Here is a new mix of Toys in the Attic just in time for Halloween! I also created a video from footage taken at the remote recording session with Budapest Scoring. This was written as a score for the following scenario: “Teen ghost hunters searching the attic of an abandoned mansion, looking for signs of a young changeling poltergeist that’s been encountered by several late-night visitors. All of a sudden, every toy in the attic springs to life, and the kids run for their lives!” I ended the piece with music that is supposed to signify that the kids have been turned into toys by the changeling poltergeist.
Tag Archives: Film Music
New Arrangement of “Hero and Lyrical Themes”
This month I updated “Hero and Lyrical Themes” which was another Berklee assignment that I originally did in Sibelius, but I wanted to put it into Logic to see how much better I could make it sound. For the original assignment I wanted to write a piece in sonata form, using a heroic A theme and a lyrical B theme like many film score do (Star Wars, Superman, etc.). To keep it short and sweet, I didn’t use any transitions between the themes, and I had a very short development. For this new version I wanted to expand upon the development since it feels a little rushed in the original. While I was at it, I also cleaned the partwriting in the harmonizations of the themes throughout the piece. I did all of my composition in Sibelius, then transferred all the parts over to Logic.
In the Exposition there is a “heroic” A Theme for the brass (the melody is in the horns and trombones over a C pedal) in C Major, and a contrasting “lyrical” B Theme for the woodwinds and strings in F minor. The new Development more than doubles the length of the entire piece (the original version is about 2:00, the new one is 4:30), because I wanted to think of it as music I would write for the middle of a film where I would write a lot of music that references the themes, but doesn’t give them a full statement until the end. It starts in the same key as the B Theme (F minor), with a rhythmic pedal in the timpani and low strings. The rhythm is meant to be a complement to the A Theme, and then the low woodwinds (opposite of high brass) play a chromatic reference to the A Theme. The next section modulates to Bb minor with a new rhythmic pedal that is a complement to the B Theme, and then the low brass (opposite of high winds) play a chromatic reference to the B Theme. There is another modulation to Ab minor where the ideas based on the A and B Themes are used together, both to create chaos, as well as to foreshadow the end of the piece. The Development ends with a big move from an Ab minor chord to a G Major chord to start to pull the piece back to C Major. The Retransition is made up of chromatically-rising fragments of the A and B themes over a G pedal, leaving the brass out to complement the next section. The Recapitulation starts with the expected return to the A Theme in the brass in the key of C Major, however this time the melody is in the trumpets (first time we hear the trumpets) and horns, and it is harmonized in the low brass (as opposed to just a C pedal). The B Theme is also in C Major, as expected, which gives it a refreshing brightness as opposed to the darker F minor version at the beginning. The piece ends with both themes played simultaneously, showing that they were tied together from the very beginning.
“Town Music” (New Arrangement of “Pastoral Theme”)
This month I worked on updating “Pastoral Theme” because it was originally written in Sibelius, and I always wanted to see what it would sound like if I gave it the DAW treatment. It reminded me of the style of music you might hear when playing a video game and visiting a town, so I changed the name to “Town Music”. Before taking it out of Sibelius I rewrote the end of each phrase and changed the bass rhythms, because when I originally did it as an assignment, it was good enough and I was trying to learn how to write things quickly and move on from them. I think the rewrite is a little more interesting and flows a little better, so I’m glad I made the changes.
I also thought this would be a good opportunity to compare my different string libraries. The music is meant to repeat (like video game music would), but instead of an exact repeat, I switched to a different string library, using five of them, one right after the other. I fiddled with them as little as possible, to see which ones sounded best right out of the box, so I would know which ones to use if I’m under a tight deadline. I used the same modulation and expression on all of them, mostly just to create the overall subtle dynamic contour. I also didn’t do any panning, because I wanted to just rely on each of their seating positions when they were originally recorded. I had to do some balancing, because the ranges of their default volumes were all over the place, and for the most part I used the same reverbs (as well as a few other effects) on all of them, with a few slight adjustments when necessary. On one of them I also had to do some pretty drastic surgical EQ because a few notes had some crazy overtones piercing through. Which one(s) do you like most/least (A, B, C, D, or E)?
