In the game Empire Earth 2 a player can complete campaigns as various nations. Each nation received its own musical themes, which I wrote to evoke a general sense of a culture without referencing any particular national anthem.

This week’s cue accompanies the victory for the United States campaign, and also subtly invokes the main theme for the game itself. (We composers love allusions like that; our challenge is to make them feel musical rather than intellectual.)

The Cue of the Week is back! (Having taken a few weeks off for the composer’s trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.)

The hollow tone that starts this moody piano cue isn’t a synthesizer as you might expect, but the sound of two plastic tubes swung overhead in a circle. The resulting sound has a distinctly organic quality, though it takes a special effort to mic correctly. Should I have just held down two notes on a synthesizer instead? Take a listen and decide!

This orchestral cue, written for the Extreme Music Library, creates a dramatic sweep suggestive of sturm und drang (hence the name) but with a fantasy-adventure flavoring.

And speaking of European artistic traditions: the Cue of the Week will be on hiatus for a few weeks while its author heads to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Have a happy August!

Welcome to the crisp, cleaner look of my new website. I’ve even got a handy new url alias for this blog: cueoftheweek.com .

Speaking revisiting old things with a layer of polish, this week’s music is the finale from my second feature film, a political thriller called The F-Zone. This new digitally remastered version brings out clarity and detail in the orchestra’s expressive performance.

This week’s selection is some visceral epic battle music. (Don’t worry, the forge area was cleaned up afterwards.)

This week’s selection is from the short supernatural thriller Healers. Agitated piano, cello harmonics, and an ethereal vocal line by Jennifer Lindsay contribute to the tense mood.

I trust that the cinematic function of this music isn’t too cryptic, given the title. This perky guitar rock instrumental accompanies a self-improvement binge in the film Siren. The build near the end corresponds to the protagonist’s triumphant breakthrough on the running track.

This week’s cue is a lyrical orchestral piece expressing both the grandeur of nature and the micro-bustle of a small settlement.