Analyzing "Binah Battle Theme" Library of Ruina OST | Basterd's LFA (Layman-Friendly Analysis)

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Next up, we have Bena Battle theme from the Library of Ruina soundtrack. Once again everybody, this is a bastard Zelfe, a layman friendly analysis. I'm a professionally trained musician, composer, and my objective here is to explain things in a way so that you don't have to be want to understand what is happening here musically. So, if you like the sound of that, make sure you're following the channel, subscribe to the channel, whatever videos, like the video, share the comment, turn on notifications, become a member. Once again everybody, don't forget to join the Discord server, join the Patreon, subscribe to the gaming channel, how to request songs if you're not on the live stream. Members getting early access to the content. I have a spiel for this and a bunch of other things later down this video, so stick around for that.

[00:00:38]Disclaimers showing on your screen right now, so go ahead and pause the video to read them in full. Otherwise, please be patient with me. I am acoustic and guitared, so please keep that in mind.

[00:00:47]With that, let's go ahead and do this bea battle theme. Let's go.

[00:01:01]Okay, we start with a few elements. This is really cool already. We have, of course, a percussion very lightly tapped, like a bass drum, very lightly tapped to give us that initial kind of feel to this. Um, we have then a piano and a cello. The cello of course being the second largest of the viol family, the one that you need to sit down and lay against and lean against your body to be able to play. Uh both of them playing the initial melody doing what is called a doubling. Doubling is when you have more than one instrument doing the same thing at the same time.

[00:01:36]And of course this initial melody containing what I believe would be our initial motif. Motif being the smallest version of your musical idea, the seed, the essence from which everything else comes from. So we do that. Let's see where this goes.

[00:01:52][music] Okay. So, we now switch over. We have an orchestral arrangement over here, right?

[00:02:03]So, let me bring the orchestra uh picture that we always use. We bring uh this one over here. So, now we have an orchestra playing along with us. We're having um the lower strings. So the vias and the rest of the cellos playing the chords to the beat. We have the bass drum there in the back giving us that very light once again. And now we are switching back and forth between the piano and the cello playing the melody or parts of the motif at the very least. Um we then start doing what is called sequencing to the melody. We sequence the melody a little bit. Sequencing being a way that you can develop your material in which you take a musical idea and you repeat it from a new starting point. usually a melody. So, uh if we have for example this melody over here, uh if we have that over there, we're going to repeat that same shape just from a different starting point. [music] That kind of thing, right? So, we're doing something uh we're doing something like that with part of the motif. We had a fairly um we had a fairly um lengthy motif at the very start and then we have and yes me no the points are not shared between the platforms cuz the bot is not smart enough for that. So let's see where this goes.

[00:03:23][music] And now that I'm checking here on the YouTube it seems like this one is uh split into three parts. We've it's not the first time this has happened where we split into three parts or three movements. Uh movements are very often common when it comes to the sonata form.

[00:03:41]Right? So movement uh a movement is a variation of the piece itself. Um very commonly observed in what is called sonata form uh form which is of course observed in sonatas, piano sonatas, whatever instrument sonatas as well as symphonies. This is very very common for that because it gives you more area more more to uh explore the the melody that you're using in different variations of it. You take different versions of the motif and then you have that. So let's see where this goes.

[00:04:19]Piano as the melody.

[00:04:22]back to the original theme or back to the melody here played by the piano and the picello.

[00:04:33]Okay, so now we are engaging in counterpoint between the piano and the cello. Counterpoint uh counterpoint being the study the art of melodies, how they are, how they develop, how they interact with one another, usually in the context of having two or more at the same time. The piano is doing a harmonized version of um the melody while the cello is doing a simpler version of the melody engaging in some counter. Let me explain this because first we have harmonization.

[00:05:00]Hang on. We have harmonization. Let me just make the box here. Harmonization.

