Is there a music analysis of Wreck-It Ralph anywhere? (I'm sure there is) Cuz I've been listening to the soundtrack and ... EHEHHEHEH.. I love musical character motifs
I made a short video on an example I especially liked between Vanellope and King Candy :)
Basically he STOLE her leitmotif, like he stole everything else of hers
When the animation is accurate to piano proficiency and the score tells a compelling story 🤌
Ep 9: A melody... Watch TRIGUN STAMPEDE on Crunchyroll! https://got.cr/cc-ts9Crunchyroll Collection brings you the latest clips, openings, f
*cracks knuckles*
It's time to put my music degree and 20+ years of performing to fandom use. I'm gonna deep-dive into a music analysis of "Duet" and the care Orange put into animating musicianship.
Let's first look at the animation!
Nai and Vash are both correctly playing the notes heard and in the correct form. Here's an interview with Trigun Stampede's composer, Tatsuya Kato!
Kato:
"For Knives - There are multiple scenes in this anime where Knives is playing the piano. In those piano scenes we had an actual pianist play the piano, and filmed them using multiple cameras to create the motion data. His piece combines his beautiful frailty with his huge ambitions and powers. His touching yet fierce impression is expressed through the duality of the minimal music that uses both orchestral and digital sounds quite boldly. Also, the melody of the plants’ song is based on Knives’ theme motif, which allows it to make the son an epic expression of tragedy and destiny."
-- from the Bernardelli Times Extra of the Trigun Stampede BluRay
Let's look at the score for "Duet."
The piece is composed in a minor, starting with Nai on the treble clef staves. The tone is hopeful in its theme despite the minor key, and we get a prelude to the plant theme.
When Vash joins in on the bass clef staves, the tempo is more than doubled and we hear an "agitation" in Nai's lines. Vash is also a few octaves below Nai, miles away in pitch. Sound like their story?
Looking at Vash's upper staff--while Nai is "on" the beat, Vash is off the beat (see highlighted figure). Their melodic lines are also ascending & descending away from each other in contrary motion. The rhythmic figures &melodic movement is causing the dissonance you hear.
This continues throughout the piece, each of the brother's hands becoming their voices and ideals clashing. That auditory dissonance created in the music showcases their struggle. Nai's part is more frantic and urgent, whereas Vash is holding steady with the bass line chords.
I like to think of Vash's sustained bass line as a motif to the steadfastness of his beliefs and ideals. Being true to himself.
"I'm Vash the Stampede."
As the piece goes on, both right hands of the brothers swap the rhythmic dissonance. Nai now on the off beats and Vash on the beat. Nai's repetitive figure on the subdivided 8th notes holds that tension, while his left hand is having the argument with Vash's right hand.
What's also interesting is that while sitting side-by-side for the duet, the hands closest to each other are the ones having the "conversation." There's a small parallel octave moment where they are as close as can be, physically & musically.
The outside hands are the dissonance.
Something else to note on the swapping of beat placement--the twins are both changing the meter within the meter from common to duple with the figures & subdivision.
It all comes to a head with an accelerando & both brothers playing forte.
(Brahms Symphony No. 1 anyone?)
During the climax of the piece, Nai is reduced down to the triplet moving line. It's frantic and desperate. Like fear and running.
(Check out Shubert's "Erlkönig" to learn more about these types of motifs.)
Meanwhile, Vash is pounding out the bass line and the plant theme.
"Duet" comes to an abrupt end with no tonal resolution; ending on the dominant chord. The sudden ending is also breaking up the phrasing, leaving the listener jarred and expecting more. Unresolved. And that's truly where we're at with Trigun Stampede.
My interpretation of "Duet" is that it's much like a tone poem, telling the story of two brothers. Vash and Nai's story isn't finished, and I'm guessing that "Duet" is an unfinished piece as well.
My personal predictions is that, if Tatsuya Kato is the composer for Trigun Stargaze, we're going to hear "Duet" become a complete musical composition that resolves the story and conflict between two brothers.
