“Soldier, Poet, King” by The Oh Hellos

[*] While in a fallen world, this song celebrates the hope of the coming person who will destroy the tyrants.

C G/E Amsus2 C/E Revised: Em Em C C Am Em Am C who will slay the dragon, and crush its head? who, with rhymes of reason, will break these iron chains?^[truth] who will lead our flock? ooo-who will be that man? who was promised us…

G C G G G G Am Am C G Am C C G Am Em C Em Am C

(percussion) there will come a soldier who carries a mighty sword he will tear your city down O lei, O lai, O lord O lei, O lai, O lord he will tear your city down O lei, O lai, O lord

(woodwind) there will come a poet ehose weapon is his word he will slay you with his tongue O lei, O lai, O lord O lei, O lai, O lord he will slay you with his tongue O lei, O lai, O lord

Em C / Am B-Em / C Em / Am offspring of the dragon, better watch out for your heads! yes! you! uprising treason, you are bound for iron chains! the Lion, and the Rock, crushes kingdoms as he comes to keep his promises, he was promised us

(brass) There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David’s boy O lei, O lai, O lord C Em he will tear your city down…. C Em he will slay you with his tongue…. C G Am C (single-strum) the king is coming for his crown O lei, O lai, O lord C G Am… C the king is coming for his crown O lei, O lai…

There will come a soldier There will come a poet There will come the promise There will come the king

Implementation

Dividing the story into instrument groups

I knew I wanted the tone to be epic. This would be my second time composing with a full orchestra, and I started not really knowing where to start. But I recently learned some advice about breaking down any orchestration into the four instrument groups.

There are four instrument groups, and I’ve used each group to represent each archetype.

Instrument Group	Archetype	Bridge line & Chorus #
🥁 Percussion	🪖 Soldier	1st
🪈 Woodwinds	🪶 Poet	2nd
🎺 Brass	👑 King	3rd
🎻 Strings	(more on this later)

There are three choruses, and each correspond to each of the three archetypes, and are led by the corresponding Instrument group.

Similarly, each line in the Bridge(?) (occurring once in the intro, and once between the 2nd and 3rd choruses) correspond to each archetype/instrument group.

This way, there’s a very distinct tone and feel for each archetype’s ideas and values, implicit to the shape and nature of each instrument groups. Percussion is staccato and orderly, especially on straight beats. Woodwinds are airy and flowy with their runs and trills. Brass has that power and attention, fit for the grand reception of the king.

🥁 Percussion

Percussion represents the 🪖 Soldier. The Percussion sections lead with the Snare rolls and Stomps, which points towards military marching.

It was tricky for the first chorus to start with Percussion. Percussion is the backbone of rhythm and energy, and you usually want to gradually scale up the energy dial. I learnt how to implement early Percussion while maintaining the energy development, by dialling back the Percussion rhythmic complexity, and also learn how to use the other instrument groups to provide rhythmic excitement without Percussion.

Percussion sections are the second lines of the bridges, and the first chorus, which represents the Soldier.

who will slay the dragon, and crush its head? … offspring of the dragon, better watch out for your heads!

🪈 Woodwinds

Woodwinds represents the 🪶 Poet. Woodwinds by nature are fluid and expressive. It’s the most graceful and gentle of all the instrument groups. Which matches the distinct philosophy of the stereotypical Poet archetype. Anatomically speaking, woodwinds are the closest instrument group to our own voice boxes.

Again, took advantage of trills and runs to evoke the sense of movement and whispering whistles. The Poet motif has the highest individual note density compared to the other motifs. Apparently I used a lot of triplets too…

People say woodwinds are the hardest to write. The second chorus certainly took me the longest, writing a whole section focusing on just woodwinds, because usually they support texture, rather than carry the main backbone (so I’m told).

who, with rhymes of reason, will break these iron chains? … yes! you! uprising treason, you are bound for iron chains!

🎺 Brass

Brass represents the 👑 King/Ruler. Historically, brass fanfare would announce and herald the arrival of an important monarch.

Musically, fanfares also often use the major triad; the King motif also uses the “heroic dotted rhythms”¹. I also tried to write melodies and arrange harmonies with perfect fifth intervals.

who will lead our flock? ooo-who will be that Man? … the Lion, and the Rock, crushes kingdoms as he comes…

🎻 Strings

Strings is the core foundation instrument group that ties the every section together. So you’ll hear it in every section.

Especially providing the pitch during the Percussion section, which uses unpitched percussions — which was a concession I was willing to make. Though there’s a little bit of Strings sprinkled throughout every section.

