LONG BLOG
Phils Game/Pop Music Similarities #256 - Awwwww
Featuring Final Fantasy VI and several genres.
Greetings fellow game music lovers,
the Final Fantasy series continues and we move from part 4 right to part 6 from 1994, the era which many regard as the creative high point of the series. As a breather, we start this with an idyllic little song about the obligatory minimoe character in the game: The theme of Relm. You know, the one that screams "Awwwwwwww..." the first time you hear it:
The tune is built around two five note sequences that look roughly like this:
In Parsons Code:
*DDDD RUUDU
Since the sequence is relatively simple, finding a single source is rather difficult. The latest song I know with such a sequence is a Reggae song from 1972:
U-Roy - "Black Heart" (1972):
As far as I can tell, such sequences can be traced back at least to the early 20th century, especially the jazz and ragtime era. Some examples:
(Unfortunately, the Youtube video has been deleted. So I have to use this midi from https://www.sheetmusicsinger.com/desertana/). The relevant part starts at ca. 0:34 when I open it with VLC:
Biese & Klickmann - Desertana (1920)
Fred Elizalde - "Tea Time" (1935):
For the style of the Relm theme, I think it is a blend of smooth jazz and new age music that was pretty popular in Japan in the 80s. Something similar to this:
Next week more Final Fantasy!
Phil out.