Send our music contractors all my scores, temp mixes using fake (not live) instruments, notes, etc.Contact our music contractors to book the orchestra, chorus, and soloists.I break out the idea book and see if there are any gems in there and figure out what Morrowind themes I want to quote. I am told told we're going to do an ESO Chapter with a new title theme.Here is the basic roadmap for taking the ESO: Morrowind score from idea to reality: Once I know the date the final score has to be integrated into the game, I can finalize what has to be done and when, and what can be done in parallel and what cannot. Scheduling out a production timeline like this naturally starts at the end and works backwards. That always feels like plenty of time at first, but given the complex production schedule - not to mention the ongoing duties of my "real" job as Audio Lead - things invariably get rather hectic towards the end. Like our other soundtracks, we had about six months to take the score from inception to completion. But with the ESO: Morrowind release having such nostalgia associated with it, I wanted to do even more of that, even going so far as to replace the game's title theme with something that hearkened back to the original theme from TES III: Morrowind.īroadly speaking, what were the major steps involved when planning and composing the music for ESO: Morrowind ?Īlmost all of the music in ESO is performed live, and the music of ESO: Morrowind is no exception. I've done that a few times in various pieces in the past, slipping in melodies here and there and reworking them, giving the players something to perk their ears up as they travel lands from the other Elder Scrolls games. Of course, the most direct way to serve both of those masters is to quote and reinterpret thematic material from other games in the series. The first of those three keeps the music faithful to the series, the second keeps it faithful to our game, and the third - if I do my job well - does both. Therefore, when it's time to write new music, my creative space exists at the intersection of three things: the musical framework that defines " Elder Scrolls" music, the needs of the particular game content at hand, and my collection of half-finished ideas. Melodies and themes, phrases and fragments, or even just harmonic progressions all get recorded in their crudest form and stockpiled for a later time. To that end, I have a musical sketchbook in which I'm always squirreling away ideas as they come. It's one thing to say, "This new Elder Scrolls music must have wonderful, memorable melodies." It's quite another to actually make that happen.
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But some of it is more difficult to nail down, and therefore more difficult to reproduce - the wonderful, memorable melodies of the music in the series for example. Some of that is pretty straightforward - broadly identifying things like instrumentation (large orchestra, live chorus, booming percussion, etc.) and style (late 19th / early 20th century era) to use as a musical framework for future compositions. It began as an exercise in reverse-engineering what makes the scores for other Elder Scrolls games tick. This means making sure the music is "Elder Scrolls-y" enough to sound like it's from the same universe as the other games, but at the same time different enough so that it's clearly ESO music, belonging to the time and spaces of our game. For The Elder Scrolls Online, the music has to bridge the gap between the familiar and the new, satisfying player expectations while still having a unique identity.
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Meeting that challenge for ESO: Morrowind was essentially a heightened version of meeting that challenge for the game as a whole. How do you go about creating something new and fresh while retaining the series' iconic elements? The Elder Scrolls series (and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in particular) has a lot of history behind it. In celebration of the soundtrack's release, we asked him a few questions about his process and the challenges associated with making the music for an Elder Scrolls game. Link here)ĮSO: Morrowind's entire soundtrack is now available on Spotify, iTunes, Google, and Amazon!īrad Derrick is studio Audio Director and composer for the ESO: Morrowind soundtrack. (The Spotify web player for the ESO:Morrowind Soundtrack is embedded into the article.
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Check out the full soundtrack below and read an interview with its composer and Audio Director, Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind soundtrack is now available on digital platforms.