Called Home: A Selkie Story

“Called Home” is an original soundtrack for an imaginary game about a selkie who spends one summer evening ashore on an isle off the Northern shore of Ireland. According to legend, selkies are shape-shifters who bear the resemblance of a seal in the ocean, but can shed their seal coat to appear human on land. If a selkie is born to a selkie mother and human father, eventually, the selkie child will be called to the sea to realize her true form. This story accompanies the young selkie as she explores the land on this summer evening searching for something she once knew, all while constantly being drawn from a strong inner desire back to the ocean. In line with the selkie legend, selkies will often go to land in the summer and will go to sea in the winter as a metaphor for changes in life. I was inspired by the image of a girl staring longingly at the water wearing a coat which I imagine to be her selkie coat. The entire story takes place one summer night on the anniversary of a long-passed event.

I used this as an opportunity to learn about and explore new styles of music, including traditional Irish music, traditional Scottish music, and marching percussion. I used traditional instruments from Ireland and Scotland such as the Celtic tin whistle, Irish whistle, Uilleann pipes, fiddle, Celtic harp, Irish bouzouki, and the bodhran. Based on feedback from the last jam, I challenged myself to compose songs with a true beginning and end without any copy and paste to really use the soundtrack to tell a complete story. I used rich and memorable melodies that interweave with each other, representing all of the emotions that the main character is feeling throughout the story. I used Logic Pro as my DAW. For instruments, I used a mixture of Logic stock instruments, Spitfire Labs instruments, Kontact 8 instruments, and Musio instrument collections.

*My OST accompanies a very story-rich game idea, which will be detailed below. Please note, for the purposes of rating, I am including this description for context and to enhance the listening - without any intention aimed at rating categories. My hope is that my music speaks for itself and immerses you in the story-telling either way.

Track Descriptions:

