Urgent Errands
From Chance Thomas,
"I am a Rider of Rohan.
What I do matters -- to my kinsmen, to my king and to my country. I go with purpose. I go with swiftness. I go with my steed and with my steel. My errand is always, always urgent.
That's the mindset I imagined in composing music for mounted questing. I would continually ask myself, "How would I feel - task in hand, mounted and riding under the banner of Rohan?
That feeling of urgency and importance informed every compositional decision -- from the steady rhythm, to the crack of the whip, to the harmonic cadences framing the piece. All dressed up in the orchestral colors of Rohan proper --solo fiddle, broad brass support, leather skin drums and teethy low strings. With lots of extra rosin!"