Hi, everyone. Well, still no information on the Up Soundtrack CD on Amazon, but I’m sure it will be listed soon enough.
doesn’t it feel a bit sad when the last day is over and you’re not going to work on it anymore?
Yes, in a way. Especially with Pixar films, because unlike with most movies, the Pixar sessions tend to be spaced out (starting early), instead of occuring all at once. A normal movie will typically have all the scoring dates within a month of each other (often within a week or two). But for instance, with Wall-E, I think it went from July (first session) to April (last session), and with Up, it went from December to April.
how many were you in this orchestra?
It was a normal, regular-sized studio orchestra. Not a small one that you might have for a small, independent film, or a giant oversized one you might get for some big, blaring action blockbuster, but a nice, normal-sized group (I remember once for a session for one of the X-Men movies, there were ten french horns). That would be overboard for the type of movie Up is of course, but it was a nice, normal-sized group. I’d say probably about the same size as for Ratatouille.
So Pete Docter actually joined the orchestra for a while, as such?
Yeah, it was kind of neat. I just listened to an interview he did for a Utah public radio station (someone posted the link here on Pixar Planet; I copied it below) and in it, he mentions that both his parents are musicologists/music teachers, and that his sister is a professional cellist, now playing in the Met Opera Orchestra (in New York). It’s a great interview if you haven’t heard it yet (no spoliers):
publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/ … ID=1492250
did Pixar just contact you and say, 'hey, do you mind coming back so we can sort these little bits outs?
Well, it’s not Pixar (remember, we’re not Pixar employees) but the person in charge of getting an orchestra together for the composer (the orchestra contractor). He or his office will call to see if people are available for another session on whatever the date happens to be, and if they want to do it or not.
Is getting everyone back together to re-record certain parts quite difficult?
Not really, though it depends on how last-second it is. There will be times where some people have already taken other work for that date (especially if it’s a last second call), but of course we try to do what we can in order to do it.
when you see the film, please tell us which is which, or it’s different from the CD and the final film.
Well, the CD may or may not have all the final fixes on it. I’ve seen it both ways, where sometimes they’ll manage to catch last minute changes and slip them in before it goes to be pressed, and other times (especially if the fixes are at the last minute), the CDs will have the older versions on them, not the stuff fixed at the last second before the movie came out. Honestly, I probably won’t remember… but for that last fix day in April, there were only two cues we re-did, and one of them I already mentioned what scene it was for in a previous post (a scene where Mr Docter joined in with us to play for a bit). I put it in spoiler tags, but it doesn’t violate my “no spoiler” policy because the scene is shown in all the trailers. (But that was one of the two cues that had last-second changes to it).
Michael as a composer is my absolute favorite and I’ve listened to his tracks over and over again
Well, if you fly from Sweden to LA the beginning of May, you could meet him.
Apparently he’s going to be doing an autograph event on May 5th at 7:00pm at Best Buy in West Hollywood, for the release of the Star Trek soundtrack. For anyone interested, the details are on Varese Sarabande’s website:
varesesarabande.com/News.asp
fermata in “Happy Birthday”
Exactly, thanks rachelcakes1985 for making that clear. That’s a great example of a fermata.
have you ever played sheet music in either a studio or classical orchestra setting where you have had to play purposefully off-key, to set the tone for music that is meant to put the listener on edge?
Oh yes, it happens often in studio music, usually to create a special sound or effect (especially in horror or suspense moments). Depending on the instrument you play, all kinds of tricks can be used. You can be asked to bend the tone, to gliss (slide), to play the highest or lowest possible notes, to play random notes in random rhythm (a great effect when the entire orchestra is doing this), to play clusters (clusters are where you pick any note in a particular range that’s indicated, and play it – either on pitch or completely off pitch if they want that effect). Lots of fun. There are also other methods used to make a particular sound. Such as flutter tonguing in the winds, or vibrato variances in the strings (vibrato is when you “shake” the pitch a little bit. Normally it sounds nice, but if you make it super-wide it becomes an effect, or if all the strings do absolutely no vibrato at all on a long held note, it can sound very cold and icy).
In the studio setting, or even before a classical concert, do you still use the oboe to tune to A440, or do you use electrical tuners instead, and the oboe is just for show if you’re tuning up in front of an audience?
In a classical concert, the oboe will tune the orchestra, and it’s for real, not for show – the orchestra will take the A from the oboe. In a studio setting, if there’s a piano in the room that’s being used (a lot of scores have piano), we’ll take the A from the piano. If there’s no piano, the orchestra will take it from the oboe. If we’re playing along or adding to something that’s already pre-recorded, and for some reason the pitch of what’s already been recorded is off (too high, too low), then sometimes we’ll listen to the track that we’re adding to and tune to that. But if not, the studio orchestra will tune to the piano or oboe.
does the composer write the music for every one of the instruments for a score, for every single track, or would a composer’s assistant do that? It sounds like a funny question, but when you think about it, that sure is a lot of instruments to write for, to both figure out the notation and physically write out the music.
The composer will write the music to a movie, but he/she normally won’t have the time or energy to write out everyone’s separate part. That’s where the orchestrator comes in. Each composer is different in how much detail they notate in their sketches and scores, but while a composer writes the music, he’ll then give what he’s written over to the orchestrator, who will then “expand” it to the full orchestra, writing out the parts for everyone, often deciding how to parcel it out, deciding whether it should be stagnant notes or moving arpeggios on the chord, what kind of percussion might sound interesting here, if a lick should be played by clarinets with oboes or bassoons by themselves, if the violins should do a weird effect here, etc. Though each composer is different, I guess you could say the composer writes the music and the orchestrator gives it to everyone and helps give the cue that “color.”
For those interested, real pictures (instead of just sketches) of Michael Giacchino and the Star Trek sessions from last fall have just been put up online – 53 of them. Have a look! There’s Michael’s birthday cake, Timothy Olyphant guest-conducting, and the crew wearing Star Trek shirts (not to mention us musicians)…
The main page (with only a dozen pictures or so, but with explanations):
scoringsessions.com/news/179/
And the complete 53 pictures are here on this page:
scoringsessions.com/sessions/24544
Speaking of effects, as you’ll read in the description on the site, Michael used an erhu (Chinese two-stringed instrument) for a lot of the Star Trek score:
“An erhu was used to create the otherworldly sound of the Vulcans (namely Spock), and it was processed and distorted for their distant cousins, the Romulans.”
It’s a shame there are no Up session pictures online, but people did come in to shoot some video during the sessions, so hopefully there will be some shots of us on the Up DVD when it comes out…
I think he shaved it off sometime before the Oscars. Maybe in addition to the “Andrew Stanton’s Beard” thread, we should also start up a “Michael Giacchino’s Goatee” thread.