This is the third audio commentary from the Blu-ray of
Violet Evergarden the Movie. The first one which I listened to was the
commentary by the production staff. There is another
one by the voice actors. The one by the production staff was like an internal after-action review (AAR) while the one by the voice actors was more free-ranging. This one by the music staff covered a very niche area: the music production. It got a bit technical at times, but the second half did try to talk more specifically about the music for each scene.
This audio commentary involved sound director Tsuruoka Yota, composer Evan Call, and music producer Saito Shigeru. The following is a summary of the things that were mentioned in the audio commentary.
They started by talking about the roles of the sound director and music composer. Also the music for both the TV series and movies were composed by Evan, for the movie, Evan was in charge of film scoring too. Every piece of music was composed for that specific scene. In fact, he watched the movie (with the voice acting already added) as he went about writing the music pieces. This was unlike the TV series, when sound director Tsuruoka would specify the kind of music he wanted and then Evan went about fulfilling that order. Tsuruoka explained that this was because for the TV series, music written for a specific scene would be hard to reuse, so the music pieces were more "generic".
For example, Tsuruoka's instructions for the TV series music included:
1. Simply beautiful music that is out of this world
2. Simply beautiful music that encompasses everything in this world
Evan had to try and understand what he meant (it was in Japanese), and while there were issues with communication back in 2017, Tsuruoka was also glad because of the fresh perspective that Evan brought. For example, the use of typewriter sounds in the music pieces.
For the movie, Tsuruoka again only had broad instructions, like "here to here, this kind of music" kind of broad. It was then left to Evan to watch the animation and listen to the voice acting, then interpret each scene. The broad direction was that music was meant to add value to the scene. And both agreed that silence is golden, and the end of each piece (which is the start of silence) was very important. Music is there to help tell the story, not get in the way of the storytelling. For example, Evan choose to use different instruments to convey different feelings. For that scene when Violet was talking outside Gilbert's door, Evan
chose to use the violin when Gilbert talks to express his guilt. For the
final scene of Yuris, he decided to use the cello for Yuris. In scenes with lots of dialogue, he toned down the melody so that it doesn't get in the way of the story. They also talked about the importance of music being sad but not pitiful.
Evan recalled that he was told to redo the music pieces for only two scenes. The first was when Daisy visited CH Postal Company (which had become a museum). The instruction he had was "a new era". So at first, he came up with something more vibrant. This was because in the Gaiden movie, there was also a time shift and a more vibrant piece was used to signal that the times have changed. But Tsuruoka wanted something more nostalgic. There was a time shift, yes, but he wanted to express that the times are changing, with that bit of nostalgia. The second piece that was redone was the music when Hodgins knocked on Gilbert's door and met him after four years. Evan had originally came up with a more happy and joyous piece for this reunion between good friends. Tsuruoka, however, had in mind a piece that expressed surprise rather than joy or excitement.
Music was also used to represent characters. For example, Violet's theme was played at the final fireworks scene, when Hodgins looked to his left at an empty space. This made it clear that Violet was no longer at his side, without the need for any further explanation of any kind. Pieces from the TV series were also rearranged for use in flashback scenes in the movie. For example, "Never coming back" in the TV series was rearranged for use in the scene when Violet thought back about the final battle at Intense. The music for Episode 10 was also reused in the opening part about Ann's letters from her mother Clara.
Evan also talked about why he chose to record the music in Germany. He wanted music with more depth, and the recording hall in Germany was actually a scoring stage used primarily for recording music pieces for movies. The tall ceilings and curtains helped him to create pieces that provided the proper impact when enjoyed in theatres.
Finally, they talked about the challenge with having Gilbert's and Violet's reunion after Violet's final letter. Violet's final letter was the climax of the movie, but the reunion was another emotional high. The challenge was in how to find music for two such critical parts so close to each other. Tsuruoka said that the use of the word "michishirube (guiding light, signpost)" felt almost like an unspoken instruction from director Ishidate to use the song "Michishirube" here. It also helped that the song's lyrics, even though written for the TV series, was such a great fit for the movie. And by coincidence, the words tsubasa (wings) and tobu (which means fly, but also jump) appeared just as Violet was about to jump off the ship. This couldn't have been a better fit, so the music before "Michishirube" was written in a way to blend its key as it led to the song. And they recorded the piano part of "Michishirube" again, because the TV series version was more chirpy/bouncy but Tsuruoka wanted something more somber and gentle.
To Tsuruoka, Evan, and Saito, they felt that Violet was the storyteller who told us the stories of other people as she wrote letters for them. But through telling the stories of others, we are eventually told the story of Violet.
The audio commentary got quite technical at times. But it was really touching to hear them talk about how they went about making the music a part of the story, adding to it, enhancing it. So much so that, when you listen to the soundtrack, you can actually recall every scene.
Oh, Evan also talked about about his time at
Berklee College of Music.
He wanted to be a composer, but there was no such course, so he tried
to enter via singing his own songs. He wrote his own songs to try to
convey that he was interested in composing. He failed to get in on the
first try, though. At Berklee, he specialised in film scoring. I guess
that's why he did such a great job with the movie.
Also, I don't think many knows this, but music producer Saito actually wrote several blog articles about the music production for Violet Evergarden.
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