Research Roundup: Scoring the Sounds of the Silver Screen
World Soundtrack Award nominee Ludek Drizhal shares the stories behind the songs he composes, and how he’s teaching the next generations of musicians
Research Roundup is a series that features Q&As with UNC faculty to share insights about their research in an approachable, bite-sized format. Each installment highlights the questions driving their work, why it matters and how it connects to broader issues in our community and beyond.
For thousands of years, music has served as the heartbeat of humanity.
What starts as a simple vibration ripples to life as a sound wave, dancing through the air into our ears, where it lights up the brain like a firework. Music can make people cry, inspire them to dance, to laugh, to sing. It can induce goosebumps or cause someone to stare wistfully into the distance at the whims of a melancholy melody.
Nowhere is that more true than in the entertainment people watch. Across all genres of film and television, music is used to enhance the spectacles on the screen, heightening emotion and driving the story in ways that no other medium can.
Ludek Drizhal, associate professor of Digital Media Composition and Music Theory in the University of Northern Colorado (UNC)’sSchool of Music, has been composing music for nearly his entire life. Based in Los Angeles, he currently works as a composer for film and television, bringing decades of professional experience to his teaching at UNC.
“Music is communication. You’re communicating emotion through melody, harmony, rhythm, pacing, silence and structure. Actually, sometimes what you leave out is more important than what you put in.”
He’s had the chance to work with acclaimed directors, award-winning actors and industry-leading musicians on a wide variety of projects. Most recently, his soundtrack for the recently-released film Starbright was nominated for the Public Choice Award in theWorld Soundtrack Awards alongside scores for films like KPop Demon Huntersand Avatar: Fire and Ash.
In this month’s Research Roundup, Drizhal shared the story behind the sound, illuminating his creative process, personal history with music and how he crafted the critically-acclaimed composition that is the Starbright soundtrack.
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