If you'd like to learn play "Duet" and analyze the score, here's a pretty good transcription on MuseScore:
The first time you hear Cal and Merrin’s love theme is during that moment when Greez asks him if he’s talked to Cere lately and Cal starts absentmindedly venting about Merrin. It starts playing during the line, “Things haven’t been the same since the team split up.” It’s not found on the score album but I’m pretty sure it’s the… pop version (lol) from the Cantina album.
I think my favourite part of Gift Of The Night Fury (musically speaking) is when Hiccup gives the new tail to Toothless. At the start of the scene we're listening to Toothless' theme in Forbidden Friendship, being complemented by Hiccup's theme at every second. However, the moment he sees the new tail and notices how it affects the symbiotic relationship between Hiccup and himself, we hear the same theme, but as it sounds on The Downed Dragon (wild, furious, ready to fly away from Hiccup the moment he gets the chance).
We obviously know this is how it sounds from Hiccup's perspective, as he really started thinking that Toothless had returned to the wild and abandoned him. This isn't true, and the music confirms it at the end of the short by playing the same music we listen when Hiccup wakes up after the big battle in the first movie. That moment is the ultimate bonding between Hiccup and Toothless, so we get to hear it again when Toothless shows Hiccup that he doesn't want to fly if it's not with him
I asked and y’all answered (special thanks to @schizoidwire and @the-aro-ace-arrow-ace and all the people who responded to my earlier post for encouraging me!), so it is time for how The Phantom of the Opera song introduction can be read as a look into Vanya’s self-narrative and also foreshadows future events in a really subtle and interesting way.
I’m channeling my inner Elliot and going into full conspiracy mode. This is gonna be a long one, y’all.
Part One: In Which I Expose Myself as a Former Theater Kid
So, for those who aren’t familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, it was originally a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux back in 1909. In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber rewrote it as a musical. For purposes of my analysis here, I am just going to be discussing the musical because 1) the score used in the opening scene is from it and 2) I’ve never read the book. (If anyone out there has read the book and wants to weigh in, please do!)
It’s a very aesthetic show, and draws on a lot of gothic themes and imagery. The plot follows an opera house, and specifically a young chorus girl named Christine Daaé. I’m not going to explain the whole show plot in detail because wikipedia exists, but I will do a quick overview here and point out some things as they relate to things I’ll be discussing later. Also there will be a test after and it will NOT be multiple choice.
The show begins when the opera house is sold to new owners who 1) just want to make money and 2) do not respect the opera house’s resident ghost (who isn’t really a ghost, but we’ll get to that later.) When the Phantom makes his presence known, and freaks out the resident prima donna singer (who will be relevant later) Carlotta, who says she won’t sing under these conditions. It is then that Christine appears. She’s quiet and humble and has always lived in the background, but is incredibly talented. The woman who runs the chorus (also owner of the opera house’s resident braincell) suggests Christine sing the part. She does, and is amazing. Everyone is blown away, and she’s catapulted into instant fame and success.
We later learn that Christine has been studying under the Phantom, who appears to her in mirrors. She calls him the Angel of Music, and thinks that he was sent to teach her by her recently deceased father. He isn’t. He’s actually pretty malicious, and is obsessed with Christine, wants to control her voice, and doesn’t like her dating anyone. Which is a bit awkward when her childhood friend shows up and promptly falls in love with her.
Anyways, Carlotta is jealous of the attention Christine has been getting and threatens to leave prompting the new owners to cut Christine from the program. The Phantom doesn’t like it at all, sends a bunch of letters, things escalate, people are murdered, and the whole first act ends with the chandelier falling from the ceiling and crashing onto the stage (which is done with really cool effects, oftentimes beginning the show hanging over the audience. It’s a BIG MOMENT and one of the most iconic ones from the show. This will also be relevant later.)
