This week’s offering is an introspective cue for piano, strings, and harp (with a touch of clarinet at the very end).

I composed this for a short film way back in the mid-90s; if you listen carefully you can hear some noise from the analog 24-track tape. Thank goodness we’ve moved on from trusting our music to the haphazard alignment of magnetically-charged particles!

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	Reflections

The movie-within-a-movie tradition is a time honored Hollywood self-indulgence — almost as much so as the musical-within-a-musical tradition. This celebratory music alludes to the Golden Age of cinema as young filmmakers Rod and Bill receive their cherished startup funds. (Their set will later be ransacked by an onslaught of murderous vultures and eagles, but let’s let them enjoy the moment.)

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	Making a Movie

It wouldn’t be right to compose music for a movie about attacking birds without at least one tribute to Bernard Hermann. While this week’s music selection doesn’t directly parody or reference The Birds, I’d like to think that the all-string sound and chromatic harmonies are at least in the spirit of Hitchcock’s great musical collaborator.

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	Let Us Go That Way!

James Nguyen’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror has been hailed as one of the most entertaining indie films ever made… albeit perhaps not for reasons the filmmaker had in mind. When I was presented with opportunity to write some music for the sequel, how could I say no?

This drum-and-guitar-driven cue accompanies the film’s perhaps tragic, perhaps confusing, but definitely avian finale.

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	The Birds Depart (Again)

This week’s selection is victory music from the video game Empire Earth 2. Said strategy game gives you the ability to play as one of several nationalities; this particular passage plays upon completion of the Korean campaign. While the other nations’ victory music cues are more martial and brassy, I thought that the “land of the morning calm” deserved something more lyrical and serene.

As with most of the music in that game, performance credit goes to the Budapest Film Orchestra.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Land of the Morning Calm