#indirect credit to yt channel Sideways for fucking up my brain so that i perceive scores this way

[killldeer]

I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the score behind the scene where Mat summons the Heroes of the Horn, because after rewatching it literally four times I finally realized why it hit me so hard – it’s scored like a modern movie or show of the genre usually would be.

This is the part where I admit that it took me most of the first season to warm up to Lorne Balfe’s compositions for Wheel of Time; I am an ardent enjoyer of the more classical, leitmotif-laden scores for things like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and for a while I felt a twinge of disappointment that WoT wouldn’t be getting the same treatment. But! I eventually came to my senses and realized that Balfe’s compositions perfectly suit Wheel of Time’s setting. WoT’s world is post-apocalyptic, risen from the ashes of an unimaginably technologically advanced society to form its own unique landscape – that’s wild!! It’s different!! And Lorne Balfe recognized that it warranted a different musical style to match. He relies on compositions that lean into synthesized, eerie reverbs, and substitutes the classic leitmotifs seen elsewhere for rhythmic choral chanting in the Old Tongue to explain characters and their motivations – if you have the ear to understand it, of course. ;)

This brings me back around to our good friend Matrim. As he summons the Heroes, something happens to the score. The choral element is still present, but the slow music beneath it is… a regular orchestra. Slow, soaring strings, the kind of sound western audiences typically associate with decades of moments of glory and victory on screen – the music we typically hear for our heroes. As Mat calls these warriors from past Ages, and as he says “I… I remember”, the music steps back with him, connecting Mat to them all. This is a moment that straight up would not have worked if Wheel of Time was scored like the Lord of the Ringses or Game of Throneses it’s so often compared to – there wouldn’t have been any contrast between this section of the score and all the others. But because the score is usually on a completely different plane, doing weird, unique, “out-of-genre” stuff, it clicks PERFECTLY. Even if you don’t consciously register it, the music has momentarily stepped into a style that’s completely different – but completely familiar.