>To: Macedonia Daily
>CC: John Tempereau
>Subject: Re: Dear Mr.Bates,
>Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:20:18 -0700
>
>Dear Macedonia Daily-
>
>Hello. I have returned from an extended period of travel to find many
>passionate letters sent to me via my web site, from yourself and other
>Macedonians expressing a great deal of anger and anguish regarding the music
>from the film Œ300,¹ titled ³Message For The Queen.² I would first like to
>say that I truly respect the music of Macedonia and Eastern Europe, and in
>no way would ever intentionally disrespect your country, culture, or the
>Macedonian citizens.
>
>The music of Œ300¹ was (like all film scores) created as a body of music
>solely to support the visual and dramatic content of the film. As a film
>composer, especially when working with historically based material, one is
>often asked to assimilate the music of a specific region of the world to
>better help tell the story of the film. This has occurred in films from all
>corners of the earth since the dawn of feature filmmaking. In the context of
>a film, the composer is hired as a ³work for hire² to create a score that
>serves both the film and the creative demands of the director, producer, and
>studio executives. This music is ultimately owned by the studio, and is NOT
>available for the composer to promote and sell as his or her personal body
>of work. In lieu of this, the director, producers, and studio ultimately
>determine exactly how an individual is credited, music titles, licenses,
>soundtrack album deals, and most importantly, the musical content of a film
> not the composer. It would be great if I could approach each film I do as
>my own album!
>
>As the composer of the music titled ³Message For The Queen,² I would like to
>make it clear that while the introduction expresses the woodwind melody
>present in many recorded versions of the song "Zajdi, Zajdi Jasno Sonce,"
>this music is equally based on Bulgarian traditional folk music that often
>shares similar tone and structure to "Zajdi, Zajdi Jasno Sonce." The vocal
>melody and performance of ³Message For The Queen² was the first element
>created for the piece, which is clearly not the melody and lyrics to "Zajdi,
>Zajdi Jasno Sonce." If "Zajdi, Zajdi Jasno Sonce" were appropriate for the
>film Œ300,¹ the studio would have licensed one of the many recorded versions
>of the song. But of course it would not make a great deal of sense to have a
>lyric-driven song in the film, especially a song from the twentieth century,
>for a film set in 480 B.C. In effort to avoid a conflicting message with
>that of the film itself, a conscious decision was made from the beginning to
>use no discernable words of any language in the film¹s music. It was our
>goal to create a beautiful, emotional piece of music for this particular
>scene, that is an amalgam of traditional folk music from the Eastern
>European region, not Macedonia in particular. That said, I would never, nor
>would the director, the studio or the producers wish to offend or disrespect
>anyone in the creation of the music for this film. I say this to you from
>the most earnest part of my being.
>
>I have no interest, nor do I stand to benefit from stealing and re-titling
>music in effort to call a composition my own. In the scope of film music, it
>does not serve the composer to engage in such a practice financially or
>creatively. If indeed this were my personal album, I would have had the
>choice to write a paragraph of how this music was created, offering my
>admiration and respect for the music of Macedonia and Bulgaria. As an
>artist, I feel that it would be an affront to Bulgarian music culture to
>credit the Macedonian influence on this piece of music without mention of
>Bulgarian music alike.
>
>I am not sure what people are looking to accomplish with the spate of
>aggressive correspondence personally directed towards me. It would be
>considerably more constructive to openly discuss the inspiration "Zajdi,
>Zajdi Jasno Sonce" provided in the creation of ³Message For The Queen,² in a
>healthy and positive light with you. I offer this as an artist and admirer
>of the music of Macedonia, and the passion of your people, for which I have
>the utmost respect.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Tyler Bates
>
>
>
