De La Tour des Héros.
Version originale
Notre traduction ayant éventuellement pu s'éloigner de la version originale, voici pour les anglophones les témoignages des compositeurs tels qu'ils nous sont parvenus.
Lolita Ritmanis
“Superman: The Animated Series” - A great, well written, well acted series. I am so proud of the work that we did on that show. This was the second big series that I was a part of. The larger group of composers (around 25 composers) being mentored by Shirley Walker on BTAS had at this point been culled down to just 4 composers: Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Carter, Harvey Cohen, and myself. Shirley composed the theme and about 6-7 episodes. The other episodes were split amongst the 4 of us. "Last Son of Krypton" was a deeply meaningful episode for me. I scored part 1, as well as a few cues for part three - A truly moving story, that allowed the music to compliment this powerful story arc. The highlight for me was scoring both parts of “Little Girl Lost.” This was an epic career and personal milestone moment for me, as this two-parter played more like a feature film. There was a lot of music to write, Shirley had absolute faith in what I was doing, and she really encouraged me to embrace this assignment. Luckily I had enough time post -production wise to luxuriate over every note, over every orchestration decision. The storytelling was done with broad strokes. I felt deeply connected to this story and I took care when composing a few important themes, one of which (my theme for “Supergirl”) was then used again later throughout the series. “Little Girl Lost” recording sessions were breathtaking. We had the best musicians on those sessions, truly LA’s finest! Lucky for me, the Emmy Awards committee recognized this effort - my score, with an individual Emmy Award nomination for music for this score. I perform/conduct music from this episode to this day, having included themes from “Little Girl Lost” in a Superman Suite that was performed at the Krakow International Film Music Festival, at “The Women Who Score: Soundtracks Live” in Los Angeles, and will be performed in Tenerife in September 2016 at “ imucite." I received my second solo Emmy nomination for the episode “Fish Story.” LaLa Land’s Superman release is not to be missed. Their liner notes, extras, artwork, and of course music compilation is a great listen, as well as a historic keepsake of this “super” series.
Michael McCuistion
"The opportunity to score “Superman: The Animated Series” was, for me, a dream come true. As I’ve mentioned many times, I am a longtime fan of Superman and everything he stands for; as a child growing up in the American midwest his story really resonated with me. So when I heard from Shirley that she had been offered a Superman-centric series and she wanted me to be a part of the small team of four composers to write for it I was over the moon.”
“The excitement for me began right away while writing for my first episode, 'The Last Son Of Krypton, Part 2.' It was essentially the origin story of Clark Kent, from his discovery as a child through his journey to becoming Superman. I felt an enormous responsibility to tell this story authentically with music—it is the story of so many of us throughout the world who make our way from a small town to a big city. There were many opportunities in this score for me to conduct the orchestra without a click track, and the resulting cues have a sense of breath and life in them, a sense of becoming in the moment that is especially appropriate for Clark's story.”
“Another favorite for me would certainly be creating the Green Lantern theme for the episode ‘In Brightest Day.’ I had a hint of the scope this theme needed, knowing it was not only for one Green Lantern but also for the entire embodiment of the Corps and the power it both protected and wielded. That particular episode gave me a fantastic opportunity to both introduce and then use and transform that theme, to really connect it to what Green Lantern stands for. I’m so happy that theme has been able to live on throughout future incarnations of Green Lanterns, especially in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.”
“I remember the many scoring sessions for Superman that we had at Paramount’s Scoring Stage M (which, sadly, no longer exists). That scoring stage had hosted so many legendary film composers and saw the creation of some of the most memorable film scores of all time, so it was an honor to be a part of that legacy. World’s Finest was recorded there, along with most (if memory serves me) of the episodes of Superman. You can really hear the sound of that room on the superb La-La Land 4-CD release of the 'Superman: The Animated Series' soundtrack; the music is alive with it. And the wonderful musicians we had to record our cues—there is nothing like the Los Angeles studio musician culture. They are our real-life heroes.”
“Probably the most meaningful part of scoring Superman was that we had around 2 to 3 weeks to write and orchestrate the music for each episode. We were working on paper then—technology hadn’t evolved to the point where it was practical to work with computers. I would start my day sitting with my sketch paper, writing everything with a pencil and checking it at the piano. Orchestration was all by hand on paper too, and since there were no demos or synth mockups or previews, that meant that 100% of my time and energy was going into writing the best music I could write for each episode. It’s different now—dividing one’s attention between composing, producing, mixing and previewing all at once is very much the norm as a professional film composer today. This series was extra-special in that there was time to give the music as much compositional depth and richness as possible, and I’m hoping this music will reach more and more people who discover the series and enjoy all it has to offer."
