Bio

In his early youth, CSTBL (1978) grew up in a music store. He's climbed the large organs Irom the
early 80's and remembered which buttons the salesmen pressed to get results. And so, prior to ten
years oI piano lessons starting at seven, he could operate and play large organs Irom the likes oI
Eminent, Technics and Yamaha. In his teens, he started using computers and the programming oI
them. He was Iascinated by the Iact that art could be programmed, and as such computer art (both
music and graphics) kept him busy Ior years.
In 1997 he's made music Ior a large home-shot movie Irom a Iellow class-mate. It was Iull oI action
scenes, Iight scenes, car stunts, roughly Iollowing the James Bond Iormat. Like 007-movies, there
was a title song, also composed by CSTBL, sung by another class mate. That song (and the
national attention in the media Ior this unusual Iilm) led to an interview at the (back then) Dutch
equivalent oI MTV, where the clip oI this title song was shown. In later years, short Iilms and other
small projects Iollowed Irom the same director (who went to Iilm academy). A Iinal 25 minute short
Irom 2000/2001 had CSTBL's music perIormed by 33 string players, three woodwinds and piano
in a medium concert hall.
From 1997-2001 he studied music technology, and graduated in composition, production, soItware
and sound design. AIter that he's done music Ior commercials, radio, theater, TV, Iilm and games. In
2008 he picked a new study: journalism. In 2012, and unIinished, he called it a day. He picked up a
job as writer Ior one oI the largest music stores in the Benelux. Back to the roots, in a way..
In the virtual online world, CSTBL loves being a string oI characters no one can pronounce or
understand, in the real world he preIers to reside under the radar. His personal score preIerence lies
in themes and rich orchestrations, mostly Irom the 20st century. One could say: the logical
continuation oI Late-Romanticism and Impressionism. The recent stylistic shiIts that some Iilm
music seems to go through leaves him cold. He's a two-times winner oI the Composers Challenge
with Wall-E and Spartacus and picked 2
nd
, 3
rd
, and 4
th
places in other editions. He sees art as the
science oI aesthetics and emotion, and as such he is calculative in his creative choices. In giving
opinions he's equally rational, strict, direct, very honest, and always ready to hand out suggestions
and tips.
Introduction
A Iew words, beIore I get into the depths oI the jury report. As the ranking is a combination oI three
jury members and audience votes, this speciIic report only has a marginal eIIect on this ranking.
Nonetheless contenders mav perhaps Ieel a bit itchy as my report isn't a carnival oI tens and nines,
so to say. The reasons it isn't all tens 'n nines are quite global, the whole line up oI entries was
reasonably consistent in its ideas. It took a while Ior my report to take shape, as I was a bit in doubt
as Ior how to Iormulate things without bombs being delivered at my address.. :)
Either way, as the temperatures have Iinally been decent here in The Netherlands, I've spent a Iew
days at the beach (an eight minute walk Ior me, you'll Iind me there when the sun's right). I've put
all the entries onto my phone and listened to them in an 'as heard on album' manner. I know the clip
by heart anyway. So, while being baked (and almost being robbed by a Scooby Doo who was aIter
my sandwich), I picked the phone, paper and pencil Irom my bag and started listening. My primary
aim was to judge whether I'd want to listen to it (again). Why not strictly in context oI the clip is
explained below. So, primarily my report is about musical aesthetics in their own right. Other jury
members may have put the Iocus on context, I've made diIIerent choices.
You will Iind out that the overarching text is a lot bigger than the text per entry. That's because, as
I've mentioned above, so many things among these entries are comparable. II there's no text Ior
your entry, then the overarching text applies to you. Because there are so many entries, and all
equally lengthy, I've chosen to split the beach-list into two. There's a shortlist oI nominees, they get
an extra round oI attention and three oI them make up the gold-silver-bronze list.
A Iinal notes still: while listening and writing this text I still haven't read the other jury reports, nor
have I read what people have been saying at the Scoreboard. So, I don't even know whether all this
text is against the vox populi. The Iirst time I'll take a look at the other reports will be after I've
submitted this one to KK!
