What Makes a GOOD Leitmotif? | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky

[Music] late motifs are like the cool older brother of music theory concepts there are tons of examples of late motifs and film and game music of small musical ideas that represent a character or theme in a larger work and almost as many examples of essays YouTube videos and forum posts breaking down examples of late motifs and our favorite soundtracks and analyzing how they contribute to our favorite stories today I want to take a bit of a different approach and talk about how to write a light motif or what musical qualities separate the cool older brother motifs from the snotty younger brother dweebs of course the effectiveness of a late motif in a piece of media is going to be dependent on the story it is accompanying how emotionally resonant the story is with its audience and how well the musical idea fits the tone and emotions that the story is trying to convey but from a strictly compositional standpoint there are certain ways that late motifs can be more or less effective the best-laid motifs have a clear identity that allows the listener to recognize them easily even as the musical setting around it changes or even as the motif itself transforms over the course of a film or game to mirror the changes in the characters plot or setting a great light motif will be easily transformed in many different ways without ever losing the recognizable Association to the original musical idea in order to explore the different ways to approach writing late motifs let's take a look at the second generation of pokemon mystery dungeon games explorers of darkness time and sky the soundtrack to these games is rich with tons of different recurring motifs but in this video I'll just be talking about three big ones that I'll call the darkness time and sky motifs let's take a listen to the game's intro music and I'll show you what I'm talking about [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the first flight motif I want to talk about it's introduced right at the beginning of the games intro and is a perfect example of one of the most powerful tools a composer has when constructing a leitmotif contour this three note idea is super simple there's no memorable rhythm to it but it has a very dramatic contour a leap of a major third down and then a major seventh up you don't want an idea that's so common as to be unrecognizable if your light motif is three notes descending down a scale and eighth note rhythm for example then you won't ever be able to tell if a piece is using this light motif or not because that kind of musical motion happens all the time the sleep of a major seventh is rare to find in music generally and stands out to the listeners ear making it a perfect candidate for a late motif you can see this motif in its pure form in a few different tracks throughout the game each presenting the most basic form of transformation that a light motif can undertake transposition to a new key in each of the following examples the basic light motif is stated in one key and then repeated in the key a minor third above the notes are different but because the structure of intervals is the same in both keys we easily recognize it as the same musical idea [Music] for a late motif to be able to adapt to meet a number of different musical requirements it's important to be able to make more drastic transformations to the motif without losing its recognizable quality the leap of a major seventh is dissonant and lends itself well to these kinds of ominous or suspicious musical situations but what if we want to use this motif in a different emotional context this is where contour comes in the general shape of a melodic line can be just as recognizable as the specific interval structure this darkness motif has a simple but notable contour a small leap down followed by a big leap up once we've been familiarized with the original motif any transformation that retains this basic contour should be able to be recognized as a variation on that original motif in for a new life we see the original form of the motif alternated with a less dissonant transformation a leak down of a fourth followed by a leap up of an octave [Music] it's easy to hear the relation between these two forms because they're played side by side highlighting the consistent contour between the two lines this allows for motivic consistency while presenting a totally new musical feeling down a dark path which plays as you approach the game's final boss uses this motif for an effect that's less creepy and suspicious and more straight-up menacing it achieves this by transforming the light motif to outline the notoriously unstable and unnatural sound a commented triad [Music] again the interval structure is altered to allow for this change but the small leap down larger leap up contour remains intact this allows the music to access the emotional qualities of the Augmented triad while also accessing the players association with this darkness late motif which is already one of suspicions and foreboding at this point in the game this smart use of motivic consistency maximizes the effect that this musical cue is trying to achieve the second light motif I want to talk about is introduced at the end of the game's intro theme and is a perfect example of one of the most powerful tools a composer has when using a light motif harmony the harmony underpinning a motif can drastically alter how the motif sounds and feels and writing a light motif that can easily accept several different harmonizations allows the composer to put the motif in a wider variety of musical scenarios from this perspective the time motif is excellently conceived instead of using common melodic ideas like arpeggios and scaler motion that could lock you into a specific tonality these two alternating phrases are instead built entirely with fifths and seconds this is unusual for a melody which helps make it recognizable another desirable quality for a late motif this is what we in the biz call a two-for-one let's look at the pier version of the motif as found in the track time gear [Music] this track evokes the ancient mystical quality of the time gears with alternating a sus 2 and G sus 2 chords and the time late motif accentuates the atmosphere created by the harmony by avoiding any telling thirds or sevenths that would change each chords color the second of each chord is especially emphasized by the motif being placed on the downbeat of each chord at the highest melodic point of each phrase the following leaps down accidentally v which is a harmonically neutral chord tone briefly passing by either the fourth or the sixth slightly more colorful chord tones but not enough to give anything away [Music] the time motif here is being used to accentuate the sound of the sus to harmony the exact same melody is used to completely different effect in the time restored theme harmonized by alternating G major 7 and F major 7 chords these chords contrast the arcane energy generated by our previous sus 2 chord sounds with a lush warm and inviting feeling completely transforming the effect of the exact same motif this effect in large part is a result of how the melody interacts with these chords instead of avoiding all the color notes of each chord this time the melody lands squarely on all of the most colorful notes the 3rd 6th and 5th over the G major 7 and the 3rd 6th and major 7th over the F chord the accompanying string parts add additional chord extensions to the mix filling out the sound of the piece in a beautiful way [Music] even subtle differences between two pieces of music can change each pieces emotional effect later on in the time gear theme the same time motif is harmonized with an F major seven chord moving to an e seven sus the first phrase accentuates the sharp eleventh of the F major chord before moving down to the major seventh giving the phrase a vibrant Lydian sound over the e seven sus chord the fourth and flat seventh are highlighted by the melody accentuating the unresolved sus quality of the chord combined the section has a very floaty ethereal quality where neither chord feels very resolved to [Music] contrast this with the time gear remix theme where the same melody is harmonized by an extremely similar chord progression C major seven add four to be minor nine [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] unlike the floatiness of the previous f2e sus example this progression definitely feels like it resolves to this B minor chord giving the whole phrase a much darker tone this is mostly due to where the melody sets in relation to these chords the first phrase highlights the major third and seventh of the C chord which are clear characteristic chord tones of C major but the string pads underneath the melody spell out a C sus chord the melody is at odds with the harmony and together they create this very unstable C major 7 ad 4 chord when the music shifts to B minor the melody highlights again the 3rd and 7th of