The Tinker Bell Movie
Well, after FOUR YEARS (!) of working on various incarnations, Tinker Bell will be released on DVD next week. I am so proud of how it turned out. The wait was worth it. John Lassiter's creative guidance and Bradley Raymond's beautiful direction has created a rich world for our heroine, one I hope avid fans will find worthy of her great character.
So, a few words about the score. Firstly, it was HUGE honor to work with all the gifted musicians who played on this score. Most significantly, the brilliant Irish violinist, Mairead Nesbitt. It is a fantastic thing to write not just for an instrument, but also for an artist who you know will play the music. I focused on learning her particular styles, she is a brilliant Celtic fiddler, but she also has a classical background and a lyrical style which lended itself so beautifully to the score. She is featured on almost every cue!
The soundtrack from Disney Records has a seven and a half minute suite of my score cues from the film.
Now to specifics: Disney publicity has written a marvelous account of the specifics of the score, so rather than rehashing it myself, I'll post their version.
Music is a character onto itself
Prior to starting work on TINKER BELL, Composer Joel McNeely had spent more than his share of time in the realm of Peter Pan - most notably with his acclaimed score for RETURN TO NEVERLAND. But his approach to this production would offer only faint musical shadows of any previous interaction with fairies.
McNeely quickly realized he would need two prevalent themes for the score - one to represent Tinker Bell, and the other to reflect the world of the fairies, with various sub- themes to architecturally bind the piece together. In addition, the film's emphasis on nature gave an altogether new inspiration for McNeely's approach to the sounds and instruments he would employ to instill this world within his music.
"I wanted this score to have a very eclectic sound," McNeely says. "We were going to see a world we've never seen before, and we wanted music - melodies and textures - that would speak to those unique qualities, that would make it a world of its own."
McNeely focused on creating TINKER BELL's score primarily through the use of "world music" elements, emphasizing a heavy Celtic base fortified by musical influences from cultures across the planet. Thus, the orchestral composition is colored with the sounds of instruments as varied as pennywhistles of all different shapes and size, Indian bamboo flutes, Scottish bagpipes, a Russian Balalaika, and Peruvian and Italian ocarinas, not to mention tequila bottles filled with water to make low resonant airy bass notes. Percussion was added utilizing drums from Africa, India, Ireland and China. A small band comprised of a hurdy- gurdy, mandolin, bass and guitar further buoys the score.
"It was great making music for this new world, where there were really no boundaries, no preconceptions, just a big, blank, beautiful slate" McNeely says. "We've been able to create a very eclectic world that's truly non-exclusive to one culture, and that co-mingling of musical cultures really lends itself well to the world of the fairies."
The two primary themes are both written for maximum flexibility, and neither is represented by a single instrument. Tinker Bell's theme is defined in a motif of its first four notes, and while the overall theme is joyful and slightly heroic, the signature can be used in a number of ways to reflect her myriad emotions.
"When Joel played Tinker Bell's theme for us on the piano, we all got chills down our spine, and we knew right then and there it was perfect," Raymond recalls. "It just embodies her independence and who she is as a character."
The theme of Pixie Hollow and the fairies is more of an anthem that creates a world and not a specific character. While its initial tone is reminiscent of an anthem, its flexibility allows a range from solemn and inspirational to playful and joyful. It is especially prevalent during Tinker Bell's initiation to Pixie Hollow during the Talent Ceremony.
"Joel McNeely's score brought this film to a whole new level," Roussel says. "We set him off on this mission to create this ethereal, surreal place that we've never traveled, and it really
works. Joel has a real knack for creating great themes that pull you in as an audience member. If you were to cut out the dialogue track and just play the score, you would know what this movie's about simply by listening to the emotional journey that he's able to take us through."
"This melody works on so many levels - it can get big in the action moments, it can give you thrills and chills, and yet it can become very quiet and somber," Raymond says. "Bottom line for me is that I can not stop humming that theme - which is what makes a great score."
Celtic overtones do permeate the melodies of the score, particularly in the contributions of singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt and solo violinist Mairead Nesbitt, both acclaimed internationally for their unique sounds.
McKennitt does double duty within the film, penning and singing the enveloping song that opens and closes the film, as well as providing the spoken narrative. Nesbitt's engaging violin serves as another voice for the film, weaving a connecting thread for the score's melting pot of musical sounds.
After immersing herself in the film's story, seeing the movie's rich artwork and meeting the filmmakers, McKennitt was so inspired that she penned lyrics for Tinker Bell's central theme in a single evening. Ultimately, McKennitt's homage to the wonders of Pixie Hollow, entitled "To the Fairies They Draw Near," is spread over two key segments of the film, working as an enchanting aural illustration infused with old world, Celtic overtones. In turn, the filmmakers were so taken with the singer-songwriter's passion and her ethereal, otherworldly voice, they asked her to supply the film's voice of narration.
"Loreena's song, 'To the Fairies, They Draw Near,' just embodies the world of the fairies, and her voice - that ethereal, amazing singing voice really embodies the magic of Pixie Hollow," Raymond says.
McKennitt and the film's artists worked in great creative collaboration, taking turns inspiring each other. McKennitt was quite taken by the story and the artistry of the film, and the artists further rallied upon hearing McKennitt's musical contributions.
"The impact of looking at the storyboards was quite immediate," McKennitt says. "There's a lovely visual sentiment to the story, and a really wonderful message to embrace. You feel the colors and the textures and the physical attitudes of the characters. There's a lot of spirit to jump off of creatively."
