The Calm (Soundtrack)

Team Fortress 2 Official Soundtrack

"Team Fortress 2 (Main Theme)" "Playing With Danger" "Rocket Jump Waltz" "The Art of War" "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet" "Right Behind You" "Petite Chou-Fleur" "Intruder Alert" "Drunken Pipe Bomb" "More Gun" "Haunted Fortress 2" "TF2 Saxxy 2011 Theme" "A Little Heart to Heart" "MEDIC!" "Archimedes" "Dreams of Cruelty" "The Calm" "ROBOTS!" "Dapper Cadaver" "Rise of the Living Bread" "Red Bread" "Three Days to Live" "Seduce Me!" "Stink Lines" "It Hates Me So Much" "Misfortune Teller" "Soldier of Dance" "RED Triumphs!" "BLU Triumphs!" "Yeti Park" "Saxton's Dilemma" "Mercenary Park" "Saluting the Fallen"

"The Calm" is one of the song titles featured on the official Team Fortress 2 Soundtrack, listed as track number seventeen. Added in the Mann vs. Machine update, it is the song featured in the Mann vs. Machine trailer and is one of 33 main menu startup themes. This was the first song that played during the part of the trailer where the REDs and BLUs join together to fight.

Update history

August 15, 2012 Patch (Mann vs. Machine Update)

• [Undocumented] This song was added as main menu music.

Analysis

Key: A Minor
Time Signature: 4/4-2/4
Tempo: 95-116.5 BPM
Length: 1:41
Release Date: August 15, 2012
Update: Mann vs. Machine
Composer: Mike Morasky
Instrumentation: bass harmonica, flute, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, piano, harpsichord, keyboards, theremin, 2 acoustic guitars, banjo, electric guitar, electric bass, drumset, timpani, 2 percussion, whislter, choir, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, contrabass

Written to score the Mann vs. Machine Trailer, "The Calm" is written in the style of a western standoff or a march to battle. Its use of guitar, whistler, and trumpet is similar to that of the score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with the trumpet part specifically dictating "a la Ennio Morricone."

The track begins with a light guitar strum strings, which both become progressively louder until a climax of heavy bass instruments drone on D. A new section begins, with electric bass and percussion, and a variation on "More Gun" is played by flute and whistle. After a brief pause, trumpet and flute echo the same phrase with more energy and denser accompaniment. Afterward, the scoring loses its rhythmic pulse in favor of a held string chord, while theremin and choir enter. The final section begins with theremin playing the main Mann vs Machine melody (foreshadowed previously by harpsichord) and a punchy synth bass line, until brass reenters for the final musical statement.

Trivia

• 2:04 to 2:29 is also part of ROBOTS!.
• A remix of More Gun (1:01 onwards) can be heard from 0:37 to 1:20.
• The name is a reference to the popular phrase "The Calm Before the Storm", meaning a period of calm before something extremely bad happens.