One instrument that doesn’t get enough credit is viola, which despite having a lovely distinct* tone is typically buried in the inner voices of an orchestral texture. Sound aside, violists are so grateful for the limelight than writing for them is unusually gratifying. I remember one session where I’d written a solo for the principal viola, and between takes hearing a lone voice shout, “Thank you!”

In this week’s moody suspense cue, I gave first foreground melody to the violas and put the violins on support duty with a high keening pedal. The flavor of the tune is a little more subtle and mysterious than if I’d assigned it to violins or celli.

* (And to my imagination, kind of dark orange.)

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	The Audit

This week’s music selection is an elegiac passage for strings, flute, and harp. Get the hanky.

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	A Heartfelt Speech

This week’s music selection is some 40s-esque big band jazz, originally written for a poker video game. We recorded with a dynamite horn and rhythm section, including some longtime musical collaborators.

The march of music technology has frequently left the studio drummer by the wayside, and I’m just as guilty as the next composer of laying down fake drum tracks via keyboard in the name of a project’s budget. Recordings like these remind me that there is no substitute for the musicianship of a real drummer!

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	Poker Night

Written for a visually lush Audubon documentary, this cue blends Native American flute and percussion with orchestral strings. The scene itself draws a visual analogy between a tribal dance and the animal – in this case, a sage grouse – that inspired it.

Film music often is called upon to evoke the sense of a culture through its indigenous music, while packaging it for Western sensibilities. There’s a delicate balance involved in suggesting a culture without caricaturing it. (Imagine the crashing gong that might herald an “Asian” character in a 1980s-era film.) My rule of thumb is that if ethnic music sounds like music, rather than a sound effect, then it’s more likely to succeed as tasteful commentary.

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	Sage Dance

In the movie Siren, the protagonist’s band (for whom we’re all rooting) competes in a giant battle of the bands, only to come in second place. They sulk in the green room, to the strains of this week’s music selection. Fortunately, the movie isn’t over at this point. Guitar props go to Tom Strahle, here channeling a little B.B. King.

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	Second Place Blues