the chord but this time it works together with the pads below it to give a clear B minor sound with the 9th adding a stab of color moving from this unstable space to a more stable space is what creates this feeling of resolution and having this point of resolution on this rich minor chord is what tinges the whole section with a darker color when compared to our previous example it's not just the different ways you could harmonize a passage that affect how we perceive a motif it's the way that that motif interacts with the harmony that brings out the whole range of subtle specific emotional qualities that music can address the third and finally motif I want to talk about is introduced in the middle of the game's intro theme and is a perfect example of one of the most powerful tools a game has when constructing light motif phrasing being able to fit one light motif in a wide variety of musical settings means being able to phrase the motif in a variety of different ways without losing its identity stretching out the intervals of a motif or changing the underlying harmony is all well and good but the really big changes come when you start messing with the whole structure of the pieces themselves melodic structure rhythmic subdivision harmonic rhythm all of these things add up in different ways to give us the limitless variety of emotional expression that music makes available to us this final sky motif is perfectly composed to keep its melodic identity intact even in all of the various forms that it takes throughout the soundtrack for the pure form of this late motif let's look at the intro music that was included just in explorers of sky [Music] this grand adventurous melody is played in a straightforward quarter note March rhythm so as not to distract from the melodic structure this distinctive sequence of leaps up of a fourth second and minor third that resolved down by a half-step this melody is memorable because it has an inherent dramatic curve to it you can see how it clearly outlines a major triad arpeggio but with the characteristic major third scale degree delayed by a little enclosure as we jump up from the second to the fourth before resolving nicely down to our third this initial leap puts the tonic triad in our ears then the short detour to the second and fourth of the key take us away from the tonic and build a little tension the following resolution down to the third returns us to our tonic chord and releases the built-up tension telling a short little story in just these two bars this is really strong melodic writing that ensures the motif will be recognizable in a huge variety of different musical transformations the harmony puts a little twist on this resolution to our third by making the bass drop down by a whole step giving us a secondary dominant B flat seven over a flat chord that wants to resolve to the four chord E flat and that's exactly what it does notice how in sync the melody and harmony are here the melody very clearly outlines this four chord as well as the b-flat over F to F move that follows remember this structure because it'll become important later we alternate between the chords that feel resolved to on bars one and three and the 10th chords that want to resolve on bars two and four giving a nice push pull to the piece that works really really well [Music] I love how smooth the baseline makes this feel inverting the middle two cords to give us this nice stepwise walk down from the root to the fifth the top menu theme draws a totally different feel out of the same motif by phrasing it in a totally different way the melody notes are the same the harmony is the same but the rhythm tempo and style are completely different our straight for for marching rhythm is treated for a slow 6/8 time signature with the melody lazily drifting along and dotted eighth notes over top of the string accompaniment the duple rhythm of the melody over the triplet rhythm of the accompaniment gives this theme a laid-back feeling that nicely contrasts the upbeat adventurous mood of the late motifs original form afterwards we get another iteration of this motif up a minor third in the key of E flat major only this time the four and five chords are replaced with the flat six and flat seven the melody is altered not just to fit over these new chords but to augment their effect the dramatic build-up to a resolution back to E flat is heightened by the melody creeping up to an extremely high range resolving nicely with a harmony to the current tonic a flat chord at the Melody's highest point [Music] [Applause] [Music] the original title screen theme for explorers of time and darkness gives us another iteration of the sky motif and is a great example of how to play with the structure of a passage like this whereas our previous examples had the harmonic structure of a tonic chord on bars 1 & 3 moving to a 10th chord on bars 2 & 4 this version flips that structure around by having the harmony resolve on the second and fourth bars of the melody here just how different this melody feels as the tonic C chord is approached with an interesting flat six minor five one cadence [Music] the melody here veers off into a new direction from the original iteration the contour is altered with this fifth falling an octave from its original form then moving to outline a minor four chord rather than a major four chord by way of some scalar decoration [Music] after resolving back up to the tonic in bar for something closer to the original version of the motif comes in a minor third up in the key of E flat major the same flat six minor five to one cadence from before kicks it off but the tone soon changes as our new tonic a flat shifts to E flat minor with the melody highlighting the shift by emphasizing the flat third of the chord the contour of the original melody is kept intact but it now outlines the harmony an E flat minor six to b-flat over D resolution [Music] see how the second bar of melody was taken and shifted upwards the notes changing to adapt to the chord progression but always push an up higher and range to build the intensity to a climax these kinds of quick tonal shifts and big builds are great for intro music like this which is trying to grab the listeners attention and prepare them for what kind of music to expect from the game while getting them excited to start their adventure and this section does all of this without writing any brand new material besides transforming the skylight motif and want to end off by talking about life goes on one of the ending themes from the game which uses all of the types of transformations that have gone over in this video at the same time the sky motif is used in a brand-new totally kick-ass musical setting the contour is kept intact to keep it recognizable but the melody is altered by replacing the fourth to third resolution with a sixth moving down to a fifth this is then to accentuate a brand-new harmonization a super cool sounding B flat seven sus to c7 sus vamp notice how the shift in melody is done to outline the 4th and flat seventh of the c7 sus chord the two essential chord tones to get that sus chord sound the phrasing is completely different from the original form as well the whole motif is shifted over to start on bar 2 of the phrase lining up this melodic resolution to hit right with the change of chord let's hear the final result of all these changes [Music] we're the original title team used this motif as a way to build expectation for a grand adventure this iteration of the same motif feels like an epic conclusion to our journey as we barrel unflinchingly toward the end of the game book ending the intro and outro music with the same motif causes the players to reflect on everything that they've been through between these two points in their journey and seeing that old motif in this totally new form underscores how much we've changed over the course of playing the game that is the real power of late motifs [Music] the music in these games is so great at accentuating the feelings that you're supposed to be having at every point throughout the game and using the same motifs to convey all of these different musical emotions with gives a cohesiveness to the games music each new iteration of these late motifs is simultaneously something fresh and something familiar and that familiarity lends depth to every new piece that we come across there's a ton of motifs and references that I left out of this video so if you know the game soundtrack leave a comment with your favorite example of light motif from the game below big shout out to patron km music for requesting this video and supplying some transcriptions for me to analyze if you're interested check out their channel to find some cool orchestral arrangements of pokemon mystery dungeon tunes if you're interested in supporting this channel feel free to check out my patreon page here follow me on twitter here or tell your friends that these videos are not that bad thanks so much for watching and I'll catch you all next time [Music]

