Analyzing "Entrusting this World to Idols" Touhou 17 OST | Basterd's LFA

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Next up, we have entrusting this world to idols, idolatries world stage six boss theme from the Touhou 17 soundtrack. Once again, everybody, this is a bastard Ella Fey, a layman friendly analyst. I'm a professionally trained musician and composer, and my objective here is to explain things in a way so that you don't have to be one 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 you want to do, like the video, share it, leave a comment, turn on notifications, become a member. Once again, everybody, don't forget Discord server, join the Patreon, subscribe to the gaming channel, subscribe to the reacts channel, how to request songs if you're not on the live stream. Members getting early access to the content I have actually been able to listen to a bunch of other things later than these videos, so stick around for that.

[00:00:43]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 guitar-ed, so please keep that in mind.

[00:00:51]Also, for those of you saying that Opera for the win, we used to use Opera in this in this thing until one day I booted it up and I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I booted it up and it just did not work. It decided to just stop working. So, yeah, that's why we're using Firefox on this. Let's go.

[00:01:08]>> [music] >> Use Chrome? No. Chrome I use for my business.

[00:01:19]Like, I have a different browser for different stuff. I use Brave for personal browsing. I I use Chrome for my business. I use Firefox for the streams.

[00:01:28]I I started using the volume on the other laptop for the other channel, Edge. No.

[00:01:34]>> [snorts] >> So, we start here with quite a few elements. One, we have a we have some percussion, some percussion there giving us an initial bit of drums. We have piano there giving us some arpeggios.

[00:01:48]Arpeggios. Arpeggio being when you play a chord one note at a time. So, for example, here is C major 7. Here's arpeggiated.

[00:01:58]So, yeah, we're having that going on over here. Then we have what sounds like a synth with trumpets maybe giving us a slower melody than everything else giving us what I believe would be our initial motif. Motif being the smallest version of your musical idea. They say the essence from which everything else comes from. So yeah, is it hard to navigate for you? Awesome. Good for you.

[00:02:18]It decided like one day before the stream, I booted it up.

[00:02:21]Literally did not open anything.

[00:02:24]So, yes. Let's see where this goes. New example from our pediad. This time we're doing for an extended chord.

[00:02:31]Yes. All right, let's go. Let's go with this.

[00:02:35]>> [music] >> Oh, and then next to the drums we have an electric guitar playing the chords doing doublings with the drums. Doubling is when you have more than one instrument doing the same thing at the same time.

[00:02:51]And yeah, it is trumpets and a synth giving us a doubling there as well giving us that really really cool melody. This is how it goes.

[00:02:58]>> [music] >> Aligning with everything.

[00:03:05]Drums and guitars.

[00:03:13]Okay, so we switch over now to the piano, guitar, and drums now giving us this bit from the motif itself and repeating it engaging in what sounds to be a polyrhythm based on the previous rhythm as before, right? So a polyrhythm an illusion of a polyrhythm based on syncopation.

[00:03:34]Syncopation being when you play against the drums, against the beat, or against your metronome. In this case, we are playing against the beat that we just left behind which gives us the illusion of a polyrhythm. Polyrhythm being when you have multi poly multiple rhythm, multiple rhythms. Um usually referring to when you have two or more rhythms playing at the same time with them clashing and that clash being what makes them sound cool. So, the simplest polyrhythm, of course, being three versus two polyrhythm where you have one part doing twos, 1 2 1 2, and the other one doing threes, 1 2 3 [music] 1 2 3.

[00:04:11]Both of them together.

[00:04:15]So, we're having something like that happen to a higher degree, but this time instead of having the two rhythms playing at the same time, we are playing against the rhythm that we just left behind.

[00:04:25]And the drums doing some triplets, we're doing a I think we are moving between triplets and straight eighth notes like just straight syncopation. So, yeah, let's see where this goes.

[00:04:43]And we just switch over to the piano. We have the lower piano doing arpeggios, the higher piano doing the melody, still playing that motif, still advancing that motif forward. And we have in the background, we have like shakers giving us the rest of the of the rhythm. And yeah, let's just welcome to the how you doing. Enjoy here the face where the ladies are. Yes, it's great. Let's see where this goes.

[00:05:13]>> [music] >> And now we bring in the second a second shaker or a second or a hi-hat over here giving us a counter rhythm to the other one engaging in now a polyrhythm by itself, but making the rhythm a little bit more the beat itself a lot more straightforward.

[00:05:33]I am really enjoying this, dude. All right, let's see where this goes. See where this goes. And I just realized that I need to move the camera. Anyway, >> [music] >> Nice.

[00:05:44]Cadence and So, we take the same melody and this time we double it with guitars.

[00:06:02]That is basically it. We double it with guitars. Uh the guitars doing um sounds like power chords.

[00:06:10]Um sounds like a power chord. Maybe.

[00:06:13]Uh we'll see. Go for the one we're going to do in a minute. So, a power chord A power chord is a root and fifth power chord. What are those? Those are intervals. Interval is the distance between notes. This is interval-based chords. So, a chord is going to be stacked notes. Notes that you stack vertically on top of one another. The most common one is stacked thirds.

