I’ve found that the two expressions – music and story – seem to flow from each other and inspire each other. They move the emotions in different ways, but to equal depths. Given that relationship, I thought it might be nice for readers to be able to feel something of what I felt while writing.
Music is a passion for me, so it was only natural that I started composing scenescape-type pieces at about the same time I began with the world of the books.
In the Whisper is a track I released a few years back under the name Sparrowland. In this one I was trying to capture the tingling crispness of imagination and a sense of wonder.
Minstrels, I think explains itself. Here I was picturing a group of minstrels travelling through midland hills, forests, rivers and farms … the Mistyvales, really. As with many tracks, you’ll notice Celtic and African influences, which to me are among the freshest, wildest and most captivating strains of music.
The Fairground – one with vocals. There’s something magical about fairs. As a boy I used to visit the local town fair and a bigger one in a nearby city. Wandering around the stalls and stables in the lonely hours always left me so full of feelings I could never quite comprehend which only made them more captivating. It was these memories that inspired this song as well as the chapters devoted to the autumn festival – among my favourite to write.
I’ve always liked the idea of stories set to music – as seen in the book with the northern rilloms. This was inspired largely by my own dabbling. The Weaver is one of these experiments – something of a fable set to music. It was a demo I knocked together during an idle day in the studio and I’d hoped to come back and trim the rough edges, but the files were lost, so this is all there’s likely to be for a while. Don’t judge it too harshly.
This is another demo – files lost on the same drive as The Weaver’s. I originally wrote it for a good friend, Simon Painter, who was putting together a dance show that never emerged (though Simon has subsequently launched several other enormously successful shows and is now a widely recognised name in the business). I wrote the music and Simon arranged most of the rhythm section. I’ll never forget him laughing his head off as I did take after take in the studio trying to get the Irish whistle to sound the low D. These whistles are big and they have a beautiful, rich tone, but you need pretty sizeable hands to reach those low stops and I almost dislocated my knuckles in the process.
With this piece, Folk Dance, the mood is very much what I’d imagined while writing the scene where the apprentices join in the dances during the festival.
The Fool of Time – based on a magical old poem by Thomas S. Jones. I’ve always loved words that paint, so when I read that first line, “Across the fields of yesterday,” the images began to appear and beg to be put to music. There’s a deep melancholy to the original poem, but I saw in it the opportunity for hope as real as the despair behind the original words.
There are one or two more in various stages of completion, including my favourite. If you nag me I might be encouraged to nudge them up the priority list.
I’ve listened to the first book 6 times over the years. It is by far my favorite book. Please let me know when the next book will be coming out. I feel like it is probably hard to write with the first one being so amazing.
Your music is amazing! It flows beautifully with the book.
can you make more songs. thanks
You should put your songs on Amazon music. They are totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Thanks Sam.
The CD is one of the things on the list of projects, but I don’t want to take on anything now that will slow the writing of the series down. Writing music to accompany the story is something I’ve dreamed of doing for many years. I’ll certainly keep it in mind.
Here’s to nagging you 🙂. Of course, I’d much rather have the second book, but an entire album of the songs you have would also be amazing!
Nag, nag, nag… I love your music! (And your book, too!) The Fool of Time is my favourite of the songs you have here, but I’d love to hear the others! (nag, nag…)
God bless (and speed! 😉) you in your endeavours .
Can’t wait for book 2!
Completely changed my mood 🙂 . Love the music, especially “Folk Dance” and “In the Whisper”. 10/10 I would definitely buy the CD if you ever produce one. Keep up the awesome work, I cant wait for the second book to come out!
Gooday John, Sam here. Your music, especially in concert with the story is absolutely incredible. Can you please put out a CD sometime of your music? I would happily buy it in an instant – and I wonder if you could start a trend of having a soundtrack to a book…not for everyone,I suspect, but I was incredibly struck by the similarities I felt to reading about Wit playing Detheril and the Wandersail for Kaladin, and what you’ve done here really brought home how effective that can be. I could see the characters as you played and Kuthulm and Nimliss forest really came alive. You said to nag you to get it done…..nag, nag.
Thankyou for the journey, storyteller.
Wow, I love listening music where you can HEAR the passion of the artist. Please give us more!
I completely agree with Jonathan Renshaw. Please don’t add any sound effects. Music has spoilt several audiobooks for me and a lot of the time sounds cheesy (e.g The Chronicles of Dragon Collection). I think a great narrator like Tim Gerard Reynolds is all you need and adds a lot of immersion through his character voices and tones. (I found Dawn of Wonder by looking through TGR)
Hi Bill. I have actually thought about it quite a lot, and I’ve heard in in a few books. It’s a great idea, but for it to be done well, it would require a lot of work, not unlike writing a score for a movie, only many times longer. Having music that appears and disappears I actually find a bit distracting. Books that have a kind of nondescript droning in the background also fail to hit the mark, at least to my ears. Having real music to match and support the emotions being established in the story is a HHUUUUGE job. It can be done, but it would raise the cost of audiobook production several fold. I did actually write many pieces that support sections of the story, but recording them would take months and that would just push the releases back.
Here’s another point to consider. When writing any kind of speculative fiction, authors will try to create a culture or cultures that can be seen in the way people dress, act, speak etc. That feeling of cultural identity can either be enhanced or completely ruined by music. You don’t just need good tunes, you need tunes that sound like they belong in that world or they just destroy the sense of immersion. I think it’s possible to do it, but for a 29 hour audiobook, it would be a monstrous amount of work.
I’d also be curious to know how many people actually prefer background music.
Forgot to add an example
Eragon, The Inheritance Cycle
The prologue is over music for the first part.
Have you ever considered music in the background of a few chapter openings to supplement the setting? I’ve read/listened to a few, 2 or 3 books that have music but usually in the opening credits.
Now that I think about it, I’m surprised it’s so few books have integrated small music files into them.
I’ve become a huge fan of “immersion” reading, listening while I read when possible and can imagine hearing the setting would only add to that experience.
Hi Ronin. The songs are not yet available to buy, but it is something we are considering. Will make an announcement if we decide to make them available for purchase.
Do you have a place I can like buy these songs? Your voice is beautiful, I would listen to “The Fairground” all day if I could.
Hey Karen. We are happy to make a space for readers to submit their ideas. Why don’t you send us as email and we can get in touch about that?
I am glad you are doing music to go with the rest of your created world! It fits perfectly, of course. Don’t you think it will make doing the MOVIES easier when the time comes? (Yeah, I said it… WILL happen….) I wish you needed help so I could submit some song ideas too!