Fearmonger

Written as a music jam villain leitmotif (https://itch.io/jam/villains-theme-music-jam for https://discord.gg/FADSj49eSB), Fearmonger is the villain that consumes you from within. It finds a small orifice and enters you like vapor or smoke, infiltrating your organs, where it feeds and grows. It consumes, finally exploding - larger than your life - and leaving you a mere trickle of yourself.

My favorite interval here is the half step or semi-tone. I use it in the flitting trills to imitate the fluttering of valves which can’t contain the raspy, desperate breathing. I use it in the downward-sliding chromatic melody to illustrate the villain slipping into the body, and I use it before the octave stretch to show the pain of unnatural extension when something foreign ruptures from within.