Music Directors and Composers

Key Responsibilities

• Fill in details of orchestral sketches, such as adding vocal parts to scores.
• Write music for commercial mediums, including advertising jingles or film soundtracks.
• Plan and schedule rehearsals and performances, and arrange details such as locations, accompanists, and instrumentalists.
• Write musical scores for orchestras, bands, choral groups, or individual instrumentalists or vocalists, using knowledge of music theory and of instrumental and vocal capabilities.
• Confer with producers and directors to define the nature and placement of film or television music.
• Coordinate and organize tours, or hire touring companies to arrange concert dates, venues, accommodations, and transportation for longer tours.
• Stay abreast of the latest trends in music and music technology.
• Transcribe musical compositions and melodic lines to adapt them to a particular group, or to create a particular musical style.
• Transcribe ideas for musical compositions into musical notation, using instruments, pen and paper, or computers.
• Determine voices, instruments, harmonic structures, rhythms, tempos, and tone balances required to achieve the effects desired in a musical composition.
• Assign and review staff work in such areas as scoring, arranging, and copying music, and vocal coaching.
• Direct groups at rehearsals and live or recorded performances to achieve desired effects such as tonal and harmonic balance dynamics, rhythm, and tempo.
• Use gestures to shape the music being played, communicating desired tempo, phrasing, tone, color, pitch, volume, and other performance aspects.
• Copy parts from scores for individual performers.
• Consider such factors as ensemble size and abilities, availability of scores, and the need for musical variety, to select music to be performed.
• Experiment with different sounds, and types and pieces of music, using synthesizers and computers as necessary to test and evaluate ideas.
• Apply elements of music theory to create musical and tonal structures, including harmonies and melodies.
• Study films or scripts to determine how musical scores can be used to create desired effects or moods.
• Transpose music from one voice or instrument to another to accommodate particular musicians.
• Explore and develop musical ideas based on sources such as imagination or sounds in the environment.
• Arrange music composed by others, changing the music to achieve desired effects.
• Position members within groups to obtain balance among instrumental or vocal sections.
• Produce recordings of music.
• Rewrite original musical scores in different musical styles by changing rhythms, harmonies, or tempos.
• Perform administrative tasks such as applying for grants, developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and designing and printing programs and other promotional materials.
• Meet with soloists and concertmasters to discuss and prepare for performances.
• Collaborate with other colleagues, such as copyists, to complete final scores.
• Create original musical forms, or write within circumscribed musical forms such as sonatas, symphonies, or operas.
• Audition and select performers for musical presentations.
• Study scores to learn the music in detail, and to develop interpretations.