SHOOT-BACK HERE | E-MAIL THE AUTHOR

KNOWING THE SCORE - June 18, 2003

by Paul Tonks

soundtrack -- n. / Pron. "sound ( trak"
1. The narrow strip at one side of cinema film carrying the sound recording.
2. The music that accompanies a movie.
3. A commercial recording of such music.
4. A bastardised phrase record labels use to sell you crappy songs that have nothing to do with the movie they're apparently associated with.

When I first took on this Column -– a whole year ago now! -– I made a list of all the areas I’d want to cover. Game scores was something I wanted to get into soon. But for the reasons detailed below, this first mention of the medium had to be repeatedly postponed. At last, however, the exciting tale can be told…

LARA CROFT’S GRAND MUSICAL ADVENTURE

Anyone who happened to peek at London’s Abbey Road Studios webcam almost a year ago on the afternoon of July 18th, would have been rather surprised. Instead of the usual string of Japanese tourists stopping traffic on the pedestrian crossing as they recreate the famous Beatles album cover, there was Lara Croft.

Walking with her to make up the foursome were composers Peter Connelly and Martin Iveson with their producer Andrew Thompson. The event was the recording of the score for the latest TOMB RAIDER game –- THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS. This particular publicity stunt occurred during a break between sessions. Exciting though the gag was, everyone was itching to get back inside. Because the London Symphony Orchestra were working magic in realising the composers’ dream of hearing their work come to life.

The recording went extremely well, with everyone delighted at the results. And then? Then it took another year to find its final home! Originally the game should have been a Christmas 2002 release. Then February of 2003. And on it went. Now at long last the results will be enjoyed by Lara’s fans the world over. And I’m sure it hasn’t hurt anyone having the movie sequel open a matter of weeks later!

Here are the full interviews with both composers as well as the project’s orchestra. Don’t forget to check out and participate in the competition at the base of the page too.

COMPOSERS PETE CONNELLY AND MARTIN IVESON

PAUL TONKS: What were the circumstances (perhaps way in advance of this game being made) that threw you guys together?

We've worked together, but usually on separate projects, for nearly five years now, but as this project was going to be huge and started from scratch it was fairly obvious it was going to need more than one audio guy working on it.

PAUL TONKS: Was there a grand plan from the outset for how there'd be a split in work? Or was it a case of being flexible & reacting as the game developed?

PETE CONNELLY: There are two main locations in the game. Initially, I took Paris and Martin took Prague but as time elapsed things happened differently. We both wrote the music. Martin ended up doing the in-game sound effects and I handled all the Cut scene and FMV audio. We did chip in with each other’s work from time to time though. So, I suppose it was a case of being flexible & reacting as the game developed.

PAUL TONKS: When it comes down to the stylistic musical choices, are you your own bosses? Or do you report to a person / group of people with their own set ideas?

We don't report to anyone in this respect, but we do like to have regular feedback from other members of the team just so we know we're heading in the right direction.

PAUL TONKS: Getting specific about the stylistic musical choices, I assume in the first instance you're operating within some sort of framework established by the previous games. How has that style progressed & been defined?

PETE CONNELLY: This is partially true with regards to the main theme, but everything else is fairly fresh. There are a few elements though, especially the stings, that has a typical TR feel. The opening score is an amalgamation of my TOMB RAIDER IV: THE LAST REVELATION theme and Nathan McCree's established TR melody. They gel quite nicely together.

PAUL TONKS: Outside of that framework, can you talk a bit about influences & sources of inspiration? At the sessions I remember movie titles like A.I. / ALIEN: RESURRECTION / BRAVEHEART being mentioned alongside classical composers like Shostakovich / Stravinsky.

MARTIN IVESON: We drew influence from many sources, especially film composers. This was the first time we were to score for a real orchestra so we needed to do as much homework as possible. Peter has much admiration for the works of John Williams and I'm particularly fond of the twisted yet clever use of instrumentation in ALIEN: RESURRECTION (John Frizzell).

PAUL TONKS: When we talk about influences or inspiration, it needs to be understood that's like naming favourites and not talking about blatant cribbing. But every so often a composer likes to drop in an homage or reference to a favourite. Should listeners look out for anything?

PETE CONNELLY: I don’t think either of us paid any sort of homage consciously. Maybe subconsciously? There is a French Horn counter melody in one of the pieces which sounds like a section from STAR WARS, but I had no idea until someone pointed it. Haha.

PAUL TONKS: The exciting new significance this score brings to the music of the TOMB RAIDER series is of course that it's mostly for full orchestra. And the London Symphony Orchestra at that! Can you detail the story of how this came about?

