Noonvale
https://soundcloud.com/user716556540/noonvale
This piece has been a long time in the making. The inspiration for it came back in March of last year while I was watching Martin the Warrior. The material I wrote that day has been sitting around on my computer since then, waiting until I could find the time and energy to figure out where it was supposed to lead.
The idea behind this is to express the joy of all the liberated beasts from Marshank as they arrive in the free land of Noonvale for the first time. There is safety, and beauty, and a promise of a life of happiness which some of the newcomers have never known for as long as they've been alive.
Noonvale is also the home of Rose, and for her family and friends--and especially for Martin--there is a pain which comes with the memory of the good times that have already been shared there. For most, the bittersweetness is something which will be dealt with as a matter of course, and there is also the expectation of very happy times still to come. But for Martin, as the story goes, there is no way to stay in Noonvale and bear with the sadness.
I've attempted to write this music with both of these perspectives in mind--the joyful and the bittersweet.
Note: MIDI files can't capture the sound quality of real instruments, and often times they sound just plain scratchy. One way to enhance the depth of the sound is to listen with headphones. The scratchiness is still there, but when the sound sustains, the timbre mellows out; I think headphones help in hearing the longer, quietly sustained sounds which don't always play well on speakers. I also just happen to personally like the immersive capabilities of headphones. It's like being in a hall with the music instead of just listening to it from a distance.