Great North Museum: Hancock
Themed Educational Packs
I was commissioned by Roots and Wings to compose nine short pieces of music (known as ‘stings’) to represent the themes of educational packs provided to schools by the museum. Each video would have the same theme in the intro, followed by a reveal of the given subject, which would be accompanied by appropriately themed music. There was a lot to cram in to 10 seconds, so it was fun to see how much of a musical world I could build in seconds. Find out more below….
Ancient Eygypt
I wrote a melody using the harmonic minor scale, a popular way to evoke themes of desert, heat, and ancient hieroglyphs! This was played on a digital version of a Middle Eastern Duduk, an instrument made of apricot wood that is often used to conjure the world of the Egyptians.
Space
This sting needed to be high energy and exciting, and have all the hallmarks of a cinematic space adventure! At the time I was enjoying the Star Wars TV series, so was influenced by the musical world of John Williams.
Ancient Greece
This had the challenge of how to sum up the ancient greeks musically in under 10 seconds. I went for a touch of military horns, but foregrounded a slightly more peaceful, lilting, lute melody, which a touch of heavenly sparkles to represent the gods!
Fossils and Dinosaurs
I was influenced by the sound design of the T-Rex from Jurassic park, which reputedly contained the sound of a baby elephant. So I made my own T-Rex roar, which comprised of an elephant seal, with some menacing, predatory music to back it up.
Evolution
Drawing on my love for nature, and for the work of David Attenborough, I used a full virtual orchestra to play a melody that hopefully conjures the majesty and beauty of nature, in under 10 seconds!
Local Habitats & Wildlife
Another nature themed one, this time more domestic sounding - I went for a more folky, acoustic guitar feel here, with everyone’s favourite harbinger of summer, the wood pigeon, taking the foreground when the music ends.
Animals from around the world
Another Attenborough influenced mini musical globe-trot, this one starts very quiet and grows into a full orchestral bloom, again hopefully conveying the scale and beauty of the planet and its inhabitants!
Prehistory
Perhaps the most challenging one - as it required representing a period of history where music was very much evolving alongside human culture and civilisation, but hopefully the intended effect is achieved! The sting is this video cuts off, but you can hear the full version below.
Romans
An important one to get right - pressure was high being a musician based in Hadrian’s Wall country! Drums and cymbals for military might, heavenly harp, and strings to stir up the tension ahead of battle!