Ethan Wang IB Music Blog

Medium: Piano and Double Bass Tonal Center: Goes through many different key changes, switches between major and minor keys. Piece starts in Eb Major, ends in C Minor.  Time Signature: 3/4 Tempo: 101 BPM Texture: Polyphonic Form: 32 bars.  Melodic Devices: Mostly conjunct, but there are also some disjunct intervals in the piece. Compromised of 8-bar measures. Uses the pentatonic scale.  Main Harmonic Ideas: Borrowed Chords -Given that there are so many key changes, it's often hard to tell what key it's in -There are borrowed chords being littered throughout the song: the most prominent example is the chord being played last: for instance, despite being a D minor chord, there is a B-natural being played, which is an accidental.   

Analyzing Video Game Music: Breath of the Wild’s Main Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPWBG6_jn4Y The music I will be analyzing is Breath of the Wild’s “Main Theme”, simply listed as “Track 1” in the official soundtrack. Composed by Manaka Kataoka in early 2016, this was initially written for Breath of the Wild’s trailer at the E3 of the same year. This is a super unique piece that I’ve never heard anywhere else, and is one of my favorite video game themes to this day. Although it utilizes an European orchestral theme, modern synthesizers and ancient traditional instruments, such as Shinobue and Ehru, are also blended into the composition.  The piano opens and closes the piece; European orchestral instrumentation such as strings, horns, and percussion are also present in the tune. There is some special instrumentation, with the Shinobue, a Japanese flute is traditionally made of bamboo and characteristically gives off a sweet, high registered sound, and an ehru , a double ...