How does he do it? McCreary just confirmed that he is scoring the Starz show Outlander based on the series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Says McCreary on facebook: "At last, I get to put my love of Scottish music to good use. This feels like the show I was born for..."
It's insane considering that is 6 shows running at the same time, plus any independent stuff he does, plus the producing bits he's doing for his brothers band and anything else we don't know about at the moment. Oh yeah and having his own music label.
I really hope he doesn't stretch himself too thin and burn out.
He must be able to work his schedule out in a way so that he's only working on a few of those shows at the same time. And most are cable series so they aren't full network seasons, which helps. But still, the dude is a workhorse...
He must be able to work his schedule out in a way so that he's only working on a few of those shows at the same time. And most are cable series so they aren't full network seasons, which helps. But still, the dude is a workhorse...
Yeah, the Starz show are only 8 episodes apiece but that still works out to 64 episodes of TV he'll have scored in 2014 plus whatever movies and other projects he does. Insane.
I don't think I'm out of order when I point out that in all instances that I know of (big caveat: there are many for which I have no specific knowledge), a composer who receives music credit on every episode of a series is not composing every single cue. After the pilot, the guy with the "music by" credit writes a large portion of it, generally spots the show, supervises the cues not composed by him (typically based on his themes, though in the case of source cues all bets are off), and is basically the brand name responsible for the musical sound of the show.
This has been true for decades. In the case of McCreary, some of the people who work for him have websites featuring some cues they wrote for "Caprica," "The Walking Dead," etc.
I'm sure some here will be horrified by this, but I mean it as no disrespect for McCreary (whose work I greatly admire). Nobody can write that much music, and as far as I know, the major cues and the major melodies are indeed his own. I have no problem with him telling somebody under him "make this a forty second cue using my Graystone motif on flute."
Film and television are collaborative media. The nominal writer of a film or episode of television did not write every line you hear, every joke you laugh at, etc. In a feature film, whole sequences are often shot by the second unit, not by the director.
Okay, so Peter Jackson didn't shoot the prologue scene in "Return of the King." But that doesn't make his "directed by" credit fraudulent. And neither is the "music by" credit for a composer who puts his stamp on every cue, even if he doesn't literally write each one down.
I can't speak for this but at the very least, I know that McCreary utilizes tracking when deadlines require it (as he did with later episodes of "Human Target"). That said, his soundtrack releases tend to be very comprehensive and make it clear that he writes the majority (if not all) of the music in the shows he's credited for.
This has been true for decades. In the case of McCreary, some of the people who work for him have websites featuring some cues they wrote for "Caprica," "The Walking Dead," etc.
See also Mike Post & Pete Carpenter and Jack Elliott & Allyn Ferguson.
This has been true for decades. In the case of McCreary, some of the people who work for him have websites featuring some cues they wrote for "Caprica," "The Walking Dead," etc.
I can't speak for this but at the very least, I know that McCreary utilizes tracking when deadlines require it (as he did with later episodes of "Human Target"). That said, his soundtrack releases tend to be very comprehensive and make it clear that he writes the majority (if not all) of the music in the shows he's credited for.
It is most definitely not all of the music in the shows he's credited for, as Michael Beach and Jonathan Ortega both claim additional music credits on a large swath of McCreary projects.
Beach's credits include The Cape, Human Target, Trauma, Caprica, The Walking Dead, Eureka, and Defiance.
Ortega's credits include Terminator, Human Target, Trauma, Dark Void, Caprica, The Cape, Eureka, The Walking Dead, Defiance (both the TV show AND the video game), and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
It is most definitely not all of the music in the shows he's credited for, as Michael Beach and Jonathan Ortega both claim additional music credits on a large swath of McCreary projects.
O thank you!
I didn't know these guys. Both have really nice samples on their sites. Funny to hear how well they captured Bear's sound. Every Bear-fan should give them a listen!
I can't speak for this but at the very least, I know that McCreary utilizes tracking when deadlines require it (as he did with later episodes of "Human Target"). That said, his soundtrack releases tend to be very comprehensive and make it clear that he writes the majority (if not all) of the music in the shows he's credited for.
It is most definitely not all of the music in the shows he's credited for, as Michael Beach and Jonathan Ortega both claim additional music credits on a large swath of McCreary projects.
Beach's credits include The Cape, Human Target, Trauma, Caprica, The Walking Dead, Eureka, and Defiance.
Ortega's credits include Terminator, Human Target, Trauma, Dark Void, Caprica, The Cape, Eureka, The Walking Dead, Defiance (both the TV show AND the video game), and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
It is most definitely not all of the music in the shows he's credited for, as Michael Beach and Jonathan Ortega both claim additional music credits on a large swath of McCreary projects.
Beach's credits include The Cape, Human Target, Trauma, Caprica, The Walking Dead, Eureka, and Defiance.
Ortega's credits include Terminator, Human Target, Trauma, Dark Void, Caprica, The Cape, Eureka, The Walking Dead, Defiance (both the TV show AND the video game), and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Yeah, I guess it makes sense, with so many projects, so many deadlines and so many scenes that Bear probably doesn't find particularly interesting to score himself. Neither sound much like the real thing though (at least to my ears).
In Outlander, you will hear all-live performances of orchestras, small ensembles and specialty soloists. There are character themes woven throughout the score, ranging from subtle little gestures to full-on sweeping love themes.
The best way to introduce the style of writing I’m bringing to Outlander is to highlight some of my past works that brought me here. These are Outlander’s musical ancestors, scores which helped me explore techniques that would prove vital to my work on this series.
. . .
[Black Sails] frequently draws from a similar body of historically-accurate source music because the series happens to take place a mere 30 years prior to Outlander. Tunes such as “The Parson’s Farewell” even prominently feature bagpipes and penny whistle. Emotional tracks such as “Funeral At Sea” are a wonderful example of how I strive to create big emotions with an intimate ensemble of period-appropriate instruments, a technique I will use frequently on Outlander.
I'm really looking forward to more Celticish music from Bear. I'm currently working on his piano arrangement of BSG's Wander My Friends and that melody never gets old^
