A placid and contemplative piano-solo piece in C major. (The title does not seem fitting, heh. But I haven't read this VN so maybe it makes sense in context?)
the first track on Nanoha StrikerS Soundtrack Plus. vol. 3.
An orchestral track in a slow tempo. Seems to start calmly and in C major but modulate to various tonalities while it also pokes into other moods. Ends in C major.
I am amused that the random function has given me three things in C major in a row. this third one is Seagull's theme from 100% Orange Juice.
Edit: the luck did not continue.
The next three tracks have been:
* a fanfare (stage complete?) from TMNT(1?) SNES (it's in C#/Db something, like mixolydian, but I can't think clearly since I have the third thing on this list in my ears right now)
* something with very trembly (sul ponticello?) strings from Conker's Bad Fur Day (sounds like some sort of event theme)
* BGM#24 from Timespinner, which I think is the Emperor's Tower or something theme, one of the late game areas (I forget the exact name) (it's mainly in Eb minor). the track itself is called "Defiance"
sidenote: the Timespinner soundtrack is *excellent*
edit: okay here's another C major track, it's the boy's theme from the game Pitman a.k.a. Catrap
has a sense of tonality that sounds similar to Koji Kondo's habit of messing with odd notes and chromaticisms while maintaining a sense that keeps at least a few toes in traditional functional harmonic structure, with the result sounding like jumping between a modal treatment of tonality and a traditional classical treatment
oh here are some youtube uploads of the stuff i was talking about
"Bonds of Knife and Gun"
Seagull's theme from 100% Orange Juice
since the game uses royalty-free music, it's actually called ひこうき雲の足跡 and it's by Studio Murasato
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: the Arcade Game (NES version) - "scene clear 1"
(turns out it's actually from TMNT2 not TMNT1)
Catrap (a.k.a. Pitman) soundtrack
the "Catboy" theme starts at 9 minutes in (each track is just generically played for 3 minutes, so you may get bored when the title screen theme which is just several seconds long plays for 3 minutes...so just go and seek to a later point in the video lol)
It's ironic that the song "Lyric" by Ritsuko Okazaki has no lyrics. In fact, I am not even sure she even sings in it -- she might, as I can kinda hear some sung notes, but it's not very distinct.
Basically, a note in a melody that falls on a strong beat but isn't part of the underlying chord, that resolves to a neighboring note that is part of the chord
for example, a D on the downbeat of a melody above a C major chord, and the melody goes to either C or E in the upbeat. or a downbeat F that resolves to E or G on the upbeat.
It also uses the Beatles' song "Yesterday" as an example, which is pretty useful. It starts with one, and has more later on (the E on "far", resolving to the D on "away"; the Bb on "here", resolving to the A on "to stay".
FWIW I was recently thinking, Takahiro Unisuga seems rather fond of this motif for the ends of phrases (especially the ends of groups of phrases). He's a composer for various Falcom games, and here's a track that illustrates a pretty frequent usage of them (albeit sometimes embellished):
There are two very early in the track, like the third beat of the second bar (assuming 4/4 and the melody starts with 16th notes) and the third beat of the fourth bar as well. There are more later on.
