Electronic-ish Music

Music for table-top RPG's and/or video games. All tracks have loop-able versions which I can provide upon request. 

Dungeons and Dragons/ Sample Library Demos

Music that I have written for live performance, all of which have been either performed or recorded.

Concert Music

A dark and driving fanfare for brass and percussion. Written for Jeffrey de Seriere and TBC: The Brass Choir.

The Black Carillon

According to my friend Adam, this guy's a real piece of shit.

Ho Chi Minh Likes White Women

Cowboy Hillbop

Attached a contact mic to four different license plates, sampled them, and this is the end result.

Plates

Track for a mystical forest hidden from creatures of impurity.

The Untouched Woods

A dark, forbidden forest or the depths of a chilling cave.

It's dark in here...

Remix I did for a class in Fall of 2013. This one goes out to all the weird opponents.

The Starman Prophecies

Desolation

Project I did for fun. Everything is electronic/samples except for the flugel, which was recorded by myself.

Elecity

This piece was composed using a single trumpet sample and copious amounts of processing in Cubase. This has nothing to do with Batman (use of a subwoofer will yield best results, however).

Scary Batman

Prologue from "Prologue & Tale"

Tale from "Prologue & Tale"

Prologue, for solo trumpet, performed by the amazing Joe Jennis on his masters recital at UT Austin on April 21st, 2015.

Prologue - performed by Joe Jennis 4-21-15

First try at an 8-bit video game-sounding project using FL Studio 10 (eh, it's all I had)

8-bit Theme

An overture for wind ensemble that depicts the upbeat and laid-back city of Los Angeles. Performed on 2/4/16 at the Pale Blue Wind Ensemble concert.

LA Overture

Written for and premiered by the University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble on March 30th 2016 under the direction of Kelly Kuo.

Program notes:

Seirei no mori is Japanese for “The Forest of Spirits.” The predominant influence for this piece comes from Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films, specifically the ones accompanied by Joe Hisaishi’s scores. At an early age, probably around the time I started playing trumpet, I remember watching Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and hearing a particular moment in the score that really struck me. It featured the low brass playing these enormously powerful perfect fifths followed by the trumpet and trombone playing a brief melodic figure, also in fifths. This was one of the first times I was actively curious as to why I enjoyed a particular musical moment and possibly the spark that ignited the desire to write my own music. Seirei no mori is an homage to the influence that Japanese film and video game music has had on me throughout my life. 

The work depicts a forest filled with spirits both peaceful and terrifying. The first part of the piece titled “Summoning the Kodama” (kodama is a term that can refer to any sort of forest spirit) begins with a dialogue between the spirits and those who are attempting to summon them. During this interaction, the forest’s theme is introduced in the pizzicato cello and bass. The music picks up after the spirits are summoned, with flowing melodic lines representing the peaceful spirits. However, the peace is interrupted by the dark spirits, “The Oni and the Yokai” (oni are roughly translated as demons and yokai refers to supernatural monsters in general). During the second half of the piece, the piccolo introduces a traditional Japanese folk tune that serves as the basis for much of the following musical material. The drums drive the music forward as they emulate the sound of traditional taiko drummers. After these evil spirits, and possibly a trickster spirit or two, seem to fade away, there is a plea for peace in the forest once again by the lonely piccolo. How are the piccolo’s pleas answered? You’ll have to listen to find out…

Seirei no mori "The Forest of Spirits"

The first movement is based on the place where I’ve camped the most: Joshua Tree National Park in California. The desert is a place of intensity and serenity. I push myself to the physical limits, climbing enormous rock piles, running to the peaks of mountains, all for the calming, introspective moment to look over the vast expanse that is the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. 


i. desert

The second movement is more inspired by my mind’s interpretation of what a silent field of snow might feel like rather than an actual experience. Having grown up in Southern California, I experienced snowy environments on TV, in movies, in video games and only a limited number of times in person (most of which involved skiing, which I am not good at nor did the experiences prove to be introspective).  The music of John Luther Adams has influenced how I musically perceive a bleak, snow-laden landscape. His patience in sustaining dense chords and drawing out harmonic motion creates a sense of frigid stillness that I attempt to translate into my own compositional style in this movement.

ii. snowfield

Trumpet - Casey Martin, Miguel Perez
Horn - Zach Morgan
Trombone - Anna Wessels
Tuba - Bryan Patterson

Nomad

Commissioned and premiered by the Somos Quartet - Evan Williams, Steven Vogel, Manny Arredondo - tenor trombone, Sterling Tanner - bass trombone.

