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NIKOLAÏ CLAVIER

ORCHESTRATING CINEMATIC STRING QUARTETS

Arranging Contemporary Film Music for the String Quartet
ABSTRACT

RESEARCH ABSTRACT

The following research seeks to enlarge the string quartet repertoire by making and performing original re-orchestrations of contemporary film music. It examines the art of storytelling and how to reproduce a cinematic drama on a smaller scale – divorced from its visual component. The basis of this project is composer James Newton Howard’s score for the Hollywood blockbuster Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), using the recorded audio from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Official Motion Picture Sound Track (2016). The score was chosen because of its seamless combination of electronic effects, sampler instruments and a live orchestra; its clearly defined themes that are easy to remember; its high popularity as a Hollywood blockbuster reaching across many generations and populations; and its “magic” element as a fantasy franchise that introduces a world beyond the reach of our daily lives. All these elements help forward the quality of the research by posing methodical questions such as: ‘How to convey the story of the film when the instrumentation is changed and the images are gone?’, ‘how to cut and shorten a long movie score without compromising the story line?’, ‘how to replicate orchestral and electronic music on acoustic string instruments?’, and ‘how to structure an arrangement to make it stage appropriate – in terms of length, thematic treatment, formal structure and emotional curve?’. The soundtrack combines a wide range of scoring techniques including; electronic sampling and sequencing; recording a 150-piece symphony orchestra, two choirs, various ethnic instruments, polyphonic treatment, action sequences, leitmotifs, “Mickey Mousing”and extravagant romantic themes developing over time. This paper outlines a systematic method for arranging, transcribing and orchestrating what is initially a 1:08:51 minutes film soundtrack into a 30-minute concert piece for string quartet, in a way that preserves the underlying story of the film and the style of the composer.

 

The first task of the project regards the creation of a formal structure for the concert piece, using the narrative structure of the film as its basis. This was done by applying structural analysis to the film itself and juxtaposing it to its musical component. The methods of analysis used in that section are based on Gustav Freytag’s model of narrative plotline and the classical 3-act structure used in romantic operas and in mainstream Hollywood film. The criteria guiding the search for a formal structure included: Staying within a 30 minutes framework, preserving the underlying emotional curve of the movie, making a conscious decision when subdividing into musical movements based on the combination of chamber music conventions and cinematic story presentation, and using the original leitmotifs and thematic treatments to trace the development of various story elements such as the protagonists, antagonists, supporting characters, MacGuffins, sceneries, plot conflicts, plot developments, and character emotions in the arrangement. Once the formal structure had taken a convincing shape, the transcription, arrangement and orchestration of an idiomatically tailored string quartet piece was at hand. Through the testing and developing of various orchestration strategies two central goals were to be met: to create a string quartet arrangement that replicated the textures, emotions and musical intentions of the original recording as realistically as possible, and to exploit the possibilities inherent in string instruments to the fullest in order to get a rich in sound, virtuoso and artistically viable concert piece. The final step in constructing the arrangement involved experimentation strategies through a collaboration with the Arthema String Quartet. Posterior to this an evaluation, editing and finale publishing of the arrangement was made. All the experiments were recorded and analysed to allow a deep reflection on the whole artistic process and final artistic product.

Based on a motivation to create a concert piece with the ability to attract new audiences to chamber music concerts – to bridge the gap between two segregated music cultures and relate to a younger generation of concert-goers – this research aims to be the beginning of a series of concept- performances with my string quartet. Looking forward, the various strategies and routines derived from the research work will not only contribute to my own career as an arranger and chamber musician but, hopefully, it will assist others in the field by giving access to an effective toolbox of strategies within the string quartet-arrangement milieu. Based on a limited review of current film music arrangements for string quartets, this arrangement stands out as unique not only by its length and format, but also by its experimental orchestration techniques, its ability to tell a full-length musical story, and its pristine preservation of the original soundtracks texture, colour and emotional impact. By the responses from observing parties such as co-musicians Diederiek Smulders, Gabriella Torres and composer Hans Timmermans, it stands out not only as unique within the string quartet repertoire, but optimistically it will have earned its title as a cinematic string quartet.

Abstract
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