The contest
When the theme adaption concept was proposed on the Filmtracks Scoreboard, the idea seemed
nice. To continue what Williams and others started, that can't be bad, no? I'd say that (at least when
it comes to my taste) the results oI this concept are, Irom a broader point oI view, a misIire. For this
the contenders are not to blame though, let that be said. The problem lies in the actual scene, in
something that I've vented several times already. Let's have a look:
Did the original clip (most oI the scenes in this clip, so to say) have music anyway? Now, I more or
less dropped out oI the Iranchise aIter Goblet oI Fire, so I haven't seen anything aIter Goblet. In a
way, this is useIul as I don't really have a concept oI the original music. In Iact, I wouldn't be able to
hum anything Irom the original movie this clip originates Irom, so my ears are really a blank
canvas. But Ior sake oI comparison, I took a quick look at the original action scene: what I heard
was not music. And that makes a little alarm bell ringing in my head, I've had a similar clip without
music during my study. I got a 'thumbs down', so to say, because I made music where there
shouldn't have been any. Though the teacher conIessed that it was a nasty test to see who would Iall
Ior it. Lesson learnt. Back to the clip: why was there no music in the original clip? Who knows, but
the director (perhaps in agreement with the composer) just didn't Ieel any music was to be used
there.
This does raise the question whether 'we' should put music there. Because iI we do, we may well
ruin the thing (inserting music where none is desired). Yet at the other hand, within a contest like
this, it would Ieel weird to not put music there. It'd be 'lazy' in a way, hence, a paradox is born.
A key element oI any action scene is sound; not music, sound. This sound layer is a mixture oI
speech, sound eIIects and environmental background noise. It's a vital starting point Ior any
composer. First the composer decides whether the sound layer is suIIicient in supporting the scene,
and iI it needs music then the sound layer dictates what kind oI music would Iit. The composing bit
is the second step, and should be only taken when the Iirst step was investigated. Right here is
another paradox. We'd need the sound layer to know what kind oI music to make, yet Ior a contest
this (leaving the original sound and music in place) would |1| inIluence the contender (who would
Ieel stuck with the original, kind oI the temptrack-phenomenon), and |2| in this particular clip most
oI the sound layer was leIt out, so there's no telling what intensity oI music should be applied; there
are no audible guides unless, oI course, you do know the origins oI this clip.
II this sound layer is being leIt out, leaving the contender to make music Ior picture alone, then
some Iunny things pop up. I'd call it 'Mickey Mousing without Mickey Mouse'. Because there are
no sound eIIects, speech, anything, you'd start Iilling these gaps with music. In other words,
wherever there used to be a large whoosh eIIect (but, leIt out oI the challenge clip because there was
music attached to it), you'd be tempted to create a replacement whoosh using music. And this could
be anything Irom cymbals, Ilute runs to strings runs 'n tremolos etc. Why do we do that? Because
without sound layer, and without music to take over this tole, the scene would appear to be empty,
and we are too creative to accept that. So, what you get is Mickey Mousing with screen action
translated to music, whereas there would not be such music in the original. This is actually a bad
thing, as Mickey Mousing usually means that the musical arc is disrupted to make place Ior musical
sound eIIects. As a result, the music appears messy and chaotic.
This chaotic music leads to another paradox in this contest. Take Williams' 'The Ultimate War
(Hook), that's a long stretch oI Iull-time action, yet it sounds great and clear. Obviously, Williams
mixes 'n matches his character themes in this cue, and since we've grown used to these themes,
hearing them broken up, glued together and altered isn't weird. Growing used to such themes
implies knowing the complete Iilm, and/or knowing the complete score. Yet in this challenge clip,
we get like 8 minutes, in the middle oI 'something'. With barely any moment to properly introduce
and develop a theme, there's hardly any material to use in action cues. In situations like these
contenders run the risk oI creating near-random music, chaotic, and not related to any architecture.
This causes such music to Ieature a large amount oI 'whatever'. There are some technical
implications to all this, I'll get back to that Iurther on in this report.
But, there's even another paradox lurking! Music should support the picture. Most cinema goers
would just watch a Iilm and not be aware oI the Iilm score anyway. UngrateIul towards the
composers no doubt, but that's the game. Watching these clips is quite diIIerent. With no audible
sound layer in essential places, and actors talking without us hearing them talk, the Iull attention oI
the observer goes towards music. But hold it, that wasn't what the concept oI a Iilm score is, no?
This is a nasty paradox Ior sure; the result is the exact opposite oI the deIinition oI Iilm music,
while the concept oI the contest was to make Iilm music. What you get is not a Iilm with Iilm
music, but a piece oI music Ior which the Iilm Iorms the overarching structure. I Iound myselI
watching these clips, and I really couldn't care Ior the images. While we normally talk about music
Iitting the Iilm, in this case I've seen a clip which didn't Iit the music.
All oI the above are pointers Ior a next challenge. But even without a next challenge (though I'm
sure there'll be one), it'd be good to think about them Ior any composer out there.
TechnicaI impIications of chaos music
This clip had some Iighting scenes, with all sorts oI things happening. Running, magic, Ilashes,
anything. Usually this calls Ior chaos music, Ior the simple reason that there's no consistent pulse in
such scenes. Something could be said to leave out music altogether, it's a choice to be made by the
director.
