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Adventure

Musical

Example

Adventure

Secret

Score

Adventure

Animated

Score

Rhythmic Vamp

The individual notes of a melody can provide only so much energy. That is why rhythmic vamps are so important in adventure music. They add elements of excitement and forward momentum that the melody alone cannot provide. We introduce our rhythmic vamp in bar 2:

Strong accents on the off-beats characterize this repeated one-bar vamp. This syncopation provides forward momentum to the music. With the exception of bars 20 through 27, this rhythmic pattern and its instrumentation of the basses, the tuba, the bass trombone, the timpani and snare drum remain constant throughout the piece. All these instruments (except of course the snare drum) play the note D the root note of our key. Starting on bar 3, the 1st and 2nd trombones reinforce the off-beat accents every 2 bars:

They play the root note and the perfect fifth (the A). When we modulate to the new key of B in bar 28, all our root note instruments (not counting the 1st and 2nd trombones) play the root. Note that bars 20 through 27 comprise a section of music with a lot of moving counter lines. These lines are played at a softer volume than our opening theme. So as not to distract from these counter lines, we have substituted our original vamp, which is very bass heavy, with a light cello pizzicato bass line.

Although our opening vamp provides much excitement, we can still bring the energy up one more level. In bar 2, the violins play a staccato pattern on beats 1 through 3. On beat 4, they play a fast ascending run that includes our raised 4th note the G#. The flute and piccolo reinforce this run:

The flute sounds in the same octave as the violins, while the piccolo sounds an octave higher. This adds a nice, pointed brightness to the line. In bar 3, the violins continue their staccato eighth note pattern. When the violins double the French horn melody in bars 4 through 11, the flute and piccolo perform the fast ascending runs by themselves.