By Solatrus solatrus Bandcamp solatrus SoundCloud Solatrus Twitter ← Doctor (Deep Breeze Mix) Previous track by this artist → The Golden Towers Next track by this artist.
Cover art by Bea beackupburner Twitter beesmygod Tumblr → Encore Next track art by this artist.
Released 8/22/2011.
Duration: 3:35.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.

Read artist commentary.

Tracks that reference Hallowed Halls:

From Official Discography:

• Cobalt Corsair by Max Wright

From Fandom:

• Actually, The Plot Snaps in Place by SplitSuns

Artist commentary:

Solatrus: ("original", via early commentary collection)

Hm, I haven't thought much about Prospit & Derse since its release, actually, but, here goes.

As you can probably tell, the two halves of the album have some parallels, especially in the first two songs: e.g., Hallowed Halls is to Darkened Streets as Golden Towers is to Obsidian Towers. I originally wrote Darkened Streets, but I really wanted to take the melody and progression used in it and apply it to a brassy fanfare. That's ultimately what Hallowed Halls came to be. Honestly, if it wasn't for Marcy helping me name the song, I probably wouldn't've had the right image in my head for the new arrangement.

And Nick Smalley helped me out with those french horns, making them sound halfway decent.

Not really much else other than this song and Core of Darkness are without a doubt the best two on the album.

Solatrus: (one year anniversary, via early commentary collection)

The opener for Prospit & Derse, at least, in the album's final lineup. This was actually track #5 for the longest period of time, but I realized just before release that Prospit had a stronger opening track and Derse had a stronger closing track.

This was a really fun song to create, and definitely helped set the example of how I wanted to approach Prospit for awhile. Hilariously, if you listen to how the album's set up, there's actually 4 sets of songs. Hallowed Halls and The Golden Towers have a lot of similar instruments, and are both designed as parallels to Darkened Streets and The Obsidian Towers, which also have a similar set of instruments. I ended up veering off into totally unique territory for each half's Dreamers, and ended up continuing in those new directions for the 4th tracks.

A big thanks to Nick and Marcy for helping me get this particular track started. Marcy gave me some good ideas (as well as naming this song) for how to put together some of the melodic lines. Nick came along and pointed out how I should use the French Horns. So this track is almost completely why the two of them have special thanks credits on this album.

In retrospect, the song feels like it's a bit empty. For being what's supposed to be the Royal Palace of Prospit, the impact just isn't there, neither melodically nor atmospherically. It's not a bad song, but it just barely misses the mark that it deserved to hit.

However, I absolutely adored the art Bea did for this piece, and, well, .. hey wait the art up there is different than it used to be! Yup. Bea decided to update the art for Hallowed Halls, and she did and even better job than before. Oh, and here's the fun part on this: I had no idea she actually was doing this until a few days ago, and she forgot that the anniversary was yesterday! Anyway, here's what she had to say:

Bea:

contributing to homestuck, a webcomic thats given me so many opportunities, friends and good memories is a great honor, especially to be involved in an album as conceptually compelling and well executed as the prospit and derse album. i thank solatrus for the opportunity to be a part of his creation and everyone who helped me give back to something that has influenced my life immensely.

Solatrus:

Thanks for helping me out, Bea. And keep up the good work.

I have to say I'm pleased overall with this song, but, like any artist, it's difficult to look back at my works. They never seem completed. Especially the Prospit half for me.

Bea: (Tumblr)

in 2011 i was inexplicably tapped to do album art for a homestuck song and it was extremely terrible. i redrew it recently and i think its a nice improvement. the halls being empty fits with being the first, introductory song of the album. things are just beginning.

Bea: (original track art)

Bea: (alternate artworks, Tumblr)

whatevr

Bea: (alternate artwork, Tumblr)

ill go with this one for now while i think of more stuff to start putting in my portfolio