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Deconstructing the orchestration of the song Memory in the style of Star Wars I made for Whitney Avalon.
Before to continue, I need to say I'm too fan of Star Wars, and specially of John Williams, so I've been listening the soundtrack for years, and not only listening in the movies, but every time I have a little chance to stop, sit and listen to music. So, from this point, I'm soo familiar with Williams music, and for me, to work in this track was a Jedi adventure.
Another thing I need to say is I'm blessed that Malinda (Translator Fails) introduced me to Whitney in a moment where she was looking for an orchestrator.
A few days after Malinda wrote me about this, I got the first message from Whitney asking if I was interested in doing an orchestration for her, to what I replied with a yes, of course. And the next message was the complete instructions of what she needed (she knows exactly what she want and the way to ask for it), an orchestration for the song Memory (from Cats) in the style of Star Wars. Just reading the title of the song and the style to work with I got crazy and excited, but I took a breath, holding back the excitement and answered with an "Oh 'Memory', perfect". And I started working on it.
Those days, I got the request from Malinda to do the remake of 'Memory' for her channel Translator Fails, so I was in the mood of the song, and knew the progressions, and feeling of it, so I was working in parallel on the same song.
They picked this song weeks before the new release of the movie Cats, and Star Wars Episode 9. I still don't know if they talked about they was working on the same song at the same time.
As part of the instructions Whitney gave me for this project, she asked me for very defined tempo, key changes, and to follow the original structure of the song.
So is very helpful to have a structure with an instrument playing the melody and chords.
Before starting recording any instrument for the arrangement, I start recording a piano with the melody and chords following the structure of the song to have a whole view of the arrangement boundaries.
Before starting recording any instrument for the arrangement, I start recording a piano with the melody and chords following the structure of the song to have a whole view of the arrangement boundaries.
Once I got the Ok for this, I went with the symphonic instruments.
I love doing full orchestrations, but as a first project for Whitney, I was so insecure if she'ld like my work. Working as a remote musician you never know the first reaction because you are not there with the client, and you only get a text with the impressions, and not always right away you send the audios, so the wait is long, and keeps you hanging on a rope. Then after a few crossed messages about the correct tempo for the song I started with the tracks.
Recoring those first notes was like a long and slow free fall, but at the same time it was so exciting to mix two worlds in one song. I started trying a few notes of that remarkable song of the force, but not the complete line, only 4 notes, playing with french horns, very soft, and then I introduced strings lines emulating Williams, with those bodies of strings constructed between the violins, violas, cellos and basses. I sent the intro idea to Whitney to have her feedback and know if I was going in the right way. And as I mentioned before, that period of time waiting for the first impression, I don't remember if it was minutes or hours, but it felt like days because it was the first track I was doing for her.
The way I recorded this notes for the intro was very special, because I played almost improvising over the progression, and then I broke apart Violins, Violas and Celli.
The way I recorded this notes for the intro was very special, because I played almost improvising over the progression, and then I broke apart Violins, Violas and Celli.
Then I got her feedback and it was awesome to know she was approving what I was doing, so it was like a new breath to continue.
I usually record fast, but I take a lot of time of trying things, melodies, sounds, moods, silences, and sometimes I take time in front of the piano, or the DAW just listening what's in my head. And suddenly I got into a path where I can't stop, just go and take those sounds from my head.
The first path I took for the orchestration was the way of progressions around the melody that I feel is the way Williams does in his arraingments, and I used a lot of sound elements also, but one of the most important elements was little hints of melodies from the songs of Star Wars, and because of Whitney gaves me the lyrics she wrote for the track, it was very helpful to know where to put those hints. Then, you can hear some notes from the force song, Leia, Ray, Anakin, and more.
It wasn't my work to recreate songs from Star Wars, but to put that style in this arrangement, and using some hints or little parts of remembered melodies from the movie was a way I choose.
It wasn't my work to recreate songs from Star Wars, but to put that style in this arrangement, and using some hints or little parts of remembered melodies from the movie was a way I choose.
Here's a little section of the orchestration. I grouped the instruments by type to optimize this web multi-track player.
Blog Author: Cristián R. Villagra
Online Musician. Music composer for animations and games, and music producer for singers. Also programmer and graphic generalist.
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