Song Of The Shieldmaiden (for trombone quartet)

Commissioned by Ray Sasaki for the UT Trumpet Studio. Performers- Joe Jennis, John Vitale, Tamara Vaughn, Melissa Muñoz, Matt Harper, Forrest Spengler, Miguel Perez. Recorded live at Joe Jennis' DMA 1 recital 2/26/17.

The Prayers And Rituals Of Demons (for trumpet septet) Live 2/26/17

A fanfare for trombone choir and percussion that depicts the terrifyingly powerful Titans from the popular Warcraft game series. Performed by the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Trombone Choir.

Spring 2017 Cocnert

The Makers (performed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville Trombone Choir)

World premier of "Ashen Skies of a Timeworn World." Performed by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble under the direction of Jerry Junkin.

Notes:
I've always had this strange fascination with the mortality of the universe. While the fate of the Earth will likely be absorption by the expanding red giant that our sun will become in 5 billion years, the end of life is a bit more ambiguous. Assuming humanity, or whatever we might have evolved into, doesn't make it to the dying of the sun, we might succumb to celestial events (asteroids, Near-Earth supernovas, etc.), the increasing luminosity of the sun causing the extinction of plant life, or climate-related events (human-caused or otherwise) to name a few. Fun stuff to think about, right? Lately, however, it seems increasingly likely that humanity will be its own undoing. Technology continues to evolve and allow for increasingly powerful means of mass destruction, while many nations still seem to be at strife internally or with one another.   Ashen Skies of a Timeworn World depicts a dystopian future that has already been ravaged by human conflict. The first part of the piece, titled "Desolation," opens with a solo trumpet introducing the haunting "ashen skies" theme. The music that follows paints a solemn and sorrowful Earth on its last legs. All hell breaks loose during the second half of the piece, aptly titled "War Machines." Brass and percussion herald the end time, melting faces with intense and drivingly rhythmic music. A glimmer of humanity's perseverance for survival shines through towards the end, but inevitably the world crumbles with destruction.

Ashen Skies Of A Timeworn World (UT Wind Ensemble world premier)

Strange Dreams And Lullabies - Mvt 1: Lullaby of Drifting

Strange Dreams And Lullabies - Mvt 2: Weird Repeating Shapes

Strange Dreams And Lullabies - Mvt 3: Couple's Lullaby

Strange Dreams And Lullabies - Mvt 4: Curious Mechanisms

Strange Dreams And Lullabies - Mvt 5 & 6: Lullaby of the Clouded Mind and Childhood Home

String Quartet No. 2 - I. Osmium Construct

Battle music written for Daniel Weinell's Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

Open the Gates of Battle

The theme for Thorenial Axemandwarf, a stout dwarf fighter with little to no grip on reality. Thorenial has the best intentions for the well being of his companions and the world around him, but his actions speak otherwise. He can be found busting through doors, inadvertently demolishing entire taverns, and crippling communities all in his own idea of glory and heroism. With his enormous execution axe swinging wildly about the battlefield, Thorenial is an unstoppable force of psychotic fury unlike anything previously imagined in this plane.

Thorenial Axemandwarf's Theme

William DiNoir's Theme

Nestled between two mountains and with a lake at it's exposed edge, Zagora is a city of lost wonders. Zagora was built on the ruins of an ancient civilization, with some of the original architecture still remaining. The most apparent oddity of this city are the lingering spirits wandering the streets and acting almost as normal citizens (among other strange folk, such as rat and yak people).

Zagora, the Astral Garden

Village, town, city, etc. music for a fantasy/adventure setting. 

Village

The first movement of a brass septet written for a competition. The submission is anonymous so I am omitting the actual title of the piece. This is the hymn-like theme of the group of adventures for which this piece tells the story of. 

Tales of Brynmor - Mvmt I "Hymn of the Iron Core"

The first variation of a track for Peter Lange's D&D campaign. The Iron Core is finally on the threshold of the enemy territory: the Shattered Lands. The landscape itself is more lush compared to the harsher and colder surrounding regions. This is a calm before the storm; an odd sense of peace while marching into the palms of the enemy.

Into the Shattered Lands (Var. 1)

The second variation of a track for Peter Lange's D&D campaign. The Iron Core is finally on the threshold of the enemy territory: the Shattered Lands. The lush, mountainous  landscape carries ill omen, a solemn reminder of what lies waiting at the Shattered Keep...

Into the Shattered Lands (Var. 2)

Battle music intended for table-top RPG's/video games. I also have a loop-friendly version available (contact me if you would like it!).

Battle Music #1

Battle Music #2

Trumpet player and composer based in Austin, Texas.

Casey Martin

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks