Read time: 1 minute, 359 words. There's a musical illusion that makes it sound like a note is rising forever. It’s called a Shepard tone. It works by layering the same pitch pattern across several octaves. As the higher tones fade out, lower ones quietly fade in, so your ear hears continuous ascent even though the sound is actually looping. Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer used the idea in Dunkirk to create a feeling of constant escalation. And Nolan built that same sense of mounting...
about 2 hours ago • 1 min read
Read time: 1 minute, 353 words. Years ago, I spent months talking with a composer about scoring a video game. When the client finally gave the green light, he emailed to say he could no longer do it. On another project, after months of similar conversations, a different composer also had to bow out. But she called me. So when the next project came along, who do you think I asked first? There's a lesson in how we say no. It depends on who is asking, what the project is, and how much time has...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Read time: 1 minute, 338 words. One of the most important pieces in music history was booed so loudly the dancers couldn't hear the orchestra. At the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, people shouted, fought and caused enough chaos that the choreography had to be counted from backstage. Today, the work is considered revolutionary. There's a useful reminder here. When you do something genuinely new, the first reaction may not be applause. Sometimes "they don’t get it" comes...
21 days ago • 1 min read