5) “Stragile” (Student Choice #1)
I composed this piece for my final Orchestration II project. I received the good news that Adi Yeshaya was hiring professional players to record it very close to the session date, so I was greatly pressed for time. A few long nights of preparation payed off, though. I got three very decent takes. Keith Kopatz’ help on this project was infinitely helpful, too. He met with me separately to teach me how to “decode” the audio in ProTools, as he had used a specific recording procedure that necessitated a few extra steps in the mixing process. From there, I mixed the rest of the track from my home in Logic. This track uses all MIDI instruments, excluding the strings.

Stragile (Student Choice #1)

1) “Love For Sale” (Arrangement) 3:36
This is the culmination of a huge project that Adi Yeshaya’s “Jazz and Big Band Arranging” worked on for nearly the entirety of the semester. I had never written a full big band before, so my mind was truly expanded during this process. I spent hours upon hours making sure that all of the voicings, ranges, and overall balance would sound smooth. In the recording session, though, I learned that the notation size of my parts was a bit too small for players to read easily (I have since changed my methods). I was particularly enthused when Pete Whitman agreed to take the second half of the solo section, even though I did not include a saxophone solo in the score. He had no chords and the arrangement was in a different key than the original standard, but his solo was absolutely fantastic nonetheless. I was so impressed and elated, standing in front of that circle of musicians—this is definitely an experience I will take with me forever.

Love For Sale (Arrangement)

7) “Travelers” (Student Choice #3) 2:19
This orchestral piece was written as a midterm for Orchestration II. I opted to compose a very strong, powerful theme featuring a trumpet as the lead (I plan to record live trumpet in the future, but the track at this point is completely MIDI). In this composition, I strongly focused on trying to develop my own voice and style. I wanted a marriage between cliché lines and unexpected, strange moments.

Travelers (Student Choice #3)

3) “I Will Make You Pay” (Instrumental Cinematic Track) 3:20
I composed this piece to a climactic scene from Ghostrider for the class Scoring for Media II. Since we were given the opportunity to have professionals record both strings and horns, I aimed to emphasize both sections. The recording went very smoothly, so I was actually able to stack four takes on top of one another in order to get the “full” effect. There are also MIDI strings in the mix, although they are turned quite low. I am happy with the finished product. My favorite part of this project, however, is actually the fact that it forced me to learn Sibelius (Sean’s mandate). Since then, it has become my go-to music notation software. I continue to use the template Sean provided for my large orchestral charts.

I Will Make You Pay (Instrumental Cinematic Track)

2) “Wonder Not” (String Quartet) 2:38
This piece was actually conceived when I took Compositional Techniques IV with Chris Beaty. Each week, students were required to create approximately thirty-second “sketches;” some had specific guidelines and some were completely open-ended. I turned in the sketch, which featured clarinet and flute over the melody. It wasn’t until the next semester, though, when I was going through my old files, that I decided I wanted to expand upon the sketch. I realized it was a very appropriate melody for a string quartet, so I wrote it accordingly. With only twenty minutes to record, I was not able to get a perfect take, but I spent quite a while compositing takes together and I am mostly satisfied with the result.

Wonder Not (String Quartet)

4) “Pixeled” (Stylistic Track) 2:18
This electronic song was composed as a project for my Compositional Techniques III class. I really like electronic music, but before this I had merely dabbled with it. I used a mixture of Kontact samples and product from Spectrasonics for the track. I worked extensively with my mix engineer Jose Báez until I felt happy with the production. This track has inspired me to begin writing backing tracks for Youtube, since multiple drummers have approached me to say that they enjoyed practicing to the track.

Pixeled (Stylistic Track)

11) “The Beginning” (Pop song) 4:04
I composed this song about a year ago for fun. I think that it encompasses my inclination for fusions between genres such as pop, r&b, and jazz. After many versions and a lot of late nights, it has morphed into my first real endeavor as a solo artist. Pianist JC Pajuelo and I produced it together, and it was mixed by LA-based engineer Jose Báez, a trustworthy, talented mix engineer and good friend of mine. Upon hearing the final mix, JC and I decided that the song was worth promoting further, so we made a music video using public domain footage and iMovie, which can be found on my artist page or Youtube:
https://www.facebook.com/jemmaheigis/videos/1874416756180416/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3XxxHUbMHo
Since then, I have entered the song into a competition called Artist View, but I plan to enter it in many more competitions henceforth. The positive feedback I received from social media regarding the song/video has ultimately convinced me that I will be releasing my first EP over the summer.
This song is about that overwhelming ache you feel when someone slips just beyond your grasp.

The Beginning (Pop Song)

9) “Static Stuff” (Student Choice #5) 3:39
I wrote this ambient, dark piece as a practice underscore for my favorite film, Ex-Machina. In this particular scene, a female AI (Eva) escapes the confines of her cell and kills her creator, Nathan. Although the scene might seem to call for scary, intense music, I decided to go a different route. At this point in the movie, the viewer does not know that the AI has bad intentions—Nathan is made out to be the abusive “villian” until the very end of the film, when we find out that Eva’s motives were self-serving all along. Therefore, I wanted the music for this scene to underscore both feelings of wonder and incongruity. Nathan cannot believe that his creation has led to his demise. We, the audience, are torn between being happy for Eva’s decision to escape her tormentor, and simultaneously beginning to doubt her place as the protagonist. As Nathan stumbles forward, knife in his back, I used a heartbeat effect that gradually decelerates as a rhythmic element. Sound effects and evolving pads from Omnisphere were used to depict a “machine shutting down” as Eva looks down pitilessly on Nathan’s dying face.

Static Stuff (Student Choice #5)

10) “Spider Silk” (Student Choice #6) 2:15
This piece was composed as the final for Scoring for Media I; it was a practice film score to the movie Spider-Man III. The scene called for a very vivid and emotional love theme, with a tense villain theme immediately following. This transition required a lot of thought and tinkering; it was difficult to find a way to naturally evolve one piece into the other. Eventually, I wrote something I was satisfied with, so I asked Tomás Simpson (a brilliant classical guitar player) to record the melody for the main love theme. This piece uses entirely MIDI samples (from Vienna, Kontact, East West, and Omnisphere) excluding the guitar part.

"Best Instrumental Composition"

Spider Silk (Student Choice #6)

6) “Darkness” (Student Choice #2) 5:09
This track was written for the final level of the video game “Everend,” which I composed music for alongside Marko Maksimovic. Emily, the leader of the game’s design team, specified that she wanted the music for this level to be “ambient and unsettling, but not scary.” I really tried to use a lot of space in this piece, as the visuals for the level are quite dark and vast. Marko lent his talents on the duduk and Serbian flute for this piece, and I sang on the track as well. The design team was very satisfied with the result, as was I—so I decided to commission my mixing friend Jose Báez once more. I think this piece is a very good representation of the compositional style and voice I am trying to develop.

Darkness (Student Choice #2)

8) “Forest” (Student Choice #4) 4:43
This is the track for the third level of the vide game “Everend.” The reference tracks that Emily sent me were almost entirely from the game “Ori and the Blind Forest.” The music for that game uses a haunting, high female voice and lots of lush pads/strings. In this piece, I attempted to emulate that sound, but I was very careful not to rip off anything from “Ori.” Emily was very pleased with the result; she went as far as to say that my vocals, Marko’s flute, and the modulation (midway through the piece) brought her to tears. Although that sounds a bit excessive to me, I was still flattered and very inspired to continue writing for video games.

Jemma Heigis

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