Channel: 8-bit Music Theory

Views: 268,680

Rating: 4.9854221 out of 5

Keywords: video game music analysis, pokemon mystery dungeon, explorers of time, explorers of darkness, explorers of sky, pokemon music, how to compose music, leitmotif, how to write music, For a New Life, Planet's Paralysis, Down a Dark Path, Time Gear, Time Restored, Time Gear Remix, 8-bit Music Theory

Id: SoyxorZd6vc

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/SnarKenneth]

I'm still in shock that he took my suggestion and even shouted me out 0_0

[u/Tasfique]

I understood pretty much nothing, but this game really makes me want to learn about music and composition. Not gonna lie though, music theory looks so intimidating!

[u/[deleted]]

YES!!!! As a music theory nerd, I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to talk about this. Very well put together video

[u/TheMajesticMrL]

I never noticed that the "darkness" leitmotif is in some of the tracks. And the fact that the true credits theme uses the same motifs from the intro theme is absolutely GENIUS

I literally can't say how much I love Explorers and this is yet another reason why I love the games so much. They're a masterpiece.

[u/Jerbydahut]

This was kind of mindblowing for me, i have listened This soundtrack how many times now and i did not realise that the time motif was used that much. Thanks for this!

[u/UsernameFodder]

Glad to see that u/The_Composer_'s Movie Project is still finding good use in background clips.

[u/WonderingCashew]

I was waiting for 8 bit to make a video on this. Absolutely love his videos.

[u/justseny]

Hearing the music just makes me want to play it all over again.

[u/Silentstrike205]

Why the heck did the music make me cry?