Description

A concert band piece written as a love letter to Kō Otani’s legendary score to the video game Shadow of the Colossus.

The piece starts with fortissimo chords–a giant, colossal sound. Then, the camera moves to the distance as our hero sees its target on the horizon. It plays the long game of hunting a giant, letting the music unfold over time and growing as we inch closer and closer to the beast. Then, as we get near the creature, it sees us and a battle ensues with musical themes of dread, victory, and everything in between.

I wrote this piece during my Masters degree at Brandon University, studying with Dr. T. Patrick Carrabré. He challenged me to really play the long game with this piece; to let it unfold slowly over time. Also, he taught me to move much of the harmony out of traditional tonality and to find its own harmonic colour. So, I score studied Gus Tredwell’s piano transcriptions from Shadow of the Colossus and I asked myself where I could take it. Expect lots of augmented chords, crunchy slash chords, and non-traditional chord approaches and resolutions.

Grade 5