On Friday January 31 2012, at very short notice,
we found ourselves attending a superb, funny and informative talk
and demonstration of the creation of the music of Sherlock Series
Two by Michael Price, one half of the series' composing duo
alongside David Arnold. It's perhaps fair to say that the post
production of any media, be it film, music or television, is
dramatically less glamorous compared to the actual filming and
performing of what you see onscreen, but it is without doubt the
true nuts and bolts stage of the final product, and often can make
or break any production - a sterling performance by an actor can be
lost if subject to a bad film or video editor for
example.
In the case of music, the aim is of course to
underscore and heighten what you are seeing onscreen, to draw your
attention and emotions to a certain point. In the case of this talk
by Michael Price, dubbed 'The Sound of Sherlock', the audience of
musical creatives and students were led through the soundscape of
three key scenes from Series Two, stripping the music down to
reveal the sheer hard graft and brilliant inspiration that lay
beneath.
Michael explained the methodology behind the music of
Sherlock Series Two, that the new music should characterise each
episode, retaining everything that made the scoring for Series One
memorable but also introducing a new voice. At the same time, the
music should exist for primarily dramatic reasons, and he noted his
use of sound samples to seek out this drama in the material.
Starting with 'A Scandal in Belgravia', Michael
showed us a key, closing scene from the end of the episode, which
featured a dramatic and bombastic rendition of the much talked
about 'Irene's Theme'. It was noted that this particular piece of
music reflected the story of the episode itself, that Sherlock
should be opened up to the idea of love, rather than love itself.
Michael took us through the scene as it appears onscreen, the mixed
audio version as it will appear on the Series Two soundtrack,
and then the original 'demo' version of the score, over the time
code marked fine cut of the episode, intriguing due to the presence
of fill in material in place of incomplete visual effects shots.
What was initially surprising was the sheer amount of detail in the
music, with what we thought was a gigantic 56 layers of sound just
for the one piece (this was nothing compared to what Michael
demonstrated later!), and that most of the theme was arranged using
synthesised sound on a MacBook using Logic Pro, with only the
swelling, gorgeous strings recorded live at Air Studios. It appears
on the Series two soundtrack as 'SHERlocked.'
This was followed with a similar demonstration of a
climactic scene from 'The Reichenbach Fall' between Sherlock and
Moriarty - we're skirting spoilers like crazy, but if you've seen
it, you'll know the one - which upped the audio channels to 72
separate sound layers! Here we saw a slightly different style
compared to Irene's Theme, still string led but underscored with
the use of dissonant ambience and bass to depict Moriarty onscreen,
layered underneath other parts of the score to create a true
undercurrent - not dissimilar to the characteristics of Jim
himself, it must be said. This was intentionally contrasted with a
richer, more active sound to represent Sherlock in counterpoint.
It's worth stating how blurred this piece of music appears when you
examine it in layers, the sound for Moriarty moving away from score
and into the range of the sound designer - though, as Michael said,
since the composer has created it, it's actually music. If you were
looking for this piece on the Series Two soundtrack, it's 'Prepared
to do Anything'.
Finally Michael demonstrated the driving rhythm of
the horror tinged opening scene from 'The Hounds of Baskerville',
which he considered the most sonically interesting of all the
scores from Series Two, mainly due to the relative lack of live
instrumentation. Indeed, the scene in question was composed
entirely through synthesised sound, including plenty that Michael
and David had created from complete scratch. Many sounds on the
channels were labelled up with amusing names, such as 'Metal
Hound', and the slightly alarmingly titled 'Bergerac Throb'. This
single scene featured the most sound channels of any demonstrated,
topping 78 in number. Then came the most fun part of the entire
event. Michael played us the first scoring pass for the scene, but
this was VERY different from the near final piece that accompanied
the earlier demonstration of the 'Scandal' fine cut. The mixing on
this was, frankly, bonkers, filled with warbling discordant sound
that constantly elevated, to the point it merged with the scream of
young Henry Knight onscreen. It was utterly delightful to hear, and
very revealing about the creative process and the back and forth
between a composer and a director that leads to a final piece of
music.
After the demonstration, the floor opened up to
Q&A, with the questions put to Michael yielding many
interesting responses and much trivia filled goodness. The
highlights included Michael recounting his first meeting with David
Arnold, having left the employ of the much missed composer Michael
Kamen after the completion of the now classic HBO miniseries 'Band
of Brothers', and the formation of their partnership, initially
with Michael writing additional music for David before gaining
equal billing on Sherlock. Much talk was made of the process of
composing for television, including the fact Michael sometimes has
to compose an average of six minutes of music a day, and the
revelation of how different it is to write compared to film -
cinema gains an extra two octaves of sound over the home market,
which restricts the television composer at times - to the lovely
technical factoid that the music for Sherlock is mixed in 4.1
surround, leaving the centre channel clear for the dialog - which
would make it the standard 5.1 sound you can spot in places such as
the technical information on the back of a DVD box.
And most teasingly of all, Michael knows the
explanation for what happens at the conclusion of Sherlock Series
two - something we decided not to press him on - after all, who
wants the surprise spoilt before we see it?
All in all, 'The Sound of Sherlock' was an
enlightening and entertaining demonstration of the work of a score
composer. Michael was an excellent and fun host, valiantly
struggling through the hell of flu without missing a beat in his
narration of what he was showing us. We'd like to thank him and the
lovely Olivia from Screened Music for allowing us to attend such a
wonderful event.
Screened Music is a network of composers
working professionally in the realms of television and film. It was
created to celebrate excellence in screen composition and profile
the on-going achievements of the UK's most innovative and
successful film & television composers.
The network also provides a community for screen
composers, opening the lines of communication via online forums and
facilitating collaborative processes via an online skills area. The
Screened Music website also provides a platform for the discussion
of contemporary production music, with a review system designed to
highlight exceptional work.
For more information please visit the Screened Music website: www.screenedmusic.co.uk