A Dark and Stormy Knight

Concept

This piece of music was born from a music composing challenge on the VGM Lounge Discord Server, a place where video game music fans share their love of VGM and create their own homages to the art form. One challenge was to create an original piece of music based on the game Hollow Knight, an indie game created by a two person coding team based in Adelaide Australia, which went on to become a worldwide smash hit, partially due to the beautiful graphic, challenging game play and cute concept, and partly due to the amazing music by Christopher Larkin, an Adelaide based composer whose music become a beloved fan favourite.

"Hollow Knight is a 2017 Metroidvania video game developed and published by independent developer Team Cherry. The player controls the Knight, an insectoid warrior exploring Hallownest, a fallen kingdom plagued by a supernatural disease." 

Music Listening

Please have a good listen to the piece and make yourself familiar with the style and intentions of the piece. It has four main sections, which I have taken the liberty of imagining as the following.

1. A discordant introduction that introduces you to the fallen realm of underground insects, where conflict and strife dominate life, and our protagonist is caught up in a fight for survival.

2. A beautifully gentle section that reflects back to the life before the chaos, before when the knights family was taken from him and plotting the loss and retreat of the hero into seclusion. (This section has an echo to the original game theme).

3. A section of turmoil as the plague affected creatures of this underworld bring destruction and war to the kingdom.

4. The final triumphant return from self-exile of the Stormy Knight who revenges his loss and brings peace once more to the realm.

Section breakdowns

This is a rare case where we can break down the music into sections so you can get a really good idea of where your part fits into the whole. Please take note of various techniques employed in the piece such as oscillations, buzzing, growls and textures. Dynamics are important, and knowing where your part sits within the soundscape is critical for success. I would ask the flutes and clarinets to remember to attack their parts in moderation, so as to not over dominate the melody. Remember that texture parts are meant to be background parts.
The exports below from the notation software are not as good as Marks mock-up, but it will give you a good idea of the parts in our arrangement. This is a draft and is subject to corrections/changes, but it is good for an initial guide. Each recording for the sections include the kit and piano for reference.

If you feel notes need adjusting when you play during rehearsals please raise it with Dale, and if there are changes, take a note of the bar number and email me with the details. I'm sure there are some errors that will be cleaned up as we go. Our aim is to get as close to Mark's mock-up as we can for the performance.