Upon the new release, Eric talks about his score for "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", “Musically I had initially set out to create a distinctly quaint English feel. I began the project writing the main title cue and sent the demo track over to Dennis. His first comment was that he did not want the score sounding too ‘British’. I rewrote the passage and added a new motif that sounded more western. I did this almost as a joke for Dennis, since the musical pivot was stated fairly plainly. In the end it stuck and the music worked well - the score became a blend of classical European pastiche and a Copland/Gershwin-esque feel."
"This new motif became Peter’s theme, represented by the flute and piccolo, usually accompanied by the celeste. I love using leitmotifs and the method is on playful display throughout, as the Peter Rabbit narrative lends itself perfectly. Mr. McGregor is represented by the bass clarinet, bassoon and celli, and is thematically on the darker side. I kept the instrumentation fairly small, but there are some moments of action where the orchestration gets wider in the brass and strings. The music follows the on screen actions closely and there were many visual cues to hit one after the other. There was a lot of thematic development of the various motifs in this score and I put a lot of effort in to the musical storytelling."
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Eric Hester / Blog
Eric speaks about his new score album for "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"
Upon the new release, Eric talks about his score for "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", “Musically I had initially set out to create a distinctly quaint English feel. I began the project writing the main title cue and sent the demo track over to Dennis. His first comment was that he did not want the score sounding too ‘British’. I rewrote the passage and added a new motif that sounded more western. I did this almost as a joke for Dennis, since the musical pivot was stated fairly plainly. In the end it stuck and the music worked well - the score became a blend of classical European pastiche and a Copland/Gershwin-esque feel."
"This new motif became Peter’s theme, represented by the flute and piccolo, usually accompanied by the celeste. I love using leitmotifs and the method is on playful display throughout, as the Peter Rabbit narrative lends itself perfectly. Mr. McGregor is represented by the bass clarinet, bassoon and celli, and is thematically on the darker side. I kept the instrumentation fairly small, but there are some moments of action where the orchestration gets wider in the brass and strings. The music follows the on screen actions closely and there were many visual cues to hit one after the other. There was a lot of thematic development of the various motifs in this score and I put a lot of effort in to the musical storytelling."
Reply