"World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor" comes out today, 11/13/14

Hi All, 

Today (11/13/14) is a big day for our family!

My wife Eimear Noone, and I, were so blessed to be a part of the composition team for the epic World of Warcraft expansion, "Warlords of Draenor."  Our fellow composers are Russell Brower,Clint Bajakian, Sam Cardon, and Edo Guidotti, and between the entire crew over 8 and a half hours of music was created!

The score debuted at #6 on the iTunes soundtrack charts.  Preview and download the score here!

The score has already won the "Hollywood Music in Media Award" for Video Game Score, but we are even more excited by thinking of all the millions of WoW fans who will enjoy the music when they hear it today.

Warlord of Draenor Composers,
Neal Acree, Eimear Noone and Craig Stuart Garfinkle

Eimear and I put together this YouTube playlist, created from fan videos, of our favorite pieces from the game and its our pleasure to share it with all of you. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqtAghaeQA2SwJiDz6eEFOsDybMUYSeWV 

We, along with fellow WoW composers, Russell Brower, Neal Acree, and Jason Hayes, will be in Dublin for the iDIG Music Festival (http://www.idigmusicfest.com) this April 2-4.  As part of the festival we will be discussing the award winning score as well as performing much of our favorites with Video Games Live.  Buy your tickets now!

Wishing you all the best in your own adventures!  Here's a link to the "collector's edition" of the game.  I can't wait to get mine!

Songs of the Dragon, Vol. 2 - Live now on iTunes and Many Digital Stores

Buy "Song's of the Dragon, Vol. 2, Featuring Music from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2."

Read below for information on a free song from the CD!



Back in 2003 I composed the music for the video game, "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2."  It was my first adventure composing for XBOX and Play-stations.

Still,  I was far from new to games.  At the time this was also my thirteenth journey into "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Middle Earth," having written more than a dozen previous TSR game scores.  Other scores from this period included the TV special "Dragonstrike," and the games "Planescape, A Guide to the Outlands.", "Ravenloft, A Light in the Belfry," "Hail the Heroes" and "Terror Trax" (among others).  

It was a great ride, but one of my great regrets was that despite having the best technology of the day, the scores were not up to what I knew I could do with a live orchestra.  The budgets just were not there for these games.

So when I embarked on "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2," I had decided things were going to be different.  I was going to record the score with a live ensemble, even if it meant paying for it myself and making nothing.  All I wanted was to hear the music as I had intended.

But as is often said, men plan and G-d laughs.

I won't go into all the details of the debacle that followed, but you can read a bit about it here:  Interplay Entertainment Facing Bankruptcy.  The short story was this:  I kind of got left holding the financial bag for the music, and what should have been the greatest score of my career became a financial nightmare - at no fault to all the wonderful people that I was working with directly at Interplay.

The upside to all this turmoil was that at the end of the day I ended up keeping the rights to my music.

Flash forward to about two and a half years ago when I decided that despite the effort it might take, I needed to go back to the raw musical material and recreate my "Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2" score anew.  I still didn't have the budget for a full orchestra (maybe some day I'll win the lottery and this will be my first project) but with the help of some new tools such as "The Vienna Symphonic Instrument," I thought I might be able to create a viable representation of what I wanted to hear.

The barriers were fairly high:  Many of the sounds I used back then came from synthesizers that have long since been recycled for scrap metal  The sequencer files were not compatible with my modern gear.  It was also next to impossible to even determine which versions of the music were the ones from the game and which were discarded demos - so many of the mixes were lost.

Inspired by the many fans who had contacted me wanting the score, over that next two and a half years, whenever I had downtime, I went through the process of recreating every track of the score from scratch - or at least the 9 tracks that could be recreated.  I decided to release the music on what is now my second "Dungeons and Dragons" music release:  "Songs of the Dragon Vol. 2."  The CD also includes two tracks from another project that I thought complimented the D & D scores.

As a thank you to all the fans of the game who have contacted me, this link will download one of the recreated tracks - "The End Title Theme."

Download:  "The Battle Rages" aka "Baldur's Gate:  Dark Alliance 2 End Title"

You can also preview or buy the entire CD from this link:

Eímear Noone, Hibernian

Eímear Noone, Conductor and Composer, releases her first "Mini EP."

Although best known as an orchestral conductor, her work on "The Legend of Zelda, Symphony of the Goddesses," and as the conductor for Blizzard Games (Diablo III, Starcraft II et all.) after years of urging her to share more of her music with the world, I was finally able to convince her to release an EP containing just a handful of her compositions.

We have called the CD, "Eímear Noone, Hibernian," as an homage to her Irish roots.

