Veríssimo and Arnaldo's themes in the Ordem OST: An Analysis
hi. I spent entirely too much time on writing all this up but also I had a lot of fun with it. read my 3000 words of music post, boy. (& make sure to check the reblogs for the full version - I ran out of slots for videos to add)
1. Introduction
So! Ordem OST. I want to talk about Veríssimo and Arnaldo’s respective leitmotifs, where they show up in the OST, how they vary across different tracks, and how this lets the music reflect the characters as well!
Disclaimers: I do not claim to be an expert in music theory, nor do I claim this to necessarily be fully accurate. I'm also sure this has probably all already been said at some point - this is just me having fun based on my own observations.
Major spoilers for Desconjuração, Calamidade, O Segredo na Ilha, Sinais do Outro Lado and Hexatombe, as well as some minor ones for Enigma do Medo, ahead.
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2. Veríssimo, Arnaldo, and their themes
2.1 Veríssimo
Veríssimo’s theme is everywhere in the OST. We most regularly see it representing the man himself, of course, but especially in recent seasons, it’s also come to represent Arthur, as well as the Order as a whole.
So, what does this leitmotif look like? Well, ignoring the bass/chords for a minute, like this!
“but echo i can’t read sheet music” okay well then listen to this version Dumativa made for the Enigma do Medo soundtrack:
The first time we hear this theme is in Veríssimo from the Desconjuração soundtrack (the leitmotif itself kicks in at the 0:46 timestamp):
It’s also in Olhos Sempre Abertos (OPD), where it plays for the dramatic hour-of-need arrival of Veríssimo and the other agents during the final battle against Kian (timestamp 1:25):
Moving on to Calamidade, it’s in Líder, which is basically just OPD’s Veríssimo but remade to fit better with the OPC soundtrack’s instrumentation (timestamp 0:20):
and in O Que Veríssimo Sabe, where it’s slightly less recognisable, but it’s still there (timestamp 0:27). The strings in the background play a version closer to what we know, while the violins in the foreground are more hectic and tense about it, and only stick to the minimal structure of the theme, leaving out a lot in the middle and making it very different rhythmically. This is the track for a tense final battle situation - there’s no time to play out the calm and serious Veríssimo theme that we’re used to.
These four tracks are the times in the “main storyline” seasons that we see Veríssimo represented musically. They’re also all in the key of D minor (which we’ll come back to later).
(Verity and The Office from the Enigma do Medo soundtrack also both contain this leitmotif in reference to Veríssimo himself, though in The Office, it’s featured in B minor and F# minor instead. I’m not going to spend much time on EdM here, but it’s still worth mentioning.)
Putting a pin in Veríssimo for now, let’s talk about…
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2.2 Arnaldo
Arnaldo also gets a leitmotif, yay! His is a bit more complex, and I’d divide it into three parts, each of which is notable/recognisable in its own way.
First is the basic chord progression, which goes E - A - C - D.
“echo those are just letters” OKAY well listen to the start of Arnaldo Fritz from Calamidade to hear them:
Sound familiar? Remind you of a different track? Yeah, we’ll get to that in a sec.
Second is what I’ve been calling the “fast piano” part, which goes as follows:
“that looks like a lot” yeah I know that’s why I call it the fast piano. Skip to 0:31 in Arnaldo Fritz to take a listen.
And the third part is… not actually in this track.
“echo why are you calling it part of arnaldo’s theme if it’s not actually in his theme” It’s in lots of other Arnaldo tracks! Even if it’s not in this version. So let’s take a look at a different one - O Anfitrião.
Recognise the beginning? It’s the same chords! This track stays on just those for a while. But if we skip to 1:03, we get a new element - a continuous repeated segment of just a C and a B. This is what I’d call the third part of Arnaldo’s theme - and we’ll see more of it in a bit.
And finally, at 1:35, the fast piano kicks in - just as a synth, not a piano. (This is an Energia track, after all.)
“so why isn’t this C-B thing in the other theme” Well, we can answer that by having a look at what is in Arnaldo Fritz instead! If we take another listen, then at 1:04 we can hear some violins in the background that are playing a new melody! It does occasionally pass over a C-B, but it doesn’t stay there - it’s busy playing a second melody of its own. Which is fun! This isn’t in any of his other tracks, but I’d argue it represents him as a fully developed Order agent, in a way we don’t otherwise see him in canon. He hasn’t lost himself to the Host yet, but he’s also developed from the past version of him we see in SDOL. (Though more on SDOL in a second.)
