Wardens of a Forgotten Era

The impetus for Wardens of a Forgotten Era came from a trip to a home goods store, where I happened upon a Halloween candy bowl that played a very low-quality version of Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre. After re-listening to the piece a few times at home (and brainstorming ideas for arranging a brass ensemble version), the introductory clock chime motif found its way into my subconscious. While my original intention for the piece that would become Wardens of a Forgotten Era was to be more choral in nature, with long, free-flowing phrases (similar to Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium), I couldn’t shake this steady clock chime idea from my head. This would become the basis for which the rest of the piece was born from.

         Much of my the music I compose draws inspiration from two musical sources: video game music and minimalism. I wanted Wardens of a Forgotten Era to take its time with its musical development, which is a common element of the minimalist musical genre. The clock ticking pulse fits perfectly into the minimalist style and remains present throughout almost the entire piece. The pulse becomes embellished with flowing ostinati (repeated phrases) as well as driving, articulated rhythms. Aside from these background motifs, the piece features two “melodies:” one is a longer vocal-like melody introduced by the euphonium and flugelhorn and the other a stoic, minimalistic statement presented first by the horns a little ways into the piece. There is one other motif that I mentally titled “The Rey’s Theme Thing,” as it reminded me of part of Rey’s Theme from Star Wars, that acts as transitionary material throughout the piece.

         I didn’t intentionally try to make this piece sound like video game music, but after I sent the audio mock-up file to the ABC members, most of them commented along the lines of, “Oh man this sounds like video game music!” I suppose there’s no escaping all that time I spent playing video games as a kid when I should have been practicing instead… The title Wardens of a Forgotten Era is definitely video game inspired, however. The piece has an air of mysticism about it, and the music conjured images in my mind of enormous titan gods that ruled over the flow of time. Their rule has come to an end, though, as the last chime strike of the piece signals their passing into nothing more than a memory.

         The percussion plays an integral role throughout the piece. I chose to use primarily metallophones, such as glockenspiel, chimes, and vibraphone, not only for their ability to simulate a clock chime, but also for their resonant nature and ability to help create the piece’s shrouded atmosphere. Timpani and tam-tam are used to add weight to the bigger moments of the music.