Interview with European Composer 2015 Cat’s Eyes on their score for THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
How did you approach the soundtrack and how did you develop the different themes and the tone of the film? Can you describe the collaboration with director Peter Strickland? At what stage of the process did you come on board? How specific were his ideas? Or did he give you a lot of freedom?
Rachel: Peter [Strickland, the director of THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY,] sent us the script and we loved it. As soon as I finished reading it, while the characters and their relationship were still fresh in my mind, I went to the piano and started improvising themes for each character, and for the moths. Just rough ideas that Faris recorded on his phone.
When Peter found his filming locations, he sent us some photos. Having those early visuals helped a lot and were exciting to see. Throughout the whole process, Peter kept in touch: he would send us images, suggestions and ideas – and in return we would send him music demos, recordings and experiments. Occasionally he would also send us some specific music references. Listening to those selections of music often helped me to understand what kind of orchestration and arrangements we should go for.
Faris: Peter also mentioned certain instruments that he had in mind to use: he mentioned the flute and sent some references of flute solos. He also mentioned that he liked the harpsichord and oboe which was useful as Rachel plays both of them – oboe is her main instrument. He had clear ideas of what he wanted but he was also totally open to any we had.
Your score for THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY has a wide range of influences, from Nino Rota to Mozart’s Requiem. Can you describe your different influences?
Rachel: I’m glad you mentioned Nino Rota because he has had a big influence on me over the years – not necessarily any specific score but his whole approach to composing. He was a gifted teacher as well as composer and when I was a student in Italy I learned a lot about his approach to writing from his former students and family members.
The Mozart Requiem had an influence in this case because for a while it was being used in an important scene. At the last minute there was a decision to replace it with an original requiem … so we had to keep the solemnity, emotions and orchestration in the same world as Mozart’s Requiem.
Other than those composers, we both tried to avoid listening to music or using any specific influences while we were writing …
Faris: We listen to a lot of film soundtracks and instrumental music together generally but once we begin to write it’s more about being immersed in the world we’re trying to create … there were so many great scenes in the film, it was really visually stimulating and gave us loads of ideas.
This is your first soundtrack for a feature film after publishing music as a duo and as solo artists. How does writing songs for your own projects differ from composing for film? What was the biggest challenge?
Rachel: In many ways I prefer it. We were very lucky that our first experience was this one – the film was great and Peter was easy to work with. He gave us a lot of freedom, which is pretty incredible seeing as it was our first film. Ultimately it was the film that guided the atmosphere, emotion and direction of the score. Writing music for solo projects is highly personal, so it was also interesting to write from someone else’s psyche this time – whether it was from one of the film’s characters, or Peter.
I think for me the biggest challenge was replacing a much-loved piece of temp music which was used during filming and remained in the scene up until post-production. It was especially tricky because Faris and I both hated that particular piece of temp music!
After this first experience, will you continue working in film?
Rachel: Yes, it was one of our favourite experiences and we have no plans to stop now!
Faris: In some ways we looked at the songs we wrote on our first record as miniature melodramas, little films … we always hoped that we would move towards composing film scores and I’m really grateful that we were asked to do this one because I loved it more each time I saw it.
