Track Preview 7 - "Letting Him Go" || Re-Scoring Pumpkinhead"

For this 3rd re-score project, I composed a complete alternate score for Pumpkinghead. This track preview features music I created for the scene where the father's son dies in his arms while trying to comfort him at home.

None of the original copyrighted material by Richard Stone is used in this project. The musical ideas are all mine and original to this project.

ABOUT THE APPROACH
As always, I approached this album as though I had been the one to score it originally. While I love the movie, I hated the score. It lacked any real sense of "primal aggression" and "obssession for revenge" resulting from the unfortunate loss of a father's son by the actions of outsiders. I crafted a score that not only adds these missing elements but also transitions from a father's love for his son, to a bitter sweet moment of personal loss, transition into a thirst for revenge before a final moment of regret by the father for the actions he took.

MY APPROACH
I created an architecture to the score. I wanted to focus on the them of obsession and arevenge by way of bittersweet moments that would would evolve into harsh aggression and then end with a regretful tone. This was acheived by focusing on the main storyline of a father's loss of his son due to the actions of outsiders which becomes a thirst for revenge. Only one of the outsiders is truly responsible for the accident and failed to take ownership, but the group is unfottunately collateral damage.

The main titles exemplify this musical architecture. It introduces all the major musical ideas that will get developed throughout the score as well as the overall tone. Haunting pianos, rip roaring horns, pounding tribal drums, an array of atonal string effects, synth chorus, sound effects, and acoustic instruments round out the ensemble to help tell this dark journey into madness.

For the country folk, I avoided the use of steroetypical "country twang" and created something that hinted at such locale but was not "on the nose". I used harmonicas, banjos and fiddles but in a different manner. I also scored the music to the scenes where the original "bluesy" music was more like source music playing in the background. At times when we are presented with scenes of the other family that the father engages with in the story, I simply use a quick upward plcuking of the banjo and echoing mandolin like steel guitar.

Just like the original score did, I used a simlar approach of utilizing the instruments used for the country locale and incorporated them with the darker atmospheric music. This helped to exmeplify the father's journey from a loving and sane man to one of absolute vengance.

The "revenge" motif is heard the most throughout the score in a dark mode but it originally starts as an upbeat yet slightly bittersweet theme early on when the Father and Son characters are introduced and we see their interactions in subsequent scenes leading up to the accident that ultimately kills his son. From that point forward, the theme goes back and forth between bittersweet and dark hatred before ultimately playing out completely in its obsessive and repeating manner as the "revenge" begins.

There is a rising 3 note motif that is used for Pumpkinhead itself. It is heard in 2 forms. Mostly it is heard on roaring horns during attacks while at other times it is heard on a haunting piano and chorus in higher ranges for when Pumkinhead is off screen and is being talked about.

The tribal drums resmeble the primal impulse for anger and revenge being pent up insde the father. That is why it is heard alot throughout the score.

For the scenes where the "legend" of Pumpkinhead is spoken, I use the most simplistic of music. The echoing steel guitar that sounds like a trilling mandolin, soft clanging metal and drone synths.

For added atmosphere and stingers, I incorporate both echoy percussion and atonal string effects. The strong effects encompass the slapping of bows, scratching strings harshly, glissandos, harmonics, and high range trills.

All of the musical ideas come full circle during the climax of the film. Each in a final statement as the stroy comes to a close.The cliffhanger takes on a very bitter sweet moment revealing a twist to the story that reveals more to the legend of Pumpkinhead not spoken about at all in the film proper before transitioning into an End Credits suite that expands on some of the major thematic material heard in the film.

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MUSIC PRODUCTION CREDITS
Music Composed and Performed by: D4Disgruntled (aka Matthew C. Hightshoe)
Mixed & Engineered by: D4Disgruntled (aka Matthew C. Hightshoe)
All Intellectual Property, Copyrights and Licenses regarding the music submission are owned by: D4Disgruntled (aka Matthew C. Hightshoe)

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Edited by: D4Disgruntled (aka Matthew C. Hightshoe)
Graphics by: D4Disgruntled (aka Matthew C. Hightshoe)