GDC 2016 - The Gothic Horror Music of 'Bloodborne'Bloodborne Wiki » Art of Bloodborne » GDC 2016 - The Gothic Horror Music of 'Bloodborne' |
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Transcript - Peter Scaturro Begins |
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Transcript - Penka Kouneva Continues |
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[Excerpt: Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos] [Cont’d] That’s the harmony into interlocking sevens. I’m only showing you the choir, but the orchestral texture also had a lot of sevens embedded in it. You see how in this particular case you have E against F natural and again, E against F natural and the D against C sharp; that’s how the harmony was conceived to be dissonant. As my friend Jim says, it not like you’re mashing the keys with your elbow – this is [a] more elevated approach to dissonance. This is one thing I enjoy doing as a composer and orchestrator. I’m always very aware of the form, and what I did here is I took the piece as it is in the soundtrack, noting game play, because in game play this is implemented with looping different section. I made this flowchart: its one continuous line, but I fit it in two lines. What I did here is indicate the different thematic sections: each one has a tonal center, so the music is never [totally] a-tonal – never quite a-tonal – it’s very dissonant, very wall-of-sound with stacked dissonances, but there is a clear tonal center. This is the kind of chart I enjoy doing; it teaches me about the form. I would encourage you do that. It really is very informative when you want to learn the form of a musical piece. I would like to play the game play of the game. Keep in mind that the music has been looped. Obviously, the game play is much longer than three minutes. Enjoy. [Video: GDC1 Bloodborne – Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos] Gameplay continues. My next example is a piece called Watchdog of the Old Lords – that’s the name of the gameplay – and the soundtrack is called Terror by Cris Velasco. (Image of Watchdog of the Old Lords) [Watchdog:] A warm, fuzzy, cutie. This theme is used for the Chalice Dungeon bosses. What’s interesting is how this piece was implemented. For instance, the track as it was composed and as it is in the soundtrack, opens with a four-note violin gesture; then there’s this rhythmic riff, which becomes the thematic riff for the rest of the music; later, the choir comes in and the brass picks up on that rhythmic idea; from that, the figurative whole memorable riff is derived. [The] way the music was implemented is [that] game play begins with that memorable riff, which we are going to see here (indicating to slide). That’s the brass, and then the choir has sustains. That’s how the game play begins, but in the music, as you can see, it’s bar forty-three. Here is another great example of the choir and strings playing a memorable two-note motif with highest intensity in the most extreme high ranges – look how high the sopranos are. In classical operas, since the eighteenth century, a falling motif like this was called a motif of the sigh. Here, it’s falling and rising and falling again, but that’s the operatic trope where this idea comes from. Throughout the track these thematic sections are interspersed with clusters, orchestral risers and choir effects to create an overall feeling of desperation and life-and-death stakes, (31:04) [which this cue is]. The orchestration is not thick at all: it’s not thick and busy, it’s not like a wall of sound, [which is] what we just saw before; instead, each motif is doubled at two octaves, and sometimes these motifs are doubled at three octaves, so you have that layer of three octaves playing the same motif. They are doubled in choir, violins and brass while the rhythmic propulsion – the propulsive pattern – is in low strings. Then we also have impact hits – low, percussive hits – and occasional high clusters in the violins, which is an orchestral effect. In this piece we have such clarity in each thematic layer and [clarity] in the spectrum of frequencies; for a moment, [think:] you hear sound effects, you hear music – you have this spectrum of frequencies, but what we have is clarity. That clarity gives enormous and energy and dramatic impact to each layer. That approach is opposite to what we just heard [before:] the wall of sound [–] stacked dissonances – in Ebrietas. Both these two approaches are wonderful examples of horror genre scoring. Let’s now listen to the music. [Video: GDC2 Bloodborne – Watchdog of the Old Lords] In closing, I want to say Bloodborne was one of the happiest collaborations and most [musically challenging] jobs for me. Teamwork between freelancers, such as myself, and the wonderful Sony campuses was fantastic. Listening closely to feedback – I had to listen very closely – forget everything I know and listen closely – asking questions, when in doubt, and extreme attention to the work flow were vital. I was getting feedback on the scores from my fantastic supervisors, Pete Scaturro and Keith Leary, and from all six composers. The Sony producer Monty Mudd was in charge of reviewing the scores and providing feedback as well. Attention to detail, meticulous file archiving and communication were crucial as files were flying across the globe and across time zones. Working on Bloodborne was one of my proudest accomplishments. And now I’ll let Jim talk about the orchestration. |
Transcript - Jim Fowler Continues |
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Transcript - Peter Scaturro Starts Q&A |
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Transcript - Q&A |
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