Keeping the Score

I'm a fan of TV theme songs, sometimes more memorable than the shows they preceed. Some of my favorites are "Magnum, P.I.," "Quantum Leap," "Spenser For Hire," and "Mission: Impossible." From a Hollywood Reporter article comes the following insight from Steve Bramson, composer on "JAG" and "NCIS":

"Navy NCIS" (CBS)
"Don Bellisario (the series' creator) wanted something that was distinctively different. He wanted to take a big step away from 'JAG,' so that 'Navy NCIS' would have its own identity. (Usually,) we score 'JAG' the same way a feature film is scored -- like a minimovie -- more traditionally, with an acoustic orchestra and strings and brass. For 'Navy NCIS,' we took a leave of the typical approach to 'JAG' (by making it) a rhythm-driven show, using drums, electronic sounds and pulses to drive it. It's more of an ambient feeling of energy and tension for different scenes, as opposed to using the traditional melodic and harmonic kind of music (normally used) for a film or TV show like 'JAG.' Don is also trying more contemporary ways of shooting and cutting the show, and he wanted the music to be in sync with that -- (it's) the idea of music working hand-in-hand with how he cuts the images. I think it's a good marriage and a good approach.

"The most challenging for me was going from a show like 'JAG' -- which is entering its ninth season and is a well-oiled machine -- to coming up with a whole different approach. Even though I had direction, I had to find a way to make it happen. I am used to working in a traditional manner with pencils and paper and live orchestras. ('Navy NCIS') was all done at my home studio. We recorded 80% of the score with synths at home, then to add dimension we took that work to the scoring stage and sweetened it with a group of string players and a couple of guitarists. One of the good things about working this way is that the sounds are so dramatic; that's why (this technique) works so well with scoring. We are creating (scores) in a way that give a lot of character to the (music), which is part of the fun for me, too. It was fun to see how it would all really work together. For example, I had a scene that was quite long. It was a great visual scene, kind of a dark moment between two main characters. As the camera did a very slow circle around them that took almost two minutes in a very serious tone, I had this sort of ambient drone play all by itself with just a very sparse touch of something else. It was satisfying."
-- Ada Guerin