# Alpine Summit v3a — Above the Cloud Sea (the choral hymn)

`alpine-summit-v3a` — levels: `calm.mp3` · `activity1.mp3` · `activity2.mp3` · `danger1.mp3` · `danger2.mp3`

The FAITHFUL take: a full CHORAL HYMN of serene arrival above the cloud sea (A major, 72 BPM, chorale phrasing — the catalog's slowest). The bed is a genuine four-part choirPad chorale ('ah' vowel pad): three sustained voices (tenor/alto/soprano, ch1-3) over the chord ROOT TOLLED like a far bell by caveCelesta on the lowest voice (ch0), with a near-silent subBass holding the fundamental — one chord per bar, the hymn-diatonic A-major cadence I-V-IV-vi-iii-ii. The melody is the VAULT motif (the vault family, §7.3) AUGMENTED into whole/half notes: three slow reaches root->fifth->octave then a 6-5 settle (the 6 warm in major), exactly the alpine-summit instance ('augment x2 into the chorale, choirPad doubling the celesta — arrival, the vastness now beneath you'). Activity L1 (ch4-5) is that VAULT hymn on struckPiano tone WARM (the intimate, mellow voice the hymn wants over bright) with a soft caveCelesta doubling a beat behind — the bell answering the sung line. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS new material, not volume: a high choirPad voice ANSWERS the VAULT reach a fifth above (transposeDegrees +4) plus a slow soprano choirPad bloom underneath — a call-and-answer second voice and a swell, the cathedral filling. Danger is the EXPOSED TRAVERSE as encounter music. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is unease/the approach: a low darkening pedal drone (the chorale's root turned tense) under sparse, widely-spaced gust transients (a kick + hatTick struck like the first sharp gusts) — real material, the player senses the weather. Danger L2 (ch10-11) is a GENUINE intensity jump for active fight/flee: the danger SECTION runs faster (96 BPM) and the gusts arrive in FORCE — a driving doubled kick pulse and DENSE shaker+hatTick gust transients at the fast subdivision, gusts strong enough to move you. This renders the design's 'ramp = gust frequency, not loudness' literally: danger2 is more FREQUENT gusts + new rhythmic material, NOT danger1 with the fader up. Dread is abstract (register, density, the faster gait, a diatonic lean toward the relative minor f# in the danger bed) — never chromatic darkening, never a literal wind/storm foley (the score must not render the ambient soundscape; the Depth 'cloud-sea white-noise floor' note is retired). Fully diatonic A major throughout.