A teary-eyed moment late in the film Emerald, Texas. Here I chose to gave the cue’s main melody to the viola rather than violin. The viola has a more raw and less polished sound than its more celebrated soprano sibling, and I felt that a touch of raw longing was just what the scene needed.

Happy Thanksgiving to the American followers of this blog!

The music for the final scene of Emerald, Texas has a happy-go-lucky vibe, with whistling over guitars leading to a finale for piano and strings. However, the film’s denouement is more complex than this cheerful cue suggests!

In one scene from the film Emerald, Texas, protagonist Dee pauses for reflection while her more carefree friends play in a parking lot. Like much of the score, this cue mixes acoustic guitar with strings to reflect both contemporary Americana and the Wizard of Oz parallels of the story.

Guitar performances by Kyle Johnson.

The movie Emerald, Texas features present-day analogues from The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy is a rebellious teen from (of course) Kansas, the tin woodsman becomes a heartbroken metal sculptor, and so on.

The wicked antagonist is Elva, an eyepatch-wearing bounty huntress stalking our runaway teen protagonist. To musically represent Elva’s mix of bad-assery and witchy temper I used electric guitar and the rosiny screech of the fiddle. This week’s cue accompanies her first appearance.

Another selection from the score for Emerald, Texas. Two friends kick the can down a dusty Kansas lane. The music blends American folk with the chamber string sound that recurs throughout the score. 

One subtle detail: the string harmonies come from playing several notes of the film’s main melody simultaneously. Composers employ sneaky tricks like this to create a sense of subtle familiarity throughout a score.

And now, my personal favorite track from the score of Emerald, Texas. The scene is a moment of relaxation in a windy field of golden flowers.

En route to a fabled pastor, the protagonists from Emerald, Texas stumble upon a quasi-hippie enclave in a forest.

I wish the film scene had been longer, because I had so much fun writing this oddball cue. The central rhythmic element is my plucking on an electric guitar run through (warning: audio tech babble follows) a convolution reverb based on a drum ostinato.

Add hand percussion, recorder, and low-end piano to the mix and you have your instant magic realism/quasi-rural/vaguely-spiritual traveling underscore!

A self-styled miracle man resides across a shady forest. The ragtag companions of Emerald, Texas set out through the woods towards what they hope will be their quest’s end.

The scene provides the occasion for the film’s main theme, which had been previously hinted at in fragments. The melody emerges from a mysterious rural introduction and subsequent agitated string passage. The intro, by the bye, was given to the viola rather than violin, for a more more raw and haunting sound.

There were only a few string players on the recording, which we tracked multiple times to give the music a bigger sound. The resulting chamber orchestra feel worked well for the film’s intimate contemporary-fantasy sensibility.