For my project, I wanted to delve into the scope of video games and classical musicians. Normally these two forces have nothing in common, but as of late, I have found them to go hand in hand. I will be discussing the use of live classical musicians playing and performing music for video games as a way to bring music into the world of cyberculture.
To obtain information on this dynamic field of music performing, I will be interviewing a friend of mine who currently is involved in an orchestra and is a contracted musician for video games. I will also be researching and interviewing other musicians who are involved in both of these fields or just musicians who are strictly involved in performing video game music and composers who write music for video games.
My final goal with this assignment is to present the paper in a presentation with a powerpoint and overviewing parts of my paper. I will be doing this to show other musicians like myself that there is more to music outside of recording for movies, playing in orchestras, and teaching.
Hi LaBarrin,
I love your title, and I think this paper will be very insightful to readers. There's a huge emphasis on the orchestral scene these days and I think this paper will be quite valuable in offering other possibilities for performing. The interview sounds like a great idea. I'm curious to see how people land these kinds of jobs. That's sort of a mystery to me! Looking forward to your presentation!
Love the title and the idea of the project. However, isn't the production and performance for video game soundtracks somewhat similar to soundtracks for other cybermedia such as film and television? Also, I wasn't sure if you are focused on live performances of video game music or the recording process.
While you should stay centered on video game music, I think you could broaden it out to include music from other forms of media allowing you to compare and contrast between them. Additionally, it would add to the amount of sources you could consult on the topic.
Also- you might want to focus on either the recording process or the live performance process. While the recording process for video game and film soundtracks is probably quite similar (for musicians), performing them live in concert is different seeing how you don't stream a video game in concert like you would a movie.
In general- I think this is an interesting topic and one that should definitely be written on. Looking forward to hearing more on it!
Collins, Karen. Game Sound : An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: IEEE Xplore, 2008.
The book Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design was written by Karen Collins and serves as an introduction to how video game music came to be. This topic covers many aspects of the subject of video game music and provides details that some people may not know.
McCarty, Clifford. Film Music 1. Edited, with an Introduction by Clifford McCarty ; Rudy Behlmer and Others. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities ; Vol. 966. New York: Garland Pub., 1989.
Clifford McCarty’s Film Music 1 is the first volume in a set that discusses film music in great detail. It again serves as an introductory book and offers lots of historical information on film music from the very beginning and includes information on many different composers and performers of film music.
What I find interesting about this source is that it does talk about musicians who were the first to be involved in film music. I think that is important because it really helps flesh out how a profession in being a film musician came to be and how that door is opened for other musicians like myself. Overall, I think this source will be very helpful in understanding film music and its roots.
Russell, Mark., and Young, James. Film Music. Boston: Focal Press, 2000.
Film Music by Mark Russell and James Young is a book and CD that focuses on the history and criticism of film music. Not only does it include their own experiences and studies of film music, but it also comes with the CD that has interviews from composers and they talk about their own experiences and works for film music.
I think this source will really help me because I not only get to read about this information, but the CD includes interviews which is something I already am working towards discussing in my paper. It would be helpful to see how film music came to be and hear it from the mouths of composers in the field and see what they have to say about it.
Schmidt Horning, Susan. Chasing Sound Technology, Culture, and the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
Susan Schmidt’s Chasing Sound Technology, Culture, and the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP is a book that focuses on the evolution of sound technology especially in studio recording. I think that this works well in the realm of what my project will focus on. It touches on the studio recording aspects of my project and can help as an introduction to what I will be looking at later on.
In order for me to get a full and stronger understanding of how I will discuss both video game music and film music, I think it is important that I also grasp how studio recording works. Knowing this will help me in the long run if I run into anything I do not understand when the authors of the film and video game sources go into details that could leave me questioning what I just read. Overall, I believe this source will help me understand the topics I am researching.
Thomas, Chance. Composing Music for Games : The Art, Technology and Business of Video Game Scoring. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.
Chance Thomas is the author of Composing Music for Games: The Art, Technology and Business of Video Game Scoring. This book may follow the same steps as some of the other sources I have provided, but it is different from the rest. The difference is that it does focus on composing game music.
What I find interesting about this book is that it does talk about composing music for video games. The other sources I have included cover the other aspects of video game music such as the recording process, but this source is also great for those who want to compose for video games and what steps must be taken to do so. Overall, I find this source to be very helpful and ideal for my project.
Woram, John M. The Recording Studio Handbook. John M. Woram ; with an Introduction by Norman H. Crowhurst. First Edition, Seventh Printing, Containing Updated Material.. ed. Plainview, N.Y.: ELAR Pub., 1982.
The Recording Studio Handbook by John M. Woram is a book that is just that; a handbook. It covers varying topics on what one must know about recording studio procedures and the process.
I think this sauce will be important for my project because it will serve as a quick guide. Although it does not specifically revolve around film or video game music, I do believe that it will work like Casing Sound Technology, Culture, and the Arts of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP and that it can be used as a stepping stone in preparing me for delving into material that focuses on video game and film music.
What I like about this book is that it really goes into different aspects of video game music and really gives newcomers to video game music a clear cut introduction to it. This source I believe will be very beneficial for me since I am a newcomer to this topic of video game music and I am looking forward to jumping into this book to see what I can learn.