The Harp, particularly, is the lead String instrument. It’s the instrument of choice of David, who is referenced in the original song lyrics. It’s present in every instrumental interlude, and it’s what you hear in transitions between section (except for the final bridge. forgot to add there, should be there).

The Strings represent 💍 Promise. It’s not really used in the last line of the Bridge. Maybe it should’ve been. Hmm. Anyways, it’s the fourth instrument group and thematically covers the fourth and final theme of the Bridge—that this special person is simultaneously the promised one, and the promise-maker… and the promise-keeper.

…that Man, who was promised us? … …he comes to keep his promises… he was promised us…

And the theme of “💍 Promise” was really what drove the idea for the entire bridge.

To turn the fun song into a musical-esque narrative song, I inserted an intro and established a Problem, and hook the audience with a Question.

Who will defeat the tyrant? → The Soldier.
Who will break (metaphorical) chains with beautiful words of truth? → The Poet.
Who will figurehead and gather and lead our lost flock? → The King.

The chorus repeats, “There will come a soldier/poet/king”, in response to match each one of these pleas for help. And there’s this delirious hope in these wild promises.

And throughout the song, it’s clear that promise hadn’t been fulfilled yet. They’re still looking towards the future for that promise, “there will (future tense) come a ruler…”

But I wanted to capture the feeling of being one of those enslaved people: hearing the words of the promise-maker, and echoing it to each other in encouragement and rowdy glee… and then in the final bridge, the captive sing towards the “offspring of the dragon” tyrants in defiance and almost child-like mockery, because of the absurdity of trying to stand against such a terrifying lion and immovable rock. We don’t wage war against flesh and blood, but against the powers, and allat.

Yeah. These are the emotional qualities of what a “💍 Promise” means, that I kept in mind throughout. A desperate wailing of hopelessness for the very real troubles of today, in the waiting of the promise to come. But then, also child-like joy, a whole community dancing in a public square, because the hope is powerful, and beautiful, and interpersonal, and most of all — this hope is sure.

I want to capture and express that (1) feeling of despair, and (2) the feeling of hopefulness — both, in tension. That’s what a Promise must handle.

There will come a soldier There will come a poet There will come the promise There will come the king

Repeated motifs

Really are just variations of existing melodies. Maybe wait till I get an abc-music parser.

But basically, the motifs are mostly variants on the “O lei, o lai, o Lord” motif. Either that, or were developed with that as the starting point.

Plosives

I added two stanzas of my own lyrics, in the Bridges. I knew I wanted a rough-sounding chorus of an oppressed people. Think No One Mourns the Wicked and Colder by the Minute.

I must’ve seen some commentary, that they said how they used plosive-consonants to accentuate the fierceness and sharpness. I made sure to use plosives as much as possible, while keeping in the rhyme/cadence scheme.

…roCK, Crushes Kingdoms as he Comes To Keep…

Instruments used

Garageband default instrument library Spitfire Audio Library (free collection)

🥁 Percussion
- Stomp
- Floor Toms
- High Toms
- Snare
- Tambourine
- Cymbals
🎻 Strings
- Celli (2)
- Viola
- Harp
- Acoustic Guitar (3)
  - two tracks are instrument patches
    - one for doubling some Harp parts
    - one for simple bass notes earlier on
  - another track is a live acoustic, for chords
🪈 Woodwinds
- Piccolo
- Flute
- Oboe
- Clarinet
- Basoon
🎺 Brass
- French Horn (2)
- Trumpet (2)
- Tenor Trombone (2)
- Bass Trombone
- Tuba

Unused lyrics

Pay your heed, Lai , for the

Em C

~~There will come a prophet~~ ~~The author and the word~~

There will come a saviour …. A tree was where he hung …. Whose body lay dead in the ground …. Three days later, came the sound …. O lei, O lai, O lord O lei, O lai, O lord The soldier tore the city down O lei, O lai…

Asus………

he will slay the dragon, he will crush its head he, with rhymes of reason, he will break these iron chains^[truth] (dododododo) he who leads our flock, is also, he who is the Lamb whom he promised us… he was promised us… he’s our deliverance, to the promised (land?)

replacing “who” with “he”, as a kind of revelation and answer to the earlier question

Post-publishing thoughts here. “he who leads our flock, is also, he who is the Lamb whom” is such a fire line. not sure where it came from. it was the first version, which is why ruler became more of a shepherd, in this third line, in the end. alas, couldn’t fit it in.