The Iirst time I've heard someone talk about 'chaos music' was that director who was mentioned in
my wee biography. It was during a Iilm we did, and Ior a chase scene he wanted some more 'chaos'
in the music. I'm talking 2002 now, I think, and computers and soItware were obviously a decade
older. Back then, creating convincing chaos music was more or less a no-go within the realm oI
virtual orchestrations. II you'd have tried, it would have sounded Iake. As a side note: back then I
solved it with percussive instruments and synths. So, when solving this with strings/winds/brass
samples, it'll boil down to quantitv, not so much to diversitv. With merely staccato/spiccato strings
you'd be able to do a decent bit o' chaos, but not with just one sample oI each note. Today, things
look brighter already; multiple recordings oI the same note (round robin) and ensemble layers
should get great quality with which it's very easy to do chaotic movements (even cluster-like) and
Iast repetitions. It's merely in these current days that even high-end libraries are catching up on that.
The question remains: how to judge this? Because the diIIerences between a decade are deIinitely
present among the entries. KK already pointed out among jury members that we'd best judge entries
without taking into account the used samples in all oI this. But can I? Does that make sense? There
are various ways to look at this.
|1| It matters. Simple as that. II the listener is distracted by the aural quality oI the music then, as
Iilm music, it doesn't work. Note that even with modern samples, this can be a problem. There's still
some manual work to be done, no matter how much your library automates things Ior you (usually
something to avoid like the plague).
|2| Chances are that those who take their composing work serious are likely to invest in decent
libraries/synths. And likewise: chances are that those who invest in decent libraries/synths are likely
to be the better composers. With that in mind, the chances are that the ranking actually wouldn't
change between the winner and the one placed last, whether or not jury members keep this samples-
aIIair in mind. The rating would probably diIIer, but not the ranking.
|3| Some older libraries, or even some older synthesizers, are perIectly capable to come up with a
convincing sound. I know, because I've been doing such in a time even beIore the rise oI soItware
samplers. But you'd have to put in some eIIorts, and you may have to change the musical concept to
match the sound. To change the musical concept to match the synth/library's limitations is the
number one solution in any producer's book. II you don't have the materials to do a high-end idea,
the high-end idea will sound Iake when done with low-end solutions. Better would be to choose
another idea, something that matches your sounds, it'll sound convincing then. The key quality oI
any media composer is the ability to think out oI the box. Even when your director/producer is still
in the box.
Ratings
Below is a list oI ratings, per entry. You'll see two ratings Ior each entry; the Iirst is the rating Ior the
Musical Aesthetics, whether I'd like to hear it more oIten. The second rating reIers to the presenting
oI HP-material, whether it had that bit o' Williams-magic.
Entry MA HP Avg. nominee
1 6 8 7.0
2 3 4 3.5
3 7 7.5 7.3 nominee
4 6.5 7.5 7.0
5 8 7.2 7.6 nominee
6 5 5.8 5.4
7 3 3 3.0
8 4 5 4.5
9 6 6 6.0
10 7 7 7.0
11 6 5 5.5
12 8.5 7 7.8 nominee
13 4 4.8 4.4
14 9 6 7.5 nominee
15 8.8 7 7.9 nominee
16 6.3 7.5 6.9
17 5 5 5.0
18 4 5 4.5
19 5 6 5.5
Prior to diving into the nominees, something's striking when looking at this list. Let's Iirst point out
that these ratings are not exact science, I can't explain the ratings other than this gut Ieeling I had
while listening to the tracks. So, what strikes me as remarkable is that, except Ior entry 3, the
nominees have stronger MA-ratings than HP-ratings. The non-nominees have almost always
stronger HP-ratings than MA-ratings. It could mean that the nominees are more adventurous, going
their own way, while the non-nominees Ieature stronger renderings oI HP-themes. It has happened
multiple times that I had an MA-rating Ior a non-nominee in mind, while listening. You know, a
rating oI 4..5..6, and then suddenly a rendition oI a HP-theme comes along which actually sounded
quite decent. I'd even say that the diIIerence between new/own material and HP-material was
sometimes remarkable. Have these perhaps been arrangers rather than die-hard composers?
The average ratings are consistent with the small bullet marks I've put on my beach-paper, behind
nominees. Ratings Ior the nominees range Irom 7.3 to 7.9. So, in a nutshell you'd be able to see the
gold-silver-bronze already. But let's have a look at the nominees anyway:
The nominees
3
The nominee status oI this entry is built upon moments, rather than consistency. There are moments
that didn't work Ior me in both MA or HP categories. The magic/action right aIter Sirius lets his Iist
speak was rather out oI place. The piccolo run-up Ielt cheap (more like a clown perIorming a salto
in a circus) and the whole trumpet part would be more at place in a spaghetti western. The second
halI however harvests the precious points, as did the wailing woman (quite some wailing woman in
this contest, by the way..). The adagio in that second halI is actually rather good. Somehow,
somewhere, I have 'Brian Tyler' in my head, dunno why. The rendition oI the HP theme during the
newspaper Ilashes was done well. I mean, it's Williams so in a way it's his credit, but it can also be
screwed up easily iI you're not paying attention. Had the other halI been less based on chaos music,
the rating would be higher. Chaos music is really the killer in this whole contest.
