Joel McNeely

Happy news. Our concert Nightmare Romance: Bernard Herrman and Alfred Hitchcock, will be performed by one of the world's great orchestras. None other than The Chicago Symphony Orchestra! I've been a fan my whole life and to conduct that great orchestra will be an honor and a thrill. Growing up a little north of there, some of my earliest concert memories were with the CSO. What brass, what Mahler. Priceless memories. And Margaret, my wife who lived up the road in Rockford, won their Young Artists competition when she was 13 and soloed with them. It's not until next April, but not too early to talk it up!

I internalize the emotions of the films that I am scoring. At the end of a 10-hour day of writing my two minutes of music (yup, it takes that long if you do it right) I am left with a lingering hangover of whatever emotions were contained in that two minutes. Lately, I've been composing the score to a horror film, which contains graphic and jarring violence. The director has been really thoughtful and careful about his use of image and subtle clues and has inspired me to strive for the same. I'm really enjoying writing twisted f...ed up music, as out there as I can manage, that is as dark and hopeless as I can manage, but I have not been Little Mary Sunshine lately. Not that I'm a method composer. I'm not running around slicing off the limbs of my neighbors as they sleep, so that I can really get in touch with that emotion, but after a full month of being as musically diabolical as I can, I think I'm starting to become a bit unrecognizable to those that know me.

And this, the film, which largely takes place at night is visually very dark. (at least the work print I have) So in order to really absorb what the frame holds, which always gives up nice clues about how to musically treat it, I have had to close all my drapes and blinds and work in the dark.

The other day I went to a meeting for my ongoing project at Disney, The Tinkerbell Movie. Being suddenly thrust into the visually spectacular, colorful world of fairies and children's imaginations, after being submerged in the depths of human torture was quite a contrast. A wonderful contrast. If I did nothing but fairy movies or nothing but horror movies, heck nothing but aerobics videos, that would be difficult. But I love having a dark and twisted story to sink into and go deeply to 'the dark side', knowing that when I come out, something entirely different is waiting. That's why writing music for film is constantly challenging, never boring and fun as hell.

"I Know Who Killed Me" is in the can. Done. I had a really good time with it. It was a real change of pace for me. There were some interesting plot points involving music, that I took advantage of in the score. I'll give more away later, but the score is loaded with clues, most which I'm the only one who'll ever get, but they're there. It's a very piano-centric score but much of the time you won't be able to recognize what you are hearing as piano. The director, Chris Sivertson, had so many details and clues established and organized, that it was fantastic fitting into his world and trying to have the score function the same way. I'm really happy Varese Sarabande is putting out the soundtrack. Thanks Bob! It looks to be around 44 minutes of music. Look for the film and the CD to be out the last week of July.

I'm deep into preparing Herrmann scores for my concert in France next week. (Contrary to what one poster said on another site, I DO in fact, prepare like crazy.) Every time I reunite with these scores, I find something new, something undiscovered. And I now feel free to experiment. Since the recordings are there, which attempted to be as true as possible to the films, why not take the concert experience as an opportunity to reinterpret and reexamine? Why not try and bring out new things in the music? After all, how interesting would it be if La Mer were played precisely the same at every performance, by every conductor? I look forward to working with the Lyon National Symphony. I expect them to be a passionate group and as such, perfect for this passionate music.

Au Revoir for now.