Most of the flat-side major keys represent relatively mellow feelings, as opposed to the sharp-side major keys frequently representing brightness, but B-flat major is the exception.
B-flat major, to me, is filled with life, and even somewhat boisterous and loud. But even if it may sometimes be aggressive, it is nevertheless very expressive.
B-flat major is the major-key flipside to G minor, which is very passionate, be it for love, determination, or rage.
the first instance of the second theme is (in F-sharp major, at dynamic marking "fff") is the girl zooming upwards into the bright blue sky, head first
basically shinesparking up to the sky
(note: I actually got into the Metroid series much later after I learned this piece, so Metroid was definitely NOT the inspiration)
(in case it was not obvious from the above and below posts, this indicates that I went from listening to the Dante Sonata (ending in D major) to Melocure's "Agape" (starting in G minor))
While this performance isn't perfect by any means, I actually like the fact that it takes a slower tempo than many other performances uploaded to Youtube.
"Fuyu no Hi" from Ritsuko Okazaki's album "Love and Life ~private works 1999-2001~" is interesting because it manages to transition between B-flat major and A major using pivot chords rather than by gear-changing.
B-flat major to A major (the entire verse): F Eb F Eb C/E F D/F# G7(4-3) E7(4-3)
A major to B-flat major (end of refrain to verse intro) ... A D/A E/A D/A A D/A E/A D/A || Gm Eb F/A Bb Gm Eb F/A Bb ...
The first one does kinda go through a lot of rapid tonicizations and the F to D/F# transition could be called gear-changing, I guess, but it's still a lot smoother than the usual gear-changing.
The second one is actually rather jarring but it turns out that the D major chord is in fact the V chord in G minor so it actually works out.
I wonder if there is a correlation between "romantic fantasy" being depicted by the key of G minor and "harsh/tragic reality" being depicted by the key of C minor
(by "romantic" i here mean like the tales or legend sort of romance, like, "Of a work of literature, a writer etc.: being like or having the characteristics of a romance, or poetic tale of a mythic or quasi-historical time; fantastic" (wiktionary))
#1 - kinda #2 - no #3 - not really #4 - no #5 - no #6 - yes #7 - learning it now #8 - yes #9 - yes #10- no #11- no #12- no
Op. 25
#1 - no #2 - yes #3 - not really (tried learning it before) #4 - no #5 - yes #6 - yes (the most recent one before i started learning 10-7) #7 - not really/kinda #8 - kinda/yes #9 - not yet despite it being pretty easy #10- yes #11- yes #12- yes
Longest continuous patch: 25-5 to 25-8 if i count 25-7, or 25-10 to extra-1. if i count 25-9 which i could pick up almost anytime then i could get 25-5 to extra-1.
Op. 10 continues to present more of a challenge than Op. 25. Though 25-4 is not one I am particularly enthused about.
Total progress: 10 - 5/12 25 - 8/12 ex - 1/3 total: 14/27
I can't understand what Messiaen's thinking is like.
But the result is sometimes spectacular.
Like in this piece, the tenth of the Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus (Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus), "Contemplation of the Spirit of Joy".
Two minutes into this piece, he starts boogieing. In five.
Someone asked in the comments about why the Theme of Joy is played with the pair of sixteenth notes swung, in disobedience of what the score says. Someone responded that the pianist studied with Messiaen's second wife, pianist Yvonne Loriod, and might know more than the rest of us do.
Well, there's actually a recording of Yvonne Loriod playing this. (You will need to skip to the tenth movement, which is about 45 or 50 minutes into the video.)
She actually does swing those sixteenth pairs a bit, though less than does Pierre-Laurent Aimard does. This is curious.
also that tenth movement seems pretty prodigiously difficult, especially performing the boogie section with as much leggierity (okay i mean lightness i'm just backporting the Italian music term "leggiero" here) and speed with which Aimard does.
Turns out this is a work that's attributed to Haydn but authenticity may be in doubt. It's still quite pretty though, regardless of who wrote it.
And the proper catalog number is Hob. XVIII/F1. Not to be confused with the various other F major keyboard concertos by Haydn, including another spurious one with the catalog number Hob. XVIII/F2.
This concerto (F1) is a popular work for younger piano students due to its relative ease, and I learned it as a kid.
