What I Learned About Kingdom Hearts Theme
Allow me to start by saying that I am NOT an expert at analyzing vgm or any other kind of music, nor will I pretend to be. I’m making this, due to the fact that I get pleasure from the satisfaction I feel after learning a composition and walking away with an understanding of what’s going on. I’m also doing this to refine what little compositional abilities I have. I’ve read someplace that the best way to learn is to teach. Luckily, I won’t be educating anyone since I am terrible at teaching. Nonetheless, I came up with a smart idea to make a ‘guide’ so-to-speak. I wanted to make this analysis something I can come back to and go through whenever I feel the need to. Usually, I just analyze a piece of music by looking at its sheet music and then I move on. Afterwards, I question if I learned anything at all really. To cure this problem, I’ll be producing my ideas about the composition on paper...not literally, but you know what I mean. I hope this will challenge me, and actually help me to improve in some areas. If it actually helps, then I’ll be putting up a lot of these from now on. I’m going to be analyzing Yoko Shimomura’s Dearly Beloved. This is the version from Kingdom Hearts II. I chose this piece to study, due to the fact that it’s the song that moved me to decide on which career path I would like to take in music. Yoko Shimomura is also one of my favorite composers. I think her compositional style is fascinating, and it often manages to impress me. Maybe one of these days I’ll sit down and analyze her compositional style to better comprehend what tends to make her music stand out. If I follow through with that thought, I’ll be sure to post it up here. There are three things specifically that I want to study in this song. I’ve been having serious issues with melody, form, and harmony (in other words, the entire she-bang). This song is the most harmonically pleasing to my ears, and I’ve always thought about how I could replicate that effect. With that being said, let’s begin. The sheet music I'm using for this analysis can be found here.
Form
I believe that this song is in ABA form. I will establish where A begins, ends, and I’ll do the same with B. The song starts off with a 6-bar intro that also has a small portion of the theme on the treble clef in the second and third bars. After the intro, section A begins on bar 7. Section A is 8 bars long made up of two four-bar phrases. Remember that section A starts on bar 7. The first phrase starts at bar 7 and ends on bar 10. The second phrase starts on bar 11 and ends on bar 14. Section B is also 8 bars long with an extra measure added which makes it 9 bars long. This is fan-made sheet music. In my opinion, it seems to combine portions of the original composition with components of the piano version. I’m mostly trying to analyze the original composition so I tend to overlook bar 23. When I skip over it and go into section A’ from section B, the timing fits with the original composition. The first phrase of section B starts on bar 15 and ends on bar 18. The second phrase starts on bar 19 and (with my method of disregarding bar 23) ends on bar 22. Section A’ is 10 bars long, and is in fact 8 bars long if you want to repeat the song over and over like the original composition. The first phrase starts on bar 24 and ends on bar 27. The second phrase starts on bar 28 and finishes on bar 31 (if you want to repeat the song).