“Ancient Battle Hymn” (New Arrangement of “Mystical Chant”)
In January I participated in the Made with Musio composing contest. The rules were to use only Musio instruments and feature at least one of their choir libraries. Since I had used Cinesamples “Voices of War: Men of the North” for my piece “Mystical Chant”, I decided to treat it to a new arrangement. I started with replicating it using Musio’s equivalent library “Nordic Voices: Men of the North”, then I included its counterpart “Nordic Voices: Women of the North”. As I added more and more layers (especially the percussion), it began to take on a different character, so I named this version “Ancient Battle Hymn”.
I wanted the A section to be more conversational, so the melody goes back and forth between the Men of the North and Women of the North. I also added timpani (with medium mallets), and string instruments (Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle, Icelandic Shetland Gue, Viola Da Gamba, and Icelandic Bass Tagelharpa) to make it sound a little more rustic.
For the B section I wanted to evoke a more “warlike” sound for the battle hymn, so I left out the strings, and added more voices from the Voxos choir (as if it is the entire village singing). I also switched to the hard mallets for the timpani, added more drums (Icelandic Medieval Drum, two Icelandic Inuit Drums, and Djun Djun), and wind instruments (Low Woodwinds Ensemble, Icelandic Lur Horn, 12 Horn Ensemble, Bass Trombone, Tuba, and Cimbasso).
For the last section I returned to the overall texture of the original A section, but with added inner lines in the Nordic Voices choir parts. I also ended it with a Voxos Solo Boy, which I think adds a nice little twist to the story.
New Arrangement of “Hero Theme”
With the new year, I wanted to get back to also focusing on my music, in addition to all of the method books and other lesson materials I had been previously posting. This month, I worked on a new version of my Berklee project “Hero Theme”. It was one of my first assignments that I posted, which was an exercise in using parallel harmony. When I originally did the assignment, we had to hand it in as a PDF of sheet music, since it was just an exercise, and not something where we needed to have a perfectly polished finished product. Even though I already posed it as-is, I always wanted to see how much better it would sound if I did a mockup of it in Logic using better sample libraries. Once I did that though, I started thinking of other little things that I could tweak here and there to make it even better. I ended up writing an intro, and also changed the orchestration a little in order to create more of a build. I hope you enjoy it!
Black Metal and Nightwing Returns Season 2
I haven’t posted any new music in a while because I’ve been working on the scores to my two biggest projects yet.
The first one was the score to Black Metal (“A black/Asian teen is determined to make it as a heavy metal artist in defiance of his father, a failed jazz musician”), written and directed by Michael Johnson.
As soon as I was finished with that project I had to jump right into the score for Nightwing Returns Season 2, directed by Preston Manee. It will be released as a four-part YouTube series which I will post this links for as the episodes are released. In the meantime, you can listen to the “Episode 1 Intro” in the media player.
A Winter Carol for piano and orchestra
Seasons Greetings!
I composed A Winter Carol a few years ago for a contest, and I recently cleaned up the orchestration and made a new mockup. If you are interested in performing it with your orchestra, let me know and I can send you a score to look over (if you don’t have access to a piano, we can figure out an alternative). If you have a concert band (or some other ensemble), let me know and I’ll do an arrangement to suit your ensemble.
A Winter Carol showcases the two best parts of winter: sitting inside where it’s warm (maybe with your favorite warm drink) while watching the falling snow, and playing outside in the snow.
Happy Holidays!
