melodycalypso

[melodycalypso]

[melodycalypso]

Roland: We have to plan, we have to figure something out.

Tani: When have any of our plans ever actually worked? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose.

[melodycalypso]

Ok so new headcannon:

Oliver loves Noah Kahan and his favorite songs are either New Perspective and/or All My Love

Also I’ve decided it’s officially Ni No Kuni summer guys. I started a new play-through of Wrath of the White Witch and I’m having a blast!!

[melodycalypso]

Hiya!! I did this a while back and though it would be good to get a vote again on what piece to look at next. Also I know I already mention it enough, but I really am thankful for the support I am getting with this series! Music is a passion of mine and I appreciate the opportunity to talk to this community about the music of these games since it is so special to me. I could quite literally yap for hours about it and I am grateful that there are people that are interested in hearing it. Anyways, make sure to vote below and I’ll see y’all soon!

[melodycalypso]

[melodycalypso]

I believe Esther would be a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan and you can’t change my mind🙃🙃

[melodycalypso]

Of course!! Awww no thank you, I’m so glad you liked it!

Hahaha, well I’m glad you learned something from it! I’ll try and make another one soon since I have more time and they’re super fun to do😁😁

Ni No Kuni Music Analysis: “Toppled Throne”, Joe Hisaishi

Guess who’s back, back again! Grab a blanket, snack, and beverage of your choice because it is time for another music analysis!!

Today, we will be looking into “Toppled Throne”, continuing our journey through Revenant Kingdom. Thanks to the suggestion from @noctibert in the tags of my last post in the series, this one’s for you!

As always, a link to the piece is provided here so you can listen along. Without further delay, let’s get started!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

0:00-0:10 - I didn’t really think about this until I listened to the piece, but our man Joe Hisaishi must have an appreciation for percussion. He crafts some really interesting moments with what seems to be a bunch of different instruments throughout both games’ soundtracks. This opening phrase with what seems to be some claves can be thought of as mimicking a heart beat in my opinion with its steady rhythm. The timpani then leads into when the rest of the ensemble comes in.

0:10-0:22 - So, before discussing further, I want to explain something to y’all about music history. I might have hinted at it before, but the history of music is characterized between four main periods being Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century/Modern. Currently, we are in the last period labeled as 20th Century/Modern. Until now, all of the pieces I have analyzed in this series never really felt like modern music with characteristics imitating each of the three older historic groups . “Toppled Throne”, however, definitely fits that stereotype and also into a sub genre called minimal music. This sub genre is defined from Wikipedia as being “… a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical elements.”

You might be thinking to yourself, “Woah Emma, that’s a lot of words that don’t make sense!” (Also… name reveal! Took me a while, but I figured it was time to share it with y’all😊) Fear not though! All it really boils down to is that there is no clear melody or tune of the piece. This creates a sort of atmospheric effect that helps further submerge you into the idea the composer is trying to display through their writing. In this case, the music is trying to place you directly into the coup as if you’re there along with Roland and Evan trying to escape!

One of the main characteristics of minimal music is repetition. The strings seem to be playing a group of the same 5ish notes on loop. Then, at around the end of this time stamp, you hear the main motif (small music theme) of the piece in the trumpets playing a series of the same note that gradually gets louder. The director for my university’s Wind Ensemble always tells the class that he believe that every time there’s repeated notes in a piece, it adds stress. That sentament is definitely proven true in this piece.

00:22-00:39 - There seems to be a sort of call and response section here. Notice the continued patterns and repetition also. Nothing is really changing much in the music and there is no real form in regard to organization going on here. We seem to hear Hisaishi play around with some syncopated rhythms (rhythms starting bit on the main beat) here also. I invite you to listen to this passage again while tapping your foot to find a pulse to identify the syncopation!

0:39-0:50 - A theme emerges from what seems to be the french horns and violins. It’s the only real melody of the piece that presents to me as a sort of battle cry of a warrior or hero. French horns have been depicted in other forms of music, to my knowledge in opera, as representing heroic characters. This further connects me to then think of Roland and how he is making the best out of the situation he is in to save Evan from the travesty currently taking place when this music is being played in the game. This definitely paints Roland as heroic. You can’t hear the french horns very well, but I am excited to hear them nonetheless and imagine this is maybe why Hisaishi decided to give them the melody.

0:50-0:58 - This sort of building section here gives a sense of anxiety to say it bluntly. The woven web of repeated notes across both the strings and woodwinds all crescendoing into the next section here, makes your heart race and think that a palace guard will pop out of nowhere and initiate a fight!

