Heretic music
From DoomWiki.org
The Heretic soundtrack was created by Kevin Schilder of Raven Software. As should be expected from the fantasy setting of the game, in contrast to Doom's science fiction theme, the music is composed in a completely different style. Heretic's soundtrack is more ambient and has diverse instrumentation, with significant use of percussion, harps, and choral voices. Many tracks are highly rhythmic and evoke an exotic, fantasy action atmosphere similar to typical motion picture soundtracks in the same genre. The Heretic soundtrack was meant to sound "dark, angry, and dissonant", making use of the tritone, diminished chords, and whatever other musical methods "sounded right" to evoke this mood.
The tracks in Heretic are only labeled in the IWAD with the headers of the levels for which they were originally written. Track names, and a few comments, were provided by Schilder after being queried about it, the relevant documents are available here.
Track listing[edit]
| Track name | Levels | Lump | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark | E1M1, E3M1, E4M6 | MUS_E1M1 | 02:03 | A remixed version appears in Hexen II as CD track 6 / egyp1.mid. "Named for the overall tone. Dark and menacing. It’s in the low strings and timpani. This piece best summarizes the style and tone of all Heretic music and is probably my favorite." |
| Fred | E1M2, E3M6, E4M2 | MUS_E1M2 | 01:56 | |
| Ded | E1M3, E3M5, E4M3 | MUS_E1M3 | 01:32 | |
| Elf | E1M4, E2M5, E4M4, E5M5 | MUS_E1M4 | 01:58 | |
| Marek | E1M5, E3M7, E4M5 | MUS_E1M5 | 01:31 | "Marek (the Cleric) was a D&D character created by one of my friends. We always joked about the rhyme of the name. Has nothing to do with the song, but that’s just how I named things sometimes. Whatever popped into my head." |
| Mist | E1M6, E3M4, E4M1, E6M3 | MUS_E1M6 | 01:52 | A remixed version appears in Hexen II as CD track 16 / casb2.mid. |
| Mole | E1M7, E4M7 | MUS_E1M7 | 01:43 | |
| John | E1M8, E4M8 | MUS_E1M8 | 01:20 | |
| Atcoty | E1M9, E3M8, E4M9 | MUS_E1M9 | 01:12 | "This name is an acronym for the song “At The Closing Of The Year” from the movie “Toys”. I love the song, but I think it was the rhythm in the beginning that inspired the timpani in ATCOTY." |
| Acacia | E2M1, E5M1 | MUS_E2M1 | 01:43 | |
| Atlas | E2M2, E5M2 | MUS_E2M2 | 01:28 | |
| Bluroc | E2M3, E5M3 | MUS_E2M3 | 01:59 | "Named BLUROC because, to me, it had elements of blues and rock. The 12 bar blues pattern mixed with rock drumset." |
| Build | E2M4, E5M4 | MUS_E2M4 | 01:20 | "Named for the whole note line that builds or ascends in a scale." |
| Onyx | E2M6, E3M9, E5M6 | MUS_E2M6 | 01:36 | |
| Wait | E2M7, E5M7 | MUS_E2M7 | 01:48 | |
| Arpo | E2M8, E5M8 | MUS_E2M8 | 01:38 | "Named for the fast, repetitive arpeggio that is heard through most of the piece. I seem to recall doing a copy/paste of that simple triad and playing it back to see how it would sound. It turned into a rhythm that inspired the rest of the song." |
| Olkin | E2M9, E5M9 | MUS_E2M9 | 02:04 | "“Olkin”" was taken from an old Genesis song called “The Musical Box”. I have been a big fan of older Genesis for years. I was probably listening to the song and just took the lyric "Old King Cole" and shortened it to "olkin" when I was searching for a quick name. |
| Drive | E3M2, E6M1 | MUS_E3M2 | 01:06 | "Named for the relentless mallet part. It drives the pace of the piece and pushes it forward. If you had to actually play that part, it would take a lot of focus and energy to keep up the pace." |
| Watch | E3M3, E6M2 | MUS_E3M3 | 01:28 | "Inspired by the song “Watcher of the Skies” by Genesis. Always loved that song. You can’t miss the use of that mixed timing rhythm in the beginning." |
| Opening | MUS_TITL | 00:12 | "Simply named for the opening piece of the game." | |
| MUS_INTR | 00:59 | |||
| Demo | MUS_CPTD | 01:06 |
Original MIDI files[edit]
On July 25, 2023, user The Almighty Egg shared the original MIDI files provided to them by Kevin Schilder in a thread on Doomworld forums.[1] These files have their original timestamps. Some tracks have multiple versions showing their changes during the composing process. Some filenames have an "F" suffix to indicate that this is the final version that is used in the game.
| Track name | File name | Length | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acacia | ACACIAF.MID | 01:42 | 1994-10-27 | Final version |
| Acacia | ACACIAL.MID | - | 1994-07-28 | Abandoned draft[2] |
| Arpo | ARPOF.MID | 01:38 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Arpo | ARPPOF.MID | 01:38 | 1994-10-28 | Same as ARPOF.MID, maybe it is a duplicate by mistake |
| Atcoty | ATCOTYF.MID | 01:12 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Atlas | ATLASF.MID | 01:28 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Bluroc | BLUROC.MID | 02:13 | 1994-07-28 | Early version |
| Bluroc | BLUROCF.MID | 02:00 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Build | BUILDF.MID | 01:21 | 1994-10-18 | Final version |
| Build | BUILDING.MID | - | 1994-07-28 | Abandoned draft[3] |
| Dark | DARKF.MID | 02:04 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Ded | DEDF.MID | 01:32 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Demo | DEMO.MID | 00:33 | 1994-10-19 | Early version |
| Demo | DEMOF.MID | 01:06 | 1994-12-06 | Final version |
| Drive | DRIVEF.MID | 01:07 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Elf | ELF.MID | 01:58 | 1994-09-27 | Early version |
| Elf | ELFF.MID | 01:58 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Fred | FREDF.MID | 01:57 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Intermission | INTER.MID | 01:00 | 1994-12-14 | This track was included in Hexen folder for some reason |
| John | JOHNF.MID | 01:20 | 1994-12-14 | Final version |
| Marek | MAREKF.MID | 01:31 | 1996-05-30 | Final version, its date is probably a mistake because it is after the release of both Heretic and its expansion |
| Mist | MIST.MID | 01:53 | 1994-09-27 | Early version |
| Mist | MISTF.MID | 01:53 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Mole | MOLE.MID | 01:14 | 1994-07-21 | Early version |
| Mole | MOLEF.MID | 01:43 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Olkin | OLKINF.MID | 02:04 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
| Olkin | OLKONKOL.MID | 02:14 | 1994-07-28 | Early version |
| Onyx | ONYXF.MID | 01:37 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Opening | OPENFA.MID | 00:13 | 1994-12-14 | Final version |
| Opening | OPENING.MID | 00:13 | 1994-10-19 | Early version |
| Opening | OPENINGF.MID | 00:13 | 1994-12-02 | Close to final version |
| Wait | WAITF.MID | 01:49 | 1994-10-28 | Final version |
| Watch | WATCHF.MID | 01:28 | 1994-10-14 | Final version |
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ The Almighty Egg (25 July 2023). Doomworld forums thread. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ↑ kschilder (26 July 2023). Doomworld forums post. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ↑ kschilder (26 July 2023). Doomworld forums post. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
