With a continuation of the concepts from Media Composition and Production I, students will co-compose scores with their peers, record live instruments for projects, and further develop their professional scoring portfolios, either through scoring projects or developing original genre-specific main title cues. Students will continue to develop and discuss media music repertoire by watching films and analyzing their scores.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students are expected to produce longer, more complex, professional-quality projects. In comparison to their undergraduate counterparts, graduate students are expected to use more advanced production techniques and develop denser, more narratively complementary, and/or stylized compositions.
Athena Title
Media Composition Prod II
Undergraduate Prerequisite
MUSI 4650/6650 and MUSI 5800/7800
Graduate Prerequisite
MUSI 4650/6650 and MUSI 5800/7800
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will analyze popular film scores and iterate how the music supports the narrative by identifying the music’s type and function.
Students will practice and apply industry-standard processes associated with producing scores such as recording, mic placement, and mixing live and virtual instruments.
Students will facilitate assistant-replicant responsibilities through composer collaborations (e.g., incorporate and orchestrate pre-composed leitmotifs, creating sheet music, and preparing recording materials).
Students will produce professional-quality scores with live and virtual instruments.
Topical Outline
• Introduction: The perception of sound and narrative immersion as it relates to recording live instruments
• Review of virtual instruments: Samplers and “mocking up”
• Recording fundamentals: preparing recording sessions, minus mixes, and click tracks
• Production fundamentals: effects, mixing, and mastering
• In-depth media music score analysis and discussion
• Communication and critical analysis of own work through peer and class review exercises
• Discuss broad industry-specific topics, approaches, and challenges
• Writing main titles/demos for various genres
• Dependent on class size – “Co-composerships”: working with another composer
