Hopeful

Hopeful is the look ahead, before anything has been achieved. Heroic music celebrates success; hopeful music believes it's coming. That makes it the most-used mood in corporate film.

How to recognize it

By ascending lines. Melody and bass move upward, often over a progression that resolves to the subdominant instead of the dominant — that sounds open rather than final. By bright major with plenty of sixths and ninths, rarely with a seventh.

Add to that an instrumentation with light: piano in a high register, plucked strings, glockenspiel, soft synthesizers. Drums are present, but restrained.

What it's suited for

For a fresh start: corporate films, sustainability and future topics, start-ups and product launches, education and health formats, year-end outlooks, recruiting videos, sunrise landscape shots.

What it's not for: retrospectives without a continuation. Hopeful music promises an after — without one, the film comes across as glossing over things.

No PRO registration

Royalty-free and GVL-free, both sides cleared. Corporate films run at trade shows, in reception areas, on the website, and sometimes on TV — four uses for which royalty-free music alone isn't enough. The Cue Sheet is generated automatically, licensing starts at 1.49 € one-time.

Related: encouraging for the more subdued tone, joyful for the brighter variant, adventure for a departure with movement. Genre page: Cinematic and epic music.