Thrixl Concept Music, Part 1

I'm starting in on some mini suites of concept pieces for monsters in the game. It's a way to work out material without worrying too much about the implementation - later, I can go back to these materials, pick them apart, and put them back together differently. It's almost like starting with a puzzle that is all put together and then taking it apart and sorting the pieces as a final result. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to follow the progress of a piece and share my process for it here.

My first sheet of scribbles is pretty typical for me - I'll break down what is happening below.

(note to self: light pencil marks don't scan very well)

At the start of projects inspired by existing material, I like to establish rules. It can be something as loose as a picture or as detailed as an instrumentation list and acceptable time signatures. Anything that I don't want to contradict. Some composers call them "constraints".

I got my rules from three places - one, reading a great descriptive document by Doug about the Thrixl origins/culture/behavior and how they have been perceived by the people of the Yondering Lands; two, Annie's inspiring artwork; and three, Elise's incredible bank of Thrixl noises, all the way from first pass to current assets. This is a lot of material, and I wanted to distill it down into something a little more bite-size and focused for myself. I put together a list of words, which you can see at the top. It's a bit of a mish-mash of words about the Thrixl themselves and the sounds they make:

Ancient. Mysterious. Cosmic. Passionate. Controlling. Fearsome. Cavernous echos. Reverberant. Clicky-clacky. Invasive. Penetrating. Mystical. Relentless.

These are my rules. I use them as inspiration. I can go wherever I want after that, but I am constantly referring back to them, checking to see if what I'm writing is really in line with what I wanted to express, or if I'm veering too far off path. If I get stuck, I pick one and run with it. Once in a while I find that my rules don't really work out and I start over, but I have gotten pretty good at rule-making over time, I think. Mostly now when I change things I find myself crossing items out, making the list smaller and more focused. This one is much longer than usual. Most likely I'll be separating some things out into unifying aspects and rules that apply only to specific movements of the suite.

After rules comes one of my favorite parts - an idea dump. I get things down as quickly as I can and then move onto the next thing. I don't think much about development or how things will or won't work together (although sometimes I think they might, and I draw arrows and scribble stuff about it - I try not to work out the particulars at this point or see if I'm right or wrong). For example, you can see above a phrase I wrote "Add lush harmony? Romantic port[ato]s, etc.". These are particulars to work out later. Right now I don't bother because #1 a lot of this will never get used and #2 the key is absolutely to dump as much as possible as fast as possible. It's like collecting a random assortment of Lego pieces that get assembled later into some unknown construction.

Often I don't write melodies or even melodic fragments - sometimes it's just a gesture - like "wide 1/2 step vibrato", or "Bernard Herrmann/Stravinsky-esque [downbow retakes]". Lots of composers use this, but the thing that was in my head at first was some stuff from the Psycho soundtrack (Herrmann) or Rite of Spring (Stravinsky).  Oddly enough what comes into my head more often as I continue to work is a small part of "Mars" from Holst's The Planets. But that fits in with the "cosmic" rule so, fair game ;)

Start at 2:11 - I fail at embedding with a start time

There's quite a bit of Stravinsky in my idea dump, actually, although I didn't realize it at the time. Those sixteenth notes on the sixth staff are strongly reminiscent of this bit of "Ritual of the Ancients" (also from Rite of Spring). I suppose it's not surprising, since Stravinsky is one of my favorite composers, Rite of Spring is one of my favorite works, and both left a huge impression on the collective psyche of every composer and orchestrator in the 100 years since (I swear to you - you can find Stravinsky or Holst in like 95% of film scores today*).

In an idea dump, everything goes, especially the dumb stuff. This is something I kindof wish someone had told me, but I'm proud of having figured out for myself - if you get the stupid thing that you hate down on paper, it stops inhibiting you. Otherwise, it'll be there knocking on the back of your brain and getting your whiny self-doubt voice's attention, and then they'll just be having a conversation while you get frustrated and distracted. Sometimes when I get blocked I will purposefully write the dumbest, most derivative idea I can, and laugh at it. It gets the creative juices flowing.

I usually try to do at least three idea dumps; this is the first. Sometimes I'll do as many as five. I purposely try to veer away from the direction the first one took when I do the second one. If I have more directions to try, I do more dumps. Then the last one tends to be a natural amalgamation of and progression from whatever stuck with me out of previous dumps. It helps me refine my direction and also results in material that is not obviously derivative. Usually the first dump is almost flat-out stealing - not on purpose, but that's how my brain works. It's grabbing at touchstones. Many times I'm stealing from myself as well as other composers, both of which are evident here (those wide half-step vibratos? Classic creepy Candy). But throughout all of this, the rules remain constant.

Lastly, you can see up in the top left corner an idea for the movements of the suite - "Awakening, The Hunt, Control". The titles will almost certainly change, but I'm feeling pretty good about the ideas themselves. An ambient-ish first movement, composed mostly of gestures, that represents something within the realm of Thrixl dreaming (After all, they want peace - they just don't see it the same way we do). The second movement is about collecting their slaves; the process of getting someone (or a bunch of someones) under their control. Lastly, the implementation of a Thrixl will. I think three movements should do a good job of capturing everything I want for the Thrixl, but if anybody has ideas on what else is important about them, I'd love to hear about it :)

Thanks for reading thus far! As I move forward things will be more show and less tell.


*I have not fact-checked this but seriously, I dare you to listen for it