0:59-1:08 - I love this new variation of the main motif added here by the strings!! This section to me is also a very strong display of minimal music. There are multiple small themes being playing by groups of instruments that don’t exactly seem to fit together. One doesn’t necessarily seem to be more important than the others and you can’t pick out a true melody to hum along to. The music is just… there, and it’s so cool!!

1:09-1:19 - Still a continuation of minimalism here but with a slight building sensation. I didn’t mention before, but the sharp or staccato (a short articulation style often executed by playing half of the written note’s value; it is marked as a period/dot on top of the note (“.”)) articulation of notes here and there, really accentuates the feelings of fear and anxiety brought forth from the music.

1:19-end - The music seems to present more of a worried feeling here. More reflective rather than anxious or hyperactive. The danger is gone, for now, and we made it to the sewers in hopes of escaping. True to minimal music, the ending kinda comes out of thin air. This makes your ears wait to hear what comes next, but all you hear is a long note fading into silence as you are left with an uneasy feeling in your stomach…

And that’s that! The whole minimal music discussion only came into thought once I started listening and really analyzing the music. It was really cool to connect those dots and explore the genre more.

As I previously mentioned, I have experience playing minimal music in my university’s Wind Ensemble. One piece in particular we played this past semester was called “Deep Underground” by Roger Zare. I won’t go into full detail about the piece here because that would take forever to explain, but I encourage you to go and research as well as listen to the piece if you feel like this style of music is interesting to you.

What is my objective in telling you this? It’s to lead into presenting my opinion that I am not a fan of playing or listening to minimal music. For me, I believe the repetitive rhythms can get old quickly and are sometimes hard to count and know when to come in on. HOWEVER, even though I am not a huge fan of minimal music, I believe Joe Hisaishi makes a convincing example by incorporating a little twang of charm in the music via his always clever orchestration and musical ideas.

As always, let me know any more of your suggestions and I hope you had a fun time reading through my analysis! I think I want to go back to the first game again so I’d like to hear suggestions for that preferably. Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you later, byeeeeeeee!!

[melodycalypso]

I believe Esther would be a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan and you can’t change my mind🙃🙃

[melodycalypso]

Ni No Kuni Music Analysis: “Toppled Throne”, Joe Hisaishi

Guess who’s back, back again! Grab a blanket, snack, and beverage of your choice because it is time for another music analysis!!

Today, we will be looking into “Toppled Throne”, continuing our journey through Revenant Kingdom. Thanks to the suggestion from @noctibert in the tags of my last post in the series, this one’s for you!

As always, a link to the piece is provided here so you can listen along. Without further delay, let’s get started!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

0:00-0:10 - I didn’t really think about this until I listened to the piece, but our man Joe Hisaishi must have an appreciation for percussion. He crafts some really interesting moments with what seems to be a bunch of different instruments throughout both games’ soundtracks. This opening phrase with what seems to be some claves can be thought of as mimicking a heart beat in my opinion with its steady rhythm. The timpani then leads into when the rest of the ensemble comes in.

0:10-0:22 - So, before discussing further, I want to explain something to y’all about music history. I might have hinted at it before, but the history of music is characterized between four main periods being Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century/Modern. Currently, we are in the last period labeled as 20th Century/Modern. Until now, all of the pieces I have analyzed in this series never really felt like modern music with characteristics imitating each of the three older historic groups . “Toppled Throne”, however, definitely fits that stereotype and also into a sub genre called minimal music. This sub genre is defined from Wikipedia as being “… a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical elements.”

You might be thinking to yourself, “Woah Emma, that’s a lot of words that don’t make sense!” (Also… name reveal! Took me a while, but I figured it was time to share it with y’all😊) Fear not though! All it really boils down to is that there is no clear melody or tune of the piece. This creates a sort of atmospheric effect that helps further submerge you into the idea the composer is trying to display through their writing. In this case, the music is trying to place you directly into the coup as if you’re there along with Roland and Evan trying to escape!

One of the main characteristics of minimal music is repetition. The strings seem to be playing a group of the same 5ish notes on loop. Then, at around the end of this time stamp, you hear the main motif (small music theme) of the piece in the trumpets playing a series of the same note that gradually gets louder. The director for my university’s Wind Ensemble always tells the class that he believe that every time there’s repeated notes in a piece, it adds stress. That sentament is definitely proven true in this piece.

00:22-00:39 - There seems to be a sort of call and response section here. Notice the continued patterns and repetition also. Nothing is really changing much in the music and there is no real form in regard to organization going on here. We seem to hear Hisaishi play around with some syncopated rhythms (rhythms starting bit on the main beat) here also. I invite you to listen to this passage again while tapping your foot to find a pulse to identify the syncopation!

