Music for McQueen
What It’s Not:
I’d like to avoid modern Nils Frahm style ambient piano music. Or ambient electronic drone music with long, held synth chords. And avoid anything that could make it onto a relaxation playlist on Spotify. I find this kind of music a little apologetic as scoring. I think it drains the energy from a doc, and can sound like stock music. It also doesn’t feel very McQueen, which to me is more aligned with the sublime, Celtic tradition and the Romantic.
What is the sound palette:
I’m comfortable saying I’m not sure what the alternative is, and I’m open to hearing ideas!
McQueen’s work is obviously very BIG and theatrical, and draws on romanticism, the sublime, baroque, folk tradition, the pastoral and the gothic. He loved Michael Nyman’s score for The Piano, and Michael Nyman ended up doing a very loud, big score for the McQueen documentary.
It would therefore make sense for our sound palette to at least bear the imprint of baroque or romantic chamber music — harpsichord, strings, organ, woodwind, maybe choir. Piano led seems like the wrong direction, unless it has a certain feel to it.
McQueen makes me think of Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, Handel, Vivaldi.
Having said this, we don’t want the music to compete with the spoken dialogue. And we also don’t want to seem too pompous/dramatic, because it’s ultimately a fancy behind-the-scenes film! So it may be a case of starting big and using the sound palette and instrumentation of big, romantic chamber music. But toning it down, paring it back and maybe doing something more modern with it. And perhaps there is a stab of loud music to separate out the various thematic sections of the doc.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m struggling to find the perfect reference because this is not my world. But I like the sound palette of these:
Finding a Hook:
The best experiences I’ve had with scoring in the past is usually melody first. Finding a simple melodic hook and then building the score around it. I once did this with the Bronski Beat song ‘Smalltown Boy’ for a documentary, and we took that famous synth hook from the song and deconstructed it into 5 different character themes.
I’d love to begin by hearing a range of simple melodic sketches to find the right emotion, and then identify the strongest hook or leitmotif to build the wider score around.
Some things I consider hooks or melodic leitmotifs: