By Michael Guy Bowman bowman Bandcamp YouTube YouTube mguybowman Twitter michaelguybowman.com Other mguybowman Instagram ← GameGrl (Original 1993 Mix) Previous track by this artist → Elephant Gun Next track by this artist.
Cover art by Tavia Morra seeyoutmorra Tumblr SeeYouTMorra Twitter taviamorra.com Other ← Despot Previous track art by this artist → Miasmajesty Next track art by this artist.
Released 6/12/2012.
Duration: 2:47.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.

Read artist commentary.

Contributors:

• Tavia Morra seeyoutmorra Tumblr SeeYouTMorra Twitter taviamorra.com Other ← GameGrl (Original 1993 Mix) Previous track contribution by this artist (vocals)

Tracks that reference Minihoof's Adventure:

From Fandom:

• Emissary of Dance by Catboss

Artist commentary:

Michael Guy Bowman: (composer, via early commentary collection, excerpt)

I get the feeling that down the line there will be an explanation for why exactly there's a tiny Maplehoof on Dirk Strider's desk and it will be one of the biggest plot revelations in all of Homestuck. For me it was a cue that there needed to be a Sburb Alpha universe parallel for the song Maplehoof's Adventure, which in itself was a spiritual sequel to Pony Chorale. It's sort of a reality check to realize that I have written not one, not two, but three songs for cartoon ponies now - I guess that's part of this disease we call the Internet.

As with the previous installments, I used a sample of Tavia Morra saying "neigh" to punctuate phrases, this time sped up to about double speed to have that chipmunk-esque effect. Everything about this song is a bit faster-paced and squeakier to reflect the stature of the tiny horse. The orchestration was largely inspired by my last trip to Disneyland - the whistles are arranged to sound a bit like the teapots from Alice in Wonderland, and the horn synths were selected because of their resemblance to a merry-go-round organ.

Along with recent tracks like Another Jungle and Elephant Gun, this song represents one of my attempts to stick less closely to a predictable song form. The key signature moves up a whole step around 32 seconds in and never comes back down, and the main repeated refrain that ties the song together is the little cadence that shows up at the end of each section. I stuck to my guns as a high school music theory student on this one, mostly drawing from Mozart and Sousa - it's an overstimulating mess of counterpoint, and my main goal was to see if it would annoy composition major Erik Scheele (it worked).

Out of all the tracks for Volume 9 I worked on, this one was a real breeze. I was on such a roll that I considered making it ten minutes long just to piss off everyone, but I knew that I'd most likely be asked to cut it down if I'd gone to that kind of excess, and I had other tracks to work on.

Tavia Morra: (vocalist, track artist, Tumblr, excerpt) 6/12/2012

Bowman and I quickly settled on the idea of a picture emphasizing the size of Minihoof, but couldn't decide on a specific way to show it. Maybe put a magnifying glass over the little pony? Having her next to Dirk's hand while he typed on the computer? The energy of the track made us think of little Minihoof running through an obstacle course Dirk set up for her on his desk, thus the stapler, the tacks, the brads, the pencils, and the GameBro Magazines. This was a super fun one for me since I had such a personal investment in it.

Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text) 7/20/2024

Oh, Minihoof's Adventure - that was another piece of pony music. That was another thing where I was like, really on a roll, and like, writing beginning to end. I feel like I could have written, like... an hour of that, if I wanted to. It's just like, once your palette is figured out with like, the kind of carnival environment that it was supposed to sound like, it was just so easy to just be like - let's have something different happen here, and let's have a little breakdown, and... I could write hours of pony music if I wanted to. (laughs) I don't know why I would, but I could!

(From the Q&A section)

"What song on the Homestuck soundtrack did you have the most fun making?" I'm gonna say Minihoof's Adventure. I hate to say it, but like, every second I was working on that, there was a smile on my face.