Texture, time, and meaning: composing music for animation, film and television through an improviser’s perspective

Music is an essential and intrinsic part of educational television programmes. Jazz and improvised music have taken a very significant role in this process. Between 2007 and 2009, I was commissioned to compose music for a series of twenty-five short animation films, featured as segments of a children’s educational programme for the Portuguese public channel, RTP. In this article I reflect upon my practice and challenge established notions of jazz canonicity, aesthetics and meaning in animation.