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OK, I have to admit I'm a huge Video game music buff. To me, a good soundtrack adds to the fun factor of games; invoking fear, excitement or sadness. So with that, I am starting this; every Wednesday, I'm putting one piece of music from a game under the spotlight, and talk about what makes it such a great piece. Without further ado...Final Fantasy V for the Super Nintendo, which recently saw a remake on the Game Boy Advance, has been lauded for its excellent job system, and fun gameplay. The soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, was actually a bit hit-and-miss. There were quite a few tunes that were forgettable. However, FFV has some of the best battle music of any Final Fantasy game. In particular, the song 'Clash on the Big Bridge' is a fan favorite. However, I feel there's a piece that beats out this one for the best music in the game. That song is the song that plays when you face off against the villain, ExDeath. I'm talking about 'The Decisive Battle.' [mpeg width="250" height="20"]http://www.thebbps.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/16-nobuo-uematsu-the-decisive-battle.mp3[/mpeg] Hit the jump for a detailed analysis of the song.
This song has an incredible sense of finality and tension, established from the get go with a brief, four note beginning that is repeated, with strings mingling and brief thumps on a drum. Then, an awesome drum beat, unaccompanied save for a guitar strumming a single note,comes in and really sets the mood. Then, the strings return, playing chords for a short while, with the drum beat continuing. Then, the drums take a backseat to a horn, which comes in to back up the strings with the main melody. Then the bass sets a rhythm that will be used for pretty much the rest of the song, adding extra backbone to the tune. We hear some more chords, now staccato, accented with drumbeats. We then break into the main melody, with the bass repeating the underlying set of notes, with two sets of strings, one high, one low, playing a tune consisting of mainly half-notes(or minims, depending on how you were taught music), creating a concord that drums up the tension nicely, with a quiet backup alternating between drum and cymbal very quickly. Halfway through, the guitar joins in briefly and quickly slams in three quick high notes to introduce the second half. Once the brief strings bit is finished, the horn comes in with a short series of slightly discordant notes, each one accented with a drum beat again. Then, the strings return, similar to the previous, only with bigger jumps, sounding quite a bit different. Then, the strings take a backseat to the horn, bringing out a new melody, this one slightly more upbeat than the rest of the tune, backed up by the strings playing long, almost stepwise upwards movement, and percussion. Shortly after this, the guitar returns, playing short notes, and a new instrument is introduced; the flute, which plays a high, somewhat sinister tune. Near the end, the strings come in to help give the flute a sendoff, before taking over with the main tune, with an even more foreboding and sinister melody, with drum beats and the guitar going up and down an octave to back it up. This is then repeated, but now the powerful beat from the beginning comes in as well. Then, the horn joins the higher group of strings with the main melody, with cymbal crashes complementing the drum beat nicely. Finally, we have a series of long notes done on the guitar and strings, with the bass doing its own short melody. This is then repeated, only a few semitones down. The bass plays one last brief set of notes before the tune goes right back to the main melody. This tune has always struck me as one of my favorites. I'm surprised I was able to write so much about it. Maybe I'll pick a shorter song next week. Have any tunes you want me to analyze? Drop me a line at
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. Can't wait for next week!
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I can already tell I'll be looking forward to this every week.