bio

Creating the Right Music for a Scene

After more than 20 years of writing music for film and television, composer Brian Belanger sees his approach in very simple terms.  “There’s always a secondary element in a scene,” he says, “something that bonds with the primary element to make it resonate on a greater level.”  He recalls scoring for a scene that involved hikers walking down a path in the woods, while a mentor spoke to them by walkie talkie, enlightening them with his philosophies.  “All the while, the trees were really rocking back and forth in this terrific wind.  It must have been hard to shoot.  You could really hear it on the soundtrack.  I just found something refreshing about what he was saying over the sounds of the forest in that windstorm, which is a sound that we all enjoy.  I scored for swelling strings, in major eleventh chords... and over that I wrote a simple melody for harp and piano in unison, playing very soft and slow.   To me, that represented the voice of that man, with the trees playing the chords.”

Filmmakers often describe the first moment an original score is played with picture as “lifting up” their scene.  And it’s true that music is capable of doing wonders.  For most of his adult life, Brian has nourished a passion for both music and film, discovering with each cue how music can transform what we see. 

It’s a creative role that must be fulfilled during the often-intense world of post-production.  “You need the pressure, in a way,” he says.  “It’s widely acknowledged that art, in general, is defined by limitations, and working under a deadline really stokes the creative fires.”

Early Years

Brian wrote his very first score at age seventeen for his own homemade suspense film.  After using talented actors from a local community theater, he saw little use for “needle drop” music and instead decided to learn all he could from a local conductor.  He spent an entire day absorbing everything he could, and then went off to write about sixteen minutes of music for piano, woodwinds, brass, and string quartet.  Brian and company borrowed a reel-to-reel deck and in one grueling night recorded the entire score at a local church. To supplement this chamber-like ensemble, he removed the bottom cover from his upright piano and began strumming and hitting the strings with his hands, pieces of wood, a guitar pick—anything to create an eerie, unsettling sound.

It was a good time to revel in film music.  Brian and his friends enjoyed collecting the reissued classic scores of Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa, Hugo Friedhofer, and Korngold.  One could easily recognize the distinctive styles of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams almost from the opening credits.  Gil Melle’s unique soundscape for “The Andromeda Strain” perfectly echoed the dehumanizing research facility seen in the film. In this atmosphere of study and experimentation Brian came to understand how the right music, carefully orchestrated, might dramatically change the meaning of a scene. 

With a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts, he wrote a score for his next film, this time engaging a full orchestra, infusing his cues with catchy melodies, even writing a grand Overture based on the love theme that played before the film.

Professional Career: The First Years

Brian ventured into television commercial production, turning in jingles and broad comedy music.  He soon moved over to training films.  “Doing something longer than twenty nine seconds was nice,” he recalls.   His collection of keyboards, drum machines, and processors began to grow.  In those early lean years, he bounced and mixed down tracks between a Teac A3440 and a high speed cassette deck.

Computers changed everything, of course, making some things easier, while in others ways more complex.  “Even to this day, if I suddenly have an idea, I’m not waiting for my computers to boot up.  I’m grabbing a sketch pad, a pencil, and heading to the piano.  The best music somehow comes from real hammers striking real strings.” 

In the mid-90s, Brian attended a reunion of African-American fighter pilots from World War II –the famous Tuskegee Airmen.  He immediately thought of a musical tribute, surprised to learn that serious music had never before been written to honor these courageous men.  The very next day he began sketching themes for the first movement of what would become the “Tuskegee Airmen Suite” (1998).  The 28-minute concert piece was premiered in October of that year by the Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Felix Resnick. The music tells the story of the Redtail Angels, the renowned Black fighter squadron that overcame racism in the U.S. military. After an enthusiastic reception, Brian met with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra early the following year; they scheduled four performances under the baton of renowned pops conductor Erich Kunzel.   The performances were met with standing ovations.  The International Symphony Orchestra later performed the score as well, conducted by Jerome David Summers. 

Last Decade to the Present

In 2001 Brian was chosen to participate in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in Los Angeles, a prestigious invitation-only event that drew 12 participants from all over the world.  He conducted his own work with the Hollywood Studio Symphony on the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. 

Recent notable works include the energetic, full-blast score, “Bad Astronomy: Myths and Misconceptions”, a planetarium show for the Detroit Science Center based on the popular book and website by astronomer Phil Plait.  The show now plays across the country as well as New Zealand and Australia, and other countries.

In 2008 Brian received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to compose the score for “November Requiem”, the award-winning documentary exploring the tragedy that befell a small town in 1958, when that community lost 23 sailors to a Lake Michigan storm. The score recently won a 2009 Emmy Award for Best Original Score.   “What’s so gratifying is that people often compliment the film and the music at the same time," Brian says.  "One lady even told me she plays the soundtrack while painting—images inspiring music, and music inspiring images again, like a circle.”

Twenty years has not dampened his enthusiasm for writing.  “I still get butterflies when I play a movie file,” he says.  “I react to the scene in a heightened way, crying, laughing, feeling love or joy.  Whatever’s up there, the music’s already beginning to play in my head.” 

Today Brian writes and produces music for numerous film and television productions in his newly renovated studio. To learn more about his “sounds” and the technical side of things, go to the Home Page, or visit the Listen Page to hear excerpts from his scores.