Post by Dave Dexter on Sept 19, 2017 14:14:06 GMT
Facebook reminded me yesterday that it's been seven years since I saw How To Train Your Dragon in the cinema, so I thought I'd write this.
John Powell and his score for How To Train Your Dragon are the main reasons I got into what I'd call "serious" composing. Back in 2010, I was mainly a guitarist who'd just started playing around with orchestral sample libraries and midi, without any knowledge (or interest in acquiring it) of how orchestras and orchestration worked. Seeing the film was my "Eureka!" moment which I imagine we've all had in our different ways.
For years, Powell's score was the benchmark in how I judged and pushed my own writing, and even then I didn't fully understand I had to go deeper than writing things that simply sounded "a bit filmy". But I had no serious idea I could ever get that far, and instead moved into other areas of composing, occasionally writing music that had strings and percussion and brass and sort of aped Powell's approach to harmonic progression but went no further towards any real-life goal. This was the phase of me using sample libraries to simply make giant chord pads made up of 8 trombones or 70 violins.
It's strange hearing Powell's music now. It's just as powerful and stirring as when I first heard it, but whilst I still envy his melodies and ideas I no longer fear them as a distant, unattainable goal. I'd now consider him one of a few near-perfect modern score composers, who bridge the gap between older orchestral traditionalists like John Williams (and that particular sound) and contemporary figures like Hans Zimmer (and that crisper production), without falling into the latter's templated, more simplistic (in my opinion) style; retaining modern approaches in a old-school, full-orchestra environment.
John Powell and his score for How To Train Your Dragon are the main reasons I got into what I'd call "serious" composing. Back in 2010, I was mainly a guitarist who'd just started playing around with orchestral sample libraries and midi, without any knowledge (or interest in acquiring it) of how orchestras and orchestration worked. Seeing the film was my "Eureka!" moment which I imagine we've all had in our different ways.
For years, Powell's score was the benchmark in how I judged and pushed my own writing, and even then I didn't fully understand I had to go deeper than writing things that simply sounded "a bit filmy". But I had no serious idea I could ever get that far, and instead moved into other areas of composing, occasionally writing music that had strings and percussion and brass and sort of aped Powell's approach to harmonic progression but went no further towards any real-life goal. This was the phase of me using sample libraries to simply make giant chord pads made up of 8 trombones or 70 violins.
It's strange hearing Powell's music now. It's just as powerful and stirring as when I first heard it, but whilst I still envy his melodies and ideas I no longer fear them as a distant, unattainable goal. I'd now consider him one of a few near-perfect modern score composers, who bridge the gap between older orchestral traditionalists like John Williams (and that particular sound) and contemporary figures like Hans Zimmer (and that crisper production), without falling into the latter's templated, more simplistic (in my opinion) style; retaining modern approaches in a old-school, full-orchestra environment.