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Final Projects
These next two tracks were the final projects from my Berklee Online Summer Semester.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Fight Scene was the final project in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring to score a three-minute film clip. Previously I’ve only done action scenes with orchestral instruments (and on those I’m probably guilty of Mickey Mousing), so I wanted to score an action scene with intense electronic sounds that is relentless (as opposed to having an orchestra hit on every punch). All of the percussion sounds and most of the synthesized sounds I used in my score are samples from the clip. For the Winter Soldier, the synth rhythm and percussion groove are based on a paradiddle (RLRR LRLL) which is reflected in the sound choices as well as the panning (his robotic left arm is stronger and metallic, so the right-hand part is a sample of him punching Captain America with his human hand, panned to the right and the left-hand part is samples of two different “metallic punch” sounds panned to the left). I also used filter cutoff automation to lighten and darken the sounds as he moves around (also at one point both sounds go to a higher octave). Black Widow’s percussion sounds are made up of the two footsteps she takes as she is running up to him, the sound of her kicking, and the fast repeated notes are the sound of the little disc that she throws on his arm. I used a reversed sample of the sound of the shield being punched to lead up to the actual sound in the clip. Captain America’s rhythm was made from different sounds made by the shield. When their fight starts, I panned of all Winter Soldier’s rhythms to the left, and put Captain America’s on the right so there was a clear separation of those two parts. I added chords on the right with my “distorted guitar sound” that I used in a previous lesson, and I added a bass line on the left. I kept the music mostly going relentlessly except for a few key moments where I stopped, and every time I did, I used automation to bring all of the filter cutoffs down and slowly bring them back in leading into the next downbeat. Since there was some music in the clip that I had to work around (sections with three slow bass drum hits, a whailing sound when Winter Soldier jumps up onto a car, a big BRAAAAAM as Captain America is running up, some soft staccato strings during the fight, and something like a zurna during the fight), I brought down the original volume of the clip, so that all you can hear is my music, except for a few key sound design moments that I was consciously working around as I was scoring (The explosion at the very beginning, Winter Soldier cocking his gun, Black Widow’s decoy phone conversation-the explosion-Black Widow running up to Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier firing his gun as his arm is temporarily deactivated-pulling the disk off-reactivating his arm, Black Widow getting shot, Winter Soldier punching Captain America’s shield, Winter Soldier punching the ground, Winter Soldier’s knife cutting through the side of the van, the shield hitting Winter Soldier’s arm, Winter Soldier hitting the ground after Captain America throws him).
Iranian Scenario was the final project in Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring to score a scene that takes place in a country of our choice. Once we chose a country, we had to research the native music of that country in order to incorporate it into our cue. I wanted to use a mix of Persian and Western instruments because it takes place in Iran but the main character is a Western woman who works in the American Embassy.
This movie takes place in Tehran just before the 1979 revolution.
0:00: MX in on a LS of a Western woman walking down a busy city street. She doesn’t look totally out of place, but she doesn’t look like she belongs.
0:21: She goes through the gate of the American Embassy, which is guarded by two Marines in dress uniform.
0:27: She sits at her desk and looks deep in thought. She is obviously either a diplomat or an intelligence operative.
0:36: We hear the sound of a large angry crowd chanting what are apparently anti-American slogans.
0:41: CUT to the crowd.
0:49: The woman rushes out of her office and goes out a side entrance to a back street. She runs down the street avoiding the crowd and…
1:05: enters a local coffee shop (think hookahs) and meets a man wearing traditional Arab robes. He is agitated, but glad to see her, and they have an intense conversation. During the course of this conversation…
1:19: his robe opens slightly to reveal a 9mm Beretta in a holster.
1:26: They leave the coffeeshop and go hurrying down the street away from the mob.
1:33: Dissolve to sunrise over the mountains in Northern Iran, and the woman and the man are looking out over a deserted valley.
1:44: MX OUT.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Week 11
These next two tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Week 11.
Haunted Spaceship was the assignment in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring to “create a one-minute evolving ambient soundscape using granular synthesis and ring modulation … use any of the devices, processes, and/or techniques from this lesson that interest you most in your soundscape.” I used Logic’s Flex Time to slow two drum loops down to 5 BpM. I staggered them and then panned them on either side and added a little Ringshifter which gave them a buzzing quality. My center line is from Alchemy with two simple lines moving back and forth chromatically. I used automation to control the size, density, num taps, and tap spacing to gradually go from all the way up to all the way down so that the sound gradually degrades throughout the piece. I also added Ringshifter to this line to give it extra bite.
