'The Hydra's Lair' - New Original Music/Riff Idea Inspired by Steem Monsters! Orchestral/Modern/Instrumental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

This is something I would definitely

want to expand upon and make into a more complete song, perhaps the Theme of the Hydra. I began this with the intention of something really frantic and dissonant, that perhaps could have been used in an old cartoon (Looney Tunes? Maybe not goofy enough, lol) or film. The main progression essentially repeats 3x here, before ending, with a slight variation the third time around. We are also in 7/8 technically (or at least it began that way), but it wound up feeling like 3 bars of 8 beats and 1 of 4 (28 total, so the same as 4 bars of 7/8).

Listen to The Hydra's Lair here.

Track 1 is the string ensemble

which, along with the brass in Track 2, play staccato the entire time. We are in Cminor I suppose, but basically every out of key not gets used (flat 2, major 3rd, tritone), in addition to all the usual notes in Cminor. Every little segment we add another layer of harmony, the first time a 10th above (beginning on Eb, same progression), the 2nd time on the Bb above the Eb, and the third time, an octave above that. After this plays 4x, we go back to beginning and start again.

Tracks 1 and 2, first time around.

Listen to The Hydra's Lair here.

Tracks 1 and 2, 4th time around.

Track 3 is the first of the woodwind

sections, which initially comes in just play tritone intervals (F#/C, and C#/G) and a little fill at the end of each 4 bars. Track 4 is a second woodwind section, which plays the upper half of what Tracks 1 and 2 play, with an additional flute that plays a half step above the highest part, adding some really crunchy minor 2nds over every note which really ups to dissonance. Finally, we have Track 5, the timpanis, which basically got entirely drowned out by the other tracks, haha. That'll be fixed if I finalize this/build up something more around it.