Resist the Zombies - Competition Entry
Thanks to @tabletopcomposer for organising this challenging composing competition. The brief was to write a 90-second piece to the prompt "The battle is going badly, when suddenly reinforcements arrive and help turn the tide".
The central idea of my piece was to start with a mournful, defeated, sounding theme and, without jarring transitions, build to an epic fightback – in this case, against Zombies (possibly in 1982). They have laid waste to the town with the only survivors barricaded inside the Gas station.
It starts with a doomy descending vocal phrase, hinting at a total takeover.
Some pulsing bass synth joins to emphasise the apocalyptic scene, though at 0:18 it resolves to a very slightly more hopeful D flat maj 11.
Tension and uncertainty is marginally better than what has musically gone before, so four solid, sustained, string chords at 0:23 indicate that perhaps all is not lost.
At 0:33 it’s time for some urgent string ostinatos to suggest some movement to the scene.
A motely bunch of local Militia has been spotted and they have an impressive array of unlicensed automatic weapons. Perhaps they can turn the tide. French horns play an ascending melody at 0:38. Now there seems to be real hope.
An uncertain B flat min resolves to a much more emphatic G min at 0:42 heralding a definite change of mood.
At 0:47, things really start to look promising. The vocal theme returns in a more strident and optimistic form. At 0:57, it really kicks off. A snare drum playing at double its introduction pace, drives the resistance along. The strings and brass rise in an excited, but rather chaotic way. At 1:07 tubular Bells add a touch of Gothic pomp and the percussion threaten to get out of control with the whole thing growing to a crashing crescendo of a chord at 1:18 (yet to be named as it’s so dissonant) – and there is no musical resolution; things are hanging in the air – along with a characteristic trail of body parts, but it looks like the zombies are preparing to run for their…lives (?!)…deaths?