‘Lindsay Wright’
Lindsay Wright is a British composer, her practice involves blending traditional orchestral elements with experimental methodologies.
‘The mystery of D.B. Cooper’-
This documentary focuses on the highjacking of a plane in the 1970’s, the documentary forwent investigating the perpetrator of the crime, rather it highlighted public obsession with the mystery. Lindsay’s brief for the documentary included many different elements, mainly a 70’s theme with modern sections.
Firstly, Wright talks about scoring the cue ‘attention all agents’. This is the moment the FBI agents are notified about the highjacking, moving from footage of police cars racing to the scene onwards to talking head interview elements. The cue begins with a classic 70’s cop drama style intro, with guitars violins and drums, the score then reduces in volume and frequency occupation to pave way for dialogue. These talking head sections were underscored with low frequency synthesisers (bringing in the modern influence) with drums maintaining the narrative intensity/pacing. Lindsay also made use of a key change to provide a sense of urgency and build, in her words an easier way to build tension without actually having to write anything new.
Write tried to give each person being interviewed their own musical identity. She talks about one person having a string belief that DB Cooper did not survive the crash. Scoring this Lindsay tried to give it a more ‘Fargo’ inspired sound, off kilter, curious and sometimes fun. This part of the scoring process highlighted the importance of creating more than one version for cues, as sometimes your scores don’t reflect the directors vision.
Lindsay talks about starting a composition with a few days dedicated to finding the right timbre or sound palette, to find the sonic identity of the piece. Sounds have themes in integral in their timbre, finding a good instrument to attach to a certain element of the narrative is an important part of the process.
‘Mudlarks’-
Mudlarks Is a film about two homeless girls living in a tent besides the thames, during the film one of the girls doesn’t come home from a s shift of finding money/food. The aims of the scoring was to highlight the girls relationship, and the anguish caused by one of their absence. Lindsay tried to capture the vastness of the city whilst also commenting on the intimacy of their relationship. They focused on gestural ideas, and built up textures, each they could reuse later in the film. EQ automation is a useful technique in building gestures, filling out the sound as the score grows. A quality the director wanted from the sound is a homemade feel, which was convenient as the budget only really afforded home studio recording. Lindsay talks about the importance of bringing in tones from the rest of the score into each cue, it gives the whole underscore a fluidity and solid sonic identity.
‘Lines’-
This was Wrights self made EP constructed during the first lockdown, the project was influenced by Patrick Jonsson, Angus McRae and Keaton Henson. Exile was a track inspired by moving from a busy street in south east London to a small town in Cambridgeshire, how moving gave her more space to think and work healthily. Other tracks inspired by peoples resilience to carry on working through the pandemic, also a reflection on some peoples negative experience such as her friend having to see his family though a glass window.
Musical Traits to consider when constructing a piece-
- Timbre
- Constant motion
- Cyclical Layers
- Texture
- Rhythm
- Harmony
- Instrumentation
- Structure
- Slides
- Bass
- Space and Depth