[00:05:05]All right. So harmonization is counterpoint parallel motion motion in thirds or sixths. So counterpoint as I just said study art of melodies. Um counterpoint can be measured in many ways. One of which is parallel motion. I will get into the other ones in a moment. Uh parallel motion means that the the melodies are doing the same thing at the same time from a different starting point or from an interval. Interval being the distance between notes. So there's many ways of counting intervals. The simplest one is you take a scale C D F G A B. Let's take the scale of C major. Um then you take a what's called a point of reference.

[00:05:46]Let's take C because we're in the key of C major. Might as well. And that is going to be your first or your root root. Um and first then you start counting up or down depending on the degree. So you have root in C, up a second D, up a third E, up a fourth F, up a fifth G, up a sixth A, up a seventh B, and then up an octave is C. Again, the octave is the same note repeated up or down throughout the instrument. And usually when you refer to an octave is also includes whatever is in between.

[00:06:18]And as you can go up, you can also go down. So C down a second B down a third A down a fourth G down a fifth F down a sixth E down a seventh D. And then down an octave C again. So parallel motion in thirds or sixths, which means you're playing the same melodic idea. One starts in this case C and the other one would start in E or A because a third up from E is from C is E, a third down from C is A, a sixth up from C is A, a sixth down from C is E. So as long as they are uh in some variation of that, you're going to have harmonization.

[00:06:55]Um live nice. That will make more sense when we play the game. So we are having this. So for example, the different harmonization right now the harmonization we're doing is parallel thirds [music] which is different from um you know parallel thirds down or sixth up or sixth down that kind of thing. So we are having that uh happening with the piano while the uh cello is engaging in some more counterpoint.

[00:07:34]Now the other two types of motion that there exist there's three main kinds of motion. There's parallel as we just discuss discussed there is contrary and then there is similar motion in counterpoint. parallel as we said, same uh same melodic shape happening at the same time.

[00:07:54]Simple as like they're both doing the same shape just from a different interval. Then we have contrary motion where one goes one direction, the other one goes the other direction.

[00:08:08]That kind of stuff. Uh then we have similar motion which is by far probably the most complicated because it means both melodies are doing mostly the same thing but they either don't match rhythmically or the shapes vary a little bit uh in that kind of stuff. I usually use the invention in D minor, the invention number four in D minor by Bach as an example because we have uh the the left hand doing arpeggios [music] while the piano while the right hand is doing the melody which then at the end sounds as you can hear they don't really match one to one what they are doing, but they are going roughly the same direction with one of them doing a simpler version of what the other one is doing. So, we're having something similar happening right now with the cello and the piano, but the piano of course doing parallel thirds. So, let's see where this goes.

[00:09:20]There we go.

[00:09:22]>> [music] >> Piano taking the melody now.

[00:09:27]The cello. Okay. The cello now holding the notes that the other in that the other string instruments are playing in the eighth notes, right? You can hear the eighth not. [laughter] You can hear the other ones while the cello is just holding a single note instead. Let's see where this goes.

[00:09:47]Building up the corns. [music] violins higher up with [music] the notes.

[00:09:57]We have a chorus in the back. It's a group of people singing the chords as well. While primarily right now, it's the violins that have gone from holding the notes of the chords down below to now up above. The melody now primarily carried by the um by the cello. Let's see where this goes. Beautiful.

[00:10:21]cadence and continuing one more run.

[00:10:28][music] Oh, beautiful.

[00:10:33]Louder violins, louder [music] chorus, cello, piano doubling, and [music] we bring it, we tone it back down so we can bring back the cello.

[00:10:46]Okay, that's theme number one. Now to theme number two.

[00:10:57]Okay. So now we switch over to theme number two which is the second stage kind of thing. We're going to see the first variation of this whole thing. Um which is we now have the it sounds like the vias or the violins now doing some arpeggios. They're playing the note the chords one note at a time. We're having that. We're having the percussion in the back giving us the beat soon enough. We should get the the the motif. Let's see where this goes.