1. The Selkie Surfaces:
   1. Story and Gameplay: The game opens on a scene of a calm ocean off the coast of a small island off the Northern coast of Ireland. The sun is setting on the solstice and the calmness has a sense of magic and wonder to it. Ripples begin to form in the water and soon up slips the head of a white seal with deep royal purple eyes. As the main theme starts to play, you gain control of the seal and are able to swim on the surface and jump from the water toward the shore. This is the opening sequence and also serves to teach the player basic controls. The song ends just as you make it to the shore where you jump out of the water onto a pier lined with lanterns. While in the air, in a flurry of wispy light, the seal transforms into a young girl holding a white coat. This is the introduction of the main character who is a selkie. At this point you are unsure of what exactly it is that you are doing on land on this one summer evening, but you know that something important happened on this day a year ago and you have to search the area for more information.
   2. Composition: The soundtrack begins with gentle swelling of the strings meant to represent the calm ocean on a warm summer evening. The main theme was written to accompany a mystical and elusive, yet beautiful creature as she moves gracefully, almost dancelike, through the water. The Celtic tin whistle and fiddle take over the melody to help set the location as I introduced Irish inflections and ornamentations. This track also features the bodhran, a traditional Irish drum, which I watched several videos to try and learn authentic technique for how to play it. The energetic middle bridge section is meant to evoke imagery of the selkie jumping out of the water similar to a playful dolphin, then the main melody returns in the Uilleann pipes with full energy showing the full majesty of the selkie.
2. Something New:
   1. Story and Gameplay: Now on land, you find yourself on a peaceful beach with no one else around. You start to explore and realize that the beach isn’t completely uninhabited. There are several small glowing creatures scurrying about that represent spirits that hold clues as to where you need to go. This part of the game is meant for exploration and following the spirit creatures and searching for hidden items. An important game mechanic is introduced in this area which is your motivation meter. Since the main character is a selkie, she has a powerful innate drive to be in the ocean. To be on land takes a lot of motivation and willpower. Following the creatures and finding items increases this motivation, but over time this gauge will slowly fall which represents the increasing urge to turn around and return to the ocean. This track fades in the same way it would in game as you engage in fun and goal-oriented tasks or find items. The fun theme indicates that your motivation is high or increasing and tells you that you can keep going. On the beach, one of the spirit creatures leads you to an old home. Once inside, you remember that this was once your house. But no one is home? Other creatures lead you to locations that play cutscenes of memories of a younger version of yourself with your mother and father. The final destination is still a mystery at this point.
   2. Composition: This upbeat song was inspired by Irish reels and features a small ensemble of instruments to accompany the player as they explore the area. The fiddles, mandolin, Celtic tin whistle, acoustic guitar, and bodhran play together in a similar way to Irish traditional songs which helps further the game’s setting. The lively and fun melody is meant to show the sense of curiosity and youthful exploration that the player is experiencing as she is searching the calm beach area in the evening. This track fades in when the player is following something or is close to an item to indicate that the player is able to keep moving inland and is not being held back by the ocean. It fades out to ocean ambience if you remain idle, are going the wrong way, or are not actively doing something to hold your attention to represent the inner conflict of the main character who is constantly being drawn to the ocean.
3. My Seal Coat:
   1. Story and Gameplay: This song plays in critical story moments in the game when you have to make a decision that might be in conflict with your inner drive to return to the water. This piece represents the coat that is part of the selkie’s identity and allows her to turn into a seal. In these moments in the game when decisions need to be made critical memories are uncovered, this piece introduces the tension of conflicting emotions deep within the main character. One critical piece of information uncovered was what happened to your parents. What you remember was that it was exactly one year ago when you left land for the ocean to follow your mother who had left days prior. Your father was left all alone and you left without saying goodbye because you were young and were scared about losing your mother, all while experiencing the first urges to go to the ocean as a selkie coming of age. The game story then orients to searching for what happened to your father.
   2. Composition: The intent for this piece was to create a sound that felt somewhat comforting, but also introduces a significant amount of dissonance and tensions to represent the item that defines the main character’s identity, but carries with it a lot of challenging emotions. I introduce the tension in several ways, including harmony that includes chords with a lot of color to them and some clusters that may only sound like chords in the context of the melody, rhythm using a compound 3 over 2 in the piano throughout the entire piece, and from a big picture standpoint I use a couple related by separate themes to show different angles of the same idea. This piece features the Irish bouzouki, as well as the bodhran and Uilleann pipes in the first half before the fiddle melody takes over soaring over the choir.
4. Ascending Starlight Bluff:
   1. Story and Gameplay: Eventually you are led to a pathway that curves up around the beach and onto the overlooking cliff, called Starlight Bluff. You are well into the game at this point and have uncovered many clues. You know that the answer to what you are searching for is at the end of this path. To take this path and be so far from the ocean takes every bit of motivation you have to continue pressing forward. The theme grows as you ascend the path. Also as you ascend, the warm night grows darker and your path becomes lit by the glow of the stars.
   2. Composition: My intent for this track was to be a high energy song that pulls influences from Irish and Scottish tradition. I spent a good amount of time researching this type of music which ended up resulting in this track which is technically a jig (a dance rhythm in 6/8 with two beats of emphasis divided into 2 groups of 3. The Irish whistle, Uilleann pipes, mandolin, and fiddle are featured in this song. Notably, I also featured the Scottish marching snare and even included a snare solo that I wrote after studying drum line DCI videos. The energy builds throughout the song to represent both the physical ascent in the game, but also the growing inner turmoil as the main character is proceeding in a direction that directly opposes her inner drive.
5. The Origin Pool:
   1. Story and Gameplay: When you reach the top of the bluff, there is a small cluster of trees and the spirit creatures are all indicating that that is where you must go. You slowly make your way through the thick foliage, and as you move forward, a cerulean glow starts to emerge in front of you. Finally, with motivation dwindling, you make it to the epicenter where you find a glowing pool of water. Everything feels so still as if frozen in time. The final spirit creature leads you to the far side of the water to a large tree with glowing golden leaves. At the foot of the glowing tree, you find a stone with an engraving, with a note next to it. The engraving shows your father’s name, and you realize this is a headstone. You now know the truth that you will not be able to find your father. But there is some parchment next to the stone, and when you open it, the spirit creatures start to race at high speeds faster and faster until they are swirling in a light vortex. The vortex then starts to take a new form, and slowly the light transforms into a being that you recognize looks just like your father. When the vortex settles, you are left standing next to your father who is smiling a gentle smile. You rush to hug him. He shares with you that he could not handle having both you and your mother gone, so he ventured out to sea to try to find you. A year ago on the day that you left, a large storm came and caught your father in the open ocean and he was unable to return to shore. His distraught look then turns into a gentle smile as he looks at you and says “I knew that day would come, and while I dreaded it, I knew that we all needed to be at sea together.” He then shows you a very special memory that this was the location where you were first given your coat by both your mother and father. He then thanks you for returning and shares that while he can now finally be at peace, he hopes that you too can also be at peace knowing that any feelings of guilt that you had along the way can be forgotten and it is time to live your life the way you want without anything holding you back.
   2. Composition: This piece was intended to be a more ambient piece to accompany stillness rather than motion. The game location is a place that seems to be frozen in time and is full of wonder and mysticality, which I tried to represent in the music with twinkling random piano notes, a tremolo mandolin and violin, and very vibrant and rich pads. The choir voices also help describe the ancient ruinous vibe of the location I had in mind. While the melody is influenced by Irish traditional tunes and has elements that link it to other songs in the soundtrack, it was intended to not take up the foreground too much and to not be as memorable, keeping with the “in the moment” type of feel that this track is trying to convey.
6. Called Home:
   1. Story and Gameplay: Now with a new sense of freedom, your motivation meter disappears and you are able to go where you want without constant inner turmoil. This song takes place in the final part of the game as you race down the bluff under the starlight with your coat held closely. In the final scene, you see the selkie running along the beach toward the far end with the pier that she originally emerged from to one side and her childhood home on the other. You see her jump up with a smile on her face and the game fades to black with the player left to interpret which home she returned to. The music continues to play as the credits roll.
   2. Composition: I had the grandest vision for this track when I started writing it. This is one of the most ambitious compositions I’ve made in such a short amount of time. (For Nick Schuitemaker when you read this - I was determined to step out of my comfort zone and write an ending that was more than a piano ballad. Mission accomplished!) The idea was to capture all of the other themes into one epic track and show the journey that the main character has been through as a truly conclusive piece. I used all of the instruments from each of the other tracks with the addition of some others to make it the largest track of the soundtrack. It starts flowing from the Origin Pool theme and quickly picking up momentum going into the My Seal Coat theme after the energetic intro to ground the piece in the theme that represents the core of the main character’s identity. I then introduce the new theme with gentle instrumentation - a theme that represents the freedom to listen to her inner voice calling her home. The Ascending Starlight Bluff theme then emerges representing the struggle that she has been through to get to this point followed by the Something New theme and then a more resolute Called Home theme. The Selkie Surfaces theme then enters with a more determined force behind it while maintaining the original beauty which accompanies the selkie as her majesty is now accompanied by a confidence that will carry forward. The Called Home theme returns in its full form as a climax to the track and to the soundtrack as a whole as the selkie runs toward home. The outro then ends with the push and pull of the waves as the selkie is finally able to return home in peace.