[00:06:39]That is the most common type of chord that we have. So, interval is, you know, a third is an interval. So, let's take an example. Let's take C major for example cuz there's many ways to count intervals. The simplest one is to just take a key signature, C major, C D E F G A B, and then we take a point of reference. We're in C major, might as well um use this one, which is going to be our first or our root. Then from there you can count up or down. Um chords usually it's thirds above. So, C, your first, your root, up a second, D, up a third, E, up a fourth, F, up a fifth, G, up a sixth, A, up a seventh, B, up and octave C. So, the way it works is that you can have, let me just uh put these over here and I messed it up. So, yeah. The way it works is that you can have a chord that you start on the note that you're in, C, you stack a third on top of that, C, second, D, third, E. Now you have a dyad.

[00:07:36]It's either dyad or dyad. I I never I never know how to spell this one. Uh but it's basically root and third. Then for the next one, for the triad, so I think it's dyad uh dyad, then we have triad, which is going to be root plus third, and then from this third, you count another third. E 1 F 2 G 3 root third fifth. So, root third root third [music] fifth.

[00:08:04]And then you can have oh I uh fifth, then you can have extended chords. Extended is everything that goes that stacks beyond the fifth. So, from the fifth B, you can stack another one, G 1 A 2 B 3, B 1 D C 2 D 3. So, you can have seventh chords, ninth chords, 11th uh 11th chords, 13th chords, and you can just stack them like that, but usually this is how we see them, extended, then you're going to have based on the highest note that you have. So, if you have a seventh chord, which is uh root third um root third fifth and seventh, then it's called a seventh chord. If you add a ninth on top of that, then you get a ninth chord. If you add an 11th on top of that, you get an 11th chord. And if you add a 13th on top of that, you get a 13th chord. So, yeah, that's uh usually how we go. A power chord is just the root and fifth without the third.

[00:09:03]>> [music] >> And it sounds very perfect, which especially in the guitar, the way that guitar works, uh allows you to basically ignore the fifth and use it however you want. So, yeah, we're having that. Let's see where it goes.

[00:09:18]Remind me after this video to move the camera.

[00:09:22]There we go, developing that motif [music] the same way as before, nice long melody.

[00:09:28]Cadence and So, now we're bringing in a new uh part to this. We bring a a section of the motif that we just did, still doubling the guitar and the piano. We have that syncopation metric experimentation. We're having like experimenting with the rhythm. And then in the background, we are bringing in what sounds to be brass.

[00:09:53]Like it's either going to be trombones or some French horns playing some chords against this. Let's see where this goes.

[00:10:02]Oh, it's a synth. It's a synth.

[00:10:07]And we modulate. Okay, so modulation modulation is when you go from what is called a key signature from one key signature to another key signature. A key signature is the scale that you're in and whatever chords you can get. So, if we go back to the scale of C major, it's going to be the chords that we can get out of those notes.

[00:10:30]So, yeah, I I messed up my my my keyboard so much over here. Anyway, so we're having that and a modulation is when you go from one to another. So, for example, the key of C major is not going to share not going to share all the same notes as for example A major.

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> So, there is going to be differences.

[00:10:52]So, in order to modulate, you're going to want to smooth in the transition between the two. Right now, we probably did a common chord modulation with this whole thing because I know that the composer loves doing that, which basically just means we look at the key of C major, we look at the key of A major, we see which chords we can use in common, and then we formulate a cadence based on that. So, yeah, we're doing that. Let's see how this goes.

[00:11:15]This is the same phrase.

[00:11:18]So, yeah, we modulate and we now transpose the melody to the new key signature.

[00:11:24]Transposing or transposition is the art of move of adapting or translating something in music to something else.

[00:11:32]So, in this case, we were transposing from the key number one to key number two because they're not going to be playing the same notes. Like there's going to be some notes difference. So, in order to if I were to bring back the case of C major and A major.

[00:11:51]If I then wanted to play something in A major, I would need to make some changes because the difference between C major and A major is that A major instead of having a C natural has a C sharp, instead of having an F natural has a F sharp, and instead of a G natural has a G sharp. So, if I were to have a melody like this, >> [music] >> if I were to play within the key of C major, but starting in A, we would play it in A minor.

[00:12:18]>> [music] >> So, in order to adapt it, we would need to transpose it >> [music] >> and make sure that it fits this whole thing. This also works for instruments.

[00:12:29]Like, for example, there are instruments that will be tuned in different tunings, which results in you having to rewrite how you write the music for them.

[00:12:37]Particularly for stuff like saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, French horns. It's It's fairly tricky to to do that. But, if you can get away with it, then you can get away with it. AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE WE CAN GET AWAY WITH?

[00:12:51]THE PATREON. PATREON.COM/JAMESRBASTERD.

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[00:13:53]All right, back we go. We have the transposed melody. Let's see where it goes.

[00:14:02]>> [music] >> And then it And we switch around. We have a beat of silence. We switch it up and now we bring back the trumpets. We come back to a similar thing to what we did when it was just the solo piano, but this time instead of having the higher end of the piano doing the melody, we have the trumpet doing it. Let's see where it goes.

