Original Music

This is a suite I composed over the Halloween season; a few days late in getting it released, but better late than never!

I have very detailed notes on the story that this suite is telling, but it's too long to fit here, and also still not quite finished being written, but I wanted to go ahead and share some of the basic concepts of the story.

A man purchases an old mansion and moves in, but quickly realizes he's not alone. He eventually meets the ghost of a woman in a white dress, and after initially being terrified of each other, an unlikely relationship begins to develop. But their bond is threatened in multiple ways, not least of all because the woman in white is not the only ghost haunting the long dark halls of the mansion. Her abusive warden crossed the threshold with her many decades ago, continuing his tyrannical obsession and over-protection of her in this afterlife. The warden eventually finds out that his ward and this living intruder in his home have formed a relationship, and he begins terrorizing them both. This story of forbidden love climaxes with a final showdown, where the two lovers are able to find a way to defeat the evil spirit of the warden. Now freed from his abuse, the woman in white remains in the house with the man for the remainder of his life, until he himself expires in his old age, and they are able to be truly united in the hereafter.

Movements:
I. Main Title / The Veil House (0:00)
II. Settlement / The Portrait / Nightfall (4:54)
III. The Visitor / Woman In White / Introductions (7:49)
IV. "He is Coming" (10:18)
V. Till Death Do Us Part (11:32)
VI. Where The Veil Is Thin (12:26)
VII. The Final Confrontation (14:48)
VIII. Finale / The End (19:10)

PRODUCTS USED IN THIS PIECE:
- EastWest Hollywood Woodwinds (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Brass (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Harp (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Pianos Bechstein(ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Percussion (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Choirs (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Strings (ComposerCloud)
- Spitfire Audio LABS: Soft Piano
- Spitfire Audio Abbey Road One: Legendary Low Strings
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Twelve Horn Ensemble
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Horns of the Deep

ORCHESTRATED (w/ Post-Production) IN:
Cubase Elements 10

The Veil House

The Veil House — A Gothic Horror-Romance Suite | Composed by Joe Harrison

This year I've been spending a lot of time trying to expand my musical techniques by trying new things, experimenting with styles that I don't normally utilize. And the thought suddenly occurred to me: It would be interesting to compose a sort of "noir" piece of music, like something you'd hear in a classic black and white film about a private investigator in a cigarette-smoke-filled office — though rather than doing it straight and trying to make it sound EXACTLY like something you'd hear in a film from a bygone era, I applied some modern "seasoning" to it, just to make it a bit more sonically interesting (for example, a pitch-bending synthesized "scream" that shows up every now and again, "falling" as if from the heavens to the unknown shadows below).

I had tremendous fun with this piece, and I may eventually expand it into a suite that follows an actual story.

For now, I hope you enjoy this presentation!

PRODUCTS USED IN THIS PIECE:
- EastWest Hollywood Woodwinds (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Brass (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Harp (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Pianos Steinway(ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Percussion (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Choirs (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Strings (ComposerCloud)
- Prologue (Cubase)
- iZotope Iris 2
- Spitfire Audio LABS: Soft Piano
- Spitfire Audio Abbey Road One: Legendary Low Strings
- Cinesamples: CineWinds (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineBrass (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Twelve Horn Ensemble
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Horns of the Deep
- Cinesamples: Industry Brass Tuba (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CinePerc (Musio)
- Cinesamples: Piano In Blue (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineStrings (Musio)

ORCHESTRATION & POST-PRODUCTION IN:
Cubase Pro 11
Adobe Audition

Where The Angels Fall | A Noir-Romantic Theme | Composed by Joe Harrison

I got in the mood to compose something with a Middle Eastern flair to it — or at least a "Hollywoodized" Middle Eastern flair — because the film scores for "The Mummy (1999)" and "The 13th Warrior" (both by Jerry Goldsmith) are among my favorite scores of all time. And this was the result.

PRODUCTS USED IN THIS PIECE:
- EastWest Hollywood Woodwinds (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Brass (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Harp (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Percussion (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Choirs (ComposerCloud)
- EastWest Hollywood Strings (ComposerCloud)
- Prologue (Cubase)
- iZotope Iris 2
- Spitfire Audio Abbey Road One: Legendary Low Strings
- Spitfire Originals: Cimbalom
- Cinesamples: CineWinds (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineBrass (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Twelve Horn Ensemble
- Cinesamples: CineBrass Horns of the Deep
- Cinesamples: Industry Brass Tuba (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CinePerc (Musio)
- Cinesamples: CineStrings (Musio)

