Paul Chihara is Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair of the Composition Area at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also an accomplished composer for both the concert hall and for films, who studied with Nadia Boulanger, Ernst Pepping, and Gunther Schuller. His compositions have won numerous awards and have been played by notable ensembles around the world, and he has also written several groundbreaking ballets including Shin-ju and The Tempest. In addition, he has composed scores for nearly 100 feature films, including films by Sidney Lumet, Louis Malle, and Hayao Miyazaki.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses his career and the world of film composing from the point of view of someone with a stake in both the academic and professional worlds. He addresses the film composing process - like how a composer works with a director, how to integrate existing songs into a score, how technology is changing how film composers work, and how to get into the field – as well as the history of film composition and why young composes should know it, where he gets his creative energy, and how film music has influenced the growing world of music for video games.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, points out some of the things a film composer/scorer must keep in mind when integrating an existing song into the film.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses some ways that interested people can start a career in film scoring. He especially underscores the need for film composers to take on assistants, and tells us how to use the assistant system to break into the field.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses the need for music students and novices in the music business to present themselves professionally, and what that means.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, introduces himself and his career in composing music for films (including for films by Roger Corman), and discusses his initiative to build a graduate program in Film Music at the school.
film production team, and why the great Japanese film composer Toro Takemitsu preferred the title “sound designer.”He also speaks about the need for a film composer to be willing to collaborate with the director and producers to bring the right sound to a film, whether by writing music or by using pre-existing songs, and discusses the original purpose of music in film – to drown out the sound of the projector.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses the roots of his creativity in the sensibilities of the 1960s – both that of rock music and of composers like John Cage – and the influence that people like him have had on popular culture. He also discusses the ways in which technology makes it more convenient for composers to draw inspiration and creative content from varied sources.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses the ways in which technology has made the composer’s (especially the film composer’s) job easier, by taking the drudgery out of the process and opening up new avenues for creativity, communication and collaboration.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses his time working with the Ellington brothers and with Nadia Boulanger, and what he learned from them as to how one uses the music of their culture – whether folk, pop or jazz – as raw material for new compositions. He also discusses the near-universal appeal of big band music in every country he studied in, in the 1950s and 1960s, and draws from that some conclusions about what makes good material for composers.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses the waning importance of score study to the work of a composer, due to new technologies that privilege listening over visual means of assessing the structure of a work. He also speaks about the use of minimalist music in television scoring, and what aspects of this music are most important to setting an appropriate mood through intelligent use of sounds.
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, discusses the new respect for video game composers that has arisen in the past few years, and the roots of video game music in the music written for Japanese animated features such as the films of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away).
Paul Chihara, Professor of Composition at UCLA, shares his thoughts on the need for film composers to know the history and vocabulary of film music. He discusses some specific high points of film scoring from the past, ties them into both the film music and other traditions, and examines what made them so powerful.
