This cue is meant to evoke a vast and majestic landscape.  I wrote it with a high-fantasy style film's cinematography in mind, kind of what one might see in a Tolkien-like setting.  To me, this is what one might hear when the viewer gets the first glimpse of a magical realm, a towering palace, or possibly when the hero is seen surveying the landscape that lies ahead at the outset of their journey.  After composing this piece, I was so lucky to have found this artwork by ELG21 on Pixabay which couldn't have illustrated my original mental image any better.

View From The Summit

This cue was written in a high-fantasy style, similar to the setting of a Tolkien-style film. I imagined a scene where a group of heroes could see their destination relatively close ahead, while also being aware that making it there will betray their secure and hidden location, leaving them exposed and vulnerable to an inevitable attack.  The music was meant to evoke their adrenaline, the scene's high paced energy, and the fight itself.  I am lucky to be able to use this wonderful artwork by ELG21 on that i found Pixabay; it is a beautiful representation of the image I had originally seen in my mind which I was trying to evoke in this cue.

Just Beyond The Clearing

This admittedly brief cue was composed using several original synth sounds I created just for this track. Once each sound was processed   found they naturally lent themselves to an atmospheric, collage-like piece that easily evoked the colors of outer-space phenomena such as nebulae or supernovas.  I really loved this artwork I found by WikiImages on Pixabay, and felt that it was a great analog for the sonic fabric of this cue.

Nebulae

This cue was composed using only previously recorded vocal lines and sustained vowels (all performed live) that I got from a free downloadable sample pack. I then put them into a sampler, sometimes segmenting only portions of a sound, and later adding additional effects and/or processing  (including a vocoder) to create a custom sound palette for this piece. These kinds of warped vocal colors lent themselves well to creating a texture that sonically depicted a splintered, mental state bordering on psychosis. I imagined a chaotic internal dialogue going on in the character's mind. The cue's structure plays on the idea of the word fugue, something which is at once a term for a psychotic episode and a musical form, one that, at the simplest level, is built upon the idea of a dialogue between different melodic elements. I love this artwork I found by darksouls1 on Pixabay; it is a very fitting visual counterpart to this cue.

Save Me

This cue was created using processed samples, custom synth patches, and effects. I was inspired by 80s synth-based music, most notably that of Tangerine Dream.  After composing this, I found myself imagining being on a night train, the sights going by in a blur resembling one feeling lost or detached from life at the moment.  This artwork by christoph_mschrd on Pixabay captured my mental picture perfectly.

The Night Train

This is a cue I wrote while completing the Master of Music degree in Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. It was written for a class on stylistic adaptation in film scoring; essentially, how to use elements from other styles which might be at the heart of a film's narrative. In this case the focus was on traditional American musical elements. The assignment was to rescore the title sequence to the TV series Deadwood.  I primarily used the blues scale to construct the melody, which would suggest the dawning of the blues style while the wild west was being annexed.  While the presence of an electric blues guitar is out of place for the time period, it immediately conveys the musical idea to the average viewer and/or listener.  In addition, there is acoustic guitar, a honky-tonk style piano, autoharp, and wind chimes at the end to further set the scene.  Most interestingly, I decided to use the sound of a shovel digging as percussion, not only to reference digging for gold, but also the digging of graves as so many deaths are associated with the wild west. I was lucky to find artwork by ArtTower on Pixabay of an old western ghost town reflecting the notion of a time that has been lost to history.  In order to further put the perspective of history on this story told in a modern time, there is a synth element in the background throughout.

The Goldrush

The Gold Rush

This cue creates a sense of eeriness, fear, mystery, and otherworldliness.  The choir, in addition, adds a sense of spirituality.   This cue could work in both a horror/thriller setting, as well as a fantasy/epic genre.  I chose this artwork by phio on Pixabay because I loved how the lighting suggested an ancient depth below the earth which could hold a mysterious secret.

In The Crypt

This cue is meant to evoke a scene in which a pivotal struggle between good and evil plays out, like what one might see in a sci-fi or superhero film genre. The powerful, larger-than-life mood and deep emotional intensity is communicated through a traditional orchestral texture, while the presence of electronic instruments helps to depict the sci-fi or superhero element of the narrative. I was so fortunate to find this artwork by Nallabeli Pavan on Pixabay, which just perfectly hinted at the narrative moment I had in mind.

Our Fate Hangs In The Balance

This is a cue I wrote while completing the Master of Music degree in Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music.  It was written for a class on stylistic adaptions in film scoring; essentially, how to use elements from other styles which might be at the heart of a film's narrative. In this case the focus was on traditional Japanese musical elements. 

I was given a prompt set in the 19th century where a woman is alone at a seaport harbor and is attacked by an unknown man.  She escapes and makes it back home where she processes the events and tries to begin recovering from the attack while therapeutically brushing her hair.  

