Here is a rather large sample of music I’ve written, arranged by year, from most recent to least. You can hear how both my technique and equipment have improved over the years!

2009

Called to Murder

A murder mystery by my sister Annelise Murphy, based on a ward activity.

• The Orem 5067th Ward – The main characters introduce themselves.
• Purchase These Products – Lyrics by Annelise Murphy. A parody of “Follow the Prophet” wherein a fireside speaker pushes her products.
• We Are the Women – Lyrics by Annelise Murphy. Two women sing of their power to control men behind the scenes.
• Choose the Right? – Lyrics by Annelise Murphy. A parody of “Choose the Right” wherein the ward members sing to the killer about how wrong the murder was. Remarkably similar to Charlotte Church’s “Dream a Dream,” although it was entirely coincidental, I swear! (Or at least the plagarism was subconscious.)

‘Til Death Do Us Part

Another murder mystery by Annelise, this one based on a wedding. I only wrote half the songs of this one; the other half are available on the Poison Ivy Mysteries website.

• Testin’ the Mic – The Australian wedding singer tests the mic, and things get a little out of control. Also available as an extended dance remix, with or without the words.
• Bon Appetit – Lyrics by Annelise Murphy. The cook rocks on about cooking.
• Waltz with a Wallaby – Lyrics by Johnathan Whiting and myself. The same Australian wedding singer sings an Aussie folk song.

Other

• Factor X – This is a temporary name, as well as a temporary version of the song, as I still want to add lyrics. I’m putting it up on this page, though, because it is my favorite piece I’ve written this year.
• Menace to Society (Running Outta Time) – Written for Music 386R. The lyrics were written at the beginning of a rocky relationship.
• Come On Back to Me – Also written for Music 386R. A love song written to a man from his computer.
• Miss Me – Also written for Music 386R, at the end of the forementioned rocky relationship.
• Distrito de Colombia – This was a video that my friends Johnathan and Randy made, and I scored it. The whole thing can be found on Youtube here. Also, Part 2: The Green Policeman.
• What? – A remix of an earlier song, written for SaXon Geat.

2008

Junior Recital

These are the songs written specifically for my junior recital. There were other songs I performed as well, but they were earlier and shall be listed under when they were written.

• Junior Recital – Two versions exist: one with vocals but without piano, and one without vocals but with piano. I’ll consolidate them eventually. Anyway, this is the song I specifically wrote to kick off my junior recital in April ‘08.
• Ave Maria, Rite of Spring, and Let It Be – Not actually written by me (they’re by Schubert, Stravinsky, and Paul McCartney respectively), but edited by me to demonstrate the definition of music: any collection of sounds to which a person can set the American folk tune “Turkey in the Straw.”
• Backseat Driver – The idea for this song came to me as my mother was in the passenger seat as I was driving one day. I used it to showcase the different layers of a typical song: percussion, bass, rhythm, pad, and melody.
• Ode to Spot – Lyrics by Brannon Braga. I took Data’s “Ode to Spot” from ST:TNG and set it to four-part harmony. Unfortunately, both Snidely Whiplash and the Phantom of the Maeser (both roles played by Casey Wayman) forced me to sing it faster, lest my mother get tied to the railroad tracks or smashed by a chandelier.
• Phrustration! – Actually written earlier, but remixed for the junior recital. It was written in the Phrygian mode, hence the “ph” in the name. This is the piece in which Casey smashed a glass frame into the desk, frightening everyone in attendance. This is currently my favorite piece I’ve written, replacing long-time title holder “Lightning.”
• Presidential Clown – Lyrics by Ben Parkes. This was an old SaXon Geat tune and in fact was the first rock song I ever wrote, back in 1996. I’m putting it here, though, because I updated the sound to fit with the rest of the recital.

Film scoring

I can’t really show the videos these go with, so use your imagination!

• Main, Action, Death – The object of these pieces was to write a main theme for a hypothetical movie, then use that theme to score an action sequence and either a love or a death scene.
• Ringtail – It was a short film about a guy whose chickens were…stolen? Man, was it ever bad. But I did a score for it. For the parts without dialogue imagine two guys with fake mustaches and a dog wandering aimlessly around some sort of ranch in Nevada and you’ll get the picture.
• Monterey Bay – Used to score an advertisement for the Monterey Bay Wildlife Preserve.
• House of Saints – Written to underscore the first few minutes of a documentary about the Salt Lake Tabernacle. This was actually recorded with live instruments in a session, and as such is one of the few on this list to not be synthesized.
• Reno Backstage Pass – A 30-second blip for a “Reno Backstage Pass!” Truthfully, I’m not sure what that is.

