Technology vs Artistic Composition in Film Score

MIDI, Mock-ups, Sequencing, Daw, VST Libraries and other terms are commons in today film compositional process, and it seems that the traditional method using paper and pencil playing an acoustic piano is something belonging to XVIII century when some composers used to "write" music mentally or at least they should have great levels of aural consciousness, notorious is the case of Mozart that apparently took the pen several times to copy the music he had composed mentally or  Beethoven that was able to write a master piece as his 9th symphony when he was already deaf. Today we have a guy in front of a midi controller or a keyboard sending midi notes and message through an audio interface (or USB wire) to a computer plenty of wonderful VST sounds that inspire all types of musical possibilities. But all these bring to our mind a question: is all these technology getting in the way of a true creative and artistic process? Is our creativity being truncated by the easiness that technology provides us? Could we go deeper if we allowed our minds and inner ear create without such aids?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that it depends on our musical consciousness  and knowledge, formerly composers were forced to develop incredible skills because they had no other way  but learn the laws of music deeply, and as a result they reached levels that allowed them to create great masterpieces deepening in their art.

 

I do not think that technology represents a creative problem by itself; technology has always been present in all ages helping people improve, but it depends on each artist takes advantage without allowing these external things interfere in the creative process, but incorporating them as tools to work with. In my opinion, VST Instruments and Effects like Vienna Symphonic Library or East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra and Music Editor software like Sibelius or Finale represent and invaluable tools especially because they help us accelerate the workflow giving the composer an opportunity to effectively show their musical ideas to the director or producer of the film before the recording process, or even on low budget projects a good mock-up is usually used in the ultimate product.

 

Finally I would say that the important point here is that a real artist a true composer, has a genuine idea that comes from his artistic, musical and human sensitivity, which will be perfected in the process of composition using the knowledge, skills and all the tools that are available, whether they are a pen and paper or a computer with a midi controller .

In the audio below of these lines, you will hear a mock-up of a piece I wrote a year ago as an example of the use of VST technology along with the traditional techniques of composition and orchestration.