Sarah Kraemer

What are your thoughts on having Joe Hisaishi specifically as a reference for your work? How did having his music in mind affect your own compositional decision-making? In what ways do you think you were successful in capturing his style in your composition?

I think having Joe Hisaishi and Studio Ghibli music as a reference definitely impacted the way I used the chords and spaced them out. The sound of Studio Ghibli films affected my melodies and countermelodies because I tried to keep them simple while still using the main theme. Since I used his music it was easy for me to bring his style into my arrangement. Originally, “Summer” as a piano version does not always follow the minimalist style with the spaced out chords so I tried to add these specific features into my arrangement.

What are some things that you did not foresee? Why do you think some of these turned out differently than what you intended or expected? How did you deal with this?

I definitely do not foresee how much time it needs to find ideas for creating a countermelody. I especially underestimated how difficult it can be to make it fit to the chord structure. Therefore, it was really helpful to get regular feedback from Ms. Kim because after looking at the same thing for a long time, it gets harder and harder to find those inconsistencies in the music. Furthermore, I did not expect that adding phrasing and dynamics in the end is that difficult because I do not know what most acronyms mean or do to the notes. Since this was the last thing I did, I just decided to go for it and try my best and I think it came out okay. I also did not expect how big the difference can sound when a new instrument is added. When I looked for an additional instrument, I first only did it because Ms. Kim told me that it would improve my piece, but I did not really believe it. After a while I realized how big the impact on the piece is and made it a lot easier to find a suitable instrument.

What worked well for you and therefore is something you would do again in the future?

Something that really went well for me was to first create the rhythm and then adjusting the notes so that they would fit into the chord structure. I used this method especially for the countermelody because it was easier to find a rhythm when there are no “important” notes that could be accidentally deleted when changing note lengths. I will also keep working with a piano when creating melodies and countermelodies because for me, this is the easiest way to check if the notes fit in the chord structure.

What did NOT work well for you and therefore is something you would do differently in the future?

I think it all worked well for me. I will definitely do things differently the next time, because now I know how Sibelius works and how to start the process so it will be easier for me to start the whole process. However, there are two things that I would try to do differently the next time. First, to have more trust in myself and my work. In addition to that, I would try not to compare myself with others and my work with other pieces because I can only do my best and it does not have to be perfect.