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.)
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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.)
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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.)
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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.)
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Better Off Said | |
More fantasy-genre music this week, and by fantasy I mean bifurcating monsters with a halberd, rather than fine wine on a tropical island. A little bit heroic, a little bit nostalgic, a little bit militaristic. Enjoy!
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Leaving Dunsmir | |
In contrast to the acoustic-symphonic gravitas of last week’s musical selection, here’s a contemporary action-adventure theme that blends orchestra, electronica, rock, and far east ethnic instrumentation. Feel free to march towards the camera in dramatic slow motion while you listen.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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The Fourth Tribe | |
“Darkness and Light” was written as a companion piece to last week’s “Honor and Steel”. It’s a brooding and seething piece for strings and winds, meant to evoke a sense of dark forces at work and general foreboding. (So if you can’t quite get enough premonitions of impending doom in your life, then this is the music for you.) Performance courtesy of members of the Prague Symphony, and Orchestra dot net.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Darkness and Light | |
This week’s cue is some good old-fashioned orchestral/percussive action music with a middle ages feel.
… Well, that’s not entirely true. The musical vocabulary that movies and games use to suggest rampaging medieval armies has little in common with the kind of music you’d have heard in those times. Drums might be brought into battle, but the brass instruments of the era didn’t have valves and couldn’t play the kinds of complex melodies available to modern french horns or trumpets.
That having been said for the sake of my conscience - enjoy the carnage!
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Honor and Steel | |
This is one of my favorite cues from the Against Time score, so I was a bit surprised to find that I’d never featured it in this journal. Without further ado, enjoy the alternately warm, bucolic, ominous, and comedic musical expressions of the Budapest Film Orchestra.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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The Treehouse | |
I’m posting something a little different this week; rather than a film or game cue, this is a short self-contained piece for solo piano. It was commissioned by a friend as a holiday present for a friend of his own.
As a bonus for you pianists out there, the sheet music for the piece can be found here. (That last word is actually a link; this blog’s current color scheme may hide the fact on your browser.) Feel free to download it or share it.
(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)
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Kate’s Theme | |