This week’s music cue is an impish action scherzo from a forthcoming mobile (iOS/Android) game.

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This orchestral and choral piece opens up Empire Earth 2 with a healthy serving of sturm und drang. Both ensembles were both recorded in the beautiful renovated Magyar Radio studios in Budapest.

One question that arises with archetypical “chanting chorus” music is what to do about lyrics. One school of thought is to not bother, since the listener only hear the vowels for the most part. But not wanting a stream of nonsense syllables, I took it upon myself to cobble together a miniature Latin war poem. Finding words that both made sense and fit musically was quite an effort, but I pulled through thanks to generous assistance of some Latin scholars I reached online.

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When it comes to orchestral cues I’m more inclined to share live recordings than those made with digital instruments, since the former are evergreen and the latter tend to show their age as technology advances. However, I liked this map view music from Empire Earth 3 so much that I gave it a sonic makeover, including a touch of analog tube emulation for warmth.

Accompanying a screen showing the contested Earth from orbit, this cue’s focus is conveying both tension and the panoramic sweep of the view.

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This week’s cue is an ominously-building prelude combining orchestral colors with chorus, electronics, and many drums.

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This week’s selection comes from the feature documentary Touché: A Blind Fencer’s Story, whose subject matter is as inspiring as it is surprising. (If you’ve never heard of sight-impaired fencing, you’re not alone!) The film also documents the struggles of day-to-day living for those who have lost their sight in adulthood.

This cue for nylon string guitar develops the film’s fencing theme (presented earlier on cello), which here reflects the optimism and never-say-die attitude of the film’s primary subject, blind fencing champion Catherine Bolton. Guitar performance courtesy of Tom Strahle.

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