ORCHESTRATION & POST-PRODUCTION IN:
Cubase Pro 11
Adobe Audition

Scepter of the Pharaoh | A Theme for Ancient Egypt | By Joe Harrison

Tracks:
0:00 - 1. Opening Titles
3:50 - 2. The I.S.S.O. Salvager
5:25 - 3. Radar Anomaly
7:10 - 4. The Derelict
8:43 - 5. Boarding the Vessel
11:08 - 6. Hull Breach / Down The Elevator Shaft
13:00 - 7. Belly of the Beast / "That's Not Human"
15:50 - 8. The Nest
17:08 - 9. Alien Attack
18:53 - 10. Broken Radio / "Run!"
21:15 - 11. The Ship Is Alive / Last Stand
24:21 - 12. Cut Our Losses
26:08 - 13. Rescue
26:52 - 14. Dark Implications / "That's Not Our Problem"
27:55 - 15. End Titles

I've been composing orchestral music for 17 years, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, I am self-taught; I have trouble reading and writing music notation (thanks to my scrambled ADHD brain), so everything I have done since the beginning is "by ear." I think there are certain plus-sides to this, but one of the downsides (at least in my case) has been that my music is often fairly "straight" — this is a term I've heard other composers use to refer to a piece of music that is very basic, no real complexities; chords are just basic chords (no dissonances or borrowed chords, etc.), there are little to no tempo changes, there's always an easily discernible beat, no time signature changes let alone complex time signatures, and so on. In other words, it's so basic that you can tell where it's going as you're listening. It really hit me that I've been stuck in this composition style for way too long, and I've never really tried to push myself beyond. So, over the last six months, I decided to do something about that.

Over the last year I spent A LOT of time listening to Dodecaphonic works, not least of all Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Planet of the Apes" — a score which I had previously always avoided, despite Jerry being my Number 1 Favorite Composer. Suddenly I found myself ENJOYING it, which was really bizarre and unusual for me. Suddenly I couldn't get enough of Atonalism in general!

Which brings us to this piece. All of those aforementioned experiences and changes in my perception led me to realize just how "straight" my music often is. And I felt ready to change that, so I started practicing. A couple months ago, I sat at my workspace, prepping to do just that (play around and practice the style) and before I knew it, as I was laying out the opening minute or two of this suite, I had this sudden thought of doing something that was kind of in the style of Jerry's (infamously sabotaged) score for "Alien.".

So I mentally asked myself: "What would I do if I had the opportunity to score a film in the 'Alien' franchise?" And that became the fuel that drove me through this entire piece. If I had such an opportunity, I would really want to tap into the "spirit" of Jerry's score for the original film. Of course I would want to bring my own style into it; but I'd want to do my best to really play off of that wonderful "Goldsmith sound." I'd already absorbed a lot of Jerry's techniques and styles over the years (not least of all his use of synthesizers as "extra spice" and his use of odd sound effects), so it was honestly a lot of fun kind of cultivating that with this piece.

More than any other suite I've worked on, I am super proud of this, not least for the way that it pushed me out of my comfort zone and into a strange new world of music techniques.

Derelict: A Sci-Fi/Horror Orchestral Suite

Derelict | A Sci-Fi/Horror Orchestral Suite | Inspired by ALIEN

This is somewhat of a spiritual successor to my 2020 composition, "Alkebulan" (https://youtu.be/Viq9RT_f6yg) which itself was adapted from a short theme I wrote in 2006. But while that original 2006 piece was directly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant score for the 1996 film "The Ghost and the Darkness," this orchestral suite was initially inspired by the 2022 film "Beast" (from Universal Studios, starring Idris Elba). After watching the film last Summer, one thought stayed with me: How would I have scored that movie? Finally this year I decided to "answer" that question, in a sense. For this piece of music I drew upon my love of the aforementioned Goldsmith score, as well as John Williams' score for "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." Technically speaking, this piece took longer to finish then any other suite I've worked on, but primarily because I was learning a lot along the way about everything from percussion to orchestration to audio mastering. This suite went through 9 different iterations in total before I felt like it was finally finished. I'm very proud of the final result, and I hope you enjoy listening!

2023

REIGN | An Orchestral Suite Inspired by "Beast" (2022) and "The Ghost and the Darkness" (1996)

I've been composing orchestral music for over ten years now and have had the opportunity to score the soundtracks for some professional audio drama productions, short films, and video games. My influences: Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, James Horner, John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, Guy Michelmore, and others.

https://www.facebook.com/noblepeanut

REIGN | An Orchestral Suite Inspired by "Beast" (2022) and "The Ghost and the Darkness" (1996)

Joe Harrison Composer