INTERVIEW: Music Copyist Robert Puff

When you watch the credits roll at the end of a movie, sometimes it's hard to grasp what all those hundreds of people on that list have actually done for the movie. Yet many of these jobs (if not all of them) have immense value for the movie you have just seen. Take for instance, the job of Music Preparation, without which you probably wouldn't be hearing that sweeping orchestral music that drives the movie. Yes, it's the composer who comes up with the music, but it's the music copyist who takes the score and transcribes it for the orchestral soundtrack sessions. It's a job that has to be done very accurately, and there aren't many people in the movie industry today who are more accurate than Robert Puff, who has worked on more than 70 movies, including Die Hard With a vengeance, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Grudge and recent box office hit Ghost Rider. He took some time out from his work to answer some of my questions, and to give you an insight into his fascinating job.

What is Music Preparation?

Q: To start with, can you explain a little bit for my readers what your job is?
A: A typical feature film may have anywhere between 45 and 70 minutes of orchestral score. Through a process of "spotting" the film with the director, the  composer's music is divided up into "cues" which drive individual scenes in the movie.
Music preparation, also called music copying, is the job of taking the fully orchestrated score for each cue for the film and converting this  notation into individual parts for each player. The parts we create for the session musicians typically contain only one or two staves or lines of music for each specific instrument. Each part is transposed appropriately with entrance cues and other signposts to make sure that everyone knows where they are in the music at all times during the recording sessions. These parts are then all proofread carefully against the master score to make sure that the session will go smoothly.
The composer's score provides an overview of all the parts together in one place, so we duplicate and bind score books for the composer, conductor, music editor and recording engineer.

Q: Did you already have a passion for music before you started this job?
A: Yes, I grew up playing and reading music as a performer. I've also composed and arranged music as a hobby since I was a teenager, and so this more technical side of music was a natural extension of the more creative connection I had with music.

Q: I will admit that the job of music preparation is one of those jobs on the credits list that will have plenty of people wondering what it is. How did you find out that this was the job for you?
A: Prior to 1995, I had been working as a freelance music engraver working for various publishers. I was also working as an arranger and musician. When Michael Kamen scored Die Hard With A Vengeance, I was hired to be at the soundstage as a music copyist through my connection with the Seattle Symphony. Eventually this turned into my own business.

Let's get technical

Q: Can you explain the difference between music copying and music engraving?
A: Music engraving is the term used in connection with typesetting music for publication. Its origin is comes from the days when music was scribed, or "engraved" by hand onto a tin plate in preparation for the printing press. In those days, a single page of music took 8 hours to prepare!  Music copying is the term you hear in connection with film scores, commercials, music for live shows etc. - basically "music copying" refers to music which is prepared or printed for a specific event, rather than being sold to the general public.

Q: I've done a bit of research into both music copying and engraving, and it seems to me that it's a job where you need to have an enormous sense of 'feeling' the music you are preparing. Is this something that came naturally to you, or do you think it is also a skill that you can learn through doing it a lot?
A: One of the great perks of this job is that you have the opportunity to study the techniques of the composers whos music you are copying. Once in a while, you get to work on a score that is really transcendent. I had the opportunity to work for Elmer Bernstein before he died. He was able to say so much with his music with so little information on the page -  amazing.

Q: I believe there are different systems for music preparation, both by hand and by computer. Which of these two do you prefer, and why?
A: If you've ever see music prepared by hand, with a fountain pen, it is really beautiful - it's art, really. It's been my pleasure to work with a number of excellent hand copyists over the years, and I have a great respect for this craft. Unfortunately, it's becoming a dying art, as the old school music copyists are retiring, and younger, more computer savvy people take their place. A number of the best known composers and orchestrators in Hollywood still write their scores by hand.

But for music copying in the film scoring industry today, computer technology is a necessity. Hand copying is not as flexible as music prepared using software. The computer system allows changes to be made much more quickly - for instance, in the old days, if the composer suddenly decided at the session he/she  wanted to have the clarinet double the viola, this represented a great deal of work - the part had to be completely recopied. With the notation in the computer, you simply open up the viola part, copy and paste it into the clarinet part and print it.

Under pressure

Q: Do you often have to work under time pressure? It seems like music preparation is a job that cannot be rushed, but the movie industry is sometimes notorious for it's time pressure...

A: Some projects are more intense than others. The music has to be error free, even when the schedule gets very compressed. Ghost Rider, with its big orchestra and choir, and something like 70 minutes of music, comes to mind as the film project we worked on in 2006 with the most time pressure. One of the longest cues, a big fight scene near the end of the movie came to us only 3 hours before it had to be on the stands for the session. We ended up with something like 11 people working on that one cue to finish it in time.

Q: Your list of credits is incredible. How does it feel to have worked on so many great movies?
A: I'm grateful to people like Michael Kamen who put their trust in an unknown like myself as I was starting out. The amount of talented people with various specialty skills who work behind the scenes to make a  feature film come together is really amazing - from caterers to makeup artists to stunt people to animal wranglers to accountants. There are a lot of opportunities in the movie industry to find a niche you like and turn it into successful work if you are persistent.

Q: When you watch one of the movies you have worked on, do you follow the story, or are you listening more to hear if you've successfully transferred the composer's work to the screen?
A: I think if my job has been done well, the music prep itself becomes transparent as soon as the score has been recorded. The recorded score becomes part of the total experience.  That said, if I've already heard the score being recorded on the soundstage, I do find myself focusing in on the score more than the average listener probably does.

Q: Say that somebody reading this article thinks to him or herself: "That sounds like the job for me!" What advice would you give that person?
A: You need to be technically prepared - obviously, you need to read music well, and you'll need to be able to read and write in different clefs and understand transpositions for each instrument. You'll need to be current with music notation software technology, and ideally be proficient on more than one music notation software application.
Everything is good practice - over the years, I've prepared chord charts and lead sheets  for church services and small studio sessions, and transposed songs for singers into their vocal key for weddings and auditions. Whatever you apply your skills to will be useful when the time comes.

You can read more about Robert, his work and his company, on his official website: http://www.musicprep.com/

Comments

[Aaron,vst plugins]

Yep doing scores the classic way by hand is very artistic but I could imagine it being very painful on the hands and fingers.

As a musician and keyboardist myself,the powerful computerage has been a god send in some respects.
But on quite a lot of top 40 pop songs,I hear the computer being overused and mostly garbage is the result.

I have much respect for score writers,its not easy'.