One notable feature is that the score seems to be typically written with the piano doubling the orchestra's part during tutti sections, albeit in somewhat reduced arrangement, as opposed to staying silent. This may have just been an explicitly notated instance of a tradition from that time, or an oddity.
Someone asked in the comments about why the Theme of Joy is played with the pair of sixteenth notes swung, in disobedience of what the score says. Someone responded that the pianist studied with Messiaen's second wife, pianist Yvonne Loriod, and might know more than the rest of us do.
Well, there's actually a recording of Yvonne Loriod playing this. (You will need to skip to the tenth movement, which is about 45 or 50 minutes into the video.)
She actually does swing those sixteenth pairs a bit, though less than does Pierre-Laurent Aimard does. This is curious.
Follow-up:
It turns out there's a direction in the score that says to swing these.
Turns out two other Haydn piano+orchestra works identified by publishers as "concerti", including the "Little Concerto", are actually divertimenti. Specifically, I've personally learned the "Little Concerto" and another one, both in C major; these turned out to be catalogued with the divertimenti under Hob. XIV, as XIV/3 and XIV/4 respectively.
This is a nice song. It is gently sad, and tonicizes a brighter and happier B-flat major only to retreat to a more melancholy G minor.
Though I prefer it a bit faster.
And specifically the piano accompaniment version that replaces the second F in the melody in the refrain with an A a third higher -- that change makes it much nicer.
And also that piano accompaniment version -- the one that's widely distributed in Catholic music issues around 2008-2012, likely by Oregon Catholic Press -- just makes it nicer. Like, the piano accompaniment alone. No voice.
It is one of the inspirations (for mood, key, and rough tempo/rhythm) for my own "Arc's Theme", along with other such pieces as Yuki Kajiura's "Zero Hour" (for mood and key) and the first movement of Fryderyk Chopin's B minor piano sonata (for figuration).
[23:36:49] * GMH is now playing: Suzuki Saeko, TOMISIRO - "›" - {Rinne no Lagrange Original Soundtrack} [23:36:52] <GMH> dangit [23:36:59] <GMH> i keep forgetting, that track name doesn't show up right [23:37:56] <GMH> the name of the track is a circle. like, the track name, as listed on the CD case, is a circle. i think it's pronounced "maru", because that's Japanese for "circle", specifically the way the main character says it when she draws a circle in the air with her finger. [23:43:50] * GMH is now playing: Nakajima Megumi - "TRY UNITE! -Rasmeg Duo-" - {TRY UNITE!/Hello!} [23:44:08] <GMH> one of the most beautiful EDs. [23:44:18] <GMH> a bit of a spoiler though. [23:44:28] <GMH> it plays in the final episode (at least, of the first season). [23:44:35] <GMH> it is perfect for capping off the series. [23:45:29] <GMH> as a remix of the OP, it recalls the OP, but in a contemplative, slower, less bright, somewhat melancholy mood. [23:45:42] <GMH> like a sense of a nostalgia or looking back. [23:45:58] <GMH> i really like this OST, actually. [23:46:11] <GMH> i just needed to replace the short OP with the long OP, and replace the ED with the final ED. [23:46:36] <GMH> it starts off with various playful tracks, then has several more dour, more mysterious, more ambient tracks. [23:46:46] <GMH> and then finally it culminates in some exciting action tracks. [23:47:48] <GMH> these tracks are united (no pun intended lol) by two leitmotifs that appear frequently in the soundtrack. [23:48:05] <GMH> there are two interesting variants for this soundtrack. [23:48:26] <GMH> in one of them, the final ED is played last. this makes the most "sense" from a traditional standpoint, of course. [23:48:42] <GMH> in the other, the final ED is played before the last non-song track [23:48:43] * GMH is now playing: Suzuki Saeko, TOMISIRO - "Re-turn" - {Rinne no Lagrange Original Soundtrack} [23:49:25] <GMH> this is a slow, ambient, but comforting recalling of one of those leitmotifs [23:50:08] <GMH> instead of ending the soundtrack on a melancholy, lyrical tone, this ends it on a somewhat brighter, comforting tone.
This is an Android player capable of playing a variety of videogame formats, including apparently NES, GBS, USF, GSF, 2SF, and more.
