Hisaishi "Merry-Go-Round of Life" - Analysis (FMA + Animenz versions)

[00:00:00]The Merry-Go-Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi is the main theme for the Studio Ghibli film Howl's Moving Castle and one of the most well-known and beloved pieces in the genre. It's for good reason, and in this video, I will try to explain why the music works as well as it does.

[00:00:26]>> [music] [music] [music] >> As usual with film music, it's quite messy with all the different versions out there. So, here's my analysis of that to start with. [music] The original soundtrack from 2004 is orchestral, of course, and this theme apparently comes [music] in many different forms throughout the film with a full version in the ending song. I can also really recommend a more recent recording, a symphonic celebration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 2023 in the same form. But then, Hisaishi released a longer version in a kind of chamber setting on the album Freedom Piano Stories 4 [music] in 2005.

[00:01:21]It has an added episode of a mini cadenza and a tarantella variation that's not [music] in the original soundtrack ending song version.

[00:01:29]I'm not sure if it's a string quartet [music] or a slightly larger ensemble, but it's basically only strings and piano. I've also played a version for piano trio last year that's based on this [music] version. You can check out the recording and find the score in the links in the description, and I can really recommend this version if you have the opportunity [music] to play piano trio.

[00:01:47]Now, getting to the piano solo versions.

[00:01:50]To start with, Hisaishi released his own on the 2008 album Piano Stories Best, which [music] has the same form as the chamber version. However, it seems really hard to find the sheet [music] music for that one.

[00:02:02]So then there's basically a sea of various other piano versions, both advanced and intermediate.

[00:02:08]One that's quite famous [music] is by the YouTuber Animenz, which I will look closer at for the second part of this video.

[00:02:15]He takes the film score and really makes it into a fabulous piano piece [music] with virtuosity and advanced textures all around, and he's even added an episode of two new variations on the theme. If you want to listen to a piano [music] version, I recommend this one more than his eyes his own playing. I have tried my hands on it as well, and you can [music] check out my attempt in another video on my artist channel.

[00:02:35]Finally, in the first part of this video, I will use an intermediate level arrangement by FMA to look at the musical material. I think it's very good. It skips over the mini cadenza and the tarantella part, and ends instead with an echo of the slower starting section.

[00:02:55]It starts with this wandering, kind of hesitant thirds.

[00:03:04]Establishes [music] the tonality, G minor, with this D is the clear dominant.

[00:03:09]>> [music] >> Cuz then it resolves with upbeat.

[00:03:13]It's a G [music] minor, but it moves on.

[00:03:19]Now we get this slow section.

[00:03:23]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So it has this kind of lounge-y feeling.

[00:03:45]It's kind of hinting at the waltz, because we get the 1 2 3 1 2 3, but it's not yet the clear ones that we get the next section.

[00:03:56]The triple time. And it also has a very clear structure like musical periods.

[00:04:01]It's a three phrases, two antecedent phrases, and then one long consequent phrase. And they have the same contour, so just playing the phrase real quickly.

[00:04:14]And now it's [music] the same contour.

[00:04:15]It moves a bit higher the second time.

[00:04:20]And the third time even higher.

[00:04:22]>> [music] >> And then now it's longer and it goes down.

[00:04:29]So it sounds kind of simple and natural with these even melody notes, but it's very much alive and that comes mostly from the harmony, I would say.

[00:04:37]So let's have a real close look at the harmony. So we're in G minor when we start.

[00:04:47]>> [music] >> So if I only play the chords now. So this resolves to G minor.

[00:04:52]>> [music] >> Added my added ninth for some extra tension tension here.

[00:04:58]And before that we have C minor 7 and D7, so it's like a perfect cadence, 4 5 1.

[00:05:05]The melody is on the nine here as [music] well. The C minor nine.

[00:05:11]Cadence.

[00:05:11]>> [music] >> Now for the second phrase.

[00:05:16]It's the same C minor 7.

[00:05:19]But now we go to It's [music] another perfect cadence to B flat major. So C minor F7 B flat major. So it's a C minor is the two in a 2 5 1 to B flat major.

[00:05:37]And B [music] flat major 7 for an extra sentimental value.

[00:05:43]Now for the third phrase.

[00:05:48]If we stop here, this [music] is kind of a cadence for the first half of it going to D minor. So, that's another key. Now, it points it goes a bit further.

[00:05:59]And we see these natural signs on the E.

[00:06:01]That's like a sign that it's in another key.

