This Two Steps From Hell piano medley features selections from 27 of my favourite pieces, transcribed by ear and arranged to form one complete piece. That was the really tricky part, deciding on the order of presentation and how to form the overall flow/structure, particularly when there is such variation in the music. The transcription process was relatively straightforward (hear a note, write it down), and I started by just working through all the pieces I wanted to use in random order. There were originally 35 selections, but a few had to be omitted as I was working on the order and transitions.
Anyway enough about the process - most people won't care - so a little note on the music itself.
I'm a relatively new convert to the world of Thomas Bergersen, although familiar with his trademark 'Epic' sound used in countless film trailers and reality talent shows. There are many cheap imitations, particularly in today's movies, where all you seem to get are choppy string ostinatos, thundering percussion loops and blasting horns. What sets composers like Mr Bergersen apart from the pack is his mastery of melodic material, and development of orchestral textures. Sure, there's a cello ostinato here and there, but it supports a superbly infectious Horn power anthem of enormous proportions. There may also be some relentless percussion, but it makes way for a sweepingly lyrical string theme James Horner would be proud of. There's substance to this music. Strip away the effects and much of it still works.
Maybe I should also point out for some that I'm not actually playing this piece, it's the playback file from the notation I created in my Finale software. However I did nearly break my piano working this stuff out. Not sure what to do about sheet music at this stage - in its current form it is rather messy with dynamic markings all over the place to aid playback and needs a lot of work on overall layout before I even think about a finalised version. And will probably re-arrange it for piano duet at some point to hopefully get a real performance, so until then it's just an audio video.
So one final note, here's a list of all the pieces used - for anyone who's actualy read this far down)
All's Hell That Ends Well
Birth of a Hero
All The King's Horses
Talia's Theme
Protectors of the Earth
Norwegian Pirate
Sky Titans
Immortal
Compass
Empire of Angels
Age of Gods
Jump
Starchild
He Who Brings the Night
The End is the Beginning
Nemesis
Heart of Courage
Destructo
Everlasting
Archangel
Men of Honor
Blackheart
Colin Frake
Ocean Princess
Winterspell
Sonera
Spirit of Moravia
So it's been great, I had fun working on this one despite stressing over how to get it to work as a whole. And perhaps sometime soon I'll look at doing a 'part 2' featuring material from the new Battlecry album