Medieval Scenario was the assignment in Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring to “Adapt the … Kyrie VIII from Mass VIII, Gregorian Chant (Brébeuf Hymnal) … and create a cue to the scenario given … create your own variation of the chant melody by extracting a phrase or by doing your own melodic variation and developing that … the resulting music should have a contemporary sound, but incorporate some element of the musical styles of the late Middle Ages or Renaissance … the ensemble should have a large, big-budget sound, and must use some element or elements of Medieval music.” I wanted the opening to be pretty big and mostly high, since it’s an aerial scenery shot. Throughout the cue I used mostly open perfect 4ths and 5ths with an occasional triad (especially at a half cadence). For the travelers I used timpani quarter notes to represent them walking, a men’s choir (three part harmony) for the three monks, a men’s choir melody for the lead monk, one of each woodwind for the family, and harp playing arpeggios for the jongleur (I used harp instead of lute or guitar because I figured they might get buried in all the orchestration). At this point they are tired and possibly starting to give up hope that they will ever find their destination so I used the relative minor. When they see the spire I went full tutti with the orchestration (including chimes for church bells) and returned to the relative major because their hope is renewed. The music dissolves and becomes more peaceful as they arrive at their destination. I used the three-part male voices singing reverently as the monks walk down the main aisle in the cathedral.
0:00: MX IN on an establishing aerial shot of the moors in central England. It is the fifteenth century. The camera pans down to a dirt track and at…
0:17: we see a handful of travelers. It is a diverse group of people walking behind a cart pulled by two oxen with a horseman guarding the rear. As we get closer, we see the group is led by a monk with a shaved head. There is a family of parents and two small children, a jongleur carrying a stringed instrument, and three more monks.
0:31: they come over a rise and in the distance we see the spire of a large cathedral, indicating their destination.
0:40: cut to the group arriving at the gates of the walled city
0:47: cut to the monks entering the cathedral, walking down the main aisle and kneeling at the altar.
1:03: MX OUT at as they pray.
Berklee Online, Summer Semester, Week 10
These next five tracks were from my Berklee Online Summer Semester, Week 10 in Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring.
Eye was an exercise to “create your own vocal chop … put any other instrument parts along with it if needed to help us feel the melody … make sure the vocal chops are the feature.” The source sound was from a vocal track a friend of mine did for a secret project I’m working on, and I sampled a section from when he says the word “eyes” (I cut the ‘s’ off, so the sample is just “eye”).
Tormented was an exercise to “process your sample with a variety of effects … apply modulation … use any tool that we have covered so far to process the sound … create a short sequence with the sound by itself.” I used a different part of the previously-mentioned project with my friend where he sings “tormented”.
KtFA BTAS was an exercise to “take a vocal sample and use any combination of Pitch Shifter, Pitch Correction, and Vocal Transformer to create a new and compelling sound … use any additional effects to make the sound even more interesting … create an eight-bar sequence using your new sound.” I used a longer clip from the same project, and I reversed the words so they wouldn’t be recognizable. I put it on four different tracks (SATB), each with different combinations of extremes of changing the pitch and formant and combining those with Robotize.
De Profundis Excerpt was an exercise to “create your own vocal or choose a vocal sample … set up your vocoder … create a MIDI chord progression … create an eight-bar sequence with your vocoded vocal part.” I used a recording of my wife speaking the first four lines from De Profundis (from a previous project). I had automation gradually move the Formant Stretch and Formant Shift from low and narrow to low and wide to high and wide to high and narrow. I also added a “cathedral” reverb because it seemed fitting.
Alien Religious Service was the assignment to “Create a one- to two-minute piece using vocal synthesis and processing as the main feature … use any of the devices, processes, and/or techniques from this lesson that interest you most … use your own perspective on composing with vocal synthesis, sampling, and sound design.” I used a verse and chorus (or chorus and verse since it plays in reverse) from the same project that I’ve been using. I have one instance running through the vocoder at the center. I used the chord progression from the song (also in reverse) for the MIDI notes for the vocoder. I added some effects (chorus, phaser, reverb, and delay), and used a “middle of the road” setting for the vocoder. Since the melody has a lot of space, I created a “call and response” effect to fill in the gaps. I created far-left and far-right parts, and used automation to bring those parts in during the rests. The reversed vocals, vocoder, and the call and response created the overall effect of a religious service for aliens.
Tim Girard 