How the hell do you write like this?

Just as an observer (having watched hours of Unleashed and being a spectator to the pieces people post for critique), the problem with trying to apply a reductionistic approach to writing like that is that it reduces the complexity of this writing down to "devices" or idioms, which misses the point of Williams' writing (this reductionistic approach misses the "point" of most things, for the record). I'm mostly parroting here, but I absolutely believe it and it becomes obvious when you know what to listen for: Williams approaches action cues just like other cues, in that there must be an inherent sense of internal cohesion, cogent phrases developing and informing one another to form full musical "sentences", and an inherent direction in the music that not only tells the story but also suggests and implies things within the narrative beyond what's simply on screen. People write ostinatos because it's really, really easy. You don't have to be a composer to write ostinatos and brass farts. Modern action cues don't develop, they just get louder and play the additive game to get them through a scene. Once I realized this I find modern cues almost unbearable in how frustrating they are. How Williams, and the greats he learned and stole from, write, is simply a byproduct of the inherent structure common to most forms of narrative.

I've accepted that I probably won't write with this degree of sophistication in my lifetime. But that's okay, because I want to write music that I like and am satisfied with. I trust my taste as I continue to develop it, and there are a good deal of examples to learn from that shave out a great deal of the sophistication in favour of retaining the same sense of structure and interest in a more basic manner.

 

Arigato for the satoru Sensei.

George: Can I ask the obvious question: Why don't you give it a shot (as a piano reduction first) and post it here ?

I am out of town at the moment, but about 13 (sigh) years ago I spent two-three hours with Christopher Young at his studio talking about this one topic alone.
I will try and dig up my notes, and see what score examples I can post. Here are some points from memory.

No need to compose the whole thing from left to right. Yes, get your spark/inspiration/kernal from the opening. What is most important is to work out where the ultimate high point is and work backwards. Most common mistake is to give away too much too early.
If you are already at 9.5 you have no where to go (unless you join Spinal Tap)

Part B of the above point is long action cues require sleight of hand like a magician doing a card trick. Meaning you have to be discarding layers as you go so you have some powder left in your gun for the end, and also to avoid monotony.

Make your ostinato's as melodic as you can.

Always "Push" the music forward. This is often the cliche brass/cymbal/percussion swells, and harp glisses, woodwind/string runs etc.
(you are not confined to those, I am just trying to be clear on what I am talking about. These are more decorations than structurally important)

Flipping the music so what was on top can go on the bottom (and vice versa) is useful way to avoid too much literal repetition.
Hence why having a melodic ostinato to begin with is useful

 

I attended two summer programs with Christopher Young (the last two summers), and I can confirm he has thought about this topic for a really long time and he has taught some very nice practical tips. Everything Doug said is extremely useful and correct, and I wanna expand on it a bit. I'm gonna be paraphrasing a bit:

Chris really emphasizes the importance of ostinatos, because there is no need to get caught up in the actual notes on your first pass through an action scene. The number one factor is to hype the scene up and give it energy, and the easiest way to do it is through a (rhythmic) ostinato; it's useful to have a constant pulse through the action sequences that ties the narrative together. Of course, having only one constant pulse throughout the whole sequence would be rather boring, so an easy fix is to have multiple rhythmical patterns that can be used cyclically (like in a song form - AABABC etc.).

He really stresses the importance of rhythm, to the point where one of his favourite exercises (and one technique he uses himself) is to look a the scene and finding a good ostinato rhythm by literally banging his fists on the piano. This way you have an instant feedback if the tempo is the correct one, and if the rhythmical idea holds the scene together; moreover, you don't really have time to get lost into thinking about all the notes, so you free yourself from potentially harmful inhibitions. Once you have found the tempo, the ostinatos, the accents that you have to catch in the scene, etc. - then you can worry about the melodic ideas and the flourishes. The main point is to never ever lose the energy - the pulse, which is all the directors care about in these sequences.

You can really see this kind of thinking in action in some of the soundtracks he scored, and a couple of examples come to mind:

On the second example it's very instructional to look at these two different takes on the same scene, and you can probably agree that Chris' version is more rhythmically coherent, and way more based on ostinatos than Elfman's version. I'm not gonna make a judgement of which version is better or fits the scene better, but you can clearly see how their approaches slightly differ.

Lastly, I find that his approach is also different from William's approach, which is way more melodic and less based on actual ostinatos. The way he drives the scenes home is usually through developing motivic (melodic) figures.

On the other hand, I think that Chris composes more with a mindset of a "drummer" (which makes sense, since he started as a drummer), starting from a "groove".

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Regardless of what I think of these different cues, Chris' approach is extremely practical, and will get you to score actions scenes in no time. We're not trying to recreate The Battle of Yavin at our first try, so I find very valuable practicing this way; it will improve your sensibility towards keeping the energy going and not worrying too much about the individual notes of some unimportant woodwind run.

Bang your fists on the piano! Find your ostinatos!

 

I very much agree with what you say here, and your "action scenes" masterclass was eye opening on that regard. However, I still think that there might be some value in what Christopher Young teaches. I do believe that there are some good practical suggestions there.

Especially for this:

Like any other thing, it's easy to spot once you know what to look for, but it needs to be practiced. It's literally the most basic thing you have to nail in an action sequence, but it's not automatically trivial. You had years of experience scoring for such scenes, as well as editing/directing them; however, the first few times that I've tried to find a sequence's tempo, I've miserably failed, because I needed to develop a sense for the pacing and the cuts.

I still think that the "banging on the piano" (or on the table) exercise is a good advice for developing a rhythmical sense through trial and error.

 

Speaking of "The Last Crusade"

 

I won't pretend to speak for anyone here, but I think "What practical advice can I use to begin writing action cues?" is a different question than "How do I write an action cue like John Williams?", in the sense of looking for "tricks". The examples you posted may not be at the sophistication level of Williams, but they sound incomparably more interesting than your average AAA action cue. "Ostinato" has become a four-letter word in my mind, but purely because of how it's been relentlessly abused. I like the variation in approaches from primarily rhythmic, to somewhere in between with Elfman; thanks for sharing!