Custom compositions: original scores are being used in spots, TV shows, indie films and videogames

Post, Nov, 2004 by Christine Bunish

"Even though production music has gotten so sophisticated and has proliferated, the downside is that everyone has access to the same libraries," notes Michael Ungar, co-owner/composer at SandBlast Productions (www.sandblastproductions.com), the in-house music wing of Manhattan's Broadway Sound, a division of Broadway Video. "You might identify a really swinging track with one thing, then hear it used by a competitor, but if you write original music it's something no one else will create. You've crafted a musical word painting for somebody."

IT SHOULD BE A RECORD!

In addition to their core work of providing sound mixing services for Broadway Sound's lengthy roster of broadcast clients, co-owners and composers Ungar, Ralph Kelsey and Loren Toolajian write music for broadcast promos, shows and show themes. They observe a number of trends in music for television today. "Television is really infused with popular music," especially tunes from past decades, reports Ungar. Broadcasters may also purchase the recording rights to a pop song and ask a music house to re-create it. "It's all about creating a nostalgic mood or feeling around a product," says Kelsey. "That's the power of music."

"Most clients come with some preconception of how they want the music to sound." Ungar notes. "They're not asking us, 'What do you think it should be?' On one level it's good that they know where they're coming from, but it may make it more difficult to present something further away from the client's original thought process."

Toolajian concurs. "It's exciting when clients say, 'We love your creative spontaneity, here's my spot, I trust you with it.' Out of exploration come new sounds. When you're allowed to use your musical instincts, musical magic happens!"

SandBlast has been in the enviable position of having its original work rival pop music offerings. Ungar and Toolajian, working with Mos Def and Minnesota Grooveman, created the theme for HBO's Def Poetry Jam, which features classical strings on top of Minnesota's grooves and an edgy mix by Ungar. "We get at least 25 emails a week asking where people can buy it," Ungar reports. "It should be a record!"

"It's remarkable how much staying power the theme has had," says Toolajian. "It speaks to the collaborative process. There's a great pulse and rhythm drive out of the hip-hop and funk world, and a real violinist and cellist out of the classical music tradition. They merge to create a unique musical idiom that's mixed in such a way that the strings are very grainy and raw. There's a nice melodic line, then the rhythm kicks in and takes off."

The company also gets Web hits asking if there's a recording of its theme for College Sports Television's image campaign for its women's sports programming. Ungar and Toolajian created a hard-edged version of "What Are Little Girls Made Of" with vocals by Elaine Caswell in a Joan Jett-inspired performance. "The producer wanted to do a contemporary version of this sweet little tune," Toolajian recalls. "He just said here's the tune, here's the montage of women's sports, go to it. When producers give you that kind of freedom, when they value what you bring to the game, they always get more in return."

Toolajian recently teamed with project producer Jeremy Lipkin on a new theme for Nickelodeon's U-Pick Live daily program block. "We needed to update the theme with more of a punk-sounding track but hang onto the six-note motif," Toolajian says. "We listened to different CDs with that sensibility, then got together in the studio with me on guitar and Jeremy on bass and started jamming. In the process of musical brainstorming we kept the main melody but turned it into a cool, driving track."

SandBlast has a MIDI room, which Toolajian frequents, equipped with Digidesign Pro Tools|HD3, multiple samplers, electronic drum kits and a Mackie 2804 board. Two additional rooms also function as audio post rooms for Broadway Sound. They feature Pro Tools|HD3 systems with ProControl surfaces and full-blown Waves bundles, Sonic Solutions and AMS Neve AudioFile DAWs, and 96-channel Logic II and Soundcraft DC2000 digital consoles.

COMPOSING FOR TELEVISION

One of the last bastions of original composing and scoring is television programming. David Schwartz of David Schwartz Music (www.davidschwartzmusic.com) in Pacific Palisades, CA, has a reputation for doing unusual, stand-out TV. His first major TV credit was the entire run of the eccentric Northern Exposure, "I got the job by writing the theme song, and we hired a great moose, which made it sound even better," he recalls.

Recently Schwartz has been involved with two series that are polar opposites: the Emmy Award-winning Fox comedy Arrested Development and HBO's dark vintage Western Deadwood.

"Arrested Development is typical of a new kind of single-camera comedy that has no laugh track and wants music a lot of the time," he points out. "In an average episode I'll do source music for scenes, the underscore and a couple of songs. The challenge is to make it sound like it has a center, that it's all Arrested Development music."