[00:06:05]But, actually just these chords we think that this resolves, we have an E >> [music] >> half diminished extra suspension on the melody to a [music] A7 to D minor. So, that's another 251 within D minor. But, like we don't recognize it like that because we're not in D minor to start with. It goes there. It's very interesting how it goes. So, then a 251 in minor, the two has this diminished triad >> [music] >> and Okay. Now, the second half it moves on from this.

[00:06:50]Sorry about the tuning here for exactly this note, but um base >> [music] >> goes down like a passing note.

[00:06:58]And we get the final cadential closure.

[00:07:06]To a D.

[00:07:07]Here the A.

[00:07:11]It's A. We have the minor. So, it's A minor seven.

[00:07:16]To a D. [music] Like you have this uh E flat again.

[00:07:20]That's more part of the B flat tonality, but really nice suspension, double suspension. [music] And going to a D. So, I think the music finds its perfect sweet spot where it's all the time pointing somewhere, but still has a close connection to the underlying tonality. So, it has a quick way back. So, after this D we've been [music] out on this adventure, and we get the G minor.

[00:07:47]>> [music] >> This feels like home still, because it hasn't been a long time. It's almost like a harmonic carousel that goes round and round. Okay, so here starts the waltz section.

[00:07:58]We get it exactly the same melody and harmony, but with a more It's a higher tempo, and we get the full accompaniment. So, I'll just play this.

[00:08:12]>> [music] [music] >> So, that's the three phrases, and in the end, it moves on, so we get the repeat of that again in the waltz. But, the ending is kind of smooshed together. So, we get the resolution to a It goes to D major with this expansion. [music] But, at the same time, he starts the next part with the upbeat that's in G minor.

[00:08:49]It's together.

[00:08:52]And like, you never find this in a classical piece. It's too much unresolved dissonance. In this arrangement, you can let go of the D major >> [music] >> together, but it's still too short a time for a cadence and a resolution before it moves on. Uh but, it's kind of part of the style. It's uh not a problem. Uh just a difference from typical classical music.

[00:09:15]So, I'm going to continue here.

[00:09:18]Um Cuz it moves on directly.

[00:09:27]Here's a minor variations the second round. Uh the bass has uh syncopations here. A nice tension.

[00:09:35]>> [music] >> And [music] some filled up melodic line here, eighth notes, lovely to play.

[00:09:56]Now for the second time, with It's the third time, but this is second time in the waltz.

[00:10:02]It's a slightly different ending. It goes to D major with A major before that instead.

[00:10:09]C sharp.

[00:10:10]>> [music] >> Which makes it into a more clear cadence to D major, so not immediately going back to G minor, but staying in D major for some time. The harmonic pulse stops here.

[00:10:24]So like that, carousel stops a bit to take on new passengers for the next round, you can say.

[00:10:31]Which is the second part of the theme.

[00:10:33]Some new material that comes here sounds like this.

[00:11:00]>> [music] [music] >> So that's all of that. We will I will look really close into it, but just now in the end you have the same type of smooshing together after the some >> [music] >> ending phrase on the D7.

[00:11:29]Immediately going on.

[00:11:32]But before this we get this lovely chord after the D.

[00:11:36]This brief [music] stop.

[00:11:41]This is really like the opening up chord.

[00:11:46]Uh E flat with an F in the bass, or you can say [music] F 11.

[00:11:52]Because it goes here to an F.

[00:11:56]But before that, it's really great chord.

[00:12:03]F points to B flat, uh the fifth drop in the bass, and [music] the major seventh again.

[00:12:10]And now we get this a little little more sparse with a harmonic pulse and pace here as well. So, we get the same thing for a second time.

[00:12:23]And now it [music] moves on.

[00:12:29]>> [music] >> But again, it's only two chords here, going back and forth, D minor to A. It's again [music] tonic and dominant.

[00:12:42]Or if D minor is a tonic, it's a locally it's a tonic. You have this relationship, it's important part.

[00:12:48]A detail here, we have this upbeat.

[00:12:52]In the original, it's a triplet.

[00:12:55]>> [music] >> But for playability in this intermediate arrangement, it's simplified to an upbeat instead. Because we have this changing texture in the left hand.

[00:13:07]>> [music] >> Which I think is really cool to get something different than the waltz you have for the rest of the piece.

[00:13:25]So, now we get to sequence this melody.

[00:13:29]Same.

[00:13:30]>> [music] >> Lower down.

[00:13:32]And the harmony here, uh what is this?

[00:13:38]>> [music] >> Well, it's the circle of fifth progression. If you write a piece that's called a merry-go-round, you kind of have to have the circle of fifth progression. So, if you look at the bass note, the only the bass note is D, [music] G, C, F.

