There is a long Hollywood tradition of attempting to shoehorn ethnic folk music in orchestral format. Actually, it predates Hollywood; 18th and 19th century symphonic composers were fond of tossing a triangle into an otherwise perfectly Western-sounding movement and dubbing it “Turkish”.

I’m not one to turn down a chance to engage in a little cultural imperialism myself. This cue from Empire Earth 2 opens with a solo from a Armenian wind instrument called a duduk (film composers love it for its sinuous sound, and often use it as a shorthand for “attention audience: we’re now in Damascus”). The music then transitions to a more traditionally symphonic crescendo, meant to evoke the vastness of the desert and civilizations long past. Now if only I had remembered to add a triangle…

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	Sands of Arabia

This moody and lyrical cue features soprano sax, a recurring modal piano ostinato, and string orchestra.

I’ve always liked using the saxophone as an orchestral voice, in distinction from its traditional role as infantryman in the jazz army. (Or in the case of the soprano sax, the easy-listening army.) In its upper register, the instrument can function almost like an oboe, but with a somewhat smoother and less pinched tone.

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	Dennis Alone

Nothing perks up a Friday like some good old-fashioned, wholesome battle-to-the-death music. Here’s some of my Mideastern-styled action scoring from Empire Earth 3. This piece features abundant ethnic hand percussion, snarling brass, and that most traditional of pan-Mideastern musical sounds: cello pizzicato routed through a guitar amplifier.

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	Struggle In The Sands

Brooding and lyrical, this orchestral cue adopts the classic “rounded binary” form – a theme, followed by a contrasting B section, capped with a brief reprise of the opening material. It also reflects my fondness of using the woodwind section for color, even in the context of a ensemble sound where strings and brass predominate. (A gripe I have with epic film music these days is that it’s so brass-strings-percussion heavy that the woodwinds get overlooked… but that’s a subject for a blog post of its own.)

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	A Dark Future

This happy guitar rock cue – written for an archetypical athletic training montage – wraps up our (discontinuous) month of happy music.

I hadn’t intended every cue in this series to be guitar-oriented, but after reviewing my body of work found that I simply haven’t written a lot of orchestral music with an innocent, upbeat tone. There’s plenty of cues with names like “Final Triumphant Victory”, but they invariably have a militaristic quality. And I’ve written number of romantic cues, which are happy in a kind of Giant Hammer of Emotion sort of way. But when it comes to lighter, happy-go-lucky fare, I invariably seem to return to a more pop music voice.

Speaking of happiness, I’m happy to report that the blank-page problem that was plaguing some Internet Explorer users has been remedied.

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

	Training Montage

This third installment in our month of happy music series should be a hit among fans of Mariachi music and spirits-induced catatonia.

On a technical note, a few users of older versions of Internet Explorer have told me that they see nothing but a blank page when visiting this blog. If you find yourself experiencing this problem, please send me a short note so I can get a sense of how widespread the issue is. Please note that MikeMusicRadio.com does not recommend Internet Explorer, but we heartily endorse Firefox, Safari, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx, and going outside and getting some fresh air for a change.

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

	El Tequila Bar

Continuing our month of nonstop happy music series, this cue prominently features the guitar-playin’ of the inimitably talented Tom Strahle. Not to mention mandolin-playin’ and whatever other overdubs I forced out of him that day. (This recording is of only two musicians, but I made them earn their keep.)

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	Field Work