Office Hours with Jeanine Cowen
By Deanna Gasparyan
In this ongoing series called “Office Hours,” get to know some of the exceptional scholars and artists who make up USC Thornton’s faculty as they answer questions about themselves.
Could you share a highlight from your summer?
I finished up a project that I was working on, it’s a game project that I began working on over the January/December break. It’s a VR experience that is more about being somewhere, so not like a game necessarily. The project really gave me a chance to work on an at-most mix, which is kind of the up-and-coming, or it’s already arrived surround format for music. It’s been quite a whirlwind summer.
What is a project you’ve worked on that you’re most proud of?
I’ve had the opportunity to work on a lot of projects. One that was really dear to my heart was a documentary about Frida Kahlo, the artist, called The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. We did a very authentic score. We went to Mexico City and recorded musicians who understood the folk music of the time, and it was very, very fulfilling to be able to contribute to a documentary about that artist.
How is video game scoring different from film or television scoring?
In some ways, video game scoring gives us a lot more freedom because we’re not tied to a picture. In a film, things happen on the screen, and they always happen in the same way, but in a game, we don’t know what the timing is going to be. Sometimes you have players who like to hang around a level, sometimes they like to speed run, so it’s quite the puzzle that we get to put together, and yet we still are integral to the storytelling.
What makes a great video game soundtrack?
Good music. A video game soundtrack today has the same production quality, the same production level as the top film scores. It’s really about how well the composer understands the interaction between the gameplay, the music and the game. And so, a great score really is there just like it is in a film—it helps tell the story and it helps inform the player about things that can’t be done on screen or via dialogue.
What drew you to teaching at USC Thornton?
USC Thornton is an amazing school. It’s been on my radar for a very long time, and I have been happily surprised to be here because it’s even better than what I thought it would be. The colleagues that I have are amazing. There are amazing musicians here, and the students who come through the program are at the top of their game from a composition standpoint. Thornton has been really much better than I could have even imagined.
What is one thing you hope students will take away from your classes?
The classes that I teach here at Thornton are all about composition. It’s true, we use a lot of technology, but that’s all in service to the music. So typically, I think it’s been a success when students understand how to tell a story and how to use their musical tools
What is your favorite piece of music and why?
Oh, that’s easy. Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” has been my favorite piece of music since I was a little girl. It was the very first album that I ever used my own money to buy. It was the very first eight-track tape that I bought. My sister had an eight-track in her car and the first CD that I ever bought. So, it gets back to storytelling. The music is an amazing walk through a lot of different ideas that are about the human condition. I think it still stands up to the test of time.
