January 2, 20251 yr Hello! I thought I’d share a link to my new book, in case you’re interested in this topic. "Designing Music for Emotion: A Practical Guide for Film and Media Composers and Music Enthusiasts" The book is a practical guide on how to write music that elicits different emotions such as happiness, sadness, love, anxiety, triumph, wonder, fear and many more. It's packed with dozens of techniques, over 60+ music reductions (and audio) and research-backed insights to help you create music that truly moves your audience. Foreword by Jay Chattaway (EMI award winning Hollywood composer, "Maniac", "Star Trek TV Series") 308 pages, 98 figures, 45 tables https://amzn.eu/d/aV9GRj5 One of the full orchestral scores discussed within the book with score reductions, "Sintel", is free today Best Regards
January 3, 20251 yr Good luck with your book! It's so interesting and telling that a book on the topic of music compositions and emotions is actually a novelty today. In the baroque period, referencing particular keys, intervals, chords, figurations in the light of emotions was boiler plate standard knowledge. We are loaded up on technical analysis, various "systems" of sound, and a whole universe of extended techniques--- but forget the core "WHY? " and what this is all for. Film composers are the exception----and it is small wonder that as academic music continues its wandering in t he desert, John Willams is lauded as composer laureate of the WORLD, and so many others are celebrated. Forget Feeling, and you are working with half a toolbox.... Edited January 3, 20251 yr by Rich
January 3, 20251 yr Author Hi Rich, thanks for your comment. That’s exactly the same thought I had when I started to write in this area. Emotion is arguably the most important function of music but universities teaching music compositions don’t even mention how to elicit different emotions beyond minor/major scales. Composers learn to trust their intuition by trial and error on how to elicit emotions and it often works after a long time but I believe a lot of time can be saved by being both rational and intuitive. Very seldom you see composers collaborating with music psychologists to see how music psychology can help music composition. I asked this question during the book presentation event to two music psychologists and they were not aware of collaborative projects between composers and music psychologists. For me, learning all this helped me write music I never thought i had in me … and I’m sure that it would have taken me a lot longer getting getting there just via intuition and trial and error ! Best Regards
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