Cues of the Week: Healing and The Avatar

This week I'm posting two cues rather than one, as they're both short and musically related. Both these pieces are from the short Better Off Said, and accompany various acts of supernatural intervention in the life of a hapless Alzheimer's patient. The first, a moment of healing, where the character's affliction is suddenly lifted; the second, when a mystical avatar tries to restore his faith.

Both feature one of my new favorite solo instruments, the five-string violin. The upper strings have all the sweetness and projection you'd expect from the instrument, whereas the extra low C string lets it dip into a low, viola-like register.

Healing
The Avatar

Cue of the Week: Flight Music #2

This week's selection is an orchestral action-adventure cue from a computer game called Jane's Attack Squadron. The game was a WW2 flight combat simulator, and called for a certain amount of musical optimisim and excitement, along with an undercurrent of tension.

The music was recorded with an orchestra in Prague, satellite-linked to a recording studio in Santa Monica, CA. As if that wasn't complicated enough, I was monitoring the session from Boston! Not necessarily the most ergonomic way to work, but it's a marvel that it's technologically possible.

Jane's Attack Squadron Flight Music #2

Cue of the Week: "Friends in High Places"

This week's cue is a bit unusual. In previous installments I've presented some of the orchestral underscore cues for The Penguin Who Wouldn't Swim (for example, this one). However, the game also had a Vaudeville-esque theme song, originally intended to be performed in realtime by a giant animated penguin. The scene in question was cut due to a redirection of animator resources, but the tune remained the official theme song of the project, and fronts the soundtrack CD.

The song was performed by theatre actor David Toney, who good-naturedly endured my urging him to channel both Louie Armstrong and Randy Newman while not losing touch with the inner turmoil that only an aquaphobic penguin can feel.

Friends in High Places