Christopher Young, the Larry Talbot of film music
© Rudy Koppl

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Christopher Young Descends to THE CORE Part Two

Last week, we began speaking with composer Christopher Young (HELLRAISER, FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC, SWORDFISH, THE GLASS HOUSE, SPECIES, URBAN LEGEND, etc.) about his new musical score for Jon Amiel's science fiction epic THE CORE. The music, performed by an orchestra of almost 100 musicians plus choir, is one of the composer's most complex and modernistic compositions, yet, despite the seeming bombastic nature of the film's cataclysmic story, Young's music remains straightforwardly intimate in its approach. Today we continue our talk with Young.

To achieve

THE CORE

© Paramount Pictures

"This score has the largest brass section I've ever used," says Young. "I had three trumpets, three trombones, one bass trombone, tuba, and then an eight horn French horn section. Now, I used eight horns in HELLBOUND and in parts of ENTRAPMENT and parts of HARD RAIN. But these players are used pretty consistently throughout the whole picture, and in moments there's actually this one cue, which unfortunately you'll never hear because it's one of these big moments in the movie where everything is being destroyed! - I actually had them switch to the Wagner Tuban, one of the instruments that Wagner had created for his operas, and there's this blasting brass, overdubbed by the choir. I wanted to make your hair stand on end. So there are moments were the orchestra is just blasting." Young also included a triple woodwind section, and six percussionists. "It was just a big, large score."

"In terms of color or sound, there's nothing there that is that unusual," Young says. "There's this electric guitar figure that flies in and out with this repeating ostinato, but that may be the only real distinctive, odd sound. The synthesizer is integrated with it, but basically doing drum loops. So I would have to say the color of it is very conventional."

Young originally began preparing the score last fall, when the film was slated for a November 2002 release. For a number of reasons (primarily the studio and Amiel wanted more time to promote the film than a November release would have permitted), the film's release was delayed until March, which meant awkwardly stopping work and then picking it up again months later.

"It was

Christopher Young, the Larry Talbot of film music

© Rudy Koppl

Complicating all of that was the amount of music needed for THE CORE, which contains Young's lengthiest score to date. "This is the first film that I've actually spotted ninety-five minutes of music," he says. "We went into the scoring knowing that I was going to have to write at least ninety-five minutes. Now, as you know, whenever you spot a movie you can always add roughly ten to twenty percent for rewrites, so the big challenge was the volume of music I had to write. It amounted to something like two and a half minutes of music a day, seven days a week, just to get it done. There was a certain period of time that was wasted trying to get the right themes, but once Jon approved the themes, it seemed like I had to get into immediately two minutes a day."

Having the experience of scoring three previous films for Amiel enabled a productive relationship between director and composer, one that continued through the process of working on THE CORE. "He couldn't be a better director," says Young. "There's not a better director to work with, in terms of knowing how to get the best performance out of someone, to try to have them see the film from their point of view, to make you feel like you're a real important team player. If something's not working, he has a way of not slapping you in the face by saying something like, 'Gee, why did you do that?!' He knows how to get a very good performance out of you to get what he's looking for. We have a perfect dialog, and I mean that. He's a musician he's the only director I've ever worked with where, on the stage, he's got a copy of the score and he'll be looking at it and he'll notice things that he's not crazy about and he'll refer to measures or bar numbers, and he'll say, 'Why don't you take the violins down an octave,' or 'Why don't you do this or that.' We're talking the same language."

With the [IMG4R]completion of THE CORE, Young has gone on to score SHADE, a gambling movie somewhat along the lines of ROUNDERS (which Young had scored for director John Dahl), directed by Damian Nieman and starring Gabriel Byrne, Sylvester Stallone, and Melanie Griffith. "It's a dark and moody film and these are seedy characters," Young says. "I've got to figure out a way to communicate the dark, seedy world that they live in but at the same time figure out a way to make them likable people. That's the hook that the music will do, to make sure the audience warms up to them, so it will be dark but not too dark, serious, but at the same time, fun. It encourages me to try and come up with a sound that is unique."

The budget for SHADE, after coming off of the big budget THE CORE, allows Young a very restrictive ensemble. "They have a very restrictive budget so I have money for five players, period. So I'm going to have to figure out a way to make these five people create something that will be immediately recognizable and have a voice that's unusual."

Note: There is no commercial release for Young's music from THE CORE yet announced. However, a promotional release issued by the composer will most likely become available through specialty retailers such as www.buysoundtrax.com, www.intrada.com, or www.screenarchives.com within a month or so.

For more information on Christopher Young, see the composer's web site at http://www.christopher-young.com/.

Soundtrax is our weekly Movie Soundtrack column.