MARTIN IVESON: As this TOMB RAIDER is written from scratch and developed on the far superior PS2 it needed to be special in every department, including audio. Tomb Raider music has always been written with an orchestra in mind so it was inevitable at some point we would have the time and budget to score for a real orchestra and this was a perfect opportunity.

PAUL TONKS: Outside of TOMB RAIDER there's some precedent for the use of an orchestra in game scoring, but it's still not a great proportion of what's produced. What do you see as the benefits (feel free to spotlight any drawbacks too) or orchestral music fuelling game play?

PETE CONNELLY: Orchestral music can have a big impact on the game-playing experience if done correctly and only if it’s definitely what the game needs. Using a live orchestra, instead of using samples, gives the results you want with very little effort. You can spend hours programming a sample but you’ll never get it to sound like a human player, especially when the parts are complicated.

PAUL TONKS: What were the areas of composition & recording technique you guys had to brush up on?

We basically had to make sure each part was written within the limits of the instrument and capabilities of the player. It was a progressive learning curve and we’re still learning. It’s pointless scoring a harp run which isn’t technically possible or sustaining a note for a French Horn part that exceeds the capabilities of the human lung.

PAUL TONKS: When it came down to the big day, how did your emotions & professional opinions of the results you were getting develop through the day?

PETE CONNELLY: That was a pretty hectic day. We had to get through so much in such little time that our heads were in bits. Haha. As it was our first time doing anything like this we didn’t know what to expect so this contributed to our stress. As the day progressed we became more relaxed as everything was going quite smoothly. Looking back, we would’ve preferred more time to get things exact, but what we achieved in 2x three-hour sessions was quite remarkable.

PAUL TONKS: Was there anything that wildly exceeded your expectations?

MARTIN IVESON: The professional and technical ability of the LSO!!! They are such a fantastic orchestra to work with. Before the day of the recording, they never saw or rehearsed any of the music. They just came in, sat down and played it. Fantastic!!!

PAUL TONKS: Cues are divided between cut scenes & those that accompany the game in play so what was the breakdown of cues?

MARTIN IVESON: We didn’t have any particular cues. Initially we worked towards having three layers, or levels, of music for each location (Paris and Prague) and a selection of short stings for surprise attacks or wide camera pans of any location, etc. The higher the layer the more action was happening on screen and we would fade in between each one according to the level of action. We ended up using the music freely as and when needed because the initial method seemed quite restrictive.

PAUL TONKS: Obviously there's Nathan's original Lara Theme. There's also a theme for Kurtis. Any other themes or repeating ideas?

There is the TOMB RAIDER IV: THE LAST REVELATION theme also in the main title piece. It actually starts and ends with this. We wanted to create a collage of previous Tomb Raiders so players would hear something they instantly recognised.

PAUL TONKS: Where can it go from here for you guys, in terms of more TOMB RAIDER musical installments?

We hope that we get the opportunity to do this again and we will put to good use everything we have learned from this experience.

PAUL TONKS: Do either of you recall a single note from the TOMB RAIDER movie score the other year?

Nope. There was probably a G in there somewhere but we can’t remember.

PAUL TONKS: Why doesn't Hollywood 'get it' that the worldwide gaming audience missed their familiar music?

We were extremely surprised there was no reference to any of the game music at any point.

PAUL TONKS: Final question: In an ideal world, who would score the perfect TOMB RAIDER movie? Yes - you can nominate yourselves!

PETE CONNELLY: In second place to myself, it would have to be John Williams. After all, he did score Indiana Jones.

ORCHESTRATOR PETE WRAIGHT

PAUL TONKS: How & when did you come aboard the project?

PETE WRAIGHT: The first indication of this project came in Jan 2002 when I was invited to Core design by Martin and Pete ( the co-composers ) to consider the feasability of a large orchestral game score. Having worked on a number of sucessful smaller scale projects with Martin, we had already proved a practical working relationship.

PAUL TONKS: Have you had any involvement in the field of game scores before?

PETE WRAIGHT: No. I was aware of the general requirements of sound effects and music within this genre.In this instance a broader approach seemed necessary, closer to a film score in outlook. It's hard not to make a large orchestration sound epic, which fits the requirements of a game like tomb raider perfectly.

PAUL TONKS: What did the general workload entail? And who was your foremost point of contact between the composers?

PETE WRAIGHT: Martin was the musical co-ordinator for the project. After the initial title score had been completed, because of the volume of the remaining work, we all worked to a logging system to ensure nothing was forgotten. In general, the approach used was as follows: