HMMMMM okay y'all have options: compare and contrast Dave's remixes of Rose's and John's themes published in Homestuck Vol. 2 with the original versions? Sburb theme analysis??? Maybe something about the endless remixes of Crystellanthenum or however the fuck it's spelled???? Ye Classic Cascade Breakdown Straight up anaysis of everyone's strife themes? If we're considering doing something like beating cascade with a stick until it rises from the dead I might as well consider Rex Duodecim Angelus too
John's Strife Theme (Showtime) This is going to be a recurring thing but we are first introduced to John's strife theme by way of an acoustic version in the kid's associated instrument. I'm linking it here for reference, but it won't be too important. We are going to start our analysis by looking at Showtime (Original Mix) It's a fairly short song, meant to be looped indefinitely. Chiptune aesthetic and bold but relatively uniform sound with surprisingly complex basslines and percussions solidly places this piece in the tradition of retro-aesthetic music, taking stylistic cues from the era of SNES and Sega games. The song starts with two beats of percussion, invoking offhandedly the 90s garageband cliche of the drummer beating his sticks together to cue the rest of the band members into the beat. immediately after we are introduced to the bassline, a thumping, but fast paced beat to it that seems at once somewhat frantic and threatening. At 00:06 the secondary (harmonising) melody gets introduced alongside the playful, highpitched trickling motif. This and similar thematic elements to it will turn up later at several points in time, namely in most of the Sburb associated songs, which is why I theorize this to actually signify an early Game Mechanic bit. At 00:17 the main motif gets played, as you will note it is a lot more energetic and driven than the ponderous, melancholic piano version or the bumbling somewhat unsettling Harlequin. The motif ends roughly at 00:27. Those ten seconds are the material most of John's songs are constructed with, keep this in mind. The next passage (until 00:38) is a variation on this theme, here you will note the chords we end on being different than the first pass of the theme, that is because we are using this harmony-sequence to lead us into the next section. This one is a transposed version of the theme, the new scale giving a more hopeful and heroic tone to it due to the slightly higher pitched tonality. At 00:49 we enter our next segment, A variation on the theme consisting entirely of flourishes around the theme's melody. These kinds of flourishes in general tend to be used for frantic, nervous movement, heartbeats, nervousness, especially if played at this breakneck speed. It is clear John feels at least somewhat genuinely threatened. The next segment begins at the One Minute mark: Here the triplets move slightly in the background while the theme itself comes to the forefront again. John refuses to back down in the face of a threat, he will stand his ground. 01:10 sees the motif played with naught but the accompanying, slightly frantic baseline. No percussion to hide behind. If one is to assume the baseline here to be associated with Dad Egbert, then one would assume this to be a standoff between the two without any blows being exchanged (the percussions). Without the drive of the percussions this bit also seems somewhat quieter, less aggressively driven. From 01:20 onwards some of the percussions get reintroduced again, albeit at half time compared to before. The percussions also mimic a heartbeat, signifying further nervousness or fear, a common technique used in many boss themes in game music. 01:31 sees us getting lead to a higherpitched scale yet again, the next bit high, frantic, nigh panicked with a return to full percussions as well as the triplet-flourishings around the secondary harmonising part reappearing, yet without the motif itself to guide the melody. That only reappears at 01:42, triumphant and forceful. 01:52 sees a transition bit that is entirely composed of new material, but uses the same harmonic structure as the main motif, reminiscent of Jazz-typical improvisation sections in this regard. This "improvisation" on the main harmony leads into a couple last running scales, almost suggestive of raining down blows on your opponent and lastly end on a single bass note from which the song may loop again. (Though one may note here that it does not loop quite as cleanly as it could.) (oh my god. That took. A while. I might do Aggrieve too?? But probably not the Imp Strife Remix of Showtime)
I don't know any of this awesome music theory stuff but I do know that it's been four years and I still have all the Homestuck music bookmarked, and stuck in my head. Like, seriously, most of it is movie-quality in terms of earworminess.
*also enthusiastically votes for all* the homestuck ost is SO FUCKING GOOD i am so ELATED that youre talking about it and you know your Shit AAAAAA (ADMIRATION-SOLIDARITY NOISES)
SWOOCES IN KINDA LATE HELL YEAH SYNESTHESIA music paints me literal pictures, depending on what it is + what's in it most of it relates to...constructing/deconstructing the scene but it can be different? and certain instruments are more related with stuff (violin can be silver or iron filigree, depending on the rest of the song) that said I know my pictures can/will be very different from some of the other pictures that people get?
Non-Homestuck example of music telling a story: Death is the Road to Awe. I can tell you what the plot of the movie is, how this particular song fits (and if you have time listen to the whole sound track, it is PHENOMENAL and ties in the recurring motif so fantastically) but... for now just listen to the song itself with no other information but the title. Specifically pay attention to the last minute and a half or so with the title of the track held front and center in your mind. you might see what we're getting at.
I'm sorry if I've upset you, that was not my intention. I think I understand the John/Gamzee thing, it's more a moment of "wait, why didn't I notice this before?" I have trouble understanding music things (for example, I still struggle with leitmotifs in undertale even though they've been mentioned explicitly to me before) Again, sorry. I'll do better once I have the time and privacy to listen to it all again.
Okay! Don't worry, I'm not upset I want to help, mostly. I know that music can be difficult to untangle/interprete without experience, education, or full immersion in the subject matter. As I mentioned in passing I spent middle and highschool in a music centric program and did advanced level classes in music (both theory and analysis as well as performance and composition) for my abitur (highschool graduation/a-levels basically???) and I've been getting lessons in a number of instruments over time since I was 8 or so, so it is somewhat second nature to me. This means I generally tend to skip things sometimes if I don't back up and explicitly write down my entire thought process. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer to the best of my abilities! I'm by no means an actual expert, since I lack any university level qualifications.
Alright, I have listened to Showtime, Harlequin, and The Carnival now. The leitmotif between Harlequin and The Carnival is easy to see, but tbh Showtime has so much other stuff in it that the connection is hard to spot. (at least now I see the gamzee/john connection!)
OH I think I have a way to describe it—@tickingnectarine do you ever hear instrumental music where it's like "yeah that sounds like a Halloween song" or "yeah that's definitely Christmas Music" or stuff that seems to imply one culture or another? It's kind of like that, ish? but there are pictorial/color/etc associations in your head for stuff that's not necessarily a holiday!
Yes please!!!! That's like the first one I was able to get different themes and such from (I mean, it was kinda explained to me, but still) crystalmethequins is like one of my favorites lol
@tickingnectarine Rex Duodecim Angelus might be easiest for you to understand how a song can tell a story? Since it's the Least Subtle Thing Ever-- it introduces the king's leitmotif (BAMP bamp BAMP bamp BAMPbadumBAMP bamp BAMP badumBAMPpuh bumDUMdadada) and then layers the leitmotifs of the trolls over it as each of them attacks, and the way the leitmotif is delivered really illustrates what they do (like Tavros' whining away helplessly and unresolved because he was useless, and Gamzee's honking mockingly echoing the king's own theme then followed by a giant crash as it does massive damage, Vriska's theme rising triumphantly...), and it helpfully has a fan music video to see what other people visualized to go to the music!
