Stewart Copeland (b.1952)

The 'rhythmatist' Stewart Copeland, drummer with The Police went on to compose film scores. My preferred ones are the mini masterpiece Rumblefish (1983) and his score for Oliver Stone's Talk Radio (1988) with its MIDI toccatas. When playing kit, I enjoyed the unorthodox way he'd place the downbeat on the 3rd of the 4/4 instead of on the usual 2nd and 4th. His precision, his hi-hat work and his polyrhythms made me experiment with rhythm and computers in my own scores. I was lucky enough to meet and talk to Stewart Copeland at St John's, Smith Square, London in the 1980s.

In Rumblefish, Copeland uses sound metaphors in interesting ways, e.g. heartbeats, pounding industrial piledrivers, skooter exhausts, car horns, beggar-man solo violin and alarm clocks - his own ballet méchanique! I loved also the way he used (what sound like) reveresed sounds for the cue Father On the Stairs. - They come across as a fusion of traditional music and floorboards creaking. One reviewer at Amazon said of this soundtrack:

It is strange that I do not tire of this work. This is probably due to its rich and complex nature.
C. C. Pick

When people tell me they find my own music complex, I point to Copeland.