Compositions for Media
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Hunger Games: Catching Fire Cue
I wrote this for film scoring practice, trying to get more comfortable using electronic elements in combination with traditional instruments.
Film
DnD Podcast Soundtrack
I wrote this music for a friend’s upcoming podcast project, centered around a DnD campaign with a steampunk/fantasy/time travel theme. Coming this fall!
Podcast
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2001: A Space Odyssey Cue
Written as my final project during the film scoring intensive at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana during the summer of 2023. This cue, written to a scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, won the “best original score” prize, given to one piece at the culmination of the program. The scene shows the evolution of humanity from monkey-like proto humans to explorers of space. One pre human discovers tool-making in the act of beating another to death with a bone. As the bone, tossed into the air in triumph becomes an orbiting spacecraft, it's implied that progress comes at a cost. Thanks to the Orchestra Della Toscana for the performance, and and Marco Streccioni, Tim Starnes, Mattia Cella for engineering/mixing assistance.
Film
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There Will Be Blood Cue
Written as my first project during the film scoring intensive at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana during the summer of 2023. This scene depicts the final struggle between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday in the movie There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Daniel is deranged from the start of this scene to the finish, but to me there's an element of ritual performance to the rhythms in his screaming violence, maybe a little “rite of spring”. I wrote something to play to and highlight the rhythms already present in the actors’ performance, a menacing folk dance. Thanks to Antonio Pellegrino, Nataliya Nykolayshyn, Bruno Pucci, Luca Pincini, and Massimo Ceccarelli for the performance, and Marco Streccioni, Tim Starnes, Mattia Cella for engineering/mixing assistance.
Film
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Deleted Scene Cue
My cue for a deleted scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Daisy Ridley and John Boyega. I took on a difficult task with this cue, which was to try my best to channel the great John Williams - who of course has provided the soundtrack to all major Star Wars films. To me, that means lengthy, agile string runs, prominent brass, beefy orchestration, free chromaticism, lots of octatonic-derived harmony, and above all, motivic writing. I did my best!
Film
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Unknown Space Shuttle Launch Cue
This is my cue for a launch of the space shuttle Discovery to meet the ISS, though unfortunately I’m not sure which mission or where the footage originated. I tried to capture the raw intensity of the moment rather than resort to a generically uplifting, brassy approach. I can only imagine how unspeakably stressful this is for everyone involved, and my first attempts didn’t feel authentic enough to that. These launch films always show these great close-up shots of the gigantic main thrusters starting up, and what always strikes me is the scale and the violence of the whole thing - the sheer amount of force required to get something that size moving at such a speed, straight up into the air, and the insanity that a couple people signed up to sit tight with all of that strapped to their backs.
Film
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2012: President’s Office Scene Rescore
This was my first attempt at putting music to film, a scene from the movie 2012 directed by Roland Emmerich - this scene starring Danny Glover and Karin Konoval. When I set about scoring this scene I actually didn’t realize it was from the movie 2012, which is a blockbuster disaster movie, and not the kind of movie I had pictured at all. My score I think reflects that misunderstanding; my take was very nostalgic and schmaltzy, and I think if I had known the context of this scene in the movie I would have included more tension, more of a sense of lurking danger. I like what that says, though, about the importance of the score, in that without music, this scene really could have come from any sort of movie. The score can serve as a throughline, reminding the viewer/listener of the broader emotional context of each scene, when the scene itself might not be delivering that context.
Film
Ambient Music Chamber Pack (30 Second Loops)
My first foray into compositions aimed at video game developers, this is an album of 30 second seamlessly-looping tracks featuring small ensembles of violins, violas, cellos, and piano. I tried to write idiomatically for chamber ensembles featuring those instruments, while at the same time fulfilling the stated purpose of ambient, atmospheric music. The mood overall tends towards melancholy, but there are some upbeat tracks as well. Available on Game Dev Market, Itch.io, and the Unity Asset Store.
Video Game