An Ember In The Ashes (Composery geek-out)
I’ve wanted to do something with Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember In The Ashes series ever since I read the first book (and quickly got hooked and worked through the next two). As soon as the Martial drum signals were described, my brain’s logistics department began whirring as it tried to piece together what my imagination was hearing. I also loved how closely singing is tied to the magic used in the world. There was more composery-brain-whirring for that.
Drum signals
(Warning: this explanation gets incredibly nerdy. No spoilers though.)
In the books, the drums used for transmitting messages are described as being absolutely huge, and there’s usually one drum per drummer. The closest thing I have in my mind for that is the taiko drum, native to Japan. It’s punchy enough to be distinct over long distances (unlike a timpani which has a more resonant tone), but massive enough to give the tone described. (Bonus thought: if you built the drum into the tower, the tower itself could act as a massive resonator/amplifier for the drum, allowing it to project even further, or in a specific direction. Anyway, back to the music.)
Now, to transfer a coded message you need a cipher. I was originally thinking of something like morse code with the dots as single drum hits and the dashes as rolls, but I figured that the difference between the two would be difficult to decipher over long distances. The same problem would occur with different pitched drums if you had high for dots and low for dashes.
Another problem would be figuring out where each letter started and ended in the stream of information. I figured setting each word in a bracket would make it easier to pick up the code; something like this, ao the last note always gives a break before the next letter.
• · · · · · • ·
(bullet points are notes, little dots are rests)
This way you can have one drum playing the bracket and another filling in the rest of the code, making picking up messages on the fly a lot easier to decipher without pen and paper.
So to work around this bracket, I needed a five-bit code to create an alphabet with.
Turns out Francis Bacon made one in 1605 that works pretty well.
I did worry about including numbers in the cipher, but considering the Roman elements of the book’s setting, using alphabetical characters for numbers works great.
So adding the Bacon cipher into the brackets, here’s the full drum code:
A • · · · · · • ·
B • · · · · • • ·
C • · · · • · • ·
D • · · · • • • ·
E • · · • · · • ·
F • · · • · • • ·
G • · · • • · • ·
H • · · • • • • ·
I • · • · · · • ·
J • · • · · • • ·
K • · • · • · • ·
L • · • · • • • ·
M • · • • · · • ·
N • · • • · • • ·
O • · • • • · • ·
P • · • • • • • ·
Q • • · · · · • ·
R • • · · · • • ·
S • • · · • · • ·
T • • · · • • • ·
U • • · • · · • ·
V • • · • · • • ·
W • • · • • · • ·
X • • · • • • • ·
Y • • • · · · • ·
Z • • • · · • • ·
& • · · · • · · ·
_ • · · · · · · ·
And for numbers, follow Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV etc)
Here’s what it would sound like in context - in the message “Prisoners 5 and 50 have escaped. Last seen in tunnels South of Blackcliff.”
Commonly messages would use abbreviations so they could be transmitted faster, so this rhythm reads as “PRSNRS_V&L_ESC_LS_TUNNELS_S_OF_BC”
Anyone who’s read the first book might see what I’ve done with the numerals there. ;)
Blackcliff
The main thematic sound I had in my head was introducing Blackcliff, with all of its activity and tensions and action. So I took three phrases - VETURIUS, AQUILLA and FARRAR - put them through the drum code and layered them using different timbres: tribal-like drums for Veturius, orchestral temple blocks and bass drums for Aquilla, and trashy, grating cymbals for Farrar. I wanted the themes to interplay to mirror the tensions between the three houses in the story, and to suit the military setting of the training fields and barracks. So with a bit of building things around that, here’s Blackcliff:
Hope is stronger than fear
Without giving away any spoilers, the moment of the series so far that I most wanted to try scoring something out to was the scene where Helene is singing through the medical wing, just before an ambush from Keris’ forces. I was trying to catch the emotion of the scene and the way that the song influences the scene, as well as the exhaustion and the transition to danger.
Finally as a bonus, the thing I love about the drum cipher is that the letter K is a nice and ominous • · • · • · • · which I’ve used as a building theme here.
That’s all for now! Looking forward to book four and I may create another track once it’s here...