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Thank you so much for letting me know that the mp3 didn’t get uploaded! That was a mistake. I sent it in the discord channel, but will also update the project page after the jam ends.

In any case, thank you for listening and commenting! I had to read the challenge a couple times to make sure my interpretation would work, but I think what I did fits within the “can’t have more than 3 instruments playing at the same time” challenge (hopefully). 

When I write music that is primarily modal in nature, I like to refer to them as “flavors” because I find it really challenging to completely stay within the confines of a single mode and appropriately use subdominants/dominants/tonic correctly in terms of conventional harmony. In this track, I started with a vamp alternating between GMadd6 and Dmadd9 (I6 - v9) which felt like it had a magical and curious quality to it and gives a nice mixolydian sound with the F natural (b7). Then at 0:15 I use a little circle of fifths action moving from FM -> CM -> EbM -> BbM -> DM. On both the FM and EbM chords, the melody note lands on the #4 (B natural and A natural respectively) which is one of the spots where I introduced the lydian flavor. The D major doesn’t quite fit the mixolydian confines, but pulls back to the G really nicely. But instead of going to the GM again, I switched it up and moved to the relative minor for a Gm to DM (i - V) vamp which is the part that you suggested sounds like it comes from Harry Potter. While not a particularly unusual chord progression, I found that by using chromaticism overtop in the violin and bells/celesta, it has a really magical quality. Then at 0:27, I once again stepped out of the key I was in (Gminor) for a different flavor by using the major IV chord which is borrowed from the relative major key (and can also be interpreted as moving to a dorian progression) giving a Gm - CM (i - IV) vamp, creating an uplifting and whimsical quality. Then at 0:38, I wasn’t thinking so much about chords as I was about voice leading with the melody I thought of, but it turned into a progression that is something like Eb+ - EbM - Dm - BbM(?) - CM - FM - Gsus4 - GM which pulls into the climax at 0:48. In this section, I used strong harmonic motion and colorful chords to convey lots of emotion and it came out to be something like GMadd9&11 - CM/G - BbM#4/F - FM, then repeating the same progression after modulating to CMadd9&11 - FM - EbM#4/Bb - BbM - FM - Csus2 which then floats back to the beginning GMadd6 chord. The chords with the #4s use those notes in a relatively low range which gives that part, in my opinion, a very tasty crunch. I cheated a little bit trying to connect the loop by introducing the D and A from the V chord in the glockenspiel swell which makes the return to GM make sense, but also a nice plagal IV - I cadence also has a magical quality as well. I mixed them together so that the loop was not too surprising and I think it worked out.

Welp… now I just analyzed my entire track. I didn’t necessarily have all of this planned when I wrote it, I largely went based on the sound I wanted to achieve, but this is a nice framework for my interpretation of a “magical” harmonic structure, I guess. I suppose I’ll save this for later and maybe borrow elements of it again some time! Feel free to steal any of it if you want to use any of this in your music!