My most stressful final, I think, is my Electronic Music final. There, we're supposed to compose a piece of music that is 3-5 minutes long, and it has to have all sorts of things that we worked on in class before, stuff like panning, sound effects, and sound recording. It's very stressful because not only do I have a deadline, I have to adhere to some very specific rules! That's not even all. Having to stick to specific rules would be okay I suppose, but I also have to stick to an outline that I drafted before I started writing the piece. I am allowed a little leeway in instrumentation and duration, but the rest of the outline must be present in the finished product!
Well, being a film composer is something that I would love to do, and if I'm going to do that, then I have to be able to compose with a strict deadline, and with strict rules. Some directors give the composer a lot of freedom. Take for example, Hans Zimmer and his magnificent score for the movie Interstellar. Christopher Nolan, the director didn't even tell him the plot or setting of the movie. He gave him the basic idea of the story, a father leaving his child, and the composer got to work with just that. The next day, he had the main theme, and that was when Nolan told him the plot of the movie. That's how such a large, epic film ended up with such beautiful, personal music. Nolan gave Zimmer a lot of creative freedom when coming up with the main theme, and that's really amazing.
Most of the time though, you'll probably not be given so much freedom. That's what I think I will learn from this challenging final. I will learn how to work within strict parameters, and hopefully I will learn how to write something really good within those strict parameters.
Another important skill I'll learn from this final is how to not be such a huge perfectionist. I could work for days on just one section of my song, but in the end, I have to move on, because of my deadline. To a point, you have to push yourself and be critical of your own work. It does not do to be complacent! But you also have to understand that even if it's not perfect, it can still be really good, and you just shouldn't end up obsessing. I don't know if my point is coming across, but yeah. I'm a huge perfectionist, and I feel like it stops me from enjoying things. I hope that as I complete this final and the Music Theory final, which is to write a 'Species Counterpoint', I can let go of a little bit of that obsessiveness.
Please enjoy this epic and wonderful Hans Zimmer!
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