0:39-0:50 - A theme emerges from what seems to be the french horns and violins. It’s the only real melody of the piece that presents to me as a sort of battle cry of a warrior or hero. French horns have been depicted in other forms of music, to my knowledge in opera, as representing heroic characters. This further connects me to then think of Roland and how he is making the best out of the situation he is in to save Evan from the travesty currently taking place when this music is being played in the game. This definitely paints Roland as heroic. You can’t hear the french horns very well, but I am excited to hear them nonetheless and imagine this is maybe why Hisaishi decided to give them the melody.

0:50-0:58 - This sort of building section here gives a sense of anxiety to say it bluntly. The woven web of repeated notes across both the strings and woodwinds all crescendoing into the next section here, makes your heart race and think that a palace guard will pop out of nowhere and initiate a fight!

0:59-1:08 - I love this new variation of the main motif added here by the strings!! This section to me is also a very strong display of minimal music. There are multiple small themes being playing by groups of instruments that don’t exactly seem to fit together. One doesn’t necessarily seem to be more important than the others and you can’t pick out a true melody to hum along to. The music is just… there, and it’s so cool!!

1:09-1:19 - Still a continuation of minimalism here but with a slight building sensation. I didn’t mention before, but the sharp or staccato (a short articulation style often executed by playing half of the written note’s value; it is marked as a period/dot on top of the note (“.”)) articulation of notes here and there, really accentuates the feelings of fear and anxiety brought forth from the music.

1:19-end - The music seems to present more of a worried feeling here. More reflective rather than anxious or hyperactive. The danger is gone, for now, and we made it to the sewers in hopes of escaping. True to minimal music, the ending kinda comes out of thin air. This makes your ears wait to hear what comes next, but all you hear is a long note fading into silence as you are left with an uneasy feeling in your stomach…

And that’s that! The whole minimal music discussion only came into thought once I started listening and really analyzing the music. It was really cool to connect those dots and explore the genre more.

As I previously mentioned, I have experience playing minimal music in my university’s Wind Ensemble. One piece in particular we played this past semester was called “Deep Underground” by Roger Zare. I won’t go into full detail about the piece here because that would take forever to explain, but I encourage you to go and research as well as listen to the piece if you feel like this style of music is interesting to you.

What is my objective in telling you this? It’s to lead into presenting my opinion that I am not a fan of playing or listening to minimal music. For me, I believe the repetitive rhythms can get old quickly and are sometimes hard to count and know when to come in on. HOWEVER, even though I am not a huge fan of minimal music, I believe Joe Hisaishi makes a convincing example by incorporating a little twang of charm in the music via his always clever orchestration and musical ideas.

As always, let me know any more of your suggestions and I hope you had a fun time reading through my analysis! I think I want to go back to the first game again so I’d like to hear suggestions for that preferably. Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you later, byeeeeeeee!!

[melodycalypso]

Why are all the moms dead. Like I know the real reason is misogynistic biases in writing but actually why is every mother dead except Drippy's. The entire playable cast has one mom to go around and she dies before you unlock menu options. Even Cassiopeia doesn't have a canon mom. Nicky has no canon mom. Denny and Phil don't even get parents. Even the Tales of Wonder only ever talk about fathers (the literal only exception is #6)

Myrtle winning once again by having a named living mother with a couple lines of dialogue💪💪

WAIT FAIRY GODMOTHER DOESN'T EVEN GET A NAME. SHE’S JUST "THE FAIRY GODMOTHER" OR "DRIPPY'S MOM". GET A GRIP LEVEL 5. THE WOMEN

[melodycalypso]

Fan-Fiction Recommendation and Music Analysis Series Update

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34210723?view_full_work=true

If you’re ever in need of a Ni No Kuni 2 fan-fic recommendation, I HIGHLYYYYY recommend this one. When I tell you I have a tab with this link open on my phone and routinely check for a new chapter like every other week… I’m not lying to you! It’s that good. The characters are great, the story is great, and when I first found it I was glued to reading it for like a solid 2 days. Go show some love to the author and enjoy their work by reading it with the link up top, it’s an experience I doubt you’ll regret!

Also, for those waiting on me to continue my music analysis series, I’ll make another post soon, I promise!! Working 2 jobs this past college semester along with school definitely decreased most of my free time. I’ll try and get that out soonish since I enjoy sharing my thoughts with y’all regarding that topic!