The music uses traditional Japanese instruments such as the Shamisen (a guitar-like instrument), Koto (a harp-like instrument), Taiko (deep-sounding drums), Sho (a harmonica-like instrument), and Shakuhachi (a traditional wood flute) to give the cue it's Japanese flavor.  The music follows the narrative's emotional and descriptive events, most notably, the Sho which is used to suggest the woman heaving and trying to regain her composure following the attack.   

I chose to set the narrative in Yokohama as it was, and still is, a major Japanese port city. I was lucky enough to find this artwork representative of 19th century Yokohama by an unknown artist.

Alone At Yokohama Harbor

This is a cue I wrote while completing the Master of Music degree in Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. It was written for a class on orchestration.  I was very fortunate to have the strings recorded by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra; the English and French horns are sampled instruments. Rather than being given a prompt, we were provided with an open-ended situation to illustrate with music.  In this case, the cue was supposed to evoke a scene where an estranged father and daughter are having a heart-to-heart talk, with the hope of repairing their relationship. I used the French and English horns to represent the dialogue between the two, with the French horn symbolizing the father and the English horn symbolizing the daughter.  The French horn is the first to speak, in a kind of pleading way, with the two dialoguing back and forth throughout.  At the end, the English horn is the last to speak, in a kind of hesitant, yet accepting, way to suggest that while the relationship may not have been repaired in the moment, the daughter is agreeing to give it a try. I was lucky to find artwork by DamiWurtz on Pixabay to go with this track.  It references the pain and comfort of the history shared between a father and daughter during a time of innocence, in this case, possibly when things were not strained.  While I am very fortunate to not have this kind of relationship with my daughter, it is named after her.

August

This cue captures the openness, awe, and vastness of space, the sheer mass of Saturn, the spirit of exploration behind Cassini’s launch and mission, the energy propelling Cassini through space, as well as the courage and fear a human would have in undertaking space exploration (which has narratively been put upon the satellite, Cassini, in this case).  The first chords reflect the overwhelming presence of Saturn and the infinite nature of space itself; the feeling of being lost in the middle of nowhere, while being surrounded by limitless, celestial bodies.  The opening melody is a sonic image of Cassini’s heroism, while the rhythms in the orchestra are its inertia propelling it forward. Through the crunch of dissonance I was hoping to illustrate the ice and rock making up Saturn’s rings.  The middle section’s new harmony and slower tempo create a sense of weightlessness, otherworldliness, and remove, while the choir reflects the almost divine nature of space.  The percussion provides a sense of depth and the feeling of falling, or floating, slowly in space.  The horn solo depicts the first-hand, isolated perspective we are granted through Cassini’s observations of Saturn, its atmosphere, and its many moons, including Titan. Near the end of the piece, after the beginning section comes back, there is a driving rhythm in the percussion to evoke Cassini’s final plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere at the conclusion of its mission, resulting in the triumphant explosion of sound at the end, and reflecting its self-immolation. The artwork is a stock NASA artist’s rendering of Cassini entering Saturn’s atmosphere at the end of its mission.

Cassini

I am a film composer who feels music expresses and supports a film's content and narrative, speaks what words cannot, and makes one viscerally feel a film. 

After spending over 20 years as a classical pianist, I earned a Master's in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music and moved into film music. As a pianist, I had a strong affinity for the 19th-century Romantic style, which fuels my work as a composer. Romantic ideology hinged on the interconnection of all the arts; it recognized images' innate stories (encompassing past, present, and future). Romantics believed in music's ability to relay narratives and depict images. They liked to imagine that narratives and their characters continued to live on past the end of a book, mirroring real life in their own fictional realm. 

Romantic artists of the 19th century believed in expressing all-encompassing ideas within small structures. Furthermore, they believed in the ability of limits to provide a means for infinite forms of artistic expression. In this way, art mirrored life; people have a finite time to live but can choose to experience that time in infinite ways. In short, art was a personal, life-altering, transcendental force that reflected the human experience.

Ironically, as a film composer, this is what I do. I use music to tell a film's story, communicate its mood and characters' thoughts and feelings, and evoke a scene. Most film cues are short, so the idea that small forms can express profound and complex ideas or emotions is close to my heart.

I write in all genres using acoustic instruments, work with electronic media, and create sound design pieces. My favorite genres are fantasy, horror/thriller, sci-fi, and drama. 

As a listener, several of my favorite film composers are Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Dario Marianelli, Alan Silvestri, Patrick Doyle, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Harry Gregson-Williams, Ennio Morricone, Alexandre Desplat, Christopher Young, Jerry Goldsmith, and Hans Zimmer. In addition, several of my favorite classical composers include Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Copland, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, Dvorak, and Rachmaninoff.

Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, my interests in popular music are vast. They cover many genres spanning the late 60s through today. They include classic rock, prog rock, 80s synth pop, 90s rock, 90s alternative and grunge, singer-songwriters over the last 50 or so years, contemporary alternative, and others. In some way or another, these genres end up informing my writing.

Feel free to reach out; I'd love to hear from you! sal@rainkingmusic.net

Salvatore Mallimo

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