And it can play indefinitely too. This isn't in the settings, but is something that can be selected on the fly by tapping the playlist order button on the playback screen until it goes to infinite playback, then loading the track again.
It can't open individual files directly, but you can have it add your music folder as a scanned database.
Edit: Just checked: SSF (Saturn), PSF (PS1), and DSP (GameCube) all work too.
Both tracks are in G minor and a bit of a trance-like mood to them. Both also use mainly diatonic harmonies, with some chromaticism sprinkled into them temporarily tonicizing other keys. Both use the subtonic (bVII chord), as well as the tonic ninth (i9 chord).
Curiously, in their respective games they represent emotionally opposite processes. Pangu Lagoon is about regaining confidence; Dreaming is about losing confidence.
I would never write anything like Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto's first movemet. This isn't necessarily a criticism; I just don't get the logic behind its organization. Like, I wouldn't use key transitions and thematic organization and stuff like that.
Still, I can't deny that it holds a certain appeal.
Quite honestly, these two tracks are cut from the same creative cloth anyway. Same tempo, same time, same key, same melodic themes. Positive Force is basically a remix of Pushing Onwards. So much :D
Kibou ni Tsuite (AKB0048 OP) Pushing Onwards Positive Force Pressure Cooker only my railgun (Railgun OP 1) Level 5 -Judgelight- (Railgun OP 2) Black Burn (Area O theme) Gauntlet (Area L theme) Freedom Planet's final boss themes Napalm Man Toad Man Skull Man Cossack Stage 1 MM1 boss batle theme MM3 Wily stage 1 MM3 stage select Yamato Man Knight Man Wheel Gator Gravity Beetle <-- NO, as much as I thought it was when I was a kid, and still like to believe it is even to this day
More people need to be aware of the similarities between the following tracks: * Black Burn (Mega Man ZX Area O music) and Pushing Onwards (VVVVVV yellow area music) * Gurumin main theme (appears in various tracks in the Gurumin soundtrack, such as the title theme "Phantom Days") and Splatoon second final boss theme
Why? No real reason. Just that they're notable, and both Gurumin's and ZX's soundtracks deserve more love.
Bittersweet Symphony doesn't sound bittersweet to me; it sounds meh. It doesn't inspire much of any emotion than a dull vagueness.
Also, if I recall correctly, it also has a style of singing that one might characterize as "draggy"or "lazy". How To Save a Life also has this problem.
Comments
Most of the flat-side major keys represent relatively mellow feelings, as opposed to the sharp-side major keys frequently representing brightness, but B-flat major is the exception.
B-flat major, to me, is filled with life, and even somewhat boisterous and loud. But even if it may sometimes be aggressive, it is nevertheless very expressive.
B-flat major is the major-key flipside to G minor, which is very passionate, be it for love, determination, or rage.
the first instance of the second theme is (in F-sharp major, at dynamic marking "fff") is the girl zooming upwards into the bright blue sky, head first
basically shinesparking up to the sky
(note: I actually got into the Metroid series much later after I learned this piece, so Metroid was definitely NOT the inspiration)
(in case it was not obvious from the above and below posts, this indicates that I went from listening to the Dante Sonata (ending in D major) to Melocure's "Agape" (starting in G minor))
doko ni ita tte kikoeru
kimi ga kureru Agape
chikara no kagiri...
Dive!
I want to change the last word to "Fly!" in the last iteration of these lyrics.
While this performance isn't perfect by any means, I actually like the fact that it takes a slower tempo than many other performances uploaded to Youtube.
B-flat major to A major (the entire verse):
F Eb F Eb C/E F D/F# G7(4-3) E7(4-3)
A major to B-flat major (end of refrain to verse intro)
... A D/A E/A D/A A D/A E/A D/A || Gm Eb F/A Bb Gm Eb F/A Bb ...
The first one does kinda go through a lot of rapid tonicizations and the F to D/F# transition could be called gear-changing, I guess, but it's still a lot smoother than the usual gear-changing.
