Making Film Music Digitally: Temp Tracks and Mock-ups - Text 6
This acoustic diversity enabled Roussel to hear in his mock-up all the instruments which would later be recorded: the staccato violin; the melodic and rhythmic reference to the Habanera in Bizet’s Carmen, a humorous comparison between a bullfight and Léandri’s audition; the harmonica and electric guitar, very opportune sound references to the western genre, because we see the striker and the goalie facing each other as if in a duel; and the women’s voices, a stylistic allusion to Ennio Morricone, and more particularly to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966).
Using the MIDI file with every orchestral part, Mathieu Alvado, a composer who works regularly with Roussel, was then tasked with transposing the MIDI file into separate parts for the instrumentalists.[18] The orchestra for the “Léandri snippet” includes two flutes, three trombones (two tenors and one bass), four French horns, one tuba, one kettle drum, twelve first violins, ten second violins, eight violas, eight cellos and four string basses.
The definitive version of the cue was played by an orchestra of musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra, with Isobel Griffiths in the control room and conducted by Matt Dunkley. It was recorded by the sound recordist Stéphane Reichart in four takes on 12 December 2011. There were overdubs for the cello and first and second violins recorded afterwards. Guillaume Roussel estimates that 20 % of the recording was performed in the final version by virtual instruments, limited to the percussion and voices.
