DMT: Right, that was composing. Well, the Hasty Pudding was probably the most important because it was the peak of my Harvard career. Another show that I worked on as an arranger, pianist, and music supervisor, was called “Prince Erie”... which was a standout production. It was probably the most successful show to be done at the Loeb during my four years at Harvard.
THC: What differences do you have to take into account when composing for the stage versus for film?
DMT: The biggest difference is that there are so many more musicians available for film. You can have a 70 to 80 piece orchestra, an enormous orchestra. Stage productions, even if they have 20 musicians, it’s usually not as many as you need to create the sound that you want, and 20 would be considered a very big amount nowadays. When I started in theater, 22 to 25 was standard, but [for today] I would say 14 to 16. The other big difference is that when you orchestrate for theater, it has to be performed in real-time for eight shows a week. You have to be careful about creating parts that can be executed accurately (every time). It can’t be as technically challenging as for film. Anything that’s recorded only needs to be performed perfectly one time, while something done on stage has to be played perfectly eight times a week, 52 weeks a year. You’re drawing on a canvas of a very different size, and your priorities are much more limited…. With film, pretty much anything is possible: If you can write it, they can play it.
THC: Do you have a preference for one over the other?
DMT: Yes, I prefer writing for the stage. I’m from New York; theater was my first interest. I love the live experience. There’s some honesty in the fact that the real-timeness of it means that what the audience is seeing and hearing is what’s really going on. Things have changed so much in pop music and in film and all the things that are created for the internet—it’s nice when you write for the stage to have a connection with a form that’s thousands of years old.
THC: You touched upon pop music and the internet, but have the technological advances in animation and music production affected your process of orchestrating music?
DMT: When I worked for theater, I had to write for a combination of acoustic instruments, synthesizers, and prerecorded music and other electronic elements, and I’ve learned how to do all that, but I’m personally pretty much a throwback to the older way of doing things, and to some extent, that’s been limiting to my career. But it’s who I am, and since there’s loads of younger people who grew up more in the pop tradition and computer age, it’s pointless to try to compete on their terms. I’m more comfortable doing what I grew up knowing and where I feel that I’m on secure ground when I pick up a pencil. I still write longhand.