The second one is actually rather jarring but it turns out that the D major chord is in fact the V chord in G minor so it actually works out.
also "uplifting trance" (apparently that's a name)
* Mine Cart Madness
* Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy
they DO in fact sound vaguely similar
it's that i V V i motion in B-flat minor
http://pastebin.com/Ad2HQVWt
I wonder if there is a correlation between "romantic fantasy" being depicted by the key of G minor and "harsh/tragic reality" being depicted by the key of C minor
(by "romantic" i here mean like the tales or legend sort of romance, like, "Of a work of literature, a writer etc.: being like or having the characteristics of a romance, or poetic tale of a mythic or quasi-historical time; fantastic" (wiktionary))
you're a E (or E +b6) squid
it would be interesting if i wrote a set of twenty-four preludes and fugues that could be played by both piano and pxtone
performance too fast:
good tempo, but not very expressive:
vocaloids need more western-European syllabary
DOWNLOADING IT NOW
i'm an idiot
Progress toward learning all the Chopin Études
Op. 10
#1 - kinda
#2 - no
#3 - not really
#4 - no
#5 - no
#6 - yes
#7 - learning it now
#8 - yes
#9 - yes
#10- no
#11- no
#12- no
Op. 25
#1 - no
#2 - yes
#3 - not really (tried learning it before)
#4 - no
#5 - yes
#6 - yes (the most recent one before i started learning 10-7)
#7 - not really/kinda
#8 - kinda/yes
#9 - not yet despite it being pretty easy
#10- yes
#11- yes
#12- yes
extras
#1 (Fm) - yes
#2 (Ab) - no
#3 (Db) - no
Longest continuous patch: 25-5 to 25-8 if i count 25-7, or 25-10 to extra-1. if i count 25-9 which i could pick up almost anytime then i could get 25-5 to extra-1.
Op. 10 continues to present more of a challenge than Op. 25. Though 25-4 is not one I am particularly enthused about.
Total progress:
10 - 5/12
25 - 8/12
ex - 1/3
total: 14/27
But the result is sometimes spectacular.
Like in this piece, the tenth of the Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus (Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus), "Contemplation of the Spirit of Joy".
Two minutes into this piece, he starts boogieing. In five.
Well, there's actually a recording of Yvonne Loriod playing this. (You will need to skip to the tenth movement, which is about 45 or 50 minutes into the video.)
She actually does swing those sixteenth pairs a bit, though less than does Pierre-Laurent Aimard does. This is curious.
the score doesn't say to slow them down, but Aimard does slow them down, and Loriod slows them down more.
Turns out this is a work that's attributed to Haydn but authenticity may be in doubt. It's still quite pretty though, regardless of who wrote it.
And the proper catalog number is Hob. XVIII/F1. Not to be confused with the various other F major keyboard concertos by Haydn, including another spurious one with the catalog number Hob. XVIII/F2.
This concerto (F1) is a popular work for younger piano students due to its relative ease, and I learned it as a kid.
One notable feature is that the score seems to be typically written with the piano doubling the orchestra's part during tutti sections, albeit in somewhat reduced arrangement, as opposed to staying silent. This may have just been an explicitly notated instance of a tradition from that time, or an oddity.
It turns out there's a direction in the score that says to swing these.
This is a nice song. It is gently sad, and tonicizes a brighter and happier B-flat major only to retreat to a more melancholy G minor.
Though I prefer it a bit faster.
And specifically the piano accompaniment version that replaces the second F in the melody in the refrain with an A a third higher -- that change makes it much nicer.
And also that piano accompaniment version -- the one that's widely distributed in Catholic music issues around 2008-2012, likely by Oregon Catholic Press -- just makes it nicer. Like, the piano accompaniment alone. No voice.
[23:36:52] <GMH> dangit
[23:36:59] <GMH> i keep forgetting, that track name doesn't show up right
[23:37:56] <GMH> the name of the track is a circle. like, the track name, as listed on the CD case, is a circle. i think it's pronounced "maru", because that's Japanese for "circle", specifically the way the main character says it when she draws a circle in the air with her finger.
[23:43:50] * GMH is now playing: Nakajima Megumi - "TRY UNITE! -Rasmeg Duo-" - {TRY UNITE!/Hello!}
[23:44:08] <GMH> one of the most beautiful EDs.
[23:44:18] <GMH> a bit of a spoiler though.
[23:44:28] <GMH> it plays in the final episode (at least, of the first season).
[23:44:35] <GMH> it is perfect for capping off the series.