Melody
The melody is actually quite basic when you look at the written music. There are strictly four quarter notes on the treble clef in each bar in the first half of the first section. Next is the motif. The notes in the motif are C – G – F – D with C and F falling on the strong beats, and these notes repeat in the next bar. The pattern of the notes beginning from C is down a fourth, down a second, and then up a sixth. Up, down, down, up. Sadly, I wouldn’t have paid any attention to the intervals in the motif had I not seen the same pattern with the four quarter notes in the intro. These two bars in the intro are nearly a complete replica of the original motif. They each show the same pattern of down a fourth, down a second (ignoring the additional notes such as the high G on the second beat in the first bar and the middle C on the first beat in the second bar). However, the last quarter note just so happens to go down a second rather than up a sixth. Regardless of that fact, they both share the same pattern. Now, the first phrase consists of our two-bar motif, and our two-bar ‘answer’ to the motif. The pattern changes in our ‘answer’. Rather than the usual up, down, down, up, the melody goes up, down, up, down. Then, the last part of the ‘answer’ goes down, down, down, down. (I know I’m most likely using childish terms to explain things, but it’s better than nothing right?) In the first bar, you have the notes Eb – D – G – F. In the second bar, the notes are Eb – D – C – Bb. I think it’s interesting that Eb leads on both bars. Put the motif and the ‘answer’ together, and you have our first phrase. Observe the shape or contour of the melody. The motif has an inverted arch to its shape, and the last part of the phrase kind of ascends and then descends. The first three bars of this phrase are recurring in the next four bars only the notes are doubled using lower octave notes. The fourth bar also ends in a different way here. The melody in the last bar ends with the motif pattern (up, down, down, up). After this phrase, our section A melody ends. Simple, right? The section B melody is the flute’s part in the original composition. I have a feeling that the motif in the B section is actually just a variation of the motif in section A. We’ll find that out in a second when we analyze it. For now, we’ll use the name, ‘second motif’, to lessen confusion. The motif in section B is made up of a few chords. The melody nearly has the same pitches as the first motif. The rhythm is just different. It has more of a block chord style. If you pay attention to what notes play on which beats, then the melody almost completely follows the pitches of the first motif. The notes in the first motif are C – G – F – D. The chords in the first bar are Ab Maj – Bb Maj (I’m involving the second set of eighth notes with the chord from the first set of eighth notes). The note C is the third in the Ab Maj chord, and the note D is the third in the Bb Maj chord. The dotted half notes fall on the first beat, and the first set of eighth notes fall on the fourth beat. In the second bar, the chord and intervals are F min – C and G – E and E. The notes C and G make a fifth, and the notes E and E make an octave. The F min chord falls on the first beat, the fifth interval falls on the second beat, and the octave falls on the fourth beat. The first beat being stronger emphasizes the F min chord. The notes C – G – F – D occur in the second bar of our first motif as well. The note C is the fifth in the F min chord, and the note G is the fifth in the interval C and G. The D does not fit with the octave. I suppose changing pitches is a kind of variation. The ‘answer’ to the second motif follows the same pattern as the first two bars. I’m beginning to wonder if these are two-bar phrases rather than four-bar phrases. The first bar in the ‘answer’ has the same dotted half-note chord falling on the first beat, and it has the eighth chords falling on the fourth beat. The rhythms change in the second bar. Notice there are eighths being used on the first beat instead of the quarter-note chord that was used in the second bar of the motif. This is a good illustration of variation. The ‘answer’ to the second motif uses the same pitches as the ‘answer’ from the first motif. The four notes in the first bar of the ‘answer’ of the first motif are Eb – G – D – F. The chords and intervals in our ‘answer’ of the second motif are Eb Maj – F and A, G and B. The Eb note is the tonic in the Eb Maj chord, and the F note falling on the fourth beat is the tonic in the F and A interval that is also falling on the fourth beat. In the second bar, the intervals are G and G – F and F – G and G. Now, in the second bar of our ‘answer’ in the first motif the four notes are Eb – D – C – Bb. The notes from the ‘answer’ of the first motif don’t match up with the intervals in the ‘answer’ of the second motif. However, changing pitches is also seen as a form of variation. Although I don’t think it applies here. I think the only variation that relates to this ‘answer’ is the characteristics shared with the rhythms of the second motif at the beginning of this phrase. When we combine the motif and answer together, we have our first phrase for section B. The dotted half-notes and the eighth notes are shared between the first two bars and last two bars. The last bar of the ‘answer’ might differ from the last bar of the motif, but the rhythm still uses the same pattern. The eighth notes replace the quarter notes on the first beat, but the half notes in both bars still fall on the second beat. As I said before, it’s a good and simple example of variation. The second phrase of the B section strongly looks like the first phrase for the first two bars.The last two bars of this phrase will look differently from other sheet music you come across online. I changed the last two bars so that they’d sound a lot more like the original composition instead of the piano version. Personally, I like the way the last bar adopts the pattern of the motif. By doing this, the melody eases its way into section A again. The section A’ melody is the same melody from the second phrase in section A. The melody has added in octaves and it has been lengthened to make section A’ longer, so it follows the same patterns that the melody in section A followed. The melody looks like the second phrase from section A, and it ends with the same pattern. Yet, in the first phrase, it follows the same pattern as the pattern in the first phrase of section A. In conclusion, section A' is nearly a imitation of the first section.
