Jonathan Savage

Have you seen the new Star Trek film? If so, can I recommend Harry Jenkins’ recent post which draws some interesting and entertaining applications to the world of education. I won’t try and summarise them here, apart from to agree that I thought one of the coolest parts of the film was the Vulcan schooling system! Anyway, the film also reminded me that I wished that I learnt the French Horn rather than any other instrument(s), just so that I could have a go at playing that amazing theme that has defined the Star Trek brand. Written by Alexander Courage it even had some original lyrics (written by Roddenberry without his knowledge). You can read them here. Anyway, returning to the French Horn for a moment, if you are free on the 19th June the RNCM symphony orchestra are performing Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony. It has some of the best horn writing in it ever. Well worth a trip to the Bridgewater Hall.

I don’t know if you like watching Heroes on BBC2? Anyway, following last night’s episode there was a great feature on how the music for the series has been created. You can find it here (for a week or so) on the BBC iplayer.

The notes which accompany the programme say: “The soundtrack to Heroes has been as distinctive and diverse as the Heroes themselves, and this week Heroes Unmasked joins composers Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman at their studios in Los Angeles to hear how their musical magic is created. Having once been part of Prince’s Revolution, Wendy and Lisa have become highly regarded composers and performers in their own right, and from day one on Heroes they have engineered a sound that is that is both epic and ethereal. In an exclusive interview and behind the scenes access to the process behind their compositions, Wendy and Lisa reveal their inspirations behind the music of the series, and their excitement at being so key to the Heroes team.”

I found it a fascinating account of how, amongst other things, live music and improvisational practices inform compositional choices. It also reminded me how diverse the working practices of professional composers are. There is some great footage here and it is a wonderful teaching resource.

It was good to read about the epic sound designer Randy Thom receiving an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Edinburgh. Thom is a legend in the world of sound design and has worked on so many films that it is impossible to begin listing them here. As an example of his work, have a look at this short interview about how Thom recorded the table tennis sound design in Forrest Gump.

And a quick search on You Tube will reveal many other interesting interviews, including how Randy worked alongside other sound designers to record the ghost helicopter sequence in Apocalypse Now:

Great stuff and fascinating to hear and read about. Congratulations Randy.

A film’s sound designer is often an unsung hero. Ewan MacIntosh’s recent post reminds us that the quality of audio in a film, podcast or TV programme has a vital role to play. Our Moodle course on using ICT in Music Education has a whole section devoted to the art of sound design and the materials are well worth a read. They can be found here under Topic 6. More amusingly, Ewan found a great clip from Songs of Praise which shows you what can happen when you don’t give the audio quality the attention it deserves!