It was recently remarked to me that this blog tends to feature a lot of music of dark/aliens-invading/yearning-for-eternal-truths sort of character. In response to this, mikemusicradio.com will proudly feature a month of happy music.

This week’s selection is for guitar, piano, and the least lachrymose of all instruments, the accordion. Enjoy!

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

	Audrey and Einstein

An ominously-building musical prelude combining orchestral colors with chorus, drums, and electronic timbres. If this blog were written by a publicist, the words “relentless pulsation” would probably be dropped in somewhere. (Fortunately, I would never do such a thing myself.)

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

	Trouble’s Overture

An offbeat tune featuring bari sax, drums, and marimba. The mood is something halfway between African wildlife documentary and slightly unhinged 1960s spy movie.

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

	Unlikely Heroes

Circa fourteen years ago the University of Southern California, I wrote music for a short thesis film called High Adventure. It was decidedly unlike any student film I’d ever seen: it featured firearms, stuntmen from Universal, and an aerial chase sequence with actual biplanes. The film’s creator, Russ Matthews, wanted similarly ambitious production values for the music, so we rounded up a union orchestra and recorded an eleven minute microcosm of an action-adventure score.

The music definitely pays homage to John Williams and some of the other composers stuck in my head during my student days, but I also was careful to give the film its own musical voice. Though I’ve had the subsequent pleasure of working with Russ on professional projects, the results of this collaboration have a special place in my heart. Here’s the end title music, which is a medley of the score’s principal themes.

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

	High Adventure

This is a medley of two cues from The Penguin Who Wouldn’t Swim, embodying the “drama in a storybook world” flavor common to the music in that score. I love the string performances in this recording – they came out wonderfully expressive.

(It’s a bit sad that the fabulous musicianship in studio recordings is often anonymous. I do my best to keep track of musicians who play for me, but in the case of a string section brought in by a contractor it can definitely be tricky.)

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

	Egon’s Decision

No, that’s not the title of a Bond film. This piece is part of Empire Earth 3, and accompanies a foreboding image of the Earth spinning in space. The tone is initially ethereal, then grows with militaristic intensity.

Any composer writing this kind of music faces an artistic challenge: try not to rip off Holst. I didn’t fare too badly here. There are a few voices-and-celeste moments that are reminiscent of the later movements of the Planets symphony, but by and large I don’t think I gave Gustov’s estate much legal ammunition.

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

	Above the World

A short and sweet little tune for harpsichord, recorders, and glockenspiel. There’s something of a “once upon a time” feeling at work here.

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

	Little Village