Thursday 13 May 2010

The Great Escape.....and Phillip Glass



Hi folks - quick update just to let you know I'm down at  The Great Escape in Brighton, UK for Friday & Saturday. Check my schedule here and we'll hook up!
Had a fantastic first day....followed by a truly great night with Mr Phillip Glass!
The man himself, leading his live ensemble playing to Koyaanisqatsi on the big screen - more prescient today even, than when it first was made...?

More news soon...! C 

Wednesday 17 March 2010

News Update - Ads, shorts & LA Library

Hey folks - been really busy with cues etc. -  so apologies, thanks for hanging in there!

First off, I've been upgrading the studio with some fantastic new libraries - among which are the EastWest Complete Composers Collection and some more VSL instruments. Also been playing with the Moog CP-251.

Also just finished a round of invite pitches, this time for HSBC, Google and BP and the current series of "24" amongst others. These things obviously can take their own sweet time, so watch this space for progress reports...

On the film side, I've just completed scoring a new dark short - 'Fox' - for Jonathan Honnor. Post & Final all done, first screenings very positive!
Will post up a bunch of clips when I have my own copy of the final.
It was great to be working such a cool project and  I wish him the best success with it - I've worked with Jonny before on his previous films and it's great to see some cool funding coming in from Northern Film + Media.

Most recently I've finished another crop of cues for an LA-based library - more placement details when I have them...

Finally I've just uploaded some brand new cues at my Reverb Nation page here.  These are also accessible from the music player on the right - please feel free to grab and share the player and spread far and wide :)

That's it for now- Composition Theory Part 2 on its way and lots more news to come....

C


Friday 13 November 2009

Composition Theory Part 1 and some awesome links....

Hiya - 

News time! I have been busy writing and pitching again to a variety of TV projects......I've also been delighted with the release of Vienna Ensemble Pro....particularly great about this is that it comes bundled with the Epic Orchestra sample set...so you can get going on this deep platform straight away. VSL can be meticulous and technical work, but always worth it...

Having just emerged from another round of updating/reinstalling software as I transition to a much larger Snow Leopard based studio, it occurred to me how long us modern composers can be wearing the comfortable 'technician hat', and forget one is wearing it...

As much as I love the technology we have access to now....when it comes to composing, I often find employing these wonderful tools is often best left as the very last step in the process. 

For me, one of the key qualities of music lies in its ability to provide means of emotional connection and transmission in the end result -  for this entry, I'm looking at the start of the composition process, when one's ideas are born.

It's at these times - when an idea is at its most delicate - that almost any technology (yes, even a pencil!) can force you down a particular path of rigidity and perhaps unhealthy familiarity. Beethoven famously preferred composing in a room without a piano for the same reason - it's not that he was a Luddite, just aware of the fact that ideas must be free if they are to fly.

Often (and particularly when writing to a very specific brief) it's easy to fall in to the trap of the tried (or  tired?) and trusted. Whilst certain recognisable music 'scaffolding' is generally necessary for the presentation of an idea, a lot more can be done creatively around these landmarks. In any specific style of music there are certain givens, but one of the properties which makes a piece really stand out to the listener and truly communicate is the use of balance within confines, especially when it comes to novelty vs. familiarity.

This brings me to one of my favourite starting points with a composition. I consider the following opposite elements (often referred to as 'Unity' & 'Variety'):

Light vs. Dark
Dense vs. Sparse
High vs. Low
Fast vs. Slow
Change vs. Constancy (also can be seen as above, in Novelty vs. Familiarity)
etc.

The way in which these opposites are managed over time can radically alter the mood and overall impact of any piece of music. For example - music and instrumentation which has the character of dark, dense, low and slow can certainly suggest doom and foreboding, whilst high, fast and light can be more suggestive of playfulness, jollity etc....

BUT - it's also all about mix and match..and in subverting musical memes, exciting and original music can be produced by any composer willing to step away from the computer from time to time to consider these finer and more abstract points.
Technology introduced too early in the composition process runs the risk of (often very imperceptibly) forcing one down a route where opposites and balance become 'acceptable' and immovable limits, rather than playful and mutable entities in their own right, just ripe for a bit of musical manipulation and subversion.

...of course it's only of being so guilty of technolust myself  that I began to develop these alternative techniques, having honed my skills in an empirical studio based environment rather than at the Conservatoire!

I'll give you a while to ponder the above for now, Part 2 coming soon!

btw - just a  quick mention of Vaughan Williams' 3rd Symphony. This has got to be one of my absolute favourite pieces of music, period. I don't think a week has gone by when I haven't listened to it at least once.....if you've got half an hour, please treat yourself to this....:)

It's not as well known generally as his  Fantasia On A Theme by Thomas Tallis -this is a link to the Barbirolli recording from 1962, recorded in the amazing Temple Church in London. Even if you know this piece well, but haven't heard this version...again find 16 minutes and just let it take you to wherever. 

As always play both of these LOUD......

Also here are some cool links for the aspiring composer :
Scorecast Online - one of the absolute best resources out there for film/TV/game/whatever composers. Just so much quality insider information and an awesomely friendly community to boot, go check it out!

Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Principles Of Orchestration' free course online -over at the Garritan section. Brilliant resource for any composer, even if the Orchestra isn't your thang, there's a lot of information which can be applied to *any* music....

A Practical Guide To Musical Composition - very cool free guide  by composer Alan Belkin, also be sure to check out his Workbook for Elementary Tonal Composition.

Ok that's all for now.... keep you ears open!

Chris

Monday 7 September 2009

News and Update -National Ad Campaign & iPod App Licenses

Hiya, Chris here with some exciting new developments !

First up, please feel free to check out the new videos in the sidebar. This is a small selection of some of my recent work to picture.....more on the way.

Some more recent music licenses include new iPod App Space Snake and Ott Planetarium in the US.

The recent Olay commercial Ben and I have been working on went live this weekend nationwide in the UK. I'll post it up here as soon as we get a copy.......other composing work continues apace, will keep you all posted!

My new YouTube channel is now live too....

Also be sure to check out my next post coming soon - Part 1 of my take on composition theory.

Enjoy!

Sunday 26 July 2009

Welcome To Chris Harvey - Composer

Hi all, welcome to my first blog entry!

I'll be posting tracks, videos and updates here in the coming months, so be sure to subscribe for news on my activites.

First off here's a quick update on what I've been up to so far:

I've been pitching for a lot of UK Tv Ads for a variety of companies such Audi, Olay and the WWF. Collaborating with Ben Mitchell on these has been a great!
Recent successes include Swatch (below) and Czech Beer Kozel. Will have some more news and clips coming here very soon.





Moving on to the technology side, I've been having loads of fun with VSL, The Vienna Symphonic Library. It's an extremely well thought out orchestral library, loads of articulations for every instrument. Another great thing about it is that you can download individual instruments as you want - say you need a Trumpet for a project, just go it for €75 or so....

I'll also shortly be supplementing this with the EWQLSO, the long titled EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra (Platinum Edition). This collection is a little more 'out of the box', with samples recorded with varying degrees of room/hall ambience. Will be interesting to see how these two libraries play together............

It's my aim to write the odd article regarding orchestration, composition and programming with these tools and others...so keep watching!

Chris