[23:45:29] <GMH> as a remix of the OP, it recalls the OP, but in a contemplative, slower, less bright, somewhat melancholy mood.
[23:45:42] <GMH> like a sense of a nostalgia or looking back.
[23:45:58] <GMH> i really like this OST, actually.
[23:46:11] <GMH> i just needed to replace the short OP with the long OP, and replace the ED with the final ED.
[23:46:36] <GMH> it starts off with various playful tracks, then has several more dour, more mysterious, more ambient tracks.
[23:46:46] <GMH> and then finally it culminates in some exciting action tracks.
[23:47:48] <GMH> these tracks are united (no pun intended lol) by two leitmotifs that appear frequently in the soundtrack.
[23:48:05] <GMH> there are two interesting variants for this soundtrack.
[23:48:26] <GMH> in one of them, the final ED is played last. this makes the most "sense" from a traditional standpoint, of course.
[23:48:42] <GMH> in the other, the final ED is played before the last non-song track
[23:48:43] * GMH is now playing: Suzuki Saeko, TOMISIRO - "Re-turn" - {Rinne no Lagrange Original Soundtrack}
[23:49:25] <GMH> this is a slow, ambient, but comforting recalling of one of those leitmotifs
[23:50:08] <GMH> instead of ending the soundtrack on a melancholy, lyrical tone, this ends it on a somewhat brighter, comforting tone.
Sometimes, if the original track order doesn't work out very well, I can rearrange it to a better track order.
This is an Android player capable of playing a variety of videogame formats, including apparently NES, GBS, USF, GSF, 2SF, and more.
And it can play indefinitely too. This isn't in the settings, but is something that can be selected on the fly by tapping the playlist order button on the playback screen until it goes to infinite playback, then loading the track again.
It can't open individual files directly, but you can have it add your music folder as a scanned database.
Edit: Just checked: SSF (Saturn), PSF (PS1), and DSP (GameCube) all work too.
Strife, Woofle, & Dawn Michelle Bennett - "Pangu Lagoon 1" - {Freedom Planet}
Both tracks are in G minor and a bit of a trance-like mood to them. Both also use mainly diatonic harmonies, with some chromaticism sprinkled into them temporarily tonicizing other keys. Both use the subtonic (bVII chord), as well as the tonic ninth (i9 chord).
Curiously, in their respective games they represent emotionally opposite processes. Pangu Lagoon is about regaining confidence; Dreaming is about losing confidence.
Well, at least as for right now?
Epic Falcom music.
Still, I can't deny that it holds a certain appeal.
So much :D
Kibou ni Tsuite (AKB0048 OP)
Pushing Onwards
Positive Force
Pressure Cooker
only my railgun (Railgun OP 1)
Level 5 -Judgelight- (Railgun OP 2)
Black Burn (Area O theme)
Gauntlet (Area L theme)
Freedom Planet's final boss themes
Napalm Man
Toad Man
Skull Man
Cossack Stage 1
MM1 boss batle theme
MM3 Wily stage 1
MM3 stage select
Yamato Man
Knight Man
Wheel Gator
Gravity Beetle <-- NO, as much as I thought it was when I was a kid, and still like to believe it is even to this day
* Black Burn (Mega Man ZX Area O music) and Pushing Onwards (VVVVVV yellow area music)
* Gurumin main theme (appears in various tracks in the Gurumin soundtrack, such as the title theme "Phantom Days") and Splatoon second final boss theme
Why? No real reason. Just that they're notable, and both Gurumin's and ZX's soundtracks deserve more love.
Exterminate (Symphogear GX OP)
終わりの世界から
G# minor
終わりの世界から
MM3 Wily stage 1
Wheel Gator
Gauntlet
Skull Man
Ab minor
Kibou ni Tsuite
Yamato Man
Black Burn
Toad Man
only my railgun
Level 5 -Judgelight-
Freedom Planet final boss themes
Cossack stage 1
not sure
Napalm Man
Pushing Onwards/Positive Force/Pressure Cooker
Exterminate
Knight Man
Why do these classifications fall this way in my mind?
I really don't know.
I really want to know, though.
Hit rate: 100%
Sample size: 3
Also, if I recall correctly, it also has a style of singing that one might characterize as "draggy"or "lazy". How To Save a Life also has this problem.