Act two takes place a few months later, wherein no one has seen the Phantom. Shock of all shocks, though, he’s not dead. He’s been writing an opera and he wants Christine to star in it. More stuff happens, you learn the backstory of the Phantom (which is pretty sad, ngl, but in no way makes him less of a creep) and the story ends with the Phantom kidnapping Christine and giving her an ultimatum: stay with him forever, or he kills Raoul (aka childhood friend/romantic interest guy). She agrees to stay with him and he’s so moved by her compassion that he lets them both go and disappears forever.
Part Two: Casting the Characters
That’s interesting, Rosie (note sarcasm) but you said this was about The Umbrella Academy? I did, in fact. So, we meet Vanya when she’s playing a medley of songs from The Phantom of the Opera. Since it’s primarily the melodies and not one of the orchestral pieces from her performance later (I don’t think), we can assume she’s just playing it for herself (which is nice! good on you, Vanya).
Maybe she’s never seen the play and just likes the score, but for purposes here, let’s assume she’s familiar with it.
You can tell a lot about a person by the stories they connect with (for example, I like TUA because I like fun sibling dynamics, found family, music, and being sad). And I think that it makes sense that The Phantom of the Opera would be a story that resonates with Vanya. The overlooked chorus girl finds power in music, and, after years in the background, is finally given a chance to show how special she is.
So, yeah. I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that Vanya sees herself as Christine. There are some discrepancies, sure, but this is Vanya’s self-narrative, which we learn pretty much immediately is unreliable. (Love her, but it’s true.) And if Vanya is Christine, then we can try and tap into her perspective to look at some other characters.
Anyways remember Carlotta (the prima donna opera singer who always got the spotlight and tried to destroy everything good that happened to Christine because she felt threatened that someone might be as good/better than her whose entire personality and role in the story I just summarized, rendering my plot recap useless)? Carlotta is how Vanya views Allison. (Kind of all her siblings, but her relationship with Allison is the most important here.)
Think about the scene in the cabin?
“You couldn’t risk me threatening your place in the house! You couldn’t handle the fact that Dad might find me special!” - Vanya, having a mental breakdown.
This always struck me as an interesting accusation to throw, since prior to this moment, I don’t think there was any indication that Allison had ever felt threatened by Vanya. She excluded her, sure, and wasn’t super friendly at times, but the idea that Allison has been pulling strings to keep Vanya out of her spotlight is new. But that is exactly the role Carlotta plays in Phantom.
Fun fact! At one point in the musical, the Phantom enchants Carlotta so that she loses her voice right before coming on stage.
Part Three: The Phantom of the Opera is there
So based on everything I’ve said so far, the most straightforward reading is then, that Leonard Peabody/Harold Jenkins (who for purposes here I’ll call Leonard) is the stand in for the Phantom, which works... really well. Both in helping to understand Vanya and also because it foreshadows the twist of season one in a really cool way.
So, the Phantom appears to Christine first not as an enemy, but as a friend and teacher, who encourages her to be more confident in her abilities. He trains her to develop her singing ability. While the teacher-student dynamic is actually inverted initially with Vanya and Leonard, from the get go, he is showering her with compliments, encouraging her to be confident in her abilities, and, at least on the surface, supporting her in a way she hasn’t been supported before (he’s a trash human but an expert manipulator).
But, in the play, the Phantom is also very possessive over Christine and her power (er, I mean voice). He also is perfectly willing to kill and/or hurt people who he views as standing in the way of Christine and her success (see the aforementioned Carlotta incident). Which is exactly what Leonard does to Vanya. He kills the first chair violinist to help her get it, and orchestrates a whole master plan to get her to reveal her powers on his terms.
Even the part where he starts “training” her to use her powers kind of resembles the second act of the play. The Phantom wrote a play for Christine and she’s going to star in it, whether she wants to or not.
(One could even make the argument of the parallels between Christine believing the Phantom was sent by her father to teach her and Leonard showing up because of his revenge scheme against Vanya’s father, but I honestly don’t have much support for that.)