[00:11:26]Lish back. How you doing? [music] See cadence. We have one. Oh. Oh, we have one of those violins going with a slide of a very very high note. That little like ascending note that we heard very very high up. That's the violins playing a very very high very quiet but very very high note just sliding up. Cuz with a violin, you don't have frets, so you can really just slide through the the notes like that. Really cool. Let's see where this goes.

[00:11:58]Okay, it seems the arpeggios here are the motif. Um, the overall shape of the melody is almost the same as the ones from the first movement. So, the the arpeggios themselves could be the motif.

[00:12:12]See where this goes.

[00:12:14]How do you f have the strength to stay awake for so long in streams? Because I don't compromise my sleep. I sleep eight and a half or nine hours a day and that's it. Like yeah, I did I did start drinking a little bit of coffee though before the streams. Like I did I did take a shot of coffee before the stream as well. Uh I have a slow metabolism so by the time the stream uh by the time it gets to the point I should be able to be fine. Let's see where this goes.

[00:12:43]violin with the ascending melody again and bass is for [music] okay so we primarily engage in a little bit of rhythmic displacement uh respect I mean right now we're doing the full-time experiment before this um basically I had a very very heavy like we very straightforward routine right like I wake up at I would wake up at 8:45 a.m. start working at 9:00 a.m.

[00:13:10]have a full-time job. So, open the laptop. Thankfully, I work from home.

[00:13:14]Open the laptop. 9 to5 work. 6:00 p.m.

[00:13:17]We start the stream. End at 11:00. Right now, I'm on um on sobatical. So, I have a bit of time off from work. We're doing the fulltime experiment. So, I'm starting the streams at 4:00 instead.

[00:13:27]I'm waking up a little bit later than usual. I like it. I love it. So, we are engaging in a little bit of rhythmic displacement. Rhythmic displacement, as the name suggests, is when you displace something in your rhythm so that you're either pushing something down so it tones later, rushing something up so it tones earlier, or you're using silence to achieve either of the two. In this case, we brought this very um very nice uh base over there that then built up back to the to the full uh force of the arpeggios that we are doing over here. We bring in the chorus here, giving us one of the chords built, excuse me, building up even further than before.

[00:14:09]Really nice. And you know what else is building up to be really nice?

[00:14:14]The Patreon. [laughter] patreon.com/jamesrbased.

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[00:15:24]Back we go. Let's see what the core is built up to. Let's go violins.

[00:15:38]There we go. Now we have the full melody from the violin variation of the melody that we had in the first one. I still think that the arpeggios we are getting from the other uh strings outline the same melody as well. I could be wrong, but either way, now we have the melody in here. Let's see where this goes.

[00:16:00]And melody even higher up.

[00:16:06]Nice. Continuing with the arpeggios.

[00:16:08]Very nice.

[00:16:11]There's the second set of violins now with the arpeggios even higher. And [music] so now we're bringing the strings down.

[00:16:25]We have them doing now a mix of the arpeggios and then the the the melody going around in what I believe would be a reduction uh of the motif. So we're having now a sequence here where we're sequencing that bit and then we're doing a reduction of the motif.

[00:16:44]Reduction being another way that you can develop your material in which you play a faster version of something you've done before. In this case, we're doing this very quick going up, down, and up the scale to emulate the same motif that we are doing. We have the percussion doing its thing, but this change in rhythm so good. Let's see where it goes.

[00:17:05]We do one of the most um straightforward and simple things you can do to build tension. Just play the same thing higher up. It works. Let's see where it goes.

[00:17:21]Oh, okay. So, we now bring the um most of the strings now playing the the notes continuously. They're no longer giving us the rhythmic notes. Now, they're just playing the notes continuously. Some of them are still doing the previous one along with the um with the percussion.

[00:17:43]We have of course the violins going very high up almost like we took off and now we're flying um we're flying with everything. Very very magical kind of sound that you can get from this achieved through the separation of the different uh string instruments that we're having. So some of them are still doing the kind of thing. I think it's like um motif riff that we were doing, melody that we were doing, accompaniment that we were doing while we have the violins primarily playing the melody and the other ones just holding down the chords with the percussion still. Very nice.

