Generative ambient composition created in VCV Rack.

Nightmare Landscape

Interactive generative composition created in MAX/MSP. Each voice is generated with pitches and rhythms chosen at random from a list.

Melancholy Mood

This piece was inspired by Stephen King's first book in the Dark Tower Series: The Gunslinger.  "The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed..."

The Gunslinger

Violet Dances

This piece was inspired by my experiences with scuba diving. It features a studio recording of a full orchestra

Oceanus

A mid-tempo track that was written for the opening credits of a quirky comedy.  It combines some jazzy elements with some orchestral sounds as well.  All sounds are programmed on this recording.

Opening Credits (Comedy)

A cue from an investigative police show.  Lots of synthesizer work mixed with harp and filtered drum samples.

Mysterious Cue #1

Written for the opening credits of a children's mystery show (Think RL Stine...). It borrows a little bit from Danny Elfman's early scores (Beetlejuice, Edward ScissorHands, etc.) All sounds are programmed on this recording.

Opening Credits (Mystery)

Written for the opening credits of a drama.  It's sad, but also a little mysterious.  All sounds are programmed on this recording.

Opening Credits (Drama)

This is a rough MIDI recording.  This piece is meant to played by an orchestra.

Musica Stellarum seeks to evoke the life of a star from its birth in a gaseous nebula to its death as a massive supernova.  As stars age they combine lighter elements such as hydrogen and helium together under great pressure and high temperatures to create heavier elements. It is this process of nuclear fusion that creates the massive amounts of energy that we see as light and feel as heat from our own sun. Stars undergo this process for millions of years until the elements being created become too heavy for nuclear fusion to continue. At that time the star collapses in on itself and explodes in a massive supernova spreading the elements out into the interstellar medium, often triggering the ignition of new stars. A theory put forth by Princeton astrophysicist Dr. Adam Burrows in 2006 suggests that it is possible that massive stars audibly pulse just before exploding at a pitch roughly equivalent to the F above middle C (F4). According to his theory, the sound waves are the trigger responsible for initiating the massive explosion.

The goal of this composition is to capture the dramatic interplay of the elements and the cyclical nature of the life of stars through musical parallels. Musica Stellarum follows the different stages of development that a star goes through during its life cycle. Form and texture are used to represent the different stages that a star goes through during its lifecycle. Elements are
represented by specific pitch set classes. Lighter elements are represented by smaller sets and as they combine together through processes such as inversion and transposition, larger, “heavier” sets are created. When the sets being created become too “heavy” to be combined any further the piece will reaches its climax, but not before F above middle C sounds the star's death knell. The elements are expelled in a massive explosion and return to their original, nebulous state; waiting to reform again as a new star.

Robert W. Gillam