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Evil Pomni sketch cuz I need to jump back on the TADC wagon after my hiatus

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Quick sketch of a character from the comic project I'm working on hehe

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2024.03~2024.05

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He couldn't silly his way out of this one.

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she angy

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I made more hehe

Close-ups:

Gummigoo doodle I just made (I woke up early to a class that got cancelled)

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Gummigoo doodle I just made (I woke up early to a class that got cancelled)

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When the animation is accurate to piano proficiency and the score tells a compelling story 🤌

*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:

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Oh yeah here's this whole argument if you guys wanted that.

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I NEED MORE OF THEM!!

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I found a communal board in one of my university buildings. And of course I had to draw on it ;)

Close-ups and more under the cut

Process:

This one took me 2 hours straight to make. No breaks, drawing above my head because the space in the wall was too tall for me. My back and right arm still hurt 🫠

Close-ups:

Bonus: this lion doodle. It's really cute and thanks to it I noticed the board.

Inspo:

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Some doodles I made during my psychoanalysis class hehe

Close-ups under the cut!

Alt. Version with no text

Inspo: this silly guy I found at my Uni

I was joking with a friend and we thought "Christmas Barnaboo lol"

Then I said, "Christmas Barnaby is missing"

And of course I had to fix that >:)

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REF SHEET TIMEEE WOWOWOWAGAIDY

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please excuse my thespian vernacular, when i say "THOU ART GOING DOWN!"

i wanted to do a doodle of fantoccio from @billiebustupofficial as a warmup today, because his song's been stuck in my head for a bit! michael is such an unbelievably good fit for his voice, i'm so excited to see more of this game!! also, Don't Starve font jumpscare. thought it looked neat :3

obligatory barnaby in the corner of the page <3

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VASH IN HIGH HEELS!

(comm info/ kofi support)

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