Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
#westworldscoringcompetition2020
Composer’s Note:
Many thanks to the good people at Spitfire Audio and HBO for giving the community a chance at scoring a scene from Westworld. This has been a most welcome and enjoyable activity given the pandemic’s influence over my daily life.
Upon listening to the sample clip’s original music, I noted that we had a modern action score that “shifted genres” with our protagonist into a late Romantic era Wagnerian opera score excerpt “Ritt der Walküren” from the opera “Die Walküre” of the iconic “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” Yet, judging from our character’s actions, we might assume that the musical selection is better informed by its use in the helicopter attack sequence from Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” This would be very apropos of the scene’s vehicle chase and ensuing violence using the tools of modern warfare.
I wanted to experiment with a shift in tone away from modern action to, not the late Romantic era of Wagner, but the 20th Century style of Phillip Glass. I thought to myself, “What if I tried to make something in the style of Glass’s score to “Koyaanisqatsi” given that our protagonist’s life is out of balance.” Then I went outside and mowed my lawn, played with my three kids, and changed my health insurance to my wife’s plan because my day job as an analyst and auditor of service organization controls ended when my employer laid me off due to the pandemic. I digress.
Wanting, primarily, to drive interest using orchestration, I alternated, (hell, some might say vacillated) between only f# minor and D major. The shift in genre begins with a Tam Tam roll. Then, the orchestra drives the chase on a fundamental level by rhythmically drumming eight notes varying occasionally when the chord changes from f# minor to D major. The driven, synthesized bass evolves into an organic orchestral bass as the shift in genres completes itself. Woodwinds arpeggiate to emulate the whirlwind of abrupt maneuvering by the self-driving automobile. The choir’s entrance introduces a new element of orchestration and rhythm while ushering in, for the viewer, the entrance to the city from the underground garage. As we cut from the grand establishing shot of our city streets to the automobile’s interior, the music falls back to allow our actors’ dialogue room to breathe, while mirroring it with its own conversation between bass and woodwinds.
The Tam Tam rolls again to signal another shift by our protagonist from prey to predator as he is made to attack his pursuers with a weapon that is also, unbeknownst to our viewers, an autonomous platform with artificially intelligent ordinance. Trumpets enter to provide a martial presence along with a snare drum. The entrance is at first comical to support our protagonist’s exasperated facial expression but then begins to settle into a rhythmic motif that grows in intensity by sequentially completing the chordal triad. Another whirlwind of automotive maneuvering is defined by the woodwinds but the choir can be heard chanting as well because we are now in their domain of the city streets. The arpeggiation is then taken up by pipe organ as our protagonist readies himself to deploy the weapon.
I wanted to use the pipe organ for this and every moment onward involving the use of autonomous technology as a weapon. The pipe organ has been used for centuries as a traditional instrument for the inspiration of awe and fear of the divine. Now, in the context of this chase scene, I hear it channeling that same awe and fear and directing it towards the very real word threat of autonomous weapons platforms being developed and used today. Some believe, myself included, that humanity is trifling with a power that edges into the realm of cosmic horror and doing so for trivial wars of adventure and profit.
The weapon is deployed and viewers are lead to believe it had missed its intended target. After hearing the woodwinds brief arpeggiation during the weapon’s POV sequence, viewers then are lead, musically, by a grand orchestral entrance, pipe organ now prominent, to share in our protagonist’s awe and fear as intelligent targeting enables the ordinance to reverse course and destroy one of the pursuing vehicles. The trumpet’s motif returns calling attention to another explosive device in transit by yet another autonomous weapons platform in the form of a self-driving motorcycle. We also hear a return to the driving synthesized bass to foreshadow the end of the genre which occurs when the self-driving vehicle that our protagonist and his companions are riding in is ordered to stop.
This ending of the 20th century genre is proven false given the appearance of the motorcycle, accompanied by Tam Tam roll, which drives itself into the remaining antagonizing vehicle, deploying is explosives, allowing our protagonist another moment of awe and fear as the Phillip Glass inspired score reprises itself to conclude the scene.
