This is a clip I scored this semester for my Masters Degree in music composition for video games.

This clip was rescored for my audition to ThinkSpace’s Masters Degree in Music Composition for Video Games.

I wrote this track for an assignment in my masters program. The prompt was to create music for the menu screen of a World War II fighter pilot game. They wanted a loopable track that was inspiring and epic to get players in to mindset of a World War II pilot.

As I watched the video, however, I saw bleak visuals and could tell that gameplay would be intense. Because I am a history nerd I knew a lot about the sociopolitical situations during World War II, including the use of music in propaganda and recruitment footage. These films portrayed a glorified view of the war to encourage young men to enlist. However, the reality was much different.

I wanted to lean in to the use of the upbeat military band music these young men would have heard before enlisting and the stark disillusionment they experienced when they got to the battlefields. To do that I composed a piece that is very emblematic of that style and mixed it to sound like it was coming from an old radio with spotty signal inside the cockpit. Then I took that track and distorted it in all sorts of ways to create an unsettling dark droning soundscape underneath, foreshadowing the danger ahead.

The stinger was then created to complete the disillusionment effect, dramatically interrupting the music and throwing the player fully into the battle.

This trailer was rescored for my master's degree in music composition for video games. The prompt was to create a score for a Halloween release that was dark and brooding, highlighting the "animalistic brutality" of racing games. I was inspired by the remixes of classical pieces used in many Halloween releases so I decided to remix one of my favorite classical pieces Danse Macabre by composer Camille Saint-Saëns.