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GLORY

Posted by sara-garrard

A contest entry! The brief was to write an “I want” type musical song.

This song is sung by someone from a place that’s become a kind of decayed kingdom or a two-bit town, living off pity tourism and old memories.  But she genuinely loves her home and really wants to restore it to its former splendour, and she’s about to set off on her own to do that. It does appear that she’s very very okay if not downright keen to use unscrupulous means to do it, incidentally.  She also has some big issues of feeling inadequate and unwanted and like she can never live up to her dead mother… just by the by.

I DUNNO, it’s sweet and soaring and pretty morally ambiguous and I really wonder where this character would go in the rest of a musical…..

Everybody leaves and nothing ever changes
But that’s not gonna be me
I know this place in my bones, we’re the same
We are worth so much more than what they see

I’ve been raised on stories of the old days
How we used to have some pride
People say we can’t bring back the old days
But I don’t think they’ve really tried

To bring us glory, glory
When everyone knows your name and where you came from
I want to bring us glory, glory
And then we’ll see we’ve nothing to be ashamed of
We’ll scrub up nice, you’ll see, this place and me
I’ll get us on the right track
And so I’m leaving too, but one day soon I’ll be back

Don’t tell me I’m too young
Don’t tell me to be patient
Curtsying and politics, I can barely stay awake
We’ve been on our knees too long
A bowed and broken nation
Enough begging and borrowing, it’s high time that we take
Take it back
I’ll do something spectacular…

Oh glory, glory
Everyone will know my name and where I came from
I’ll bring us glory, glory
The world will see we’ve nothing to be ashamed of
We’ll scrub up nice, you’ll see, you and me
We’ll show them what we can do
And you’ll be proud of me, and I’ll be proud of you

So I can’t sit still
So I never fit in
They don’t want me here, but I’ll show them
If I can’t be your princess, I’ll be an outlaw queen
I’m doing for this for you, I don’t owe them—
And yes I know, Dad, I can never be what Mother was
But maybe I can still earn your respect because

I’ll bring you glory, glory
Everyone will know my name and where I came from
I’ll rewrite our story
And then you’ll see we’ve nothing to be ashamed of
We’ll scrub up nice, you’ll see, this place and me
And after all we’ve been through
You’ll be proud of me
Yes you’ll be proud of me
And you will love me
Like I’ve always loved you

INFINITY CRYSTAL: complete OST

Posted by sara-garrard

Done! I’ve finished a whole little soundtrack for a made up game:) This is what I was working on earlier with the boss battle theme. Kind of lockdown focus project…

I’ve made a page about it here, or go to bandcamp for more info and to download.

These tracks are available to use for free in non-commercial game projects, with credit and a link back to me.

Playlist on youtube.

an orchestration excercise

Posted by sara-garrard

‘Searching for Friends’ from Final Fantasy (Nobuo Uematsu) in as close as possible to the style of ‘What Shall We Die For?’ (Hans Zimmer) from Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

It’s kind of an active/interactive way to analyse a piece’s arrangement/orchestration!

(This is from years and years ago; I’ve done something similar a few other times, but maybe I’ll do more again soon. It certainly will be a lot easier on the old CPU/RAM than it was back then, whew, that was struggle.)

Chords for some ukulele songs

Posted by sara-garrard

There was an Old Man (Edward Lear)

         Dm           F
 There was an old man who said How
          Dm       F
 shall I flee from this horrible cow?
 Gm           Dm
 I will sit on this stile, and continue to smile
    A7     Dm
 Which may soften the heart of the cow

The Boats Sail Away (Kate Greenaway)

               Am                      CMaj7
 The boats sail away like a bird on the wing
                     Am                     CMaj7
 And the little boys dance on the sands in a ring
                F          G7        CMaj7
 The winds may fall or the winds may rise
                 F               G7        CMaj7
 You're foolish to go, you will stay if you're wise
  Am                                   CMaj7
 The little boys dance and little girls run
                               
 Dm                                           Am
 If it's bad to have money, it's worse to have none

Battle Music retrospective :)

Posted by sara-garrard

Lately I’ve been getting very inspired by the Final Fantasy VII hype — as I may have mentioned a few times, it’s one of my favourite games. It’s had a remake (or at least, the very very beginning of it has, but that’s another story) which of course I can’t play on anything I own, but it’s just got me going back to the original and having a big game music mood in general.