Anyways, go read that fan-fic and I hope you have a good day or night when this finds you!!🤗🤗

[melodycalypso]

I love Esther being a music major! That actually made me laugh out loud😂😂

Helloooo Ni No Kuni fandom!! Wanted to draw a silly with these guys bc I love them dearly I hope you enjoy <3

[melodycalypso]

Hello 👋,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Aziz, and I’m reaching out with a heartfelt plea to help my family find safety and reunite with our mother. 😞

The ongoing war in Gaza has torn my family apart. My mother and newborn sister are stranded in Egypt, while I, along with the rest of my sex family members, am trapped in the midst of the genocide in Gaza. We have not only been separated but have also lost our home and are enduring unimaginable hardships. 💔

Your support can make a difference. Whether by reading our story, donating, or sharing our campaign with others, you can help us reunite, find safety, and start anew. 🙏🕊

Thank you, from the depths of my heart, for your kindness, compassion, and solidarity during this difficult time. ❤🍉

https://gofund.me/58268669 🔗

❤️❤️❤️

[melodycalypso]

Anyone know Ni No Kuni? SoO glad I replayed that game, was better then I remembered. I love the silly welsh fairy. Anyway, fanert

[melodycalypso]

Flash warning and Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch spoilers

I wanted to do an edit for wrath of the white witch since it was such a big part of my childhood and it was one of my first hyper fixations. I read the extra info on all the kingdoms and forgot that wasn’t common knowledge when mentioning something about Perdida to my brother Bark. Yet somehow despite my obsession, it took years for Bark to make me realise it’s set in the fifties. I thought America was just like that.

[melodycalypso]

Ni No Kuni Music Analysis: “Kingdom by the Sea”, Joe Hisaishi

It’s been a long time coming… haha get the reference? Lol I’m not here to talk about Taylor Swift, but I’ve thought of doing a post talking about which Ni No Kuni characters embody which TS album era… thoughts?

ANYWAYS, I’m finally back doing another soundtrack analysis! This time we’re jumping ship to Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom! This game is just as special to me as the first one and the piece we will be looking at today is one of my favorites the soundtrack. As always, the piece is linked at the bottom of the post for your listening. So grab a snack and get comfy!!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This piece is really calming and brings together the charm of Hideopolis! Also be aware that since now that I’ve taken more music history and form and analysis classes, this analysis will go ALL IN😂😂

0:00-0:07: The combination of harp, strings, steel pan?, and possibly other percussion instruments at the start gives me the feeling of bubbles floating by… idk it just does lol.

0:07-0:15: Also I’m loving all this syncopated rhythm! To briefly explain, rhythm is measured in counts: 1 2 3 4 (since the time signature is probably 4/4?? Or at least that’s what it sounds and feels like when I tap my foot lol). Syncopation occurs when you play on the second half of the beat or the “and”/& count. This creates a fun, groovy rhythm!!

0:15-0:26: The strings in the background from their entrance up til here, create a haunting texture with some spooky minor chords. The lower voiced strings also seem to be playing a familiar tune! This is the Habanera form the Carmen opera. I remember studying about this piece and having to memorize what it sounded like for my music literature class my last spring semester lol. I recommend listening to a recording of the Habanera from Carmen, it’s a great song!

0:27-0:1:02: A moment of silence… BECAUSE THIS MELODY IS SO GOOD!!😭

Alright alright, I’ll calm down. But the flowing melodic line crafted in the strings stirs this romantic, elegant, and eerie feeling inside you. It almost makes you want to sing along with it…just me?😅

It also plays a lot with dissonance that I’m assuming are leading tones. Brief theory lesson number 2: a major or minor scale is made up of 8 notes with 1 and 8 being the same note. The seventh note of the scale, when used harmonically, reallyyyyyyy wants to go back to 1 (or 8) on the next note. Or at least that’s what your ears tell you.

1:05-1:23: We get some woodwind voices popping in using what I believe is pitch bending on the long notes at the end of their phrases.

After some research, this instrumental extended technique—aka cool skill that is defined as pushing the limits to see what other sounds an instrument can make—is basically what it sounds like: taking a note or an instrument and bending the pitch so it comes out either flat(lower) or sharp(higher). And after putting my tuner up to the speaker of my iPad, it’s concluded that the pitch is bending flat.

1:23-1:43: Strings come back in continuing with the previous melody. Seems to be a variation or maybe even fragmentation of the previous theme.

1:43-1:52: I’m not sure since if a clarinet, oboe, or flute voice comes in during this part. The strings seem to be playing in the same register. I want to say it’s an oboe lol.

1:52-end: The same whimsical syncopation comes back in from the start and is decrescendo-ed to finish out the piece.

Another occurring theme of this piece is the use of dynamics, crescendos and decrescendos, to possibly imitate the sound of the ocean!

And that’s it!! I enjoyed looking at this piece and I hope you also enjoyed me yappin about it! Let me know your thoughts and what piece from the soundtrack you’d like me to tackle next! See y’all later!🤗🤗

[melodycalypso]

you ever think about the fact that they stayed in the past for several days longer than they needed to and it’s very much implied that swaine was the one holding them back. bc I do