Sample Course Descriptions
Music Composition for the Screen
History of Cinema
This course presents a chronological investigation of film from the pre-history of cinema up to the digital age. Emphasis is on understanding film as both an engine for and artifact of society, culture and geography. Students are introduced to important moments in film history from around the world and across a range of genres and movements via representative works. The course includes the full gamut of roles that sound (and its absence) can play in the cinema. Students develop critical methodologies designed to connect their experiences as viewers with the collaborative filmmaking process.
24-5551, 3 credits
The Operatic Tradition
Based on the thesis of film music historian Roy M. Prendergast ? that film scoring derived its basic language from that of opera and the Viennese school ? this in-depth survey of the tradition emphasizes Verdi, Puccini and Wagner and their influence on early film composers such as Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Includes an extensive examination of how the Wagnerian use of leitmotifs has been carried forward into film music.
32-6664, 2 credits
The Film Score: A Survey of the Craft
A historical review of the development of the craft and aesthetics of film underscoring from Max Steiner and Prokofiev to Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman. Include detailed analyses of written scores by benchmark film composers, with special emphasis on the "Golden Era" of Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Miklos Rosza, Alex North, Bernard Herrmann, etc. Students analyze concert scores and learn to recognize composer "signatures," now part of the standard vocabulary of film music.
32-6631, 2 credits
Global Folk Traditions
The contemporary approach of leading film composers such as Thomas Newman, Carter Burwell and Mychael Danna owes a great deal to their study and embrace of native folk music traditions, from African ceremonial music to Indonesian Gamelan, Pakistani Qawwali, Portuguese Fado and haunting Appalachian lament. Just as concert composers like Bartok, Mussorgsky and Vaughan-Williams mined their own regional traditions film, composers increasingly bring "the street" into their score. This course combines a survey of ethnic/national traditions with technical analyses of their characteristic modalities and instrumentation.
32-6661, 2 credits
Lab (Tutorial)
Develops the practical skills necessary for today?s screen composers: MIDI recording, sequencing, mixing, and notation. As an adjunct to all composition courses and a readily available means for students to familiarize themselves with the most current industry-standard technology, the Music Department offers a composer?s lab equipped with MIDI workstations which can be booked in blocks of time by students. Staffed by adjunct faculty and TA?s.
32-6901, 1 credit
Aesthetics of Cinema
Aesthetics of Cinema builds on the knowledge acquired in History of Cinema. Students investigate key historical moments through close critical analysis, with particular emphasis on the role of sound and music in the cinema. They are expected to develop a sophisticated analytical approach to the aesthetics of cinema as a basis for acquiring their own vocabulary and methodologies to utilize as music composers for the screen.
24-5552, 3 credits
The Jazz Score - An American Original
Aside from opera, no popular music form has so influenced film scoring as jazz. From The Man With The Golden Arm to Romeo Is Bleeding and the films of Spike Lee, jazz has lent urban films their grit and credibility. A lab approach to the craft of writing jazz charts for film is combined with a survey of the contributions of composers like Elmer Bernstein, Quincy Jones, Mark Isham and Terrence Blanchard.
32-6225, 2 credits
Composition I -Incidental Music for Drama
One of two required composition courses leading to the thesis project, designed to develop the student's vocabulary in the underscoring of dramatic action and emotional values. This comprehensive lab/survey class examines the history of music as accompaniment to live, theatrical performance, from its quasi-ceremonial use in the ancient world through its most contemporary expressions. Students create original music for selected scenes from live theater, functioning as part of the workshop process rather than an adjunct to it. Final projects are recorded and/or performed live by a student ensemble.
32-6221, 4 credits
Composition II - Music and Movement
The second of two required courses leading to the thesis composition, this "life drawing" class for composers covers a
wide-ranging study of both practical and theoretical use of music to support the human form in motion. The objective is a thorough understanding of the art and mechanics of scoring physical action, whether such action takes place in a feature film chase sequence or a video game. By way of digital video and original dance pieces performed in the classroom, students will create short midi scores which capture and complement physical action.
