Planet Source Code is one of my favorite open source programming sites on the internet.  I’ve been involved with PSC since the late 90’s, and still like to drop in every now and then.  I was doing this just last week when I came across “Wild Waters” (follow the PSC link above), a freeware 2d game written in VB by Trent Jackson.   Trent was looking for music for the project, so I looked around and found this old (but good!) song sitting on my hard drive and offered it to Trent as a theme song for his project.  It seems to fit!

Known as “It Begins” back in TGP/TLA days, this song is a simple arcade-style theme song.  I based it loosely off “Cold” by matchbox twenty and I’m still fond of it even though it hasn’t been online for several years.  I don’t know why I never uploaded this before – it’s a decent theme.

(Originally posted on THIS 1.0 on 14 Oct 2006)

Here’s the weird thing – even though you’ve never heard this song before, I guarantee that if you listened to it without hearing the title, you’d associate it with some kind of patriotic event.  I don’t know why that is, but it’s a real phenomenon.  Music association is a fascinating tangent in the “nature vs. nurture” debate, after all…

Regardless, the ocean sound effect at the start is because Tiberia is located on the ocean (obviously).  MIDI horns comprise most the song – unfortunately, because they’re disappointing – but the mp3 version manages to hold its own.

I once had someone ask me if this song has words.  It doesn’t.  If you would like write words (so it could be a true national anthem), feel free.  ;)

(Originally posted on THIS 1.0 on 25 Apr 2005)

Note: A “love” remix of this song can be found here: http://www.tannerhelland.com/music/faith-love-remix/

I love all (or at least most, heh) of my music, but “Faith” stands out as one of my top all-time favorites.  I originally wrote this piece as the character theme of a vengeful monk…so take that under consideration when listening. :)

Technically, I don’t know where this fits musically; the main melody isn’t even a melody – it’s a simple chord progression.  The 2nd section is a 4-part harmony (even correctly harmonized for the most part), and the final section is distinctly modern.  The instrument mix is all over the place but was designed to be largely “churchy” in nature (hence the organ and choir throughout).  The percussion was added as an afterthought because I felt it added some oomph to the epic sections of the song in a way only percussion can do.

(Originally posted on THIS 1.0 on 24 Apr 2005)

There are a lot of cool features in this song, the main one being that this song uses only three (yes, three) different chords.  Written in C# minor, all I used was the VI, VII, and i chords – repeated in the same pattern throughout – as part of an experiment to see what I could accomplish with a minimalist chord structure.

Even I was surprised at the outcome.  This song is epic.  This song is beautiful.  This song is grand.

The amazing intensity of this simple piece comes entirely from instrumentation and subtle melodic varations between the separate voices.  Harmonically, I think this song is one of my best accomplishments.  “From Here” is very simple, but very moving.  I guess this is a lesson to stick to simple structures rather than complex ones – as I’ve written elsewhere, the best themes are always the simple and memorable ones!

(Originally posted on THIS 1.0 on 24 Apr 2005)

“Find You” is another return to the roots of classic RPG music.  Originally designed as a main theme (or main character theme), this song was probably my first real non-battle orchestral theme.  The melody itself is purposefully short and simple, and the three levels of orchestration (duet -> trio -> epic) are pretty standard for an RPG theme.  The counterpoint between the oboe and brass in the final section worked out particularly well, and – fun fact – this song spans almost the entire physical range of the oboe.

Some have said this song sounds familiar to Braveheart; in retrospect I suppose it does.  Another friend mentioned that it would have fit well in FF6.  I’m still looking for a game deserving of this great little song…and hopefully I’ll someday find a home for it.

(Originally posted on THIS 1.0 on 24 Apr 2005)