[00:13:54]And that's the circle of fifth pattern when you go like it's a fifth between, but every other is a fourth cuz you go up a fourth, it's [music] the same as down a fifth, but you And it continues here. B, E, A and D. So, it goes all the way around.

[00:14:12]But the melody changes after the two sequences. Really lovely lovely type of sequence.

[00:14:18]>> [music] >> This tense diminished triad again or diminished feel is a D with an [music] extra E flat, which is like a flat nine to a D.

[00:14:31]This would be a normal D.

[00:14:35]And here some nice variation with the left hand.

[00:14:39]>> [music] >> In the original, there's a chromatic scale like that in the strings. I will play that later in the Animenz version when I look at this, but here it's another alternative.

[00:14:55]>> [music] >> Now, the pace picks up here.

[00:15:01]>> [music] >> So, B, E, A 7, B 7.

[00:15:09]>> [music] >> E E 7 with some really crunchy melody notes on top here.

[00:15:18]So, over an E, we have the D [music and singing] natural, which is the minor third. It really doesn't vibe well normally.

[00:15:27]Also the F >> [music] >> is the minor ninth.

[00:15:30]But it's again like part of the style. I think Hisaishi likes it. There's a place in the One Summer's Day. He also has the same kind of minor third over a major seventh chord. It just has some nice thing to it.

[00:15:46]>> [music] >> So after this A, we jump up to C minor.

[00:15:52]And then we get This is kind of the similar progression of C minor to D. [music] That's like a four five cuz it's a D seven. It Here we go back [music] to It points back to D minor.

[00:16:04]And we get this closing part.

[00:16:08]Some ritardando.

[00:16:12]And off [music] we go again.

[00:16:19]>> [music] >> So we get the repeat of the first part.

[00:16:31]It's higher up, more energy, forte. Nice variation in the texture in the triplet energy.

[00:16:40]>> [music] >> Again the major seventh sentimental value.

[00:16:49]Some variation [music] here.

[00:16:55]And now we're kind of done with the main part of the piece. Now this arrangement goes into a coda with an echo of the slow starting section. So it's like a pause and then it's which [music] I think is a nice way to tie the piece together.

[00:17:17]>> [music] >> We get one final kind of burst of energy where you get the waltz here for four bars. I think that's a nice touch.

[00:17:36]Like is he going [music] again again for another round? You could theoretically take another full round of the bars, but you don't know.

[00:17:50]Okay, it's actually ending time.

[00:17:58]And these [music] are the same kind of thirds we're hearing the beginning and in the ending as well. Now, let's switch to the Animenz version so we can see the other parts in the longer form. The start is pretty much the same, little bit more fuller chords. Then for the first round of the waltz, he does this crazy tremolo thing.

[00:18:19]>> [music] >> Which is very difficult and I think you can actually play it without it. So, I played this for quite a few concerts when I have a program that's called piano music from the movies and this is the finale. I'll play this as a finale, but I I have dropped the tremolo because it's too too risky I to get it and too straining to do it for a long time, but obviously he can play it on the recording in which he does brilliantly.

[00:18:45]So, but I play it like this instead.

[00:18:50]So, I add like on the long top notes.

[00:18:53]Um [music] Something like that.

[00:18:59]Then let's jump into the second part of the theme. We got some crazy jumps here.

[00:19:05]It's also very difficult. Okay, this is the second part of the first theme.

[00:19:11]>> [music] >> So, like he adds these textures chords all all over and the melody is somewhere in between.

[00:19:32]But, here the second part, this is really good. Like this feels even much more fun to play when you get this.

[00:19:39]Remember the the F 11 chord.

[00:19:44]So, we get this filled up uh [music] left hand.

[00:19:55]By the way, I will not show all of the score here because it's not in the public domain. Now, we get this.

[00:20:10]So, he puts the theme below and we get some chords in the right hand again.

[00:20:15]Okay, now for this part, the circle of fifths sequence, >> [music] >> Here we get the chromatic scale which is played by the strings in the original version and it works really well for piano, I think.

[00:20:38]>> [music] [music] >> So, here the original version goes back with the return of the first part.

[00:20:59]But but An immense goes straight to the mini cadenza part because he makes it into an even longer piece after that.

[00:21:06]So, that works fine. So, we get some transition.

[00:21:16]>> [music] >> And from here, we have this in Hisaishi's own original longer version.

[00:21:23]He adds this kind of mini cadenza, get a return of the wandering thirds.

[00:21:33]And now, filled up with an arpeggio, and Nemanja has made it an extended arpeggio.

[00:21:39]>> [music] >> Not that. That's another song.

