The Librarian Soundtrack

The Librarian - Music Composed by Jennifer Yeung

SCORING SESSION MUSICIANS

Violin
RACHEL NIU
JULIANNE DANA
TOM VILLESCAS
KALLI ROGERS

Viola
LINDSEY SUMMERS

Cello
ALINA BALEMAN

Piano/Conductor
JENNIFER YEUNG

MUSIC RECORDED AT LAMONT AUDIO, AUGUST 2005

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE CHANDLER-GILBERT COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA AND BILL ENGELSMAN

Matt's Thoughts:

As I started to assemble footage for "The Librarian" after shooting it was pretty apparent that this would be the most psychological of all my films and the music would have to reflect that -- meaning lots of moody, dark underscoring to create tension onscreen. Of course, there's themes and some lighter moments, but overall it required dark moody music. Jenn's music, in my opinion, really adds another layer to the movie and essentially brings Henrietta's world to life. In the "Main Titles" cue I think her music really coveys what is going on in Henrietta's mind -- insanity and a whirlwind of her childhood, which is fantastic. This was Jenn's first score and a truly amazing one at that. Our young ensemble of strings did a stellar job of bringing it to life, which was great to hear at the record session. Pardon me for all the gushing praise, but Jenn's music really deserves it. You're the best, Jenn!!!

Jennifer's Thoughts:

Ho hum. Matt has asked me to write a blurb about my experience with "The Librarian". Where do I even begin? Well, let's start right here: "The Librarian" is my first film scoring project. It was foreign and familiar at the same time. Foreign because the type of music Matt wanted is not typically the type of music I write...yet. Familiar on the other hand because I spent many endless, countless, droning hours studing dissonant, twentieth century, atonal music in theory class year after year after year (I developed quite a liking for Anton Webern and Alban Berg incidentally). I'm quite happy with the score itself I must say. Matt presented the scenes to me randomly and while I was comfortable working like this, it got to a point when I started wondering, half-doubting actually, if when put together, the music would flow seamlessly. I think it did. Another interesting thing we wrestled with (not literally of course because I could probably pummel him with one arm! Just joking) was our different interpretations of what things meant. Take for example when Henrietta, the "geeky, mousy librarian" turns into what Matt refers to as the "psycho chic". At first he said to me, "Make it sound glamorous and sexy". His "glamourous/sexy" turned out to be my equivalent of "icy/creepy". I've heard this is a common issue between composers and directors. I think we solved it quite easily though. Let me back track first. Since this was my first film project, obviously nothing was "the norm" for me as I had nothing to compare and contrast this project/experience with. Having said that, I've also heard that most film composers don't like listening to temps. The temps in our case were fabulous. Because when Matt said "Glamorous and sexy" and I listened to the temp, there was no more mystery as to exactly what he wanted. No mutual mystification in the words of David Sandler. But I was very careful to only listen to the temps once or twice, just to get the idea of what Matt was going for. I didn't want to rip music off of any other composer. It took about 3 weeks to put this together, on a sort of part-time basis I would say. The essence of the project, however, inhabited my body and living space full time to the extent that at some point, I felt completely disconnected to the things I was most familiar with.

Some scenes were incredibly fun to score, like the main title, the ending scene, and the one where Henrietta walks to work. Others were tedious. The two murder scenes, I put off till the very end. Those scenes I despised writing most. I felt and suppressed the urge to strangle Matt for those two scenes. Some scenes happened really quickly and then others took a little longer. Being a pianist, I had never written music for any other instrument before, so that in itself was a great learning experience.

I remember the very first three scenes Matt gave me after our first meeting to discuss this project. I put my whole being into it, heart and soul. In the interim, I never asked him for feedback. I wanted it to be a surpise and I was so incredibly proud with what I'd done. To my dismay, he didn't like them! I was crushed simply because I'd spent so much time on those first three scenes. I learned quickly to ask for feedback along the way so that I wouldn't waste time and effort creating something totally off track. Part of the problem with that too was, it didn't dawn on me until after that initial experience that music really plays a supporting secondary role to what's going on visually on the the screen. Those first three scenes that Matt had given me, I wrote for them like it was a silent film or like the music was the main character. I've heard this is another common issue composers deal with (namely the issue of writing music that supports but not overwhelms).

Now, let's talk about the recording and the performance. Personally, honestly, and frankly, I was not happy with the recording of the score. As I sit here writing this recap now, I'm still not sure whether I'm ok with it or not. Part of me feels like telling Matt "No. You can't use this recording. I won't allow it". Let me say though, that the musicians we worked with were absolutely wonderful. A group of 6 musicians aged 15-18 did a phenomenal job in terms of their enthusiasm, integrity, willingness, and attitude. These kids blew me away with that. I was and am still so impressed with them. This was a stellar group of young adults who I'm rooting for all the way. Having said that, there really wasn't nearly enough time to rehearse and as I discovered, I make a lousy conductor when it comes to an instrumental ensemble. I really wanted to record the score doing everything on a synth keyboard. Matt wouldn't allow that because he really wanted the "real sound" of live instruments. Luckily, due to the nature of the film, the recording more or less lends itself to the generally "sour" feeling if you will. Well, that's what others are trying to convince me of. I don't know if I'm buying into it though.