Dispair

Despair - A poem set to music.

• TYPE: Soundtrack

• PROJECT: Written Word

• STYLE: storytelling, horror

Brief: This track was composed for a Game of Band challenge on the Video Game Composers Discord. The theme was Lovecraftian Horror.

I chose to find a H.P. Lovecraft story or poem, and set it to music. The Poem 'Despair' proved ideal. My aim was to create a track that fitted the five verses from the poem, setting the atmosphere and reflecting the ideas behind each section.

1. The first verse sets a dark and foreboding, unnerving scene. The "damn'd daemons of despair'. It is meant to make you feel very uncomfortable hence the rasping brass and disturbing soundscape.

2. The second verse is like a flashback to the time before despair. "...lived such a thing as bliss". This has a more reminiscing feeling for youth lost.

3. The third verse moves forward, with uneasy feelings, ".. as he helpless drifts to sea". Its a quieter passage with a feeling of drifting.

4. The forth changes pace significantly, increases in intensity and style. "...mingle in a cloud of madness". The feeling is of panic and pure fright.

5. The last verse is giving up, the resignation of no escape, "sweet oblivion, all the years of fruitless quest." A sad lament, a feeling of true despair.