Harmony
I believe the key of this composition is in Eb Major. At first, I believed it might’ve been in C minor, but I think it’s in Eb Major after a closer look. The intro seems unclear at first. Well, it does to me. It uses the AbMaj chord specifically during the entire intro. We can safely say the intro begins with IV. The C is doubled in the treble clef, and in the bass the E is the root and the A is on top. The E and A are tied together over two bars, and the A is tied over three bars. In the 5th and 6th bars, the C is prevalent. We can assume that it’s an continuation of the AbMaj chord or it’s a C min chord. I think it’s still the AbMaj chord at work. I like to reduce the notes so that I can figure out the chord progression. If we analyze by simply looking at the first and third beats, it’s much easier. This is not the only way to go about it, but it’s the method I prefer personally. It’s very challenging for me to figure out the chord progressions in this song. After looking at a reduced version of this composition, I believe the chord progressions for the first section are ii – V – I - vi. I came to that conclusion based on the major beats. In the first bar, the notes (in order from bottom to top) A, C, E, and F make me think it’s an Fmin chord which would make it ii. The notes B, C, D, and F in the second bar make me think it’s a BbMaj9 chord (C being the 9) which would make it V. The notes E, E, B, and G in the third bar make me think it’s the tonic EbMaj chord. The notes E, E, B, and C in the fourth bar make me think it’s a Cmin7 chord which would make it vi. Then again, it could be the tonic chord again in the last bar with the C acting as a passing note. The progression would simply repeat itself in the second phrase. Section B is a little a lot more tough. The chord progression in the first bar looks to be an AbMaj chord which makes it IV. When I get to the second bar, I develop a number of ideas. The chord in the second bar could be the altered bass chord Fmin/B, or it could be the Bmaj chord with the 9th and 11th added into the chord. The former doesn’t really make sense, so I’ll choose the latter. The next two bars really stress the tonic, so I can only assume that’s what it is. This progression starts out repeating itself in the second phrase with IV – V in the first two bars. Then, the next two bars seem to focus on the Cmin chord. It looks to be Cmin7 in the third bar, and just Cmin in the fourth bar. The chord progressions for the first phrase would be IV – V – I – I, and the chord progression for the second phrase would be IV – V – vi – vi indicating a deceptive cadence. The chord progression in section A’ is just plain puzzling. It looks like the Fmin chord is playing again in the first bar of the first phrase. The second bar is confusing. The notes B, C, E, and F are mind boggling. It could be a Cmin chord with the E being the third and the B being the seventh. The F note is just throwing me off. Maybe the F can be seen as a passing tone. The chord could start out C min on the first beat, then it switches to Csus4 on the third beat. It might not be a Cmin chord at all. It could be an Fsus2 chord. That would make the beginning of the progression be ii – iisus2 which is kind of strange. I think I’m going to say it’s an Cmin7 chord which would then make the progression begin as ii – vi which is still odd. Perhaps it still follows the same progression from the first section, and I’m just looking at it wrong. I’m completely bewildered by this chord. The chord inside the third bar is the tonic, and the chord in the fourth bar is the Cmin chord. That would make the progression for the first phrase of this section ii – vi – I – vi. That progression repeats itself in the second phrase as well.
Conclusion
I’ve discovered that the song is in ABA form and each section is 8 bars long. I’ve found out that motifs and melodies can be basic and compositions can be easily extended through variation. I’ve discovered that chord progressions confuse me to death and that I must work more on that. At the end of the day, I’m not a musical genius. I’m just trying to better myself. I’m glad to have analyzed this song, because I really like it a lot. When I listen to it now, I feel like I comprehend everything that’s going on. I feel more in tune with the song itself. What is your opinion? If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or corrections, please feel free to make them known here.
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