harmony goes to F, then G (melody continues to just G)
repeat this sequence
then you have three chords: C G C
then F and G chords (as the melody (a clarinet or accordion?) goes A C F E D C B)
and then repeat almost the same
then repeat this double sequence again
then...it actually starts to move toward A minor, kinda
FM7 chord (melody: E, A, E), G chord (melody: E D)
Em7 chord (melody: D, G, D), A7 chord (melody: D C#, A B)
Dm7 chord (melody: C, E, C), E7 chord (melody: C B)
CM7 chord (melody: B, A E), A chord (melody: A)
then repeat this with a more elaborate melody
so this section is just a circle of fifths progression, which starts off diatonic to both C major and A minor
the A7 chord is a dominant leading to a D or Dm chord of some sort but that's just temporary
the E7 chord is more telling because it really feels like the music is headed toward a bigger cadence at that point (imagine if that were followed by an Am chord)
though the music resolves deceptively, to CM7 and then A (major) chord which is used to repeat the sequence
this gets repeated but the last A major chord gets used as a pivot chord in a plagal cadence like sequence to start a section actually in E major
and then after that you have
E chord (melody: E F# E)
A chord, B chord (melody: B)
repeat slightly different
so this is basically the same as the stuff we started with, tonally, but just in a different key -- it's now clearly establishing E major
then we have
A chord (melody: B, B, A G#), E chord (melody: F#)
A chord (melody: B, B, E D#), C# chord (melody: C#) B chord (melody: B)
A chord (melody: B, B, A G#), E chord (melody: F#)
F chord (melody: A), G chord (melody: B), A chord (melody: A)
this is a little weird; it starts in E major, but the last phrase of this section seems to be a cadence leading to the key of A major), but not very conclusively
this whole section is repeated with addition accordion(?), with that last A chord being kept to restart the section
but the last phrase is now
F chord, G chord, Ab chord, Bb chord
C chord which loops the entire track
the music kinda teased that bVI bVII I cadence by using the chords F G A, but this time, it actually takes the sequence one level higher -- G goes to Ab, which lets us use this cadence but in C major, which is the key we need to loop the track.
consecutive chords at an upward whole step, e.g. C D, or F G, or Ab Bb, have pretty powerful forward momentum
the basic expectation they setup is a IV V I cadence (e.g. F G C, or C D G, or Ab Bb Eb, etc.)
but they can also be used to make a deceptive cadence, by replacing the I with an vi, e.g. F G Am, or Ab Bb Cm, etc.
meanwhile you can also view F G Am or Ab Bb Cm as VI VII i in a minor key
so if the surrounding music gives the sense of the minor key as the home key this is also a cadence for coming home
not very common in classical music (which favors progressions that sharp the subtonic into a leading tone, i.e. you want an E major chord to produce the G# before the A minor chord, or a G major chord to produce the B before a C minor chord)
but this cadence using natural minor more common in non-classical styles
meanwhile you can then Picardy-third the last chord in minor, so instead of it being A minor, you can make it A major
F G A or Ab Bb C for example
but then the crazy fun thing you can do is do is to chain these
observe that, if you're aiming for C major, the dominant is G, right?
If you just use diatonic notes in C major, and you start on the G chord, and step up to C, you get an unconvincing progression on its own
G Am Bdim C (V vi vii° I)
but if you borrow from minor, you get to basically combine two progressions that have cadential motion:
G Ab Bb C (V bVI bVII I)
now combine this with F to G
F G Ab Bb C
excellent fanfare material, right?
but now lop off the final chord
F G Ab Bb
but wait, what if we treat Ab Bb as the IV and V?
then we stuck bVI and bVII after that but in a different key (i.e. Eb major)
F G Ab Bb Cb Db
and so on
this is very powerful forward motion, though you can't keep it up for very long if you actually mean to arrive somewhere
and the original theme just ends the loop on a C chord and awkwardly restarts the loop on a D minor chord
and i was like
this is unsatisfying
what if I made it sound like a full four-phrase unit because that's more satisfying AND that lets me end on an Eb chord which I can use as the dominant of Ab minor!
so in my edit to it, i changed that to
F G
Ab Bb
Cb Db
Eb (with an added b6)
and this is followed by the next phrase starting on an Abm chord
why Ab minor? because it's exactly one loop away from D minor, it's exactly a tritone away which is half an octave
so now we can just *play the (basically) entire loop again* and make it loop back smoothly to D minor!
well i actually modify it a little since everything in the second loop is a tritone transposed from the first loop except the end
instead of ending on an A chord to go to D minor, i end on a D chord (D major), to go back to a D minor chord
Fb Gb (enharmonic: E F#)
G A
Bb C
D (with added b6)
that flat sixth means that it's D F# A Bb, or it ends up being in the track, Bb A F# D
then i just need to tweak the third and get back the arpeggios that started the whole track, because they're just Bb A F D repeated
Comments
the general kinds of chords/chord function that's being used
also the melody
e.g., G to C at important points suggests C major
sometimes it's ambiguous