These are not the only two tracks in OPC that contain Arnaldo’s theme - it’s also in all the other Anfitrião-related tracks, which by my count include Amphitruo, Reliquia de Energia, Eu Sou O Caos, and Escolha Errada. These feature some or all of these three parts to varying degrees, and do some interesting variations on the theme as well, but they’re not my main focus here, so I’m going to skip the elaboration on that part for now. Suffice to say the Arnaldo theme and the Anfitrião tracks are very much intertwined (for obvious reasons).
Also, Arnaldo’s theme is in the key of E minor. Remember that for later.
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2.3 So What's The Deal With SDOL?
2.3.1 The two themes in SDOL
Sinais do Outro Lado is interesting for many reasons (it's my favourite season! but that’s not important to this post), but one of those reasons is the fact that it’s set in the 90s, 25 years before the rest of the Ordem storyline. Nevertheless, we get appearances of both Veríssimo’s and Arnaldo’s themes - yay!
I’ll talk about Arnaldo Fritz (Sinais do Outro Lado) first:
Sounds funky! We have some different instrumentation to make it fit the SDOL soundtrack’s vibe better, but it’s still Arnaldo’s theme. Skip to 0:31 - there's that C-B.
Where’s the fast piano? Well, it’s not in this version, actually! If Arnaldo Fritz gets to skip a part, so does this one, I guess. The main thing characteristic to Arnaldo’s theme in SDOL is that C-B - we’ll get more of that in a second!
“what’s going on with the chords though,” you may ask. “didn’t you just tell us the chords why are they different now”
And well, yes! The chords in this version of Arnaldo’s theme are also different. The ones we know from the OPC tracks are gone, and instead replaced with a simple E - D - C - C. This matches with the rest of the SDOL soundtrack, which I admittedly haven’t fully analysed, but from what I’ve seen, it fits. We could also interpret this as the E - A - C - D progression from the OPC tracks representing his involvement with the Host, and the fact that it’s missing from this track just shows that he hasn’t gotten into all that yet.
On the other hand, we have Veríssimo:
Which sounds… different? The melody is missing some parts. It’s not the clear theme we know from the present-day soundtrack - we can see the gaps where parts of the theme are missing, and it’s slower, feels a bit more hesitant. It’s not fully formed yet, one could say - he’s yet to become the person we see in the future.
Now listen to 0:32. A higher piano part comes in, playing… a C and a B. That’s Arnaldo’s theme! In the Veríssimo track! (<- correction: this is not true. i misheard a note. disregard) And, if you check the key, this Veríssimo is in E minor, rather than the modern-day Veríssmo’s D minor - same as Arnaldo’s theme. (<-this is still true though)
If we keep listening to this part, we’ll also notice that the higher piano part in this track continues on to play more of the Veríssimo theme we know, but also keeps coming back to that C-B that isn’t part of the motif, even in this key - that’s still just Arnaldo, intertwined into the Veríssimo motif. (disregard also due to said misheard note)
I don’t think I need to elaborate much on how that represents the characters’ situation too. This is in the early days of Veríssimo being the leader of the Order. Arnaldo is still here, and Veríssimo is still relying on having him around. They’re a team, and that’s reflected in their intertwined themes and matching key signature in Veríssimo’s music.
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2.3.2 But Wait, There's More
SDOL has another track I’d like to discuss! Quem É o Agente do Futuro? is titled for a (top-tier, btw) joke made by Guizo in episode 2, but it only plays at the very end of the SDOL finale, when Os Três are found in their capsules by the Order 25 years later:
And hey, that’s Arnaldo’s theme again! Almost the same chords (E - D - C - D); though it going back up to D at the end is new - Arnaldo Fritz (Sinais do Outro Lado) just lingers on the C chord for another measure instead. And we have the C-B in this track as well!
Then at 0:39, the violins kick in with this:
Half of that is just the Arnaldo C-B again:
But what about the rest in between? Following those four measures I outlined above, it goes G - F# - E - F#:
Which, sure, that’s just four notes - and maybe that’s all it is. But if we adjust the note lengths a little, we get this:
Which is the beginning of Veríssimo’s theme, in E minor! So the version we heard in SDOL. And I’ve already mentioned that at times, this theme can represent the Order as a whole, not just Veríssimo himself. So I think that fits, and it’s fun to interpret this as the theme being present in this track, even if it’s more subtle!
“wait so why is arnaldo’s theme here” Because Dante is here! Because this takes us to my next segment…
(which, as it turns out, I'm going to have to add in a reblog, because tumblr only allows 10 video embeds per post and I have more music to link. stay tuned)