This pretty – if I don’t say so myself – piece for string orchestra and English horn has a kind of warm holiday fuzziness to it. I therefore thought it would make a nice cue for today, as we head into season of end-of-year celebrations. (Perhaps a touch ironically, this was originally written to accompany a pharmaceuticals ad.)

Happy holidays!

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

	Unseen Landsacpes

Taiko drums have transcended their original ethnic connotations to become staples of contemporary action scoring. Though sometimes over-used, these instruments have a lot to offer: they pack a punch, but are more agile than the traditional orchestral bass drum. And as they come in different sizes, they offer a palette of different tones.

This percussion-based cue brings taikos back to the context of Japanese ceremonial and militaristic music, creating a musical portrait of growing conflict. I took some liberties with instrumentation, opting for some expressive sounds that probably weren’t regularly used in 13th century feudal Japan. (Please don’t tell the emperor!)

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

	Thunder Of War

This moody piece of music from the film Home Room features one of my favorite orchestral instruments, the bass flute. It’s a difficult instrument to play (and sometimes hard to find), but has a wonderfully dark and sensuous tone color. The instrument also requires a lot of breath in order to produce a tone, so it’s good idea to let the musician occasionally come up for air!

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

	TV Breakdown

Happy Thanksgiving to all my reader-listeners in the United States! My feeling is that the holiday calls for some music on the cheerful side. Here’s a warm and sentimental orchestral cue featuring wistful passages for winds, and a triumphant finale for the strings.

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

	Happy Reunion

Not every cue can have an interesting name! This optimistic orchestral interlude from the score for the film “The F Zone” was recorded at the now-defunct but highly-respected O’ Henry Studios in Burbank. (Whether it was named after the author or candy bar, I don’t know.)

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

	Work Montage

This week’s cue is a song accompanying the titles for Cleve Nettles’ film, “Genie and the Shark”. This was a fun opportunity to write a song and derive a lot of the film’s underscore from the melody or related material.

I won’t give away any plot details, but the musical concept underlying both tune and underscore was, “Arabian nights meets Argentine tango”.

Vocal performance by the very talented Megan Briones. Lyrics by yours truly.

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

	For You

After a brief hiatus (for the production of one of my short musical theater projects), the Cue of the Week is back!

As it’s Halloween, it would be remiss of me to not post some spooky music. This horror/suspense cue includes shakuhatchi improvisation, a superball dragged down cello strings, and lots of bowed and scraped sounds. Enjoy!

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

	Devil Kills Joey

To provide some perk to your Friday, here’s a bit of almost-ragtime featuring piano and five-string violin. This is the end title music for David Kiang’s dark comedy about a man afflicted with something halfway between divine inspiration and Tourette’s Syndrome.

(I say “almost-” because true ragtime has syncopated rather than swung rhythm.)

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

	Better Off Said