Other

• Creepy Waltz (just piano) – A creepy waltz. Technically this was also for a film scoring class, but it was never intended to actually be a film score. Just creepy.
• Absoludicrous Theme Song – The theme song for the improv troupe Absoludicrous, of which I am a part.
• FL Studio Test and Optimus Abuk – Two pieces I dashed off for fun testing out FL Studio. The second one utilizes a clip of Abuk from Betrayal at Krondor saying “I am Abuk, master of locks” and two phrases spoken by Josh Reese.
• The Escape – A piece from Travels, sans singing. I’m putting it up here instead of under the year 2000 because I redid it using BYU’s hardware and software in an attempt to make it not sound so MIDI.
• Percussion Project – A short little piece to show I knew how to use loops in Cakewalk SONAR.

2007

Music 389

The Projects for Media Music class. We had a piece due basically every other week or so for the semester.

• M1 Romantic Cue – Done to show we could follow a chord sheet. Most people made their romantic music all strings and piano, or a jazz trio. I tried to go the Barry White route. This is the only piece of these seven that was done at my house instead of the studio on campus, and sorry to say, it shows.
• Tetris Strings – A rendition of the Tetris theme that I actually wrote for a counterpoint assignment back when I was going to BYU-Idaho. For the glory of Mother Russia!
• Puppy Parade – This sprightly tune was written to showcase woodwinds and is entirely original, although the bassoon line starting it out starts out about a million other songs. Still, it’s a fun little ditty that may make you think of a puppy parade!
• Theme and Variations on Pitfall II – A (synth) brass quintet playing around with the main theme from the Atari classic Pitfall II. Quite majestic, if I do say so myself.
• How Great Thou Art – Our mid-term project was to take the hymn “How Great Thou Art” and add an orchestral swell in the middle of it. As that was the focus of the project, I didn’t do too much with the rest of the song, but it’s still an interesting arrangement.
• Never Had a Girl – This wasn’t just an emo song, it was also my “rhythm section” project. When I turned it in I showed a version that didn’t have lyrics, for obvious reasons. Fortunately, the sentiments presented in this song are no longer entirely accurate in my life.
• Can You Find It? – Our final project was to create a record clone; or in other words, to take an existing song by a brand-name artist and duplicate it as faithfully as we could. I picked the song “Can You Find It?” by They Might Be Giants. I obviously can’t post their original song here to compare, but a skippy version of it can be found on Youtube, along with the music video. If you really want an interesting experience, you can start the Youtube video, turn down the sound, and play my version along with the video. If you can start it right it’s perfectly synced (except for the mouths of D and W, but that’s OK).

Other

• Cavernous Triumph – A Metroid II remix. Meh. It was also submitted to OC Remix (hence the weird filename) but was also rejected.

2006

52 Weeks Project

This was intended to be a project wherein I wrote a song a week. It only lasted about four weeks, but I got some songs out of it.

• Week 1 – Doepfer Jam – Made using a Doepfer device and a Nord Lead keyboard for the upper part. I explain what a Doepfer device is in this blog post.
• Week 2 – Smooth ‘n Smarmy – Some jazz piece I wrote for Music 295.
• Week 3 – Pogoman remix – A remix of the old Atari 8-bit game Pogoman. It has a few issues, but I only had a week to work on it. Kind of soothing.
• Week 4 – Phrustration – The original version of this piece, recorded with a horrible mic in the lounge of my apartment complex. In 2008 I redid it, and it sounds much better.

Other

• Magic Trick for a Vase – A fun little project to see if I could sing a barbershop song with myself. The lyrics are from Microsoft’s 3D Movie Maker default sounds.

2005

• Comic Frenzy Fight Song – The melody came to J.D. Taylor in his sleep, and I added the band. The lyrics can be found on this Youtube video.
• Mr. Jones, Where Are You? – Based on a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Mr. Jones drives to work but ends up driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon. This was written for Music 186. There are several version of this song out there; this is the most recent (and has a few voice-correction issues that need fixing).
• Battle and Beach – Two pieces I wrote for a completely different Rescue Rangers game than the one for which I wrote music in 2001, made by a completely different guy on the Internet. Sadly, this game never got finished either.

2004

Pimp Lando 7

Otherwise known as “Pimp Lando: The Musical” or “Love Changes Every Pimp,” this was an episode of the Pimp Lando series with a lot of Broadway song parodies. We just found the MIDI files online and added lyrics to them, so they’re not the highest quality, but whatever; they’re still fun. I’m only posting the ones I helped write, so the eponymous “Love Changes Every Pimp” song isn’t here.

• Cars – Bruce the Thumper laments about his inability to capture Lando.
• Pianist on the Roof – Sounds crazy, no?
• High, Flying, A Door – Random Comment Guy sings about a flying door.
• Ya Got Trouble – The Evil Guitarist warns people about the danger of pimps.
• Angel of Chowder – Pimp Lando’s date Kristine Kastlewood gets kidnapped by the Spectre of the Musical Exhibition.
• The Chowder of the Night – The Spectre details his chowder recipe.
• Mr. Ticked Off At Me – A short song about the original cantankerous rat.
• Don’t Cry For Me, Pennsylvania – A vampire sings about the only things he knows about Pennsylvania.
• I’ve Got Rhythm – The big number at the end, where everyone wraps up the storyline.