Part Three: Two Conflicting Narratives
So, as you might’ve noticed, I sort of have two different threads of analysis going on right now. 1) The Phantom of the Opera parallel is part of Vanya’s self-narrative and in it she mischaracterizes Allison, making her more suspicious of her motivations and 2) Leonard Peabody is clearly the Phantom and doesn’t bother being subtle about it. I hope that I’ve been convincing (or at least intriguing) for you to get to this point, because here is where they come together.
Vanya has this parallel going, but she doesn’t see Leonard as the Phantom. In the beginning at least, he’s her Raoul. If I had to guess, I’d say Reginald Hargreeves is the Phantom in Vanya’s self-narrative (says he’ll train her but wants to manipulate her and keep her locked away for himself, strict teacher who doesn’t really care about her well being, wearing a mask to appear more normal/human... she wouldn’t exactly be wrong). Leonard, on the other hand, is Vanya’s supporter. He validates her, and believes in her, and taker her side when Carlotta and the opera house owners (er, the rest of the Hargreeves children) gang up on her and conspire to keep her out.
This is all building to, of course, the final confrontation. The Phantom says Christine has to pick one or the other. When Allison comes to talk to Vanya, Vanya feels as if she’s been given an ultimatum and lashes out.
And that’s where everything (including this parallel) starts to crumble.
(I honestly don’t know a lot about the other characters and how they fit in. I suppose we could have Five = Raoul if we ignore romance plot and focus on the childhood friend that hasn’t been seen in a while angle? And maybe also Pogo = Madame Giry. Vanya doesn’t really have any friends to be Meg.)
Part Four: It’s All About the Moon
So that is kind of the gist of The Phantom of the Opera as a window into Vanya’s self-narrative theory, but there are a couple of other loosely related ideas I thought I might as well bring up since this thing is already ridiculously long.
Remember how I mentioned the chandelier is like, THE scene from The Phantom of the Opera back in part one, and said it’d be relevant later? Bringing that back now, because I’m going to pull a Luther and connect everything to the moon.
So, to get the obvious out of the way, the moon exploding and the chandelier coming crashing to the stage are similar because something falls, breaks into a bunch of pieces, destroys a bunch of stuff, and creates a powerful and memorable image to close off before an act/season break (the next installment of which begins with a time jump).
Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that The Phantom of the Opera is told out of order. The opening scene shows a grown up Raoul at an auction for the items left behind after the opera house closes, and it switches to the past as the remains of the chandelier rise upwards to the ceiling, Phantom’s theme swelling (it’s a really cool moment, tbh). Following the prologue of The Umbrella Academy, we switch to the present with two images: Vanya alone on the stage, and then Luther alone on the moon. Which has a kind of symmetry that might mean nothing, but is still kind of cool.
(Also the item that Raoul buys from the auction is a music box with a monkey crashing symbols on top of it. Which might mean nothing.)
Part Five: How is she STILL talking about this? (AKA Conclusion)
To be honest, this is more a very tangled “things I noticed and thought were interesting” discussion than a formal essay with any clear thesis. While there is a chance that this was all coincidental and I’ve gone full Pepe Sylvia, the music selection in The Umbrella Academy is one of the things that they seem to be really deliberate about.
I would love to chat with anyone about this theory, so feel free to reach out in the notes or message me! My inbox is always open. Much love, and thank you for reading, if you got this far! ❤️
I have been listening to Christophe Beck’s Frozen (1) score incessantly and I’m discovering so many little gems inside. This is the second post in this series, the previous one was on the Elsa and Anna sisters theme. The next post in this series is going to reveal a JAW DROPPING discovery I made in the score that just blows my mind to smithereens. And that’s a pretty big deal considering how much my mind has already been blown by the F2 score.
This melancholic theme is hidden in the score, because it is quite soft in the actual movie or hidden by dialogue. The second reason it is hidden, is that on the CD track, this soft theme is sandwiched in between loud, fast moving music which may turn one off from listening to that track and just skip that track, which I did for years (I’ve owned the F1 double disc for 7 years).
