Track Link
Halsey – Castle (The Huntsman: Winter’s War Version)
Track Analysis PDF
Track Analysis Image
Track Analysis Reflection
The song I’ve chosen is Castle by Halsey. It is one of the songs from The Huntsman: Winter’s War Soundtrack album. I’ve always liked the song, however when I first discovered this song, I found it in the Badlands album by Halsey, which has a duration of 4:37. Luckily, I was able to find this version, which is 2:58, compacted with all the elements from the full version which I found appealing to me.
My initial reaction to this experience is how closely similar this project is compared to a typical musical midi file. In my Music Production class in high school, we were introduced to the music making software Ableton Live, one I believe many producers use professionally to edit and compose tracks. In this software, musical instrument presets were available at the disposal of users to enter midi-notes. With the exception of audio samples, components ranging from piano to vocal to drumbeats are all essentially written in midi-notes connected to the desire sound presets. Therefore, having that prior expereience with midi-files really made this project much easiler for me.
In terms of composition, I find the incorporation of cello and violin to be perfect for the song as a featured soundtrack for this specific movie, considering nowadays rarely any popular songs would feature classical instruments. What I did not include in my Sonic Analysis is the panning of individual elements, which I find to be quite fascinating. While listening to the track with headphones on, I noticed that the violin is slightly panned to the left ear, while the cello is slightly panned to the right ear. This manipulation of panning really gave the track a sense of space and dimension in terms of the placement of these instruments. In additional to instrumental panning, the backup vocal is panned far away in front of the listener, which once again not only gives the listener a sense of dimension but also emphasizes the importance of the main vocalist.
In terms of the overall mood and sentiment of the track, I find the choice of this particular drum set and drum beat to be really successful. The kick of the drum only comes in when the 2nd half of the verses begin and ends during transitions, which is very powerful in terms of setting the rise and fall throughout the track. Additionally, instead of placing the kick at the start of each 4/4 beat, it is placed in a way similar to that of dubstep beats, which once again help elevated the strength of the chorus before vocal sets in. Lastly, while listening closely to this track, I realized that a number of tiny sound effects (clashing, bell, sword sounds) were featured in it. I find these elements to be very critical in the creation of that historic, ambitious, and dominating ambience of this sonic experience. Combining these new elements, which are similar to those commonly featured in electronic dance music, with the classical instruments, I feel like the song is not only a resemblance of the merging new and old worlds, but is also capable of having young listeners listen to them without being bored.