Camelot has fallen, and King Arthur's knights of the Round Table scattered to the winds. Guinever has retreated to a nunnery. Pendragon, Inkle Studio's retelling of the legend of King Arthur, lets players choose to be Sir Lancelot or Guinevere on a quest to return to help Arthur defeat his mortal enemy, Mordred. Laurence Chapman provides a soundtrack that keeps the player company on their journey, as a band of troubadours might have done.
Laurence says the overarching sound he wanted for his music was the noble horn and a small string ensemble. He worked with the Leos Strings and some extraordinary soloists including Jack Pilcher-May, horn and Olvia Jaguers, harp. The instrumentation was tricky to work with, and Laurence looked to the music of Benjamin Britten to problem-solve. He said he especially admires the way Britten writes for horn, as well as making a small ensemble sound larger.
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Following the success of making the sheet music for Heaven's Vault available, Laurence plans to release the sheet music for Pendragon as well. He's also considering posting all the sketches for some of the tracks so people can appreciate how many versions there were of the Camlan Passaglia before he and the developers were happy!
The Pendragon soundtrack is available on Bandcamp.
Episode tracklist:
All tracks by Laurence Chapman; performers include the Leos Strings, Jack Pilcher-May, horn, Olvia Jaguers, harp and Laurence Chapman, piano, Tom Evans, clarinet, Helen Wilson, flute, Rachel Shakespeare, cello
Pendragon: Memory of Honor; Arthur's Call, Pendragon, Dream of Camelot, Lady in the Lake; Camlan Passacaglia; Pendragon Fantasia
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Thanks to Dick Roberts for production assistence and Emily Morganti, PR consultant for Inkle Studios