You can purchase the CD here.



It is a pleasure to share two YouTube videos that feature tracks from the CD:

The first is"Flying."  Composed and conducted when Eímear was still in her early Twenties, it remains to this day, one of my favorite compositions.

The second is an excerpt from the silent film, "Ireland, a Nation" (1914), which features Eímear's contemporary original score.

Eimear's version of the score was commissioned for, and first premiered at "The Los Angeles Irish Film Festival," using a live ensemble performing to the movie.

You can preview the rest of the CD and purchase it CD here.

IT's Dark Here

My wife Eímear and I just finished co-composing the score to a very sensitive film entitled, "It's Dark Here."

Directed and written by Adam Coplan, the film is based on the true story of Jason Tennies, a promising college student, a gifted guitarist, and genuinely great friend, who has a schizophrenic break and loses his ability to play music.

We feel absolutely honored that Jason's parents, Linda and David Tennies, the producers, let us lend our music to the film, and that my guitar in the score could be Jason's voice.

For the score we gathered 24 of Los Angeles's greatest string players, explaining to them that the film is about "one of our own" - a fellow musician.  They played their hearts out for him and deserve a shout out, as does Stephanie O'Keefe for collaborating with the union to be able to make the session happen on our limited budget.

Violins
Belinda Broughton, Concertmaster
Julie Gigante, Principal Second
Andrew Bulbrook
Kirstin Fife
Elizabeth Hedman
Ben Jacobson
Neil Samples
Barry Socher
Olivia Tsui
Ina Veli
Irina Voloshina
Adrianna Zoppo

Violas
Kazi Pitelka, Principal
Dmitri Bovaird
Karen Elaine
Lynn Grants
Lissy Wilson

Cellos
Andrew Shulman, Principal
Tim Loo
Janet Shulman
Kevan Torfeh
Helen Zheng

Basses
Mike Valerio, Principal
Ed Meares

We also had the legendary Mike Lang lend his magical touch on piano to the score and had him improvise on our themes. 

In advance of the film's release, we have been allowed to share the following cue.  In the scene, the madness has taken over the young man, he is wandering the street, and his world turns from light to dark.

The Great Walk, From "It's Dark Here."

Again, an honor to share our music with this touching film.

Craig (and Eimear)

Quantum of Solace Video Game and Trailer

Back in 2008, my writing partner Simone and I created a special version of "The James Bond Theme" for the Quantum of Solace Video Game and Trailer.   Here's one of the many trailers they cut:

This piece was a blast to produce!  During the recording session we had a great brass section, the amazing Gregg Bissonette on drums, the intrepid John Rodd to record everything to ProTools, and then I took the tracks home to add my guitar and mix everything.

But there were too many tracks for my ProTools rig!  I had to composite everything, making certain compromises along the way.

Flash forward five years, and eight 3.4 Intel Processors later - Yesterday I decided to remix the cue to take advantage of my new production tools.  You can hear the result through the link below:

Let me know what you think!

CSG

Eímear Noone, Flying

Eímear Noone, "Flying"

This morning I just felt like sharing this beautiful composition by my wife Eímear Noone.  Currently, Eímear is touring the world conducting "The Zelda Symphony of the Goddess," featuring music from the game, but not so many know just how talented a composer Eímear is as well.

I invite you to listen.

Best,

Craig

Welcome to

Today I start my blog.  I am Craig Stuart Garfinkle, Composer, Producer, Director, Film Music Educator, and Surfer

What is it like to be a professional hyphenate? 

It makes for odd conversations:

“So tell me, what do you?" 

“That’s kind of difficult to say, really. What day are you asking about?” 


 “What do you mean, ‘what day.’ I just asked a simple question...”


 “I know it seems simple, but if I am really going to be honest in my answer, I have to consider the 
temporal nature of your...” 

“...the temporal nature? Listen, if we are going to fill out your unemployment form correctly, I just need to
 know, what was your last job description? It’s a simple question.” 

“One would think, wouldn’t they?"

I guess the best way to describe myself is with this video:  It's a song I wrote and produced entitled, "The Best Things in Life Set You Free."  It features my friend Eric Enzo on Lead vocal.  It features video I shot last summer with my Go Pro HD camera.

The hook to the song came to me while I was surfing in Malibu with my friends so it's only natural that I used my surfing video to illustrate the song.  I feel it sums up a great deal about who I am and what I want out of life.

Welcome to my blog - I hope to keep you entertained as I negotiate all my different creative endeavors, all of which will be shared here.   Welcome!

Sincerely,

Craig Stuart Garfinkle