Original score for documentary film.
Duration: 24' — 2019
Writing for the Ruins
One Day in Aleppo (Syria/Sweden, 2017, dir. Ali Alibrahim, written by Ali Alibrahim and Feras Fayyad) is a 24-minute documentary filmed inside the besieged city during the Syrian civil war. The film was made available for this project by Religion Today Trentino, as part of the Composition for Theatre and Cinema programme at the Conservatorio F.A. Bonporti, Trento.
The work began with the removal of the original soundtrack and the reconstruction of ambient audio from the footage. The new score was then composed from scratch, drawing on research into Middle Eastern musical traditions — Arabic modal scales, rhythmic structures, organology — with reference to instruments such as the qanun and the dirbakki, and to composers including Selim Sesler and Fazil Say.
The score is built around three thematic ideas: a main theme, a fire theme, and a threnody. These are developed across a suite structure and arranged for B♭ clarinet, percussion, piano, and double bass. The full score was written in traditional notation, then recorded and mixed in Pro Tools against the picture.
Technical details
Duration - 24'
Type - Documentary film score
Year - 2019
Film - One Day in Aleppo (Syria/Sweden, 2017), dir. Ali Alibrahim
Ensemble - B♭ clarinet, percussion, piano, double bass
Notation - Traditional score
Post-production - Pro Tools
Film courtesy - Religion Today Trentino / Conservatorio F.A. Bonporti