Brock Snow performs film score selections in student recital

Someone once said composing music is like painting on silence. Senior film score student Brock Snow agrees.

“(If) you had such a big picture in front of your eyes but nothing to feed your ears, the disconnect makes it awkward. That is where us film composers need to make the appropriate match so that your eyes and ears are in connection to each other,” Snow said.

Snow presented five samples of his work during his senior film scoring recital on Tuesday, April 9, at the Doug Oldham Recital Hall in Liberty University’s School of Music. During the program, Snow gave the background to his pieces, showcased the pieces and answered questions related to technical aspects and his creative choices.

His pieces included an AT&T commercial, an original film, the Disney “Paperman” short film, a clip from “Jurassic Park” and finally a short animation “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Marty Lessmore.”

Snow’s film score professor Chris Piorkowski, associate professor of film scoring, opened the program with prayer before handing it over to Snow. The recital began at 4:30 p.m. and lasted for an hour.

In an interview, Dr. David Schmal, associate professor of commercial music and Snow’s mentor for his first two years, explained the purpose of a senior recital.

“It gives the public a taste of who you are and what you do,” Schmal said. “I tell the (students) to treat it like a premiere. You are there premiering a movie and treat it like that.”

There were 85 people in attendance ranging from professors, to friends of Snow and other film scoring students. All were very enthusiastic in their support of Snow.

As the program progressed, Snow explained some of his creative process. He said he tries never to listen to any original tracks of what he is rescoring.

“Ask yourself, what did my mind say when I looked at this? Not when I hear what was there,” Snow said. “Because as a film composer, you need to have that intuition of ‘I see it,’ and the score kinda has to go in your head. And I have been learning that all four years here. What aspects can I draw visually, are going to affect what I can output musically.”

An audience member asked Snow how he decides what keys to play in and instruments to use. Snow said first, he watches the clip multiple times.

“Sometimes you have to come in and let the visuals give you the story before you put in the music and that is what I was saying, you experiment and work,” Snow said.

Schmal acknowledged that the process is not always easy.

“It is a visual puzzle in which you have to add an unseen actor, which is music,” Schmal said.

Snow added that the area he has grown the most has been in experimenting in different genres of music to match the pieces he was working on. In the Disney short film “Paperman”, it was the first time Snow had written jazz.

“I love how it stretches you without telling you how to write (your music). It tells you good guidelines but never tries to make your voice into someone else’s,” Snow said.

The program displayed some of Snow’s other “firsts” as well. Jurassic Park was the first time Snow had done an adventure piece and the AT&T commercial and “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Marty Lessmore” were the first commercial and animation he worked on.

Out of the five pieces, Snow’s favorites were the “Jurassic Park” clip and “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Marty Lessmore” because they were the closest to full orchestra music, which is Snow’s favorite style to compose. He also enjoyed how involved both projects were, with one having almost 100 tracks and the other having 160 tracks.

Schmal said that is exactly the film scoring program’s goal, to find what a student loves, improve it and help them explore other areas they may have not considered.

“What we want is for them to find what their calling is. … With Brock (Snow), he never looked back,” Schmal said.

Snow really appreciated the education he received through the film scoring program and said the assistance of his professors has taken his skills beyond what he imagined.

“It helped me take a passion that was just a hobby and a craft and turn it into something that could actually be a career,” Snow said.

Both Schmal and Piorkowski were instrumental in Snow’s journey. Snow shared that meeting Schmal convinced him to pursue studying film scoring at Liberty. After a year of private lessons with Piorkowski, Snow said he grew most in his intuition and knowing where to go with the music.

“It is a unique kind of art,” Schmal said. “When you see paintings or a dance troupe or whatever that speak to you, you come away a different person. And I think that that is the power of film. And I think that that is the power of film music, to reach into the innermost part of you and touch something nothing else can quite touch. And it is this medium that brings the visual and chromatic and the spiritual and musical all together in one piece. And it is hard to find films like that.”

Piorkowski said Snow was very dedicated to learning and was willing to take the time to revise his work until he got it right. Piorkowski said that with an attitude like that, there is no limit to what can be accomplished. As someone who is still very active in the commercial field, Piorkowski noted it is a very competitive business, so hard work will make the difference.

Piorkowski’s advice to Snow was to keep his priorities straight.

“Keep loving God number one, never stop loving God. This industry will be way harder to compete on your own if you are not on God’s side,” Piorkowski said.

As Snow was wrapping up the recital, he reflected on God’s goodness in his life. He was amazed because he did not deserve any of God’s gifts including the ability to enjoy music, “which is a gift from heaven,” yet God gave them anyway.

“The question isn’t “Is God going to be good to me?’ The question is what am I going to do with what he gives me,” Snow said.

Dr. Vernon Whaley, Dean of the School of Music, then came up and said how he always felt that Snow was special and had been given a gift from God. He requested the other professors in the room come to the front and pray over Snow.

At the end, everyone heartily clapped and cheered. Students then swarmed and rushed to get in line to congratulate and encourage Snow.

While Snow does not know what is ahead of him after graduation, he said he is excited to start a job doing what he does best.

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