I usually try to tailor my musical selections to reflect current U.S. holidays, but I don’t think I’ve ever written anything Thanksgiving-related. (“Drumstick” pun opportunities notwithstanding.) So instead, I hope you enjoy this wistful orchestral cue from the film Against Time.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Everything She Does | |
Like film footage, music sometimes gets left on the proverbial cutting room floor. This week’s selection is a tender orchestral cue that both the director and I liked very much – and that we both agreed was superfluous for its originally-intended, dialogue-driven scene.
Consequentially, the piece has ascended from film service into the realm of “pure” music, where it can enjoy a sense of lofty detachment from the realm of commerce. Enjoy!
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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You Can’t Go Back | |
This week’s selection is some piano-driven acoustic blues from a film comedy project of yore.
I’m occasionally asked why I don’t perform piano on my own recordings. I usually say, not untruthfully, that I prefer to monitor the overall sound from the control booth. But an even less untruthful answer is that my playing never sounds as good as this.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Big City Lights | |
I’ve had to write a number of pieces of music with the name “Final Victory” and will probably write more in the future. It’s kind of an occupational hazard when scoring film, and certainly video games. This particular final victory, from the game Empire Earth 2, is a dramatic sort – more of a “phew, we made it” mood than “hip hip hooray”.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Final Victory | |
This cue, from the political thriller The F-Zone, is a good example of how composers are lazy and like to recycle. The music opens with a suspenseful harp passage, which is really just the movie’s main theme re-purposed as an accompaniment. I then shamelessly recycle an earlier plot-development theme from this cue, now played by the celli and violas. The oboe player then begins the film’s love theme, which by this point the attentive audience member has heard half a dozen times.
Quite a lot of mileage with barely any new music written! (If pressed, composers will refer to this process as “motivic development”.)
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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A Consultation | |
