What is music composition?
Music composition is the creation of music that did not exist before. In the context of film and advertising it means a composer taking a brief, a cut or a script and writing music to serve it: a score that follows the emotional shape of a film, a theme a brand can own, a bed for a voiceover, a sting for a logo. The composer may work alone with a computer and a library of virtual instruments or with an arranger, a studio and live players, depending on the budget and the sound the piece needs.
It is distinct from music supervision, which selects and licenses existing music, and from sound design, which builds the non-musical world of a film. Composition is writing. Everything that follows (recording, producing, mixing) is making the writing audible.
Why it matters
Why music composition matters
Music is the emotional engine of a film and composed music is the only kind that fits exactly. A licensed track has its own shape, and the editor cuts the picture to meet it; a composed score takes the shape of the picture, so the swell lands on the look, the pause lands on the line and the ending lands on the logo. The difference is felt rather than noticed, which is how music works.
For brands there is a second benefit. Composed music can be owned, and a theme that belongs to one brand becomes part of its identity over time. Audiences recognize a few bars of a brand's music faster than they recognize its typeface, and that recognition compounds with every campaign that uses it.
In practice
How music composition works in practice
- 01
The composer is briefed early, with the script, the references, the mood and the places where music has to do a job. Sketches follow: short demos in the proposed direction, so the creative team can react before anything is produced in full. Once a direction is chosen the composer writes to the cut, usually in stems so the mix engineer can control the balance under dialogue.
- 02
If live instruments are in the budget, the arranger prepares parts and a session is booked; otherwise the composer produces the piece with virtual instruments, which have become convincing enough for most brand work. The final deliverables include every length the campaign needs, with the rights defined in the agreement.
Watch out
What people get wrong about music composition
Starting too late. A score written in a weekend against a locked cut that was built on a temporary track will sound like an imitation of that track, because the editor cut to it. Bring the composer in at the assembly and the music and the picture grow together. The other mistake is treating composition as a commodity. Two composers given the same brief will write two different films, and the choice of composer is a creative decision on the level of choosing a director.
A third is briefing in adjectives alone. Epic, emotional and modern describe most music ever written. A useful brief includes references, the places in the cut where the music has a job to do, and the things the brand would never sound like.
