“Society of Rafa” Themesong (Mini Production)

The assignment

My sister Rachel created an incredible TTRPG, called “Society of Rafa”, and asked me to create an original song to accompany the Kickstarter trailer.

The challenge was writing music that could carry the atmosphere of the game’s world: warm and quirky, folky and communal, yet with serious undertones beneath the surface. The music had to reflect not a generic fantasy setting, but a village square where everyone knows each other’s names — a space of intimacy, optimism, and lived tradition.

Rachel’s direction

• Avoid “fantasy cliché” tropes.
• Draw from Jewish, Ladino, Sephardic, Hasidic, and Mizrachi musical lineages.
• Quirky, folky textures over epic or cinematic ones.
• Hold warmth and coziness alongside gravity.
• Infuse the richness and detailed texture of the game’s artwork into the sound.

The research rabbit hole

To ground the piece, I dove deep into traditional music across these traditions — pulling specific techniques, scales, and rhythms:

• Traditional Ladino Song (YouTube) → Clapping and interwoven guitars with improvisatory flourishes. I echoed this sense of rhythmic play and pause.
• Hasidic Nigunim (Forward) → Repetitive, chant-like motifs that create communal lift. This became part of the song’s melodic shape.
• Sephardic Scales (Hijaz mode) → A modal foundation:
  • Ascending: 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7, 8
  • Descending: 8, ♭7, ♭6, 5, 4, ♭3, ♭2, 1
    This gave the piece its tonal color.
    (Example)
• Mizrachi Rhythms (YouTube) → Syncopated 4+4+3 phrasing, woven into the percussion.
• Ladino & Sephardic Instrumentation (Luna Sephardita) → Textures of oud, clarinet, guitar, and voice informed the arrangement.

Weaving it together

Drawing on these sources, I built the song as a layered weaving of traditions: Sephardic modal color shaped the melody, klezmer-like ornamentation added movement, and Mizrachi rhythms gave it pulse. The Ladino textures and nigunim-inspired motifs created both intimacy and lift.

Just as the game’s artwork is dense with detail yet warmly inviting, the composition aims to feel both rooted and intricate, cozy yet serious, and most importantly, fun and optimistic — music that belongs in the village square it was written for.

Checkout more at: https://societyofrafa.com/