Foreign Winds

This is... probably the largest, longest, strangest project I've ever worked on lmao. It was challenging and very experimental, but a lot of fun!

Between the determined, heroic character in the painting and the text prompt it inspired me to try and make a single song that covers all the emotional beats of a long and arduous journey. So, I tried loosely following along with "The Hero's Journey" trope. The painting prompt is a specific moment in the story, and I wanted to capture the feeling of determination, isolation, and loss that I got mainly from the facial expression. 

I tried to focus as much as possible on storytelling above all else so instruments were used to portray characters, time signatures to make new sections feel foreign, tempo changes for managing the amount of action, and some motifs for each character. I have no idea how much of the storytelling aspect came across in the music, but it was a lot of fun to write with it in mind! 

Here's a little breakdown of each section and what I was going for:

0:00 - 0:37 Introduction: Introduced to the main character (Guzheng /Koto) and his humble village with his humble life. Calm, relaxing, nothing bad happens here.

0:37 - 1:39 Call to action: Something bad happens. Village is destroyed by a great evil. Protagonist is useless in this fight though the evil is driven away by a mysterious, new force (strings/piano).

1:39 - 2:45 Crossing the Threshold: The Mentor (violin) introduces itself and brings the protagonist out into a world that he's never seen before represented by a change to 3/4. He learns how to hone his blade and use his powers in order to take down the evil that destroyed his village.

2:45 - 4:08 The Abyss:  There is an early encounter with the evil!!! Huge change in tempo (210BPM) and a shift to 7/4 because it's just so evil and foreign. The mentor manages to fight back the evil, but at the cost of his life. 

4:08 - 5:57 Rebirth: This is the painting. The protagonist is now alone with nothing but his sword, shield, and snowshoes the mentor gave him. He thinks of his village, which gives him the strength to continue on. With his new awakening, he goes to fight the evil one last time.

5:57 - 7:50 The Final Encounter: A final fight against the evil with some callbacks to previous sections. The protagonist channels everything he knows, thinking of the mentor's dying moments for a final push.

7:50 - (end) The Return: The hero has defeated the evil and returns home to find the village mostly in one piece. He sets down his sword, hangs up his shoes, and reflects on his journey.

Overall, incredibly fun storytelling challenge and very cool art! Next time I'm definitely gonna be taking a "less is more" approach so I can actually mix the project hahahaaaaa...