The more I listened, I was shocked to find that this theme appears 5 times, so it’s a pretty major theme! To help us appreciate the track more, I have tweaked some of the audio to make the music louder where I thought it necessary, so don’t be surprised that the dialogue sounds soft - it’s intentional.
This theme is played when the movie portrays Kristoff’s love for Anna.
1. Kristoff carrying Anna back to the castle
The first instance of this theme is in Bminor. (It starts when Kristoff lowers Anna to the ground at the door) It is a melancholic theme played by the strings on the background of a gentle harp motif. The high strings have extra emotion - it’s a type of reverb effect that is applied, I think.
2. Kristoff feels sad to leave Anna with Hans
This one (in C#minor) caught me by surprise cos it’s not on the CD. I think Sven loves Anna too! I’m curious whether a reindeer can truly lift a man by its antlers? I just realised something - I always thought Sven made this face to describe disgust for Hans (and what an awesome face it is!):
BUT: Sven (and Kristoff) have never met Hans before!
Fun fact: Sven is voiced by the GOD of voice acting and cartoon animal sounds, Frank Welker. You may have heard of him as the voice of Abu, the Cave of Wonders (Aladdin); Pascal, Maximus (Tangled);...the list goes on...his nearly 6-decade long resume is amazing.
3. Olaf talks about Kristoff’s love
C#minor again. The notes are almost the same as in # 2. The theme is played very slowly here, again on the backdrop of the gentle harp motif. In the movie, it is really soft so I augmented the music volume.
4. Olaf sees Kristoff rushing back
The theme sounds a bit more cheerful as Olaf gets excited! The background music is active, to portray Kristoff’s galloping back on Sven.
5. Kristoff runs to Anna
In the last part of “Whiteout” (which is an AMAZING track that I will analyse separately) we hear the theme (in G#minor) as Kristoff runs to Anna to save her. Notes are more similar to # 4 than #1, 2, or 3, but it is still unmistakeably the theme.
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Lastly, we do not hear the theme during the epilogue sequence when Kristoff receives his new sled and kisses Anna. I think that’s because this theme would be too jarringly sad for the overall upbeat and happy feel of the Epilogue score.
Can’t wait to make the next post to share with you all my mega discovery!
Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite is a very cinematic-sounding piece, with each movement very different from the last, and it has inspired many film scores, particularly those about space movies.
1. Mars, the Bringer of War - if this sounds familiar, it’s because John Williams borrowed some of this for Star Wars. The skeletal sounding effect in the opening is col legno, a technique where the stick of the bow of a stringed instrument is bounced along the string. This movement has the feel of an army steadily approaching, or like a great warship moving through space. Clashes between different groups of instruments represent battles between opposing forces.
2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace - this movement is tranquil, lyrical, longing, and romantic. This is the sunlight that comes through the clouds after a battle in the rain, this is the sense of calm that envelops you after taking a deep breath.
3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger - the bubbling notes seem to take flight, just like Mercury does with aid of his winged sandals. This is light and quick, and the melody jumps from instrument to instrument as fast as Mercury can flit from place to place.
4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - this movement opens bright, vivacious, active, and very triumphant, like a proclamation of victory. The effervescent section transitions into a sweeping melody at 2:50, which you will probably recognize, as it has been adapted for various hymns and is the melody for “I Vow to Thee, My Country.”
5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age - the steady chords most prominently starting around 4:25 are like the hands of an enormous clock, and the later dissonant faster chords are like alarms - this movement represents the inevitable power of Father Time.
6. Uranus, the Magician - this is the realm of the trickster, the cunning, the powerful yet unknown. A certain magical - yet not necessarily entirely benevolent - quality pervades the movement. This character has influenced the portrayal of magic in film scores such as Harry Potter.
7. Neptune, the Mystic - this movement has an otherworldly quality to it -- one which has informed how the mysteries of space are represented in film scores today. Is this happy? Is this sad? It’s hard to pinpoint the exact emotion, and that is what makes Neptune so distinct. Additionally, this is one of the first pieces to have a fade out ending, with the sound of the women’s chorus gradually diminishing into silence.