[00:14:30]Preparing [music] for modulation.

[00:14:34]Same thing as before.

[00:14:35]Same thing as before, but we're using the melody in the trumpet this time around. Same build-up.

[00:14:41]See?

[00:14:42]And it's slightly different drums.

[00:14:46]We bring a second trumpet.

[00:14:52]So, we bring in a second trumpet and we start dealing with some counterpoint.

[00:14:56]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 melodies playing at the same time. In this case, we're having these two trumpets, each of them doing a slightly different version of the melody from even from a separate interval, and then resulting in this really, really cool interaction. Let's see where it goes.

[00:15:18]Build-up.

[00:15:21]Oh, cool.

[00:15:23]>> [music] >> Nice.

[00:15:27]Nice. Cadence and We bring in another guitar.

[00:15:37]We bring in a guitar fairly far in the back, but it is there doing a doubling to one of the trumpets.

[00:15:42]This is really good.

[00:15:46]All right.

[00:15:49]Ah, it's such a good melody, yeah. I'm a sucker for melodies, man. So, this is awesome.

[00:15:54]>> [music] >> Little cadence there and And now we let the guitar we pass the baton over to the guitar. The speed on the drums is insane.

[00:16:09]Um, but yeah, the drums giving us a drum beat there right now. The The The main stage is the piano versus the melody.

[00:16:15]So, yeah, very melodic. Yeah, no, like um I I am a melodic oriented composer. I love melodies, so yeah.

[00:16:25]Second guitar in the background doing the uh the counterpoint now.

[00:16:31]Nice. Same melody.

[00:16:33]Good way of extending the material.

[00:16:36]There we go. Cadence and And now we bring in off the ramp we go. Off the ramp being a colloquial uh term that I use. Colloquial, by that I mean there is no official academic definition for this, or at least I'm choosing not to use it for the sake of simplicity. And off the ramp is what I like to call a particular type of transition that makes your listener feel suspended up in the air at the mercy of inertia waiting to see where you land. Kind of like going off a ramp. How do you do this? Remove the drums, maybe the bass as well. As we are seeing over here, we switch over to now the pianos and the guitars. They are doing the same arpeggios. They're just doing them from different points. So, a chord, you know, as we said.

[00:17:22]So, right we're doing right now is we're having the piano starting from one point and the guitar starting from another one. And now we're having something like that, right? So, we're having that kind of stuff.

[00:17:35]Let's see where this goes.

[00:17:39]I know what.

[00:17:41]Oh, this is a leitmotif.

[00:17:43]Oh, this is this is a leitmotif. Okay, Touhou leitmotifs. Okay, so that's where this comes from. Okay, so this on top of that, this is a leitmotif. Um so, this is the leitmotif. Leitmotif is a motif that is reused in a later work to reference back to the original material.

[00:17:59]In this kind of in this case, we are seeing the leitmotif of Touhou, as I'm being told over here, cuz I haven't played this game. So, we're having that and that is happening. So, every every leitmotif is a motif. Not every motif is a leitmotif. A motif becomes a leitmotif when the original rights holder or the original composer reuses that motif in a future work to reference back to the original. If you are not the original composer or the rights holder, you are not doing a leitmotif, you're doing a quote.

[00:18:30]Which is right now, of course, it's the same composer. We are doing a leitmotif.

[00:18:34]So, yeah, really cool way we're having that we sneak that in. Let's see where this goes.

[00:18:43]I think we loop now.

[00:18:45]>> [music] >> I think we loop now.

[00:18:55]It sounds like we're about to loop, yeah.

[00:18:58]Cuz we're having the piano doing the thing, off the ramp, and Yep, we've looped. Okay, so if we've looped, let me go ahead and move over to the very end. Let's see if there's any changes here.

[00:19:13]Cuz we have this part over here.

[00:19:17]See.

[00:19:18]Okay, and we end up just fading out. It fades down It fades out for the YouTube video, which means that in the game it's just going to play and loop infinitely until something interrupts it um in like something else happens that interrupts it. Uh let me tell you just take a Ultra Kill Undertale soundtrack.

[00:19:34]We've done Ultra Kill and Undertale and we've seen quite a few light motifs in that. And with that, there you have it.

[00:19:41]Intrusting this world to idols, Idol at Rise World Stage 6 Boss Theme from the Touhou 17 soundtrack. That was awesome, dude. Once again, everybody, this has been a bastard ZelaFay, a layman friendly analysis by a professionally trained musician composer. 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 archive thing, thank you for watching. Make sure you're following me the channel, subscribe to the channel, whatever you want to do.

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[00:22:27]Linked in the description. Thank you again for all for over 250 subscribers so quickly. Linked in the description or search on YouTube. Same username as James R Bastard. Just extend the R to Reacts and you got it. And uh yeah, there you have it. Entrusting this world to idols, Touhou 17. That was awesome, dude. Really good stuff, man. Really. I really enjoyed it. Good stuff. Good stuff. But uh yeah, let's move on. Let's move on.