32-6222, 4 credits
Film Orchestration I - Vocabulary
An in-depth, technical examination of the unique language of film music orchestration, as exemplified by pioneers such as David Raksin, Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone and Thomas Newman (and their orchestrators). Students will analyze original scores and compose short pieces "in the style of ..." these and other seminal film composers.
32-6223, 3 credits
Film Orchestration II - Writing for the Instrument
This course is a continued exploration of film music orchestration with an emphasis on the instruments and their players. Each of the principal instruments of the film orchestra will be introduced "live and in person" by its player, and students will have the opportunity to either prepare or compose on-the-spot short pieces that challenge the instrument's capabilities and produce the maximum dramatic impact.
32-6224, 3 credits
Music Editing for Film
A technical introduction to the relatively young craft of music editing for film and television which now includes the auxiliary art of "temp scoring" (bane of many composers and godsend to some). Students will "track" existing pieces of film and concert music into advanced student films and professional "clips" using the ProTools editing system. Aside from introducing prospective film composers to the person who may become their most valuable ally, music editing has become a "fallback profession" for many aspiring composers as well as a back door into the profession because it grants such intimate access to directors and producers.
24-6451, 3 credits
Techniques of Synchronization - Survey/Lab
A technical and historical review of the science of synchronizing music to picture, from disc and magnetic film-based mechanical interlock systems to the introduction of SMPTE and EBU time code and today's computer-based sequencers. Music scoring software such as Cue Base, Logic and Digital Performer, as well as professional synchronization programs like Auricle are introduced and taught; students learn the language of spotting notes, clock timings, streamers and punches in preparation for conducting to picture.
32-6954, 3 credits
Directors & Composers I - A Survey
The course will examine the symbiotic nature of close and continuous collaborations between distinctive directors and composers who are creatively "joined at the hip" ? and the importance of developing these relationships early in a career. Scores and complete films will be analyzed in depth. Composers team up with directors to work together toward creating a film to be scored and recorded during the Practicum in LA.
32-6931, 2 credits
Directors & Composers II - Lab
A "real world" experiment in fostering home-grown director/composer collaborations which will involve both Film/Video and Music Depts. in "pairing up" selected graduate-level filmmakers and composers.
32-6932, 2 credits
Music Business Affairs
The business aspects of composing music for visual media will be examined, including the role of the composer, agent, manager, and studio music departments in "casting the composer" and brokering the deal. The course will introduce students to the many different kinds of composer deals currently being made in Hollywood and the indie world. Performance income, soundtrack royalties, and all other potential revenue streams will be discussed.
32-6971, 2 credits
Career Building Workshop
The combined efforts of faculty, job placement personnel, internship providers, and industry partners will serve to shepherd the student into the field of scoring for visual media. Coaching on how to prepare an attention-getting presentation reel, acquire an agent, how to network, conduct oneself at job meetings and navigate the shark-infested waters. Apprenticeships flow from this workshop.
32-6972, 1 credit
Conducting To Picture
A tutorial in the art and mechanics of conducting a live ensemble in synchronization with picture, including training in the use of variable click tracks as well as "free timings" with streamers and punches. Students learn to conduct to picture both pre-existing and original cues with click track, streamers and rubato "feels?. Coursework includes both simulations, in which students will practice baton technique with concert score and video image, and a final assignment involving live musicians, picture, and selected cues from seminal film scores such as "Psycho."
32-6441, 2 credits
Practicum/Final Project/Thesis
The culmination of the Directors & Composers series, students write and sequence their thesis score for a senior (or graduate level) Columbia College Film/Video or Television project and record it with a live, professional ensemble in Los Angeles. Students may, as an alternative, produce a score for a videogame or other form of (visual) electronic media, blending live and MIDI instruments. Alternative practicums require departmental permission.
32-6998, 6 credits
Internship/Apprenticeship
As an integral part of the Summer Semester in L.A. and a prelude to professional engagement, students are placed in internships or apprenticeships in the music wing of the film, television and electronic media industries. Such positions may include work for the music department of a studio such as HBO or Disney; on a scoring stage or in a recording studio; for a performing rights society like BMI or ASCAP; or assisting an individual composer or a music production house such as Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures or Mark Mothersbaugh's Mutato.
32-6989, 1 credit