Studying The Disney Sound

https://soundcloud.com/matandteresa/8-minute-menken-an-all-star

I decided to post this here because it's not an original composition or anything. Rather, besides serving as the backtrack to my wife's vocals, this was for me to study the orchestration and style of Alan Menken, get some ear training, and practice with my orchestral samples. Especially for A Whole New World, Menken makes use of a lot of acrobatic string and wind runs, which I really wanted to get more practice with.

As such, the orchestration sticks to the source material fairly close, with some different decisions and style choices peppered in (obviously we had to come up with the transitions, as well).

While well-known as a Broadway songwriter, I think Alan Menken is somewhat underrated as a score composer. In the end, I think what yields that classic "Disney" sound is a pretty genius combination of Tchaikovsky-style ballet mixed with modern Broadway theater. Together, they provide that distinctive mix of magic and energy, respectively. Do you agree? What do you think is the "Disney formula?"

Whatever the "Disney Formula" is, I must have stumbled across it. For quite a few of my compositions, I constantly either get "Sounds like something out of a video game" or "Sounds like something out of a Disney movie".

I tend to notice Disney's music formula is very embellished. For the soft parts, they use quiet and saccarhine instruments, like flutes/panflutes/piccolos and lighter strings. Emotional parts use swelling strings, occasionally trumpets swelling as well. Happier music is light-hearted and quick, like a toccatina or a fantasy, with instruments with light, higher-pitched instruments being common (like chromatic percussion, woodwinds, strings and pizzicato), at a fast tempo and a key signature with more beats. That's the lighter aspect.

For the grand pieces, they usually use dramatic instruments, depending on what emotion is being conveyed. Parts of tension and painful emotion are usually very strong and wildly chromatic, using instruments like organ, brass instruments, operatic or solemn voices, timpani, bass drum, among others. They stick to dramatic chords, slow builds, and steadily increasing dynamics. When resolution comes, you turn back to halycon instrumentation, usually with vocalization alone or vocals and soft strings.

At least, this is what I gather.

Spot on An

Whatever the "Disney Formula" is, I must have stumbled across it. For quite a few of my compositions, I constantly either get "Sounds like something out of a video game" or "Sounds like something out of a Disney movie".

 

I tend to notice Disney's music formula is very embellished. For the soft parts, they use quiet and saccarhine instruments, like flutes/panflutes/piccolos and lighter strings. Emotional parts use swelling strings, occasionally trumpets swelling as well. Happier music is light-hearted and quick, like a toccatina or a fantasy, with instruments with light, higher-pitched instruments being common (like chromatic percussion, woodwinds, strings and pizzicato), at a fast tempo and a key signature with more beats. That's the lighter aspect.

 

For the grand pieces, they usually use dramatic instruments, depending on what emotion is being conveyed. Parts of tension and painful emotion are usually very strong and wildly chromatic, using instruments like organ, brass instruments, operatic or solemn voices, timpani, bass drum, among others. They stick to dramatic chords, slow builds, and steadily increasing dynamics. When resolution comes, you turn back to halycon instrumentation, usually with vocalization alone or vocals and soft strings.

 

At least, this is what I gather.

Spot-on analysis, I think.  Especially doing multiple songs in a row, I noticed such patterns and used reference less and less.  Thank you for your input!

i had to arrange disney music for a prety big windband/ensemble ( about 50 players ) 

did beauty and the beast,  trew century fox in and pinocchio.

what i found about disney music is that they almost imitate that the frame does :).  for examble when belle is at the fountain singing. and opens her book and speaks of a prince charming . you see a big castle. you then hear horns. they make it romantic like. but prety minimalistic. they take a lot of same material and instrumentate everytime differently. they play with there material.   prety french like.   a lot of windinstrumentes, secondly a lot of strings, and thin or short lines for brass to accent a moment, but mostly they just play chords. and collour.  same with the xhylophone. its collour more then a new role.

i think there formula is just simply playing with your material. make it exiting, dreamy and beautifful. like kids. they have these eyes filled with wonder. they want to know everything. they want to explore and such :). i think you should have fun like a child when writing for these movies.  i sure had fun while arranging ^^ haha.

You have to explore your material, as BryanSegers said.

A good place to start is to systematize what colors you wanna find. So, look over archetypes. I use a catalog of mood when composing a soundtrack, and try to adapt my material for each archetype (and its subtopics). There are:

1. Climax - catastrophe; molto dramatic; solemn atmosphere, nature "mystery";
2. Mystery tension - sinister night/ambient; menacing night/ambient; anxious ambient (agitato usually); magic appearance, imminence (something is going to happen soon);
3. Action tension - persecution/chase; combat; heroic/epic combat; battle (mass combat); terror; tumult; natural disaster (storms, vulcans, earthquakes etc);
4. Apassionato (climax or not) - love; despair; passionate lament; excitation; joy; victory; festivity.

Try to adapt your material for each subtopic (or others you create, if you need, e.g. "slapstick punctuation"). Disney composers (and orchestrators) are masters of archetype manipulation, so before trying each one you should hear a lot of examples, just to figuring out the characteristics.

A good tip is never discard any material - because each one (even the weirdest) can work under a certain archetype.