[00:18:17]Let's see how this one ends. And let's see the theme three.

[00:18:22]There's a motif and cadence and [music] Valid, thank you for the I saw it. I saw it. That was not part of the track.

[00:18:36]Valid, thank you for the uh for the sub.

[00:18:38]Appreciate it. All right, let me go back a couple of seconds. Let's hear this again. Give me a second. Okay, you sound.

[00:18:50]Okay, so now we switch back to the violins and the pianos doing a doubling.

[00:18:55]And now we are switching between what are called straight eighth notes and triplets. So you can hear it going [laughter] PP. So basically when we have the accelerated versions, those are called triplets, which is basically you're squeezing three notes in the space that you would usually have two. [snorts] And then we go back to the straight eighth notes, which is using the two notes as they are supposed to. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da kind of thing. So let's see where this goes.

[00:19:31]Okay. Now the melody is a combination of both the material that we were using in the previous two um movements. So we are having the arpeggios part of this. We're having the the same overall um melodic shape of the melodies, but now we're having a combination of both in the melody. While of course the percussion is giving us this. I think we have the rest of the um strings giving us a relatively uh quiet chords. Let's see where this goes.

[00:20:02]Yeah, they're just playing the chords.

[00:20:09]All right. Piano [music] and violins doubling. And okay, we switch over with now bringing in the trombones and the tuba. Trombones and tuba here doing the melody that the cellos were doing. Doubling the piano instead of the cellos from before.

[00:20:30]Giving us this very nice brassy feeling.

[00:20:32]This very very brassy sound aggressive that we are having. Let's see where this goes.

[00:20:39]This light of the strings from above.

[00:20:50]Okay, so now we switch over to the trombones and tuba giving us this really cool baseline from below while the violins are doing a combination of the arpeggios and the melodies with the combination of the rhythmic elements between the triplets and the straight eighth notes going back and forth very erratically. It's very erratic movement that we're having over here. Very nice for uh extra momentum. Let's see where this goes.

[00:21:23]Resulting this very odd rhythm we're getting from this. We're having violins there rising with the other melody.

[00:21:36]Oh, it's awesome. And Cello.

[00:21:44]Cello's taking over. Violin's doubling now. Brass giving us the baseline.

[00:21:50]There the chorus now with little fingers there singing the singing the chords to the rhythm. The chorus is now singing the chords to the rhythm accompanied by some of the other strings. The brass still giving us that really cool aggressive baseline while we are having the cellos and the violins from two different sides giving us that very beautiful uh doubling parallel motion.

[00:22:14]Let's see where this goes from the violin.

[00:22:21]All right.

[00:22:23]Scales up and down and then it loops.

[00:22:26]And then it loops. Um so it ends with a half cadence because it just loops. So it ends incomplete so that it can loop back to any of the portions of the any of the segments of this piece that we've had before. And with that, that ended a lot sudden a lot more suddenly than I was expecting it. But there you have it.

[00:22:44]That was the Beina battle theme from the Library of Ruina soundtrack. That was awesome, dude. Really cool. Three movements all building upon each other um and just increasing in the tension.

[00:22:57]Really good stuff, man. Once again everybody, this has been a bastard fa a layman friendly analysis. I'm a professionally trained musician composer and my objective here has been to explain things in a way so that you don't have to be one to understand what's happened here musically. So if you're watching this on the YouTube video like kind of thing. Thank you for watching. Make sure you're following the channel, subscribe to the channel, whatever you use, like the video, share, leave a comment, turn on notifications, become a member. Once again everybody, don't forget to join the Discord server.

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[00:25:36]Beta battle themed library of ruin. Man, this music is incredible, dude. I'm really enjoying it. Good stuff, man.

[00:25:43]Good stuff. But uh yeah, let's move on.

[00:25:46]That's worn.