"Loreena kind of embodies a fairy - she has this way of writing lyrics that are so profound and wonderful and worldly, which is really what we wanted to create in this film," Roussel says. "She really gave a voice to Pixie Hollow, and she perfectly ends the film with this lovely passage in her song that says 'so, to thyself, be true.' It's such a lovely way to echo the theme of our movie, and done so beautifully in the way she sings."
"Her voice has such an ethereal, other-worldly quality to it that the songs feel as though they're from another time period, and into a magical place," says Brett Swain, vice president of casting and music.
So powerful was the match between McKennitt's opening vocals and the film's ethereal theme that, when searching for a narrator on the film, it only seemed natural to perpetuate McKennitt's place in Pixie Hollow. Thus, McKennitt also serves as narrator to the tale.
"Loreena's speaking voice is so beautiful and captivating, we decided she had to be our narrator," Raymond explains, "because as soon as you hear her voice, you know you're in this other world."
McNeely even uses McKennitt's voice as an instrument within the score, citing her "pure and haunting voice" as an important addition that needed to be "integrated into the fabric of the music" throughout the film.
The inimitable sound of Mairead Nesbitt's world-renowned melodic phrasing becomes a character onto itself in TINKER BELL. McNeely was searching for a unifying component for the film's score when he saw Nesbitt's performance on a PBS special and immediately knew her captivating combination of expressive Celtic style and full-bodied classical sound would provide the perfect complement to his rich score and McKennitt's touching vocals.
McNeely composed music specifically to fit Nesbitt's distinctive style, and collaborated with the soloist to further polish the music for Celtic authenticity. The result is an old world, ethereal overtone that resonates with heartfelt emotion and color, and is particularly evident in Nesbitt's inspired, lyrical solo performances throughout TINKER BELL.
"Music is the heart and soul of a film in telling the story from an emotional sense and I think people know instantly when someone is sad or happy or excited from the music - it's so important," Nesbitt says. "The mood and color that I bring to the music is one of emotion and heart, and with my phrasing and ornamentation, Joel gave me leeway to use that and I had a great time doing it. There are lots of different styles to play—it's lyrical, it's fun and there are some real 'stormers' of tracks. So it fits my style well."
Before creating the score for TINKER BELL, McNeely did heavy research on Celtic and old Irish music, and having Nesbitt on-board for the film further buoyed that knowledge and experience in those musical realms. McNeely and Nesbitt collaborated on many of the tracks, ensuring genuineness to the tones of the film.
"I think we got each other right off the bat," McNeely recalls. "Mairead's was really enthusiastic about the project, and I really seemed to understand how to write to her strengths. So I'd do a demo, send it off to her, she'd be on tour and record it into her laptop, then she'd make changes and send it back. In the end it helped me write things that were authentic and thematic for her to play. In several cases, she actually wrote some of the reels in the movie."
Ultimately, McNeely opted to incorporate Nesbitt's violin throughout the score, using the unique sound to unify the music across the entire film. He can't say enough about her performance or her talent.
"Mairead brought a very distinctive voice to this score, and it sets it apart as something very different," McNeely says. "Mairead has this combination of authentic Celtic playing with the sensibilities of an expressive classical style. She's an incredibly emotional player, and she communicates emotions really well through her phrasing, bringing even greater depth to many of the scenes."
"The heart of what this film is about is not trying to be fancy or formal, it is about being who you are, and doing it really well," McKennitt says. "Hearing Mairead's fiddle—it's absolutely exquisite, and so very, very delicate - and it really works to communicate (that message)."
To complete the score, McNeely added one other voice - well, actually, 12 other voices echoed three times apiece - in the form of a children's choir. McNeely's goal was to use young girls' voices to subtly represent a childlike innocence to further emphasize "hope and light" within the music.
"It's interesting when one introduces choral aspects to films," McKennitt says. "Psychologically, there's nothing quite like it - as it helps to say 'we're all in this together - this is all our experience.' It's adds a wonderful element to the score."
In initially creating the choir, McNeely had the unique paternal work experience of incorporating his 9-year-old daughter Claire into the scoring process, recording her singing voice and layering it 30 times to create his temp choir. When the final tracks were recorded, Claire sang within the choir. Afterward, she joined the other choir members in requesting her father's autograph on the sheet music. This presented an intriguing dilemma for the composer.
"I didn't know if I should sign my name or 'Dad,' so I asked her," McNeely recalls fondly.
"She said, "sign it 'Dad'." So now, it's proudly hanging in on the wall in her room."
The "nature" theme of the film was fully embraced by composer Joel McNeely, who went beyond all
reasonable comprehension in adding as diverse an array of natural sounds as may have ever been incorporated into a musical score. Sound Effects editor Ron Eng provided McNeely with an entire library of nature sounds, and McNeely masterfully began weaving the near- subliminal sounds into his full-bodied orchestral score. Mixed within the acoustics of the traditional instruments are elements that range from log drums, croaking bullfrogs and chirping birds to the water droplets, crickets and whale songs.
"I heard John's emphasis regarding nature and I started thinking how I could represent that musically," McNeely recalls. "I took Ron's sounds—insects, birds, frogs, wolves, whales, frogs, water drops - and I made little rhythmic loops. So many times when you hear a percussion track, it's actually a sparrow or cicada; instead of a drum hit, it's the sound of a water droplet; that's a frog instead of a low drum sound. There were really no boundaries. I made a whole palette of them, and we had fun with that."
