Questions for Snuffy Walden?

[danguyf]

Next up to be interviewed is Snuff Walden, composer extraordinaire. Once again I open the floor to the lot of you. There is no deadline for these questions as of yet, but I'd say that a week's time should be plenty.

Please respond to this initial post, unless you wish to add some further question to a question already posted, in which case reply to it.

[Guest]

Hi Danguyf

If you saw my post earlier down about angela smiled. I would love to ask Mr. Walden if he ever thought of releasing an entire CD of his music from MSCL, he has done this with alot of other tv specials. There has to be more music than just angela smiled from MSCL.

Thanks

[dTheater]

Tell him that, aside from his music on MSCL, I also loved his work on Sports Night.

Okay, that is all.

- jim

Kaytee Bodle: Girl With Guitar
http://girlwithguitar.0catch.com/

[socalledfan]

Mr. Walden,

Your composing style complimented the show PERFECTLY.

Did you watch scenes before composing short pieces for them?

Any anecdotes about certain pieces of music that you can share with us?

My favorite piece of music that whole season was when Angela danced around like a ballerina after leaving Jordan's car in "Why Jordan Can't Read." Can you tell me anything about that piece?

And, who whispers "Go, now, go!" before the opening theme?

Thanks for the music.

Elyse (Socalledfan)

rosegirl63000@yahoo.com



"You're so beautiful, it hurts to look at you."

[Guest]

How much advanced planning did you do when composing? I'm asking this because the theme mentioned in the above post ("Angela dancing after kissing Jordan") is the same one used in "Dancing in the dark", when Angela leaves Jordan's car in the end. And in the same way, the theme that plays during the museum visit was the same one that played during Angela and Jordan's love scenes in "Self-esteem". Were these things planned in order to associate certain moments of the show with others, or it was just "this theme was cool! Let's use it again in this other scene"?


Paulo.

[Guest]

Who are some of your favorite composers working right now on film and TV?

Paulo.

[richard]

- Quite a few of your shows since MSCL have had quite similar music (esp. Early Edition) was this your choice (and not a bad one) or did the producers of those shows specifically request it.

- Have you any pieces of music that were never used that you could share (I expect that's been asked, but is worth mentioning)

[danguyf]

Last call for questions for Snuffy! I send the questions out Friday, May 24th!

[Guest]

ok, here are a few questions:
1) which show you worked on is your favorite one regarding the show itself (content)
2) which show you worked on is your favorite one regarding challenges as a composer and/or your work
3) which show would you like to work for?
4) who asked you to do the score for MSCL? why did you decided to do the show?
5) what was your reaction after cancellation?
6) which one was your favorite episode regarding the content/story
7) which one regarding your work
did you ever visit the set or do you work at home/in a studio?
9) what reactions did you get from producers/crew/cast on your music?
10) which other composers do you admire/like (TV and Movies) and why?
11) what's your favorite piece of score from a) from MSCL b) from your whole soundtrack-composing-career
12) did it ever happen that you didn't know what to compose for a certain scene?

can't think of other questions right now

[Cat22]

It's Rayanne who whispers "Go now, go" to Angela, as Angela needs the encouragement to take hold of her life. By the end of the series though, she doesn't need Rayanne's help any more...

[danguyf]

One up-side of the delay is that there is more time to ask questions of Snuffy. So if you missed out on your first chance, reply to this post!

[mephisto]

One up-side of the delay is that there is more time to ask questions of Snuffy. So if you missed out on your first chance, reply to this post!

ok, a last one - not MSCL-related, but might be an interesting question for a film composer

the Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso", "Malena", "The Legend of the 1900") once told that the famous Ennio Morricone - who does the score for all his films - composes the music before he sees the film (just with the script, knowing the story). Tornatore says that it is very helpful to know the score while directing the movie. What's your opinion? Did you ever have the chance to do this or do you prefer composing after you've seen the movie/episode?

btw, the German radio station "Klassikradio" (Classic Radio) regularly plays your music!

[foolishoptimist]

Is it just a coincidence that you worked on "It's like you know", "Three Sisters" and "The wonder years", three seamingly unrelated shows, that have had A.J. Langer(Rayanne) in it? The latter also featuring Devon Odessa(Sharon) although only in guest roles they were in the same episode.

You've also worked on Felicity, another seamingly unrelated show that happened to feature Devon Gummersall(Brian).
Is this all a coincidence or is there some other power at work.
Are you making casting suggestions?
Are you friends with any of these actors?
Or are the people who hire you simply fans of your other shows?

Is it strange when you keep seeing the same faces in many different roles, for instance many actors from MSCL have appeared in other Bedford falls productions like "Once and again", and "Relativity". And Jason Katims' show "Roswell".
And incidentally Richard Schiff has also appeared in "Relativity", "Roswell" and "The West Wing".

Love you're work.

[Nostradamus]

How much advanced planning did you do when composing? I'm asking this because the theme mentioned in the above post ("Angela dancing after kissing Jordan") is the same one used in "Dancing in the dark", when Angela leaves Jordan's car in the end. And in the same way, the theme that plays during the museum visit was the same one that played during Angela and Jordan's love scenes in "Self-esteem". Were these things planned in order to associate certain moments of the show with others, or it was just "this theme was cool! Let's use it again in this other scene"?


Paulo.

I once read an article about composer Mark Snow (X-Files, Millenium, La Femme Nikita, etc) in which he said that he used recurring musical cues to highlight recurring characters and themes. In fact, my all-time favorite piece of TV background music was Mr. Snow's eerie theme for the "Deep Throat" character in The X-Files. It's been a while since I've seen (and thus heard) all the episodes, but I wouldn't be surprised if "Snuffy" used similar musical hints on MSCL to help reinforce story elements.