Rob Duncan has been a known quantity for years, thanks to his scores for TV staples Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Unit, Tru Calling and Lie to Me. But this ASCAP Television and Film Scoring Workshop alumnus has earned a gaggle of new fans since he started composing music for the ABC hit Castle in 2009. And if Duncan's unforgettable whistling theme for the show is like the Pied Piper calling us to the sofa, it's working! In fact, when Duncan was the featured guest on a radio talk show at the end of August, his fans nearly shut down the server when it was made available for download. The industry has taken just as kindly to Duncan's music to Castle: he's earned an Emmy nomination and three ASCAP Film and Television awards for his music for the darkly comic police procedural.
Duncan's been with Castle since the show's inception. On the eve of the premiere episode of Castle's fourth season, we asked him what it was like to grow as a composer along with the show.
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It's hard to believe three seasons have already passed! It seems like only yesterday that we were exploring and defining what Castle's musical signature would be. There's a special kind of stress and excitement when a show is being created. At the first meeting, producers throw out words or phrases describing what they want the score to be like. They might call out: "Swagger," "Bronx," "funny, but not cute," "blue skies" or "high stakes...but not too high."
As the famous saying goes, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." I put these cryptic clues on my piano stand and meditate on them like a Zen koan. It reminds me of the time my piano teacher placed a comic book on the piano stand and said, "Here, play THIS." Looking back, it was one of the more useful lessons. Like a chef checking his pasta, you throw a musical noodle at the wall to see if it sticks. And if it's of any use, maybe it will.
By the time the pilot is over, and the time for fixes and tweaks are complete, the creative concrete starts to harden and you have the guidelines with which to begin the season should your show be one of the lucky ones to get ordered to series. You can now build your palette and get to work because you have a sense of what subconscious rules define "good music" in the minds of your producer/director collaborators. Music is fashion and you have a sense of what wave they are on. Are drum kits in a score kosher or dated? Perhaps more importantly, what is their precise definition of the word "retro," and why does it strike fear in their hearts? Are we musically "winking at the audience" or do we take everything with 100mg of gravitas?
Musically some things will stick and survive, and other ideas may vanish into a wisp of smoke after a first season. It's always interesting to watch a pilot after a couple of seasons and rediscover the ideas that didn't have long-lasting arcs.
In the Castle pilot, there were some stutter-edits and more distorted drums that remain unique to the early shows. The producers of Castle all have experience with big feature films, and it wasn't long before some bigger cinematic sensibilities began showing up in the writing and direction. Although Castle is at its heart a procedural romantic comedy, it is capable of navigating very dark territory. Thank goodness, because it keeps it interesting to write for. When we meet on an episode, the producers will give very detailed descriptions of their hopes for a scene, asking me to take whatever information is useful to me to help them achieve their goal.
They'll tell me, "Don't give us what we ask for, give us what we need." It is their way of tactfully reminding me that I'm hired to do more than transcribe. The episodes move so quickly that they have never actually visited the recording studio during the regular course of working. Spotting is done at the post-production offices and cue previews are all done online. They might be surprised to see the number of acoustic instruments that play a part in the score, as so much score these days is done completely "inside the box."
Some have asked what is in store for season 4 for Castle's music. Often, my response would be, "If you find out, please let me know." Like a satellite cell of a secret organization, I am on a need-to-know basis. And sometimes if I ask, "What happens next?" All I get in response is a smile.
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Watch Castle on ABC, Mondays at 10/9c.
Visit Rob Duncan on the web at www.duncanmusic.com
