HVIT - Heave, Ho!

Heya folks! As before (and probably to occur in the future) I had many ideas and melodies on the cutting room floor, but here's what I've cooked up for this jam. I understand that submissions over 10 minutes will be penalized, so there's a little asterisk/star next to key tracks I feel sum the project up. My take on "The Trek" was partially based upon the prompt image and some folklore surrounding the art piece, alongside some restrictions to my instruments used in the project - I aimed for minimal brass, occasional woodwind, and maximum string instruments to attain that cold journey feeling. Now, onto the dev diaries section: 

 HVIT: (White)

The first theme written, generally trying to evoke the emotions I want someone to experience for the remainder of the album. We've got three little melodies in here (the cello climbing/bowing upwards, the proper melodic theme, and an exploration or weird tones in the key) with the center one being the primary motif. The voice of our wife can be heard echoing in the distance, only becoming clearer when we encounter a difficult path ahead of us before beginning THE TREK.

 LENGSEL: (Longing)

In HVIT, we own a locket with a music box and clock given to us by our wife. It functions as the main menu, settings, and title. The menu theme is a refrain of the opening, but the notes are changed to more closely follow music box music (notes are a tad closer to each other, some up or down an octave) resulting a different but familiar melody. This time, our last third is a very different feeling - something more akin to bravery? Up to you.

 SAKTE: (Slowly) 

Our primary theme for the land portion of the game. Originally, I had envisioned a land, air, and sea theme. Each would use a particular instrument set, and the combat themes reflect this. For the Land, we have low strings and crunching ice, paired with a clarinet and frozen bells. If you listen closely, the leitmotif for the Kolossen theme is in here as well :)

 KOLOSSEN: (Colossi) 

Big, stompy, scary! Lots of messing around in this theme, although its perhaps a bit too quantized and there's not enough humanization going on in all the 8th and 16th notes. The chant at the end was very fun to do!

 KJAERLIGHTET ER TAPT: (Love is lost, or Lost Love) 

Our lovers theme, written in the style of a 6/8 shanty. Not much to say about this, as I'll expand on why I wrote it in the final theme.

 NATTRAVNEN: (Night Raven) 

Since there's no ambient theme for the sky/air, we unfortunately don't have context for all the string instruments and guitars, which I had planned to make a primary group in the companion to this theme! There's a small amount in the project file, but not enough to fill out before the date was here. I always write the combat theme first, then the ambient theme so i can sprinkle these melodic elements back into the "previous" theme to prepare the listener for the next one. The chant in this one was really fun to do, but I hurt my throat quite a bit XD

KJAERLIGHET EROBRER: (Love Conquers)

I try to sing! And I can kinda sing? Up to you!

Unfortunately, I had another section with a sea ambient and combat theme planned out, probably with a large serpent or something cool. This was supposed to lead to confrontation with the gods, which would have played a hyped up version of this theme. We meet halfway here - we have themes returning from the opening, with a hint of the Land theme in there, then male vocals to contrast the female vocals we've been hearing the whole time (the husband yearning for his wife).