By Sarah Murphy
Berklee.edu Correspondent
July 2004

	Photo by Bill Gallery
	Aya's Audio • "The Attic" (A. Nagata): Listen • "The Return of Jared Cotton" (A. Nagata): Listen

At the heart of things, it's all about Mickey Mouse. There is more to it, of course, but on some level, Aya Nagata chose to study film scoring because, as a child, she was inspired by the orchestral sorcery of Fantasia.

Walt Disney's 1940 magnum opus remains the ultimate marriage of animation and music. In the film, hippos and ostriches, centaurs and unicorns perform a kind of interpretive dance, deftly choreographed to classical masterpieces, including Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony." The film's best-known sequence features Mickey Mouse as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," a novice magician whose magic spells get wildly out of hand.

Though she was only a child, watching Fantasia made Aya appreciate, for the first time, what a powerful combination music and film can be. "I was surprised how the music totally matches the animation. When Mickey does something, the music does something that fits the movement," she says. "I had no idea how they did it."

Now a film scoring major at Berklee, Aya is learning exactly how it's done, and exploring the mysterious and very moving interplay between visual imagery, melody, and rhythm. In Fantasia, the animation was tailored to the music. Of course, in most films, the opposite is true—composers create scores that express the emotional content of the film.

"I'm always thinking about that. If there was no music in film, we wouldn't cry," she says. "We cry when we are watching a movie because of the music."

Aya grew up in Himeji, Japan, and began classical piano studies at age 5. As a teenager, she learned that one of her favorite musicians, Makoto Ozone, had attended Berklee, and decided she would like to do the same. So, after high school she enrolled in the Koyo Conservatory, a school in Kobe, Japan, that is a member of the Berklee International Network. After two years of study there, she was admitted to Berklee in Boston.

Despite her fascination with film music, it had never occurred to her that she could study the subject in college. "In Japan we don't really have such a major. We can't study music for film or motion pictures," she says.

Aya took Introduction to Film Scoring in her very first semester. Although she loved the class, her first months in Boston were incredibly difficult. Her knowledge of English was limited, and she found that trying to think and speak in an unfamiliar language can be exhausting.

"Every day I was so tired. Everything was in English. When I got home from school, I would just lie in bed," she says.

Photo by Bill Gallery   Aya's Top Five: Artists Who Have Influenced My Sound • Lalah Hathaway (jazz) • Aretha Franklin (soul/r&b) • Chaka Khan (funk) • CeCe Winans (gospel) • Whitney Houston's music of ten years ago (pop)

But she soon hit her stride, and now is handling her course work like a pro. With help from teachers like Michael Rendish and Richard Davis, she is learning the finer points of composing for films, such as orchestrating for dramatic effect and modulating from dark to bright harmonic themes. Above all, she is learning when to bring music into a scene, and when to let the film speak for itself.

"Teachers tell us that younger composers tend to compose too much music. Too much is not good," she says. "Music should be in the right place and the right length [of time]."

But there is more to the film scoring major than composition. Students must learn to master film and audio editing, using a wide array of computer equipment. Unfortunately, technology is no friend to Aya.

"Before I entered Koyo, I never touched an electric keyboard, only acoustic piano. I didn't even know the keyboard needed an amplifier," she says with a giggle.

The advanced computer work required by her major remains a challenge. "I'm still struggling," she says. "To improve our technological skills, we have to keep using the computer. Just keep using and keep using. And if there is some problem, we have to solve it ourselves."

With persistence, Aya hopes to overcome this obstacle, much as she overcame the language barrier upon her arrival at Berklee. In the meantime, she finds inspiration in even the most basic assignments. The work itself becomes a kind of creative sustenance. "Experience is really important. The more we do, the more we get ideas," she says.

Maybe her Fantasia is yet to come.

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