How to write in a style you are unfamiliar with.
During this past week, I have ventured out of my comfort zone and been tasked with writing in a style that I am largely unfamiliar with - Medieval Fantasy music. Think music from projects such as Game of Thrones, The Witcher (Video Game), or the Tudors.
The task came about as East West kindly sent me a copy of their Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra Sample library, so that I could make a walkthrough video (coming soon!)
So in this week’s newsletter, I thought I would go through the process I went through during this last week, in order to write a piece in a style, which I haven’t composed in before. Film composers could of course be asked to write in just about any style, depending on the requirements or style/tone of the film they are scoring.
Hopefully you’ll be able to take away some pointers so you can try writing in an unfamiliar style yourself!
🎧 Step 1 - Listening Research
The first step for me was to go away and immerse myself in some notable soundtracks in the style. I quickly found soundtracks to projects such as The Tudors/The Vikings (Trevor Morris) or The Witcher Season 2 (Joseph Trapanese) and The Lord of the Rings Amazon Prime Series (Bear McCreary). I’ll often listen to new music when on a long dog walk, as I am able to immerse myself for an hour or two without any distractions!
🎻 Step 2 - Taking note of common instrumentation
The next stage of the process for me was to jot down any noticeable instruments that kept making appearances in these soundtracks. Although there was plenty of orchestral writing in the projects I mentioned about, extra instruments like Dulcimers, Recorders, Fiddles, Taikos and Uilleann pipes kept cropping up time and time again. I made a note of these instruments, with the aim of including some of them in my own piece. I’ve found that in the past, just using a similar instrumentation commonly found in a particular style, can go a long way to achieving a more authentic sound - think sleigh bells for Christmas etc!
✏️ Step 3 - Taking note of any common Harmonic devices
Once I had an instrumentation that I could aim for, the next stage was to try to discover any harmonic tricks that were used frequently in the Medieval Fantasy style. I quickly discovered initially that that most cues/pieces sounded like they were based in a minor key. Then after some further diving in, I discovered a lot of time, it was in fact the Dorian mode that was being used. Other devices that kept cropping up included the frequent use of Pedal notes, or drones (generally low or high held sustained notes, with changing harmony over the top).
Sometimes I will go further and transcribe snippets of melodies or chord progressions from other composers (usually into my DAW), so I can further dissect the musical characteristics and devices used.
🪕 Step 4 - Researching any specific Instrument Techniques
The final stage of my research before I set about writing a piece, was to make a note of any specific instrument techniques that I could hear. For example, whenever I heard an Irish Whistle melody, there were often faster grace notes playing before some main melodic notes. Or if there was a solo fiddle/violin part, there were often what sounded like double stops playing 5ths. (two notes played at the same time as 5ths, such as a C and G). Again I wrote down these techniques, to make sure I included them in my own piece.
🎹 Step 5 - Start writing!
By this stage I couldn’t put off the task any longer (!) and so it was time to dive in and get my feet wet. Using the research and notes from above, I set about writing a piece, aiming for around 1:30-2:00 mins in length.
I’ll admit that the music that I ultimately have written didn’t come to me as easily as other pieces have. At times, the process was even a little frustrating. I had a clear idea of how I wanted to the piece to sound (having spent time listening to the reference soundtracks previously), but translating that sound in my head into something tangible took a lot longer than I wanted! On this occasion, I was extremely self conscious of my writing, which I can only assume is because I was completely out of my comfort zone.
