Scored for: brass quintet (trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba)
This concert video was broadcast live on the internet on 3 August 2017 from VCFA, showing the first 12 minutes of Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark with an original (re-)score for brass quintet. The score is performed by The Brooklyn Brass ensemble.
Scored for: instrumentation of these excerpts includes solo instruments, percussion, synthesizers, and studio orchestra (with additional sound design)
This is a ten-minute collection of scenes from films, TV shows, commercials, and video games that I have re-scored*. All of the short films can be found in the “Film Scores” section of my website here.
In a hurry? Listen to a one-minute audio-only sampler of media scores here.
Scored for: brass quintet (trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba)
The prologue for Steven Spielberg’s 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark introduces Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as a tomb-raiding, whip-cracking adventurer, deep in the South American jungle searching for a lost golden idol. Jones manages to evade several life-threatening dangers, as well as duplicitous comrades, only to find himself confronted, in his ultimate escape, but his worst fear (snakes!).
For this rescore, I followed John William’s original soundtrack as a model for the “feel” of each scene, since I didn’t have the luxury of discussing the scoring with Steven Spielberg, but I still came up with an original, rather than derivative, score. This new soundtrack is written for a brass quintet (two trumpets, a french horn, a trombone, and a tuba).
There are two stand-out moments for me in the score. First, when the spiders prey on Jones and his assistant (Alfred Molina), the brass players key their instruments without blowing into them, creating clicking sounds to mimic the spiders. Second, I wrote my own “Indiana Jones theme”, which the brass play over the final escape to the seaplane. In John Williams’ score, this is the most memorable theme. I hope you find my “theme” just as exciting and memorable.
The score is performed by The Brooklyn Brass, recorded live in concert on 3 August 2017 at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT.
This is a promotional TV spot advertising a CSPAN White House Tour program. I wrote patriotic-sounding music and incorporated snare drum ruffles to match the historical importance of the tour, as well as aural splashes to highlight the final visuals.
Poptech was a brain-storming conference held in Camden, Maine, that was opened each day with a short video clip. This is a rescore of that video clip.
Capturing the simplicity of rural Maine, I began with a recorder, then gradually built up the orchestration to the climax. This was, to me, supposed to be the visual and aural equivalent of a strong cup of coffee, to stimulate the day’s conversations.
This is a fanfare for brass quintet that I submitted for a competition for a 2014 Christmas Gala. It is based on the Gregorian Chant “Personent Hodie”.
This is a brass quintet fanfare for the Christmas holiday season: Imagine you’re in a mall Christmas shopping. As you go from store to store you hear different Christmas songs played by each shop, finally ending up at the food court where a jazz band is playing.
Steven K Sanford 