Mo Cuishle

This post's title comes from the film Million Dollar Baby: it's Hilary Swank's nickname in the film and is Gaelic for "my pulse" or "my darling" or "my blood."

"Mo Cuishle" is the second in a fantasy trilogy I am composing. The first song is titled "Enchanted" and the third has not yet been made. Most of my earlier work as a digital composer focused on the drama genre and experimental pieces using ambient sounds, so I wanted to challenge myself with a new genre. And a challenge it has been.

The desire to even attempt exploring and creating fantasy music was inspired by playing the video games Trine, Flower, and Journey-- though I've always enjoyed fantasy films like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. These games provide such a wonderful sense of adventure, immersing the player in beautiful game design, music, and imagination. And they're fun to play.  So it was only natural that I found myself with a fantastical melody in my head, waiting to be created.

An example from Trine 2:

An example from Journey:

At the same time, both "Enchanted" and "Mo Cuishle" have a Celtic sound with my choice of harp and flutes. While Logic Studio-- the software program that serves as my staff paper and pen-- has its own "Fantasy loops," I ignored those completely and found myself drawn to the Irish/ Scottish sounds that reminded me of the cobbled streets of Bowerstone, the main town in the video game Fable 2. From there, I began imagining lush greens, a sunset, walking through a forest and discovering it full of fantasy creatures (as in Snow White and the Huntsman). It's the beginning of an imaginative journey... And so the piece "Enchanted" was born.

"Mo Cuishle" was a far greater challenge for one MAJOR reason: I accidentally deleted the incomplete master audio file. So while I had the mp3 file to play the piece, I had to start recreating it from scratch to complete it. While nearly going insane trying to find all the loops I used (note to self: ALWAYS document loops in a notebook no matter how excited you are) and remember the arrangement, time signature changes, fade in/ fade out, and effects I put on them, this mistake ended up a blessing in disguise. As it turns out, once I found the few accent loops that served as the foundation of the piece, I wound up creating an even better composition with richer melodies and harmonies between the flutes and strings. Not to mention, with this piece I moved from the 4/4 time signature and successfully executed a 3/4 time signature-- another notch to add to my composing experience belt.

I hope you enjoy "Mo Cuishle." While "Enchanted" serves as the beginning of a fantasy adventure, "Mo Cuishle" is the exploration of the adventure.

**You can play "Mo Cuishle" at the top of the blog**