I’ve been working on something in particular that I hope to be able to share soon, but in the meantime here’s a sneak peak and also a look back at some older (very very old in some cases!) tunes……

So, “battle music”! When I say that I’m thinking of something pretty specific, the music that comes on and interrupts when you’re running around in an RPG and then boom battle! or perhaps, oh no, BOSS battle! Final boss music I think belongs in an entirely different category really (a category including the Rite of Spring in this case), but an example of that is also relevant for what follows…

I write a lot of random game music — but left to my own devices I tend to default to tuneful character themes, or pretty town themes, maybe the occasional piece of Uneasy Atmosphere. The thing is I love writing, or at least having written, exciting pacy rhythmically snappy pieces, like BATTLE MUSIC…. but it’s a lot more daunting to start something like that, so I don’t anything like as often. Of these, only a few are “actually” battle music, but a lot are I feel very much in the same zone, so without further ado….

  1. Dies Irae, with big bad’s entrance (2002-2003)
    from [my made up RPG] ‘Shadows of Fortune’
    Goodness, talk about shooting for the stars…! I straight up tried to write One Winged Angel. This is big big final battle time. The rest of pieces I wrote for this (imaginary) game were midis but this one had to be audio — I actually ended up taking it down for refurb that I never did because, yeah, it’s ambitious but not as maybe cohesive or quality. But looking back, very very nice try, self?? I particularly like how much energy/pace I’ve done without drums.
  1. Moon Mouse theme tune (2003)
    This is one that wasn’t written as “battle music” but rather a 90s-style TV theme tune (think Power Rangers). Which is…. basically the same thing. I remember I had no idea what that awesome and very characteristic chord I found to use at the end there was but thought it was pretty neat.
  1. The One Is Not Enough (2003)
    Kind of a similar/evolution of the above. These were both done on notation software by the way, Melody Assistant. The two snares on the “Power” drum kit…. nice.
  1. Random Battle (2003)
    Finally some actual specifically battle music battle music. I wrote this for someone’s RPGmaker game which, like most of them I fear, sadly was never completed. Also this was an actual midi, but recorded here for convenience since (SADLY) browsers and basically computers have dropped support for midi playback. This whole game was supposed to be somewhat trope-y and commenting on them, so this even then was unashamedly classic and over the top battle theme (but is there any other kind?) I enjoyed doing the bend effects on the strings, and the syncopations at the end. The marimba(?) base is kind of interesting choice!
  1. Battle (2003)
    Yup that’s the whole title. This was more a test than a real piece — but it points out an interest crossover, this was inspired by PotC/Gladiator themes specifically. Still on Melody or Harmony assistant!
  1. Boss Battle from Origin (2011)
    It was a number of years before I tried this seriously again it seems! (… I did not realise all of those were from 2003, wow (the last two from December of that year.)) We’re on Logic by this time. Guitar heavy piece again for an actual game, that was again never finished. Nice bit of 5/4 there — irregular time sigs are definitely a battle music thing.
  1. Boss Battle (2020)
    And finally here’s the one from this week. Featuring modal ostinati, heavy guitar, a thematic brass bit, drum kit and those timps, cuts and odd meter moments, bass riff section… I didn’t even quite intend it, but it feels like it summarises a lot of the pieces leading up to this point. I had fun 🙂

Honourable mentions

More things that aren’t really battle music but have some kind of overlap — and that fill in the gap and show I did write some upbeat music between 2003 and 2011 !

Incursion Excursion
OneChance
(Metal Gear Solid music is another genre closely linked!)
Furioso from Piece for Orchestra
(a more classical piece, part of my final submission for undergrad)
Fireproof Princess
(I wrote this after Furioso, this was intended as a film music piece and it has some overlap as a slightly more tonal etc version of the above I think?)
Forever Forever
(Not battley at all, but with the rock band/drums angle, and a bit pacey at least!)

More game music..

Posted by sara-garrard

The remake of Final Fantasy VII has come out recently! Only part 1 of who knows how many thought… I can’t actually play it and don’t own it, but perhaps in honour of that, here’s some tunes. FFVII and the music were massively important in getting me composing a lot as a teenager.

Two quick pieces from yesterday then–using some RealFont and other old samples once again, though I spent just a little longer working on the sound, within those constraints, this time.

Ominous music..
Character theme…