---

« Previous Entries
Cue of the Week: “A Nation of Kings”
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
As Independence Day is approaching for those of us in the USA, something patriotic seems to be in order. Rather than post a music cue with brassy oomph and snare drums (which I do frequently anyway), here’s something with a triumphant but more understated mood. This cue for strings and solo woodwinds - written when I was a swaddling composer of about twenty four - accompanies the final scene of the film The F-Zone. Given that the film concerns escape from tax abuse, its music seems appropriate for this particular holiday.
The music starts with a moody tone, then eventually flourishes into a more affirmative mood. Happy (impending) Fourth!

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	A Nation of Kings
Posted in COTW, Journal | 2 Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Broken (Closing titles)”
Friday, June 26th, 2009
This week’s music is the closing theme from Red Field Media’s short dramatic film, “Broken”. Cello solo by the very talented Venessa Freebairn-Smith.
The mood of the film is pretty desolate, so a sober musical soliloquy seemed like the right artistic approach for the final credits. The mini-cadenza towards the end isn’t the typical virtuosic exhibition you’d find in a concerto, but rather is meant to suggest a final surge of remorse, a last protest before the arrival of the inevitable.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Broken (Closing titles)
Posted in COTW, Journal | 1 Comment »
Cue of the Week: “Clash of the Emirates”
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Here’s another piece that combines orchestral and mideastern instrumentation, this one of a more martial and driving character.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Clash of the Emirates
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Sands of Arabia”
Friday, June 5th, 2009
There is a long Hollywood tradition of attempting to shoehorn ethnic folk music in orchestral format. Actually, it predates Hollywood; 18th and 19th century symphonic composers were fond of tossing a triangle into an otherwise perfectly Western-sounding movement and dubbing it “Turkish”.
I’m not one to turn down a chance to engage in a little cultural imperialism myself. This cue from Empire Earth 2 opens with a solo from a Armenian wind instrument called a duduk (film composers love it for its sinuous sound, and often use it as a shorthand for “attention audience: we’re now in Damascus”). The music then transitions to a more traditionally symphonic crescendo, meant to evoke the vastness of the desert and civilizations long past. Now if only I had remembered to add a triangle…

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Sands of Arabia
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Dennis Alone”
Friday, May 29th, 2009
This moody and lyrical cue features soprano sax, a recurring modal piano ostinato, and string orchestra.
I’ve always liked using the saxophone as an orchestral voice, in distinction from its traditional role as infantryman in the jazz army. (Or in the case of the soprano sax, the easy-listening army.) In its upper register, the instrument can function almost like an oboe, but with a somewhat smoother and less pinched tone.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Dennis Alone
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Struggle in the Sands”
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Nothing perks up a Friday like some good old-fashioned, wholesome battle-to-the-death music. Here’s some of my Mideastern-styled action scoring from Empire Earth 3. This piece features abundant ethnic hand percussion, snarling brass, and that most traditional of pan-Mideastern musical sounds: cello pizzicato routed through a guitar amplifier.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Struggle In The Sands
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “A Dark Future”
Friday, May 15th, 2009
Brooding and lyrical, this orchestral cue adopts the classic “rounded binary” form - a theme, followed by a contrasting B section, capped with a brief reprise of the opening material. It also reflects my fondness of using the woodwind section for color, even in the context of a ensemble sound where strings and brass predominate. (A gripe I have with epic film music these days is that it’s so brass-strings-percussion heavy that the woodwinds get overlooked… but that’s a subject for a blog post of its own.)

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	A Dark Future
Posted in COTW, Journal | 2 Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Training Montage”
Friday, May 8th, 2009
This happy guitar rock cue - written for an archetypical athletic training montage - wraps up our (discontinuous) month of happy music.
I hadn’t intended every cue in this series to be guitar-oriented, but after reviewing my body of work found that I simply haven’t written a lot of orchestral music with an innocent, upbeat tone. There’s plenty of cues with names like “Final Triumphant Victory”, but they invariably have a militaristic quality. And I’ve written number of romantic cues, which are happy in a kind of Giant Hammer of Emotion sort of way. But when it comes to lighter, happy-go-lucky fare, I invariably seem to return to a more pop music voice.
Speaking of happiness, I’m happy to report that the blank-page problem that was plaguing some Internet Explorer users has been remedied.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Training Montage
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “El Tequila Bar”
Friday, April 17th, 2009
This third installment in our month of happy music series should be a hit among fans of Mariachi music and spirits-induced catatonia.
On a technical note, a few users of older versions of Internet Explorer have told me that they see nothing but a blank page when visiting this blog. If you find yourself experiencing this problem, please send me a short note so I can get a sense of how widespread the issue is. Please note that MikeMusicRadio.com does not recommend Internet Explorer, but we heartily endorse Firefox, Safari, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx, and going outside and getting some fresh air for a change.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	El Tequila Bar
Posted in COTW, Journal | No Comments »
Cue of the Week: “Field Work”
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Continuing our month of nonstop happy music series, this cue prominently features the guitar-playin’ of the inimitably talented Tom Strahle. Not to mention mandolin-playin’ and whatever other overdubs I forced out of him that day. (This recording is of only two musicians, but I made them earn their keep.)

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Field Work
Posted in COTW, Journal | 2 Comments »
« Previous Entries

• View entries

  All journal entries
  Cue of the Week only

• RSS

  Entries (RSS)

• Archives

  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • June 2007
  • October 2005
  • June 2005

---

Michael Gordon Shapiro is proudly powered by WordPress