#westworldscoringcompetition2020
Composer’s Note:
Many thanks to the good people at Spitfire Audio and HBO for giving the community a chance at scoring a scene from Westworld. This has been a most welcome and enjoyable activity given the pandemic’s influence over my daily life.
Upon listening to the sample clip’s original music, I noted that we had a modern action score that “shifted genres” with our protagonist into a late Romantic era Wagnerian opera score excerpt “Ritt der Walküren” from the opera “Die Walküre” of the iconic “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” Yet, judging from our character’s actions, we might assume that the musical selection is better informed by its use in the helicopter attack sequence from Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” This would be very apropos of the scene’s vehicle chase and ensuing violence using the tools of modern warfare.
I wanted to experiment with a shift in tone away from modern action to, not the late Romantic era of Wagner, but the 20th Century style of Phillip Glass. I thought to myself, “What if I tried to make something in the style of Glass’s score to “Koyaanisqatsi” given that our protagonist’s life is out of balance.” Then I went outside and mowed my lawn, played with my three kids, and changed my health insurance to my wife’s plan because my day job as an analyst and auditor of service organization controls ended when my employer laid me off due to the pandemic. I digress.
Wanting, primarily, to drive interest using orchestration, I alternated, (hell, some might say vacillated) between only f# minor and D major. The shift in genre begins with a Tam Tam roll. Then, the orchestra drives the chase on a fundamental level by rhythmically drumming eight notes varying occasionally when the chord changes from f# minor to D major. The driven, synthesized bass evolves into an organic orchestral bass as the shift in genres completes itself. Woodwinds arpeggiate to emulate the whirlwind of abrupt maneuvering by the self-driving automobile. The choir’s entrance introduces a new element of orchestration and rhythm while ushering in, for the viewer, the entrance to the city from the underground garage. As we cut from the grand establishing shot of our city streets to the automobile’s interior, the music falls back to allow our actors’ dialogue room to breathe, while mirroring it with its own conversation between bass and woodwinds.
The Tam Tam rolls again to signal another shift by our protagonist from prey to predator as he is made to attack his pursuers with a weapon that is also, unbeknownst to our viewers, an autonomous platform with artificially intelligent ordinance. Trumpets enter to provide a martial presence along with a snare drum. The entrance is at first comical to support our protagonist’s exasperated facial expression but then begins to settle into a rhythmic motif that grows in intensity by sequentially completing the chordal triad. Another whirlwind of automotive maneuvering is defined by the woodwinds but the choir can be heard chanting as well because we are now in their domain of the city streets. The arpeggiation is then taken up by pipe organ as our protagonist readies himself to deploy the weapon.
I wanted to use the pipe organ for this and every moment onward involving the use of autonomous technology as a weapon. The pipe organ has been used for centuries as a traditional instrument for the inspiration of awe and fear of the divine. Now, in the context of this chase scene, I hear it channeling that same awe and fear and directing it towards the very real word threat of autonomous weapons platforms being developed and used today. Some believe, myself included, that humanity is trifling with a power that edges into the realm of cosmic horror and doing so for trivial wars of adventure and profit.
The weapon is deployed and viewers are lead to believe it had missed its intended target. After hearing the woodwinds brief arpeggiation during the weapon’s POV sequence, viewers then are lead, musically, by a grand orchestral entrance, pipe organ now prominent, to share in our protagonist’s awe and fear as intelligent targeting enables the ordinance to reverse course and destroy one of the pursuing vehicles. The trumpet’s motif returns calling attention to another explosive device in transit by yet another autonomous weapons platform in the form of a self-driving motorcycle. We also hear a return to the driving synthesized bass to foreshadow the end of the genre which occurs when the self-driving vehicle that our protagonist and his companions are riding in is ordered to stop.
This ending of the 20th century genre is proven false given the appearance of the motorcycle, accompanied by Tam Tam roll, which drives itself into the remaining antagonizing vehicle, deploying is explosives, allowing our protagonist another moment of awe and fear as the Phillip Glass inspired score reprises itself to conclude the scene.
