The Power of Storytelling in Music: Crafting Scores That Move Audiences

I remember one of the first films I was ever asked to score. The director had sent me a rough cut of a pivotal scene, where the protagonist, a widower, was having a quiet but emotionally charged conversation with his house manager who had become like a son to him. It was a tender moment, layered with years of unresolved pain, love, and forgiveness. Watching the scene, I could feel its depth—but I knew that my job as the composer was to take those emotions and weave them into music that would resonate even more deeply with the audience.

I spent hours at the piano, playing different melodies, trying to capture that unspoken tension between them. I didn't want to overwhelm the dialogue but I knew that the right notes could heighten the experience for the viewer. After days of trial and error, I finally found the sound that felt right—a soft piano melody with just a touch of strings in the background. It was simple, understated, but it carried the weight of their relationship.

When the director listened to the score synced with the scene, he said it made the scene standout even more than what had been filmed. The music had filled the emotional gaps that words alone couldn’t express. At that moment, I realized that composing for film wasn’t just about writing beautiful music; it was about storytelling—about helping the audience feel the unspoken words between characters.

Music as an Emotional Translator

For me, this experience was a turning point in understanding the power of music in storytelling. As a musician, I had always known that melodies could evoke emotions, but working on that scene showed me just how deeply music could translate what was happening on screen into something felt at a visceral level.

Composing for film is like stepping into another dimension of the narrative. You’re not just an observer, but an interpreter of emotions, using sound to convey what the characters can’t say aloud. In that father-son scene, the dialogue was important, but the music became the vehicle through which the audience could understand their shared history and internal conflict. It’s in moments like these that music becomes a character of its own in the story.

I’ve learned that the role of a film composer is to heighten and guide emotional journeys. We compose music not just to accompany a scene, but to immerse the audience in the story in ways they don’t always consciously realize. You know those moments when your heart races, your breath catches, or tears well up, seemingly out of nowhere? That’s the magic of film music—an invisible thread that tugs at your emotions while you’re focused on the story unfolding.

Crafting the Emotional Impact in a Score

When I’m scoring a film, my approach is always to ask myself, “What emotion needs to be amplified here? What’s happening beneath the surface?” It’s rarely about the obvious—just matching happy music with a happy scene or sad music with a sad moment. Instead, it’s about tapping into the emotional undercurrent that the visuals and dialogue might only hint at.

For instance, I once scored a scene in a documentary where a woman was talking about the trails she constantly faces as a Nigerian woman trying to climb the corporate ladder as well as also juggling motherhood. The director wanted to convey both her vulnerability and strength as she navigated this season of her life. The temptation was to write something heavy and sorrowful to underscore the weight of what she was saying. But after listening to her story, I knew the music had to reflect her courage and resilience more than her frustration. I ended up composing a simple yet powerful piano piece that had lightness to it—hopeful, but with a bittersweet tone. The music captured her journey of courage rather than focusing solely on her current situation.

That experience taught me something valuable: music doesn’t just reflect emotions—it shapes how we interpret them. In every film I’ve worked on, my goal has always been to enhance what’s already there, to find the emotional truth of a scene and amplify it through sound.

Personal Connection to the Story

The best film scores, in my experience, come from a place of personal connection. I don’t just watch the scenes I’m scoring; I immerse myself in them, imagining how I would feel if I were in the characters’ shoes. That emotional investment is what allows me to write music that feels genuine and real.

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a film composer is watching how an audience reacts to a scene I’ve scored. When I see people visibly moved—whether it’s through tears, laughter, or even just a deep silence—I know that the music has done its job. It has connected them to the story in a way that words alone could not.

And isn’t that the ultimate goal of any storyteller? To make people feel something profound, something real.

And so to conclude...

The power of storytelling in music is undeniable. A great film score has the ability to elevate a story, to bring out emotions that the viewer might not even realize they’re feeling. For me, composing music is about more than just crafting beautiful melodies—it’s about creating an emotional experience, one that lingers long after the credits roll.

Every film is a new story to tell, and every score is an opportunity to touch hearts, to make audiences feel something deep and true. And in the end, that’s what makes this work so fulfilling—not just the act of composing, but the act of connecting, through music, to something larger than myself.