5
II entry #3 reminded me partly oI spaghetti western, the same scene in entry #5 isn't Iar oII the great
plains either. More sophisticated perhaps, but still cowboys on horses riding into sunset, not exactly
HP-magic. The chaos music under the Iighting scene with Mr. Flatnose and Dumbledore was
reasonably well executed. The Ilute/piccolo runs during the breaking oI all that glass have the same
'clown perIorming a salto sound. A case oI choosing sounds that work and skip the ones that
won't. Usually, iI solo wood/brass instruments sound bad or unrealistic, they can drag the whole
thing down. Here the advantage oI large layered ensembles shines; together they'll hold up where
soloists won't. So, iI in doubt: go Ior the masses. The newspaper Ilashes have an interesting tone oI
voice, quite diIIerent compared to #3, but certainly interesting.
12
'Hi uncle Hans! And that summarizes this entry quite a bit. It's Hans' deep 'n loud brassy staccatos,
the anthems, the syrupy drama, the strings ostinatos, and did I hear a slight bit o' Pirates oI the
Caribbean there? I'll be Irank: the sound was good. Despite KK's wish Ior jury members not to let it
all depend on samples too much, it just works better when it sounds good because you get less
distracted by cheaper sound samples. Question is: is it HP-material? I'm not so sure. Nor was a very
sure about the composers that picked up the Iranchise aIter Williams, so the answer would be
'probably' if uncle Hans would've picked up one oI the installments. While it's certainly not bad, I
can't stop myselI Irom thinking it all belongs into another movie. There's a chance that this style is
what the contender actually wants to make, trying to Iit the contest clip into this particular style,
even it it was not a perIect Iit.
14
The reason this clip caught my attention was that it was atonal and experimental, perhaps even
Avant-Garde. I wonder whether the contender listens to Alien3 too! :) This one dares to stray away
Irom the usual, and it's easy to make a mess out oI such plans. But luckily this entry succeeds rather
well, and I have the impression that, despite a younger audience than most oI Goldenthal's Iilms, it
could actually work in the actual movie. Very good on its own accounts, less convincing in the
adapting oI HP themes as Iar as I'm concerned.. and that was part oI the deal.
15
This entry Ior the clip Ielt the most accurate and appropriate oI 'em all. A decent balance between
chaos music and more regular drama. Somewhat less interesting when it comes to adapting HP-
material but that's more or less the only nag. I can be long or brieI about it, but as it'll boil down to
the same thing, I could as well be brieI about it. Even though it's only about a tenth oI a point, entry
15 is the best entry in my book.
Gold: entry 15 (7.9)
Silver: entry 12 (7.8)
Bronze: entry 5 (7.6)
Tips and finaI words
Some oI them have been mentioned earlier, but let's recap.
Use your synths/samples as long as they sound convincing. Know the limits and keep in
mind that straying oII the path implies great risks. Change the concept iI your
synths/samples don't match up with your initial idea. This is not rare or weird, it's what
producers do, daily well, unless they have the cash to hire/record real instrument players.
II chaos music is not your thing, Iine. Chaos without a Iundamental idea is likely to sound
weird and develops quite like a ruhby ball bounces.
I've heard sounds that were a bit 'oII' compared to the acoustics oI other sounds in the same
piece. Some sounds were wet, like they should be, and then another sound popped up that
sounded bone dry and mono. That does distract quite a lot. A rule oI thumb: everything in a
concert hall sounds wide and wet.
So, there you have it. This may well have been the toughest challenge in the past years, yet with an
attraction (Williams-Iranchise!) that made it look simple. A key aspect oI this clip has been the
chaos music, and that's not simple to do. Especially with some sound eIIects and speech missing.
Other editions had their own Iocus, like scoring nature/documentary, overture, intro/leader etc.
'Chaos music' should be the subtitle oI this seventh edition. Another diIIiculty lies in the Iact that
source music was leIt out, the price being that speech and sound eIIects had to go to. ReIraining
yourselI Irom composing Ior intended silence proved to be another Iiendish burden. All I can do is
hope that a next edition tackles these disturbing obstacles, upon which the global quality level oI the
entries arises Irom the ashes, like a Phoenix!