Analysis
Dad challenged me to get registered for Fall classes as soon as possible. Considering how little time I have until Fall semester begins, I can understand why. But I learned a flaw I'll have to learn how to fix: being too detail-oriented at the wrong moments. All I'm looking for is whether I'll actually learn anything in The Eternal Family, but I spent 2-3 hours just looking on Rate My Professor at most of the professors who teach The Eternal Family, which is only one of the classes I could take. Tomorrow, I'll be doing more of that, but I don't have that much time left to register for classes, as they've been filling up (as my dad mentioned) for months now. Specifically, since February, so for 6 months. Perhaps I'm getting into a little analysis paralysis even though I've been trying to get only a broad picture of what each professor is like.
But I got to experience less paralyzing analysis when I got in on a discussion about Dunkirk's score, which avoids recognizable tunes in favor of rhythmic sound design and short repeated phrase called "ostinatos". I haven't seen Dunkirk or heard the score yet, but the conversation changed a little from thoughts about Dunkirk's score to stating that motifs in film scores aren't necessary. At best, they said, they're just an added bonus. At worst, they're a way for the composer to satisfy his ego. Whenever I see an open forum that seems to be mostly arguing the same position, I want to inject the other side of the debate. This desire got to the point that I wanted to advocate allowing people to commit suicide, just because the topic of suicide was being so one-sided and because my perspective is a little different. Since nobody was saying that a motif-filled score or a motif-less score is better or why one was better than the other, I decided to take the position everyone else wasn't taking (which happens to be my own position) and say why at least some scores need to have recognizable, popular motifs. It turned into a bit of an essay with the rhetorical devices I've learned over the last month both from class and from my own study and with three points: motif-laden scores can help our friends get into soundtrack music; soundtracks with recognizable motifs can focus on the subtext better than soundtracks without them because they can use motifs as a tool to not just convey emotion but convey relationships between character, story, and emotion; and because having at least 1 phenomenally popular, motif-laden score every once in a while will inspire people to become composers. I sent these thoughts in their full essay form to my brother Benson, as they might inspire some thoughts for his pages devoted to soundtrack fans. He recommended that since it's already formatted as such, I should write a post titled "Why Soundtrack Themes Matter". I copied over the text into a Google Doc. I'd love to use this in a podcast or something like that, so I'm going to check in with the Lord and see if He's OK with me making this podcast yet, because He recently told me to not make it yet. I'd like to make it soon, because Dunkirk's score is a big deal to a lot of composers right now, so this post will be most popular now.
But I got to experience less paralyzing analysis when I got in on a discussion about Dunkirk's score, which avoids recognizable tunes in favor of rhythmic sound design and short repeated phrase called "ostinatos". I haven't seen Dunkirk or heard the score yet, but the conversation changed a little from thoughts about Dunkirk's score to stating that motifs in film scores aren't necessary. At best, they said, they're just an added bonus. At worst, they're a way for the composer to satisfy his ego. Whenever I see an open forum that seems to be mostly arguing the same position, I want to inject the other side of the debate. This desire got to the point that I wanted to advocate allowing people to commit suicide, just because the topic of suicide was being so one-sided and because my perspective is a little different. Since nobody was saying that a motif-filled score or a motif-less score is better or why one was better than the other, I decided to take the position everyone else wasn't taking (which happens to be my own position) and say why at least some scores need to have recognizable, popular motifs. It turned into a bit of an essay with the rhetorical devices I've learned over the last month both from class and from my own study and with three points: motif-laden scores can help our friends get into soundtrack music; soundtracks with recognizable motifs can focus on the subtext better than soundtracks without them because they can use motifs as a tool to not just convey emotion but convey relationships between character, story, and emotion; and because having at least 1 phenomenally popular, motif-laden score every once in a while will inspire people to become composers. I sent these thoughts in their full essay form to my brother Benson, as they might inspire some thoughts for his pages devoted to soundtrack fans. He recommended that since it's already formatted as such, I should write a post titled "Why Soundtrack Themes Matter". I copied over the text into a Google Doc. I'd love to use this in a podcast or something like that, so I'm going to check in with the Lord and see if He's OK with me making this podcast yet, because He recently told me to not make it yet. I'd like to make it soon, because Dunkirk's score is a big deal to a lot of composers right now, so this post will be most popular now.
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