For those of you that don't want to bother with my ramblings, this piece is written within a set of stipulations to help bring out the creative juices.

Instruments: 2 (Harp, and Flute)
Length: 30 seconds
Inspiration: Place (RPG town, the same one in the picture)
Composition focus: chords first

Additionally, because it's video game music, it also needs to be seamless (A.K.A. ending on the V chord).

My mom liked that I rambled on in Strife and New Tides, so here's some additional thoughts about this music of mine.  I haven't written music in a long time, although the desire never fully left.  I started taking a class on Udemy to learn how to make games in Godot.  Like a crazy person I also decided I wanted to practice every part of making games, and realized that meant I was going to have to write music again.

I remember back in college how much of a pain in the ass it was to learn how to use a DAW, and also learned some DAWs are really designed for composing from a certain perspective.  Unfortunately, I lost access to the DAW I had and didn't have the energy to really sit down and learn while being creative, so I ALSO found a Udemy course for writing video game music and this is the first assignment.  I'm not feeling creative enough to come up with the rules, so I chose to use the instructor's rules to compose to.

It was nice writing again.  You can't wait for inspiration to strike, you have to find reasons to write.  Find some way to give yourself a small goal to complete, and then get into the rhythm of just doing it.  That was the purpose of taking the Udemy class.  I knew there was no way I was going to learn my DAW on my own with out a reason, and I'm counting this as a success.

1 - Town - Music

I said in the town music, I was taking a Udemy class to learn Godot.  One of the projects was a star fighter game like Gradius and I wanted to make some music to go with it.  Definitely the thing that came to mind when I think of space fighter video games is the kind of fanfare I remember in Wing Commander and Star Fox so that's what I went out to make, but I also wanted to have that kind of flying aesthetic often times used with flight games that usually rip off John William's Flying Theme from E.T. (like Star Fox does).  So here's the stipulations I made:

Key: D
Instruments: Primarily Trumpet and Timpani, but also Violins and other orchestra instruments to fill it out some.

I received a Philharmonic orchestra instrument MIDI set which I've been enjoying using.  I also found out I could cheat a bit as there's a setting where I can load a full orchestra into one instrument.  It took a little getting used to, but it was super useful in getting those orchestra stabs with very little work.  It was also cool because anytime I wanted a Timpani, I just needed to put a note somewhere in the (I think) C3 - A3 range and just crank the strength of note up all of the way.

I think I figured out a lot of the fanfare music I was trying to project is typically written into the key of A, as I found a natural draw for the melody to really naturally run in that direction.  I really wanted to stick to the key of D though because historically that's the key composers typically wrote for the military in operas.  I still think a lot of those histories still influence western music (albeit very far detached from being fully symbolic), so I thought I could use the key to help short cut the fanfare aesthetic.

There's also a kind of weird duality I managed to cram into the two parts that I had to write some stuff to bridge the gap when shifting from one to the other.  I love the rhythmic bridge between the two parts I put in there where it just layers the D chord, but it partly feels like cheating and probably lends an argument that I probably easily had two separate pieces I could have used here for the same soundtrack.  This one definitely isn't seamless, but despite that I think I managed to make it work.  This is definitely my favorite thing I've ever written.

Fanfare

This is a new style I’m experimenting with that combines electronic and classical techniques -and I write that sentence knowing full well one of my professors, whom I have a great amount of respect for, would cringe heavily at.  Regardless, language is the medium of expression we use, if that description gets you to understand the idea behind this piece quicker, then so be it.  Enough of this digression.

I wrote this for a midi class I am currently in.  The assignment called for us to write a piece/song in the style of something we found inspirational.  I chose the title piece for Deus Ex.  In the title piece, the composer combined elements of techno/electronica with tonal compositional techniques.  Since I already have a fair understanding of the tonal language, I thought I might give this an attempt.

I couldn’t think of a title for a long time on this piece.  While a friend of mine suggested the piece reminded her of exploring a large city at night, I initially tried to come up with a reference to Blade Runner/Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep.  Unfortunately, because it’s been enough time since I’ve been exposed to either stimuli, I couldn’t think of any good references.  Instead I chose the title Strife and New Tides.

The title has multiple meanings I felt attributed to this piece.  The “strife” in the title is reflective in the minor key aspect of part of the piece, while conveying a very ominous feel that I put in those parts.  The “strife” is also the struggle I had in composing this with Logic Pro as the program is relatively new to me. The “new tides” are both reflective of the major key sections, as well as the fact that this is an experiment with a new style for me.

I hope you all enjoy this.  I put a lot of effort into it.

Joshua McCann

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