[00:21:54]>> [music] >> Again.

[00:22:04]And now, get the tarantella section. So, it flips to a 6/8 time, and it's really cool. It's exactly the same melody and harmony, but instead of a triple time waltz, it's a 6/8 time. So, it's like this.

[00:22:25]>> [music] >> Also, this run, I love this run. It's a D major [music] with the the minor third as a passing note or spelled [music] as an a raised second.

[00:22:48]>> [music] >> Now, for the second part, it's still in a tarantella setting, but the same material.

[00:23:02]>> [music] [music] >> And now a typical list run straight out of a list of Chopin etude book.

[00:23:22]>> [music] [music] >> And here is where Alkan has added two new variations on the theme himself, which I think are really strong. So first we get this kind of exploration or development of the slow version of the theme. It's high up and really nice piano chords.

[00:23:49]>> [music] >> Like a little bit different melody.

[00:24:00]>> [music] [music] >> Which grows into this, the second variation. They're like short, but this is like the best part with this texture with triplets within the hand and melody on top. Very pianistic, very very nice.

[00:24:28]So I don't think Czerny or Chopin can come up with this texture. So it's a That's why it's a perfect mix.

[00:24:35]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We come come to D. So now in the form, this is like now we go back to the track of the original long version. So, here is where the key change happen, which is also part of the original soundtrack, the short version. Like with the ending is the same. So, it's a D.

[00:25:14]But now we raise it up from D to E. So, now E points to one step higher, A minor instead of G minor. Uh this this kind of motive.

[00:25:28]>> [music] >> And now the same smooshed together uh resolution to the [music] tonic as the upbeat, A minor over the dominant.

[00:25:42]Okay, now we gear up for the final round, basically. Sounds like this.

[00:25:50]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And here's the coda.

[00:26:24]For our favorite coda, I want to want to explain some of the things here because this is so much fun to play. So much like it's all the register at once activated for full piano sound.

[00:26:37]Deep octaves.

[00:26:40]>> [music] >> And we have this kind of a dialogue with a secondary voice, which is played by the strings in the original recording, which is why it's very hard to do as a piano to do it justice for a piano, you kind of need this level of advanced texture. So, uh let me see if I can play the melody and this answering.

[00:27:08]Uh Like that. You have this um in thirds as well.

[00:27:17]But, okay, it's possible to do it with this really big jumps.

[00:27:25]Like you don't do the resolution, but it comes in the melody instead.

[00:27:31]>> [music] [music] >> Yeah, big uh runs in the left hand with the chords.

[00:27:49]And for the second part of the theme here, like an extra sus suspension, sus four suspension.

[00:28:01]Like a real uh pop [music] pop hit.

[00:28:07]So, it's the same thing. We go from E7, [music] the dominant, straight [singing] back to the uh the four, minor four, five, one in A minor.

[00:28:20]So, now the melody it fills up with eighth notes, continuous eighth notes, a mix of melody and company. Lovely texture.

[00:28:47]So, now for the final cadence, usually this goes immediately to E major, the B to E, but now it stays on the B, kind of teases to stop here.

[00:29:05]Still on B.

[00:29:06]>> [music] >> There's the E, so he ex- extends the cadence.

[00:29:13]And now we get the coda, which is kind of based on the original. It has the same foundation, but Animenz, of course, pimps it up to a real virtuoso piano ending. But the foundation is going between [music] E E major and >> [music] >> A minor. [singing] So, we get this minor four to the tonic, but of course, we have a lot of octaves.

[00:29:46]To the E, and now the final chord, >> [music] >> which is an amazing sound.

[00:29:53]So, actually, it's just like this.

[00:29:55]And this is closer to the original in the orchestra. [music] So, you have an E, the fifth, the sixth, and the ninth. Yeah.

[00:30:07]>> [music] >> So, it's very open.

[00:30:10]However, I do like to include the third as well, um which I don't think is part of that.

[00:30:16]So, instead of this, [music] I want to I like to play See, I have this.

[00:30:24]It makes it a little bit more closer to E major, just a fine detail uh difference, actually.

[00:30:31]But yeah.

[00:30:34]>> [music] >> Very, very nice ending.

[00:30:36]I think this is really good music, and especially this arrangement by Animenz as an exciting piano piece. And I think it has to be part of the future to play music from our own time and not just classical if we want to keep art music alive with the higher ambition of providing a richer musical experience than for example Einaudi and Yiruma.

[00:30:59]And I think this is a really good way to do it. So, hats off to Annamann's. And thanks for watching the channel. The Patreon shout out goes to J. Pearlman and I'll see you all in another video.