MRH : You've worked with a very diverse group of composers – Christopher Young, James Horner, Edward Shearmur, and Klaus Badelt among the most prominent – and orchestrated/composed music for pretty much every kind of TV and theatrical production. Given each composer has his/her own nuances and sometimes writes in a very distinctive style, is it difficult to adapt to the demands of a new score without some ideas from a previous project exerting some influence?

JT : I have been very fortunate in my career to have met and worked with several of the composers you mentioned.  Each time I go through the scoring process, (whether on my own score or another composer's as an orchestrator) I learn something. I always like to be creative and experiment, to try some little thing that pushes the envelope somehow, and by doing that I pick up tricks of the trade that definitely come in handy down the road, or on my next assignment.

When a composer is hired to score a film, they are hired specifically because of their own nuances and distinctive style, as exemplified in their previous work. Each film score that I have composed is different; the only constant has been me. I don't worry about previous projects influencing the current one; when I am composing for a new project I focus all my energies: intuition, skill and experience. The biggest influence I have to worry about is the temp score.

MRH : The use of electronics within an orchestral environment has moved into a supportive position, as opposed to mimicking an orchestra or part of an orchestra's major section, and there seems to be less danger in writing music where the electronic element can smother or date a score. Do you think that's partly due to the technological refinements in electronica and sound design, or is it still the composer whose own familiarity and discerning ears are what strike a balance between traditional orchestral and electronic instruments?

JT : The composer is always the judge of balance in a score, of all the elements, regardless of their origin, and aided by his/her trusted ally - the scoring engineer. I think the danger still exists that a score can have a sound that will become dated. Advancements in electronic music making have made some things easier to do 'virtually', but at the end of the day, a moving performance is a moving performance.

MRH : From the scores you've orchestrated, what have been some of the most complex or challenging projects, either due to a composer's own idiosyncratic style, or the breadth of music and concepts packed into one particular score?  

JT : The film where I got my break as an orchestrator was Reign of Fire, starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey. This was an amazing score by Ed Shearmur, one with astonishing dissonance and sheer power. He used a very unusual and very, very large orchestra, in addition to choir and electronics. If I remember correctly there were 16 violins, 16 violas, 16 cellos and 10 or 12 basses, 6 trumpets, 6 trombones, 10 French horns, 8 flutes and 8 clarinets, all doubling every imaginable size of flute and clarinet, and 5 percussionists. I was assisting Ed at the time, and he took me to London with him to help with the recording sessions.

At the eleventh hour, the orchestrations for a couple of cues came in from L.A. and Ed was unhappy with them, because they weren't avant-garde enough. He noticed that I had named the folders on my laptop after 20th-century composers like Ligeti and Penderecki, so he said "Alright, if you are suggesting that you know this style, have a crack at one of these cues". The great thing about the situation was that Bob Elhai, one of the greatest orchestrators around, took me under his wing and had a look at my cues. He's been a mentor and a friend ever since.

MRH : There's perhaps an assumption that by scoring many diverse projects, a composer will gradually mature into a full craftsman, yet you emphasized the benefits a young composer can find when an orchestrator is willing to take them under their tutelage.

I wonder if you can expand on some of the skills you've learned from Bob Elhai, and how these would've been harder to learn as a mostly solo composer working from project to project.

(For example, if you take someone who comes from a more narrow idiom or background - say a keyboardist from a rock band - he may be used to doing multiple roles in collaboration with just a few musicians or doing it all solo, and when he moves into film composition, he works in a kind of self-imposed vacuum with only the director, producer, or a few musicians among critics and collaborators .)  

JT : What did I learn from Bob? How to orchestrate!? Bob has an amazing way of imagining a piece of music from a completely orchestral point of view, free from the limitations or illusions of a synth demo. He's also a fun guy!

MRH : Edward Shearmur's Reign of Fire is one of my favourite scores, and it's perhaps indicative of how the horror/fantasy genre permits composers to embrace some wild experimental concepts, and work with more unusual groups of instruments. In many ways it recalls Alex North's vicious Dragonslayer, and in Reign there's some really amazing material performed by a huge brass ensemble which not all composers and orchestrators can write. (A case in point in Steve Jablonsky's D-Wars , which is above average for the composer, but lacks the fury and subtext found in Reign of Fire.)

Having said all that, is it fair to say that writing an experimental-styled score is a demanding endeavor, and one that forces a composer to ignore all the common conventions and easy solutions, and spend far greater time organizing thoughts to craft a more finely detailed work, regardless of a film's budget or dramatic scope?

JT : I thought Steve's score was great but musically it came from a different place, even if where it ended up was similar. Every film score is a demanding endeavor, and for all genres, regardless of budget or dramatic scope, a good composer strives to create a thoughtful, musical, and purposeful score. Bernard Herrmann showed us that film music is a great medium for composers because you can write in the most avant-garde of styles and if it compliments the picture the audience will be completely accepting of it.