury of time to hem and haw over every little note and detail in one’s score.
A few weeks ago, Erik Woods, the host and creator of the radio show Cinematic Sound charged me with an offer to write a quick 7 second intro to his Track of the Day mini show. Funny enough I had thought of writing a variation of the show’s main theme (penned by yours truly) in a Halloween context.
Though I missed the proverbial boat on that prospect, this new challenge was one I jumped at. The Main Theme for the show is a heroic anthemic piece.
NOW PLAYING: “Cinematic Sound Radio Fanfare” composed by David Coscina
For the Track of the Day, I still retained the main theme’s rhythmic structure but superimposed it onto an octatonic scale obviously altering some of the intervals accordingly. I also applied a driving double bass/celli line underneath to give it that sense of danger and urgency. I initially wanted to end off with a glorious Goldenthal styled brass cluster but decided on a bi tonal sustained chord for trumpets, horns, flutter trombones, tuba, and a touch of trilling strings. Since my original theme was crafted in the vein of Alan Silvestri so it’s offspring follows suit with what could be described in layman’s terms as a Predatorized version of the Cinematic Sound main theme.
NOW PLAYING: “Cinematic Sound Radio: Track of the Day” composed by David Coscina
– David Coscina, Nov 3, 2013
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I love this theme.