Music of the World(s) was a final project for the Honors Program at Fitchburg State University. It was a team of two, where I focused on the audio production, and my partner focused on creating the physical spaces. 

The project was designed as a way for both of us to independently create our workflows and get experience with all aspects of our chosen fields. The scope was set at 3 stylistically unique scenes to work on.

Gruff Grizzly

The Gruff Grizzly was the first scene that we worked on. We wanted to keep all aspects of the design traditional to the fantasy genre, following queues from IPs such as Dogma, The Witcher, and The Elder Scrolls. 

The music was kept simple for its instrumentation, being arranged for a small traveling band that had taken up residence at the inn for a few weeks before moving on to other towns. String instruments were used exclusively for the arrangement, as they are seen quite a bit in this genre, both in fantasy settings and historically. A hammered dulcimer, sitar, and autoharp are used, with the first two being pitched down an octave for the bass section. These instruments were specifically chosen to compliment each other, while pulling from multiple parts of the world to have the overall palette be unique.

Nautilus-44

Nautilus-44 was designed as an underwater research facility, which changed my approach to conceptualizing the music for this scene. Unlike the Gruff Grizzly scene, there are no obvious opportunities for diegetic music. Because of this, I set out to make a more atmospheric loop capturing the fear of being so far disconnected from the rest of civilization and the unknown of what is beyond the short field of view you have. Synths and electronic instruments were used to keep in line with the visual design cues, with piano coming in at the end to be a parallel to the live plants dotted throughout the scene. 

Church of St. Catherine

Designed as an abandoned church building deep in the woods, the visual and audio focus of the scene is a massive pipe organ directly behind the pulpit. The music was written around the pipe organ, beginning as a quiet hymn, slowly morphing into a more distorted and sinister piece, showing the collapse of the building, joined by a ghostly choir for portions.