{"id":2295,"date":"2019-02-23T09:18:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T06:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theremintimes.ru\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2019-02-23T09:22:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T06:22:47","slug":"the-theremin-is-the-most-emotional-instrument-of-all-composer-justin-hurwitz-on-writing-the-score-for-first-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/?p=2295&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The theremin is the most emotional instrument of all&#8217; \u2013 composer Justin Hurwitz on writing the score for First Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"author-details\">\n<p class=\"author-details__author\">By Helena Asprou<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The story of the moon landings demanded a score that was literally out of this world \u2013 and for Justin Hurwitz that meant exploring the sound of the quintessential sci-fi instrument\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed_container\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"js_youtube_embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zcev7yEPeF8?enablejsapi=1\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What\u2019s your earliest musical memory?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">ink it was probably watching\u00a0The Wizard of Oz. There were so many movies that I saw as a kid that really made me hear and appreciate film music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I would say some of the\u00a0John Williams\u00a0and\u00a0Steven Spielberg\u00a0films like<em>\u00a0E.T.<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Jurassic Park\u00a0<\/em>got me thinking about wanting to become a composer later on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Could you tell us about some of your career highlights so far?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I\u2019m very proud of\u00a0<em>La La Land<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 it was a huge project. It took many years to craft all of the songs in that score and there are still so many people who love the movie and really connect with the music. I see covers online that people record and videos of kids performing the music at recitals; all of that means so much to me. To create music that people connect with is the ultimate dream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I\u2019m very proud of the\u00a0<em>First Man<\/em>\u00a0score as well. [The film\u2019s director] Damien Chazelle told me at the very beginning that we would have to figure out ways to make it different, so it was a little scary knowing that I would have to jump into electronic music, music production and sound design \u2013 these are all approaches we\u2019d never taken before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I spent a lot of time learning new techniques and I\u2019m really happy with how it turned out. It has a flavour of its own and that\u2019s always the goal for us \u2013 for each score to sound like the movie we\u2019re making, and like it could only belong with that movie.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2297 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/theremintimes.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37275.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37275.jpg 660w, https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37275-300x269.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/span><figcaption><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Justin Hurwitz playing the theremin.\u00a0<span class=\"attribution\">Picture: FilmIsNow<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Can you talk us through the instrumentation for\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>First Man<\/em><\/strong><strong>\u00a0and how it relates to the story?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It\u2019s a mixture of orchestra, vintage electronic and a few original sounds that were designed for the score as well. We wanted to create something that felt futuristic in the 1960s \u2013 and I think that\u2019s what the\u00a0theremin\u00a0and some of the modular synthesisers give us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">These astronauts were on an adventure of their own, heading off into the darkness of the universe without really knowing exactly what they were going to find or where they were going, so we wanted to add a certain sci-fi flavour. It also needed to be a highly emotional score with a pretty classical feel to it at times, to underpin the tragedy, pain and real emotion in the movie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Combining those two worlds made sense. We found the instruments could cross over and achieve both things, so the theremin (which is very much associated with sci-fi) could in many ways be the most emotional instrument of all. Once we put our melody on the theremin, it took on a whole new level of expressiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>This film \u2013 and its soundtrack \u2013 are incredibly moving; are there any standout moments for you and how did you achieve this musically?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Absolutely. There\u2019s the Gemini launch, which actually has no music \u2013 there\u2019s only sound \u2013 because Damien really wanted to make viewers feel like they were right there with the astronauts being launched into space. It\u2019s an incredible sequence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Then you have the Apollo II mission, which is a fun part of the movie with lots of music. I enjoyed recording it because once the mission starts in the last half an hour or so, the score really starts to grow. Until then, we\u2019d kept it relatively restrained because Neil is a very contained character, but suddenly it feels like Neil is cracking open emotionally \u2013 and we wanted the music to finally start pouring out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We used a full orchestra with the brass, woodwind and string sections \u2013 and the\u00a0theremin\u00a0also comes to the forefront, which until that point had been mixed down into the orchestra. But here, we let it sing in an almost operatic way.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2298 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/theremintimes.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37277.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"810\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37277.jpg 660w, https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37277-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>You worked very closely with director Damien Chazelle on this project; what was it like collaborating with him and what did you take away from the experience?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I always love working with Damien. What\u2019s incredible about him is that he has such a complete and thorough vision for his movies. He knows exactly what he wants with every element \u2013 including the music \u2013 but he\u2019s extremely collaborative at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We\u2019re always learning, with every project that we do. With\u00a0<em>First Man,\u00a0<\/em>I learnt a lot of new tools; not just the electronic instruments that we talked about earlier but also how to record and manipulate an\u00a0orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I\u2019d never done any production work on an orchestra before \u2013 it had always been a case of recording the musicians and that was it, aside from some mixing. But here, there was a lot of manipulation of the recording to give the orchestra a different sound and an other-wordly quality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Were there any challenges when writing the soundtrack?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The key challenge was figuring out how to balance the really quiet parts of the movie (which are intimate and documentary-style), with the loud and heavily-scored parts. We knew we wanted epic pieces of music that could drive some of the scenes and there was a real fly-on-the-wall approach.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Damien and the movie\u2019s editor Tom Croft knew that certain scenes needed music, but figuring out how that could work without taking you away from the very intimate drama was difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2296\" src=\"http:\/\/theremintimes.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37279.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"907\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37279.jpg 660w, https:\/\/theremin.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/37279-218x300.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/span><figcaption><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Justin Hurwtiz wins Golden Globe for Best Original Score to First Man.\u00a0<span class=\"attribution\">Picture:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/license\/1080512940\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Getty<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What\u2019s the one piece of advice you would give to other composers starting out in their career?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Keep learning. Every time you have the opportunity to write music, try to grow and get better. I\u2019m always learning; I still study scores and read orchestration books!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>You recently took home the Golden Globe for Best Original Score for\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>First Man<\/em><\/strong><strong>. How does that feel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It feels great! When we\u2019re making a movie, we don\u2019t know how it\u2019ll be received. I\u2019m never sure if the work I\u2019m doing is good or not, or if people are going to like it. With awards it\u2019s a way for people to say, \u201cgood job\u201d, so to hear that now after years of uncertainty is really appreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>And finally, what are your plans for 2019 \u2013 do you have any exciting projects in the pipeline?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Yeah, Damien and I just started talking about his next movie actually, so I\u2019ll be working on that later in the year and I\u2019m really excited to get going on it! But\u00a0<em>First Man<\/em>\u00a0was a year and a half\u2019s worth of work for me, so it definitely feels good to relax a little until then.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">original\u00a0 &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicfm.com\">https:\/\/www.classicfm.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Helena Asprou The story of the moon landings demanded a score that was literally out of this world \u2013 and for Justin Hurwitz that meant exploring the sound of the quintessential sci-fi instrument\u2026 What\u2019s your earliest musical memory? ink&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications-en","wpcat-273-id"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2295"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theremin.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}