Women in film music composition: recommendations?

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Pierre
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Women in film music composition: recommendations?

Post by Pierre »

Ever since the list of 150 greatest albums by women posted the other day, I've been thinking how I have no idea who are the greatest female music composers in film (and TV shows) music right now, or at any time for that matter. In fact, I know more female composers in video game music than I do in film music! A quick Google search confirmed my impressions, here's one of the first articles that comes out:

http://variety.com/2016/music/spotlight ... 201843422/

So it's just not a personal impression. I sort of understand female music composers are confined to lower profile productions (or critical duds), hence their lack of visibility in the business.

Any recommendations you may have? I mean, everyone knows Björk or Aimee Mann composed film music, but what about those composers who are not also active in the pop music scene?
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babydoll
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Re: Women in film music composition: recommendations?

Post by babydoll »

Rachel Portman scored both The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, both of which she received a lot of praise for.
Harold
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Re: Women in film music composition: recommendations?

Post by Harold »

I know you specified composers who are not part of the pop music scene, but Mica Levi (aka Micachu) deserves to be mentioned here because she's certainly making a strong impression with her strikingly experimental film work. Levi followed up her acclaimed score for Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin with a well-deserved Academy Award nomination this year for Pablo Lorrain's impressionistic biopic Jackie.
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Pierre
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Re: Women in film music composition: recommendations?

Post by Pierre »

babydoll wrote:Rachel Portman scored both The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, both of which she received a lot of praise for.
She indeed seems to be the name that comes out first and the most when you're searching a bit for female film music composers. I guess she's the "biggest" name for the scene, and therefore the first stop for people interested. I'll check her output soon.
Harold wrote:I know you specified composers who are not part of the pop music scene, but Mica Levi (aka Micachu) deserves to be mentioned here because she's certainly making a strong impression with her strikingly experimental film work. Levi followed up her acclaimed score for Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin with a well-deserved Academy Award nomination this year for Pablo Lorrain's impressionistic biopic Jackie.
Yup, I was aware of Mica Levi, in particular, I did put the dreamy and unsettling Jackie in my EOY list last year. Her music is definitely very interesting.

As you said, I'm also trying to dig up some names and recommendations from the "regular" film music composers. Who's lying in the shadows of Rachel Portman and their male peers?
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Pierre
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Re: Women in film music composition: recommendations?

Post by Pierre »

Well... It looks like I've found a topic on which the whole AM community is clueless :D Time to go digging the old way, I guess.
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