Other

• Necromantic – A remix of the main title from the Atari 8-bit game Necromancer. It’s got OC Remix tags because I submitted it to OC Remix, but it got rejected, sadly.
• Cliches – Just me fooling around on the piano one day. I’ve actually made a few of these when I was bored/needed an emotional release, but this is the one you’re getting.

2002-2003

Sorry, I was on a mission to Spain and didn’t write any music.

2001

Mixed Quintet? You Bet!

Despite the dumb title, this was a semi-serious series of pieces for my Music 288 class.

• I – Decision -I don’t remember the exact assignment for this piece, so it stands on its own.
• II – Endurance – A dumb little poem about a guy who could play the baritone without breathing and his jealous brother.
• III – Lament – The assignment was to write something song-like. Most people wrote something happy. I didn’t.
• IV – The Amazing Rondo! – It’s a rondo. And it’s amazing.
• V – Conflict, or The Other Side of the Fence – This was the point in the semester when I gave up on the music composition program as not being what I wanted to pursue, due to the extreme avant-garde nature of everything we had to write and were forced to listen to. Consequently, this was my retaliation: a straightforward, melodious French Horn concerto (performed by Dan Omer) that gets repeatedly interrupted by random notes from the previous sections of the quintet until it dissolves completely.

Other

• RRHQ and Victory Theme – Two pieces I wrote for an RPG based on Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers that a guy on the Internet was making. Sadly, the game never got finished.

2000

Travels

A musical about Marco Polo written by Nate Winder, although I orchestrated it. It has over 40 songs, and I’m not going to post them all here, so I’ll just do one (although another one can be found under the listing for the year 2008).

• A Dangerous Sign – Evil astrologers plot the doom of Marco Polo. This is the MIDI version, and it’s-a rockin’.

Other

• Flute – Don’t know what this was originally called, but it’s a flute playing something jaunty and Lydian (mixed with Mixolydian, ironically). Written for Music 188.
• Flute and Violin and Their Octatonic Adventure – I wish I had the live recording of this, ’cause it sounds pretty cool played by real instruments. Oh, well. Written for Music 188, illustrating counterpoint and also the octatonic scale.
• Lightning – For a long time, this was my opus magnum and my watermark for pieces I’d written that accomplished what I wanted them to. This is the orchestrated version of the original SaXon Geat song, found below. It was performed by the Hunter High School orchestra during my graduation ceremony in June of 2000, but unfortunately the only live recorded copy we got of it was from my mother’s camcorder, which was about 50-60 yards away in what normally is a hockey rink. Hence, I uploaded the MIDI version for y’all.

1998-1999

SaXon Geat

SaXon Geat was a band started by my brother Ben in high school. It was originally going to be a ska band, but despite having an entire brass section we never got a good guitar player so it ended up being semi-ska, with a keyboard instead of guitar. Sadly, we only have one recording of one song we ever did (The Pez Anthem, written by Ben), so all we have of the other songs are MIDI versions. Between Ben, Dave Omer, and I, we wrote literally dozens of songs in varying stages of completion for this band. I’m not going to post all of the ones I did, just a nice sampler. (Note: the choir “aah” sound in some of these songs are placeholders for where the lyrics go.)

• Lightning – This was my favorite song for a very long time. It was written during a lightning storm, and the bass line was inspired by “Our House.”
• Forgotten Notions – The name of this song is sung with the first few piano chords. Then it goes crazy! Unfinished.
• The Infamous Darwin Bradfield – This song came about during a church meeting. Somebody had left behind a program for the other ward that met in our building, and on the back it had a notice about the upcoming activity for the week, which featured, among other things, a class on emergency preparedness taught by “The Infamous Darwin Bradfield!”
• Nye Live! – A tribute to Bill Nye.
• Super Mario Bros. – A version of the Super Mario Bros. theme. I actually have a live recording of this on a tape somewhere, but it wasn’t SaXon Geat; rather, it was an impromptu band organized by Austin Jensen for our high school music theory class.

Other

• Jack Knife’s Theme Song – My brother Ben, and his friends Brent Lingwall and Casey Wayman, were planning on making a movie called Lyle in high school. The movie itself never got past the planning stages, and all that remain to testify of its existence are a few shirts that Casey made and this song, which was the theme song for Lyle’s friend Jack Knife.
• The Adventures of Gadget Hackwrench – In 1999 I first posted on The Acorn Cafe, the online meeting place for Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Ranger fans. I mentioned that I wrote music, and so was commissioned to write a theme song for an online continuation of the show via fan-written scripts. Sadly, the site’s down now.
• Koopa – I found a short MIDI file of the World 8 theme from Super Mario Bros. 3 and felt inspired to add to it.

1995

• A Minor Groove – This was the first piece I ever wrote using a sequencing program (Cakewalk 2.x). It’s kind of random and cribs a theme from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (the game, not the TV show), but for a 12-year-old it’s respectable.