Music Teacher Reacts To Elden Ring: Godskin Apostles

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]me still salty about Timone and Pumba really messing me up in Farazula. No, of course that gives a lot of credit to Buffalo Bill over there. Somebody should call Vatividia and Smount to humble my ass.

[00:00:14]Hey everyone, quick word before we get into today's video. If you like the way I go about dissecting video game soundtracks, I think you might really like something I've been working on alongside the channel for a while now.

[00:00:27]It's really special for me and I put a lot of thought into it and I think you're going to like it too. Starting June 17, I'm launching the Prince of Egypt masterass. It's a multimonth deep dive into Hans Zimmers and Steven Schwarz's score. The first two modules of the master class are going to be completely free. These two are going to focus on the production background for the score and a deep musical dive into Deliver Us, the opening number. So, if you're interested, you can go to the link in the description below, drop your email, and the two modules will be yours as soon as they're out. I am super psyched for it. And now you know. So, let's get back to the video. People only notice us when we're hurting around their mid20ies or 30s, especially if they're sitting a lot because we're so back, baby. That's right. We are checking out today the Godkin Apostles from Elden Ring. You all know there wasn't a chance. I wasn't going to do a deep dive into this one because when you got skin in the game, you stay in the game, but you don't get a win unless you play in the game. Yeah, you get love for it. You get hate for it. You get nothing if you wait for it. Wait for it. Wait.

[00:01:32]For anyone new around here, hi, welcome.

[00:01:34]I'm Daniel D. Teach. I teach college level music composition and production.

[00:01:38]I'm a composer and a producer myself.

[00:01:40]Yeah, being a huge nerd in this field is really fun. I sure hope your skin routines are ready because we have a doozy ahead of us. As per usual, each phase is going to get its own uninterrupted reaction, then a deep dive. We're going to sprinkle in a little bit of lore talk in between.

[00:01:57]There are chapters down below for your convenience. So, without further ado, let's begin.

[00:02:06]Oh, yeah. I remember this.

[00:02:13]That drama.

[00:02:21]I love the choir in this.

[00:02:28]Now the strings are just moving the pulse along.

[00:02:52]Hey, this is the main Elder Ring motif.

[00:02:58]It's Ratagon's theme and the smaller ensemble just Oh, that's a beautiful contrast.

[00:03:16]And we have these teners just blooming.

[00:03:31]Gorgeous.

[00:03:36]The choir never stops being the main driver here.

[00:03:56]There's this condensation of the theme from the beginning. Just moves faster.

[00:04:06]Ah, that's such an eerie way to finish this track. I love it. I'm already noticing a bunch of things that kind of make this track stick out, you know, beyond the fact that it's epic. Many tracks are epic, but what makes something iconic? What makes it stick to the identity of the game and the thing that it's related to? I just I can't wait to break down. So, we shall wait.

[00:04:49]We begin with a very strong sense of tension, not only because of the choir, but because of a compositional tool we call a pedal tone. Using that compositional technique is akin to tying an anchor to the feet of your melody and harmony. Sure, it can try to resist, can try to run, but something is always going to weigh it down. There is a sense of inevitability to it.

[00:05:16]Just this menacing, ominous tone that doesn't let the rest of the melody and harmony move away from its current spot.

[00:05:24]When you change your harmony above this pedal tone, this is where you get that tension, that feeling of something that tries to move away, but it's anchored down. And the more dissonant that it is, it's like you're pulling harder against that anchor. It is such an effective dramatic tool. You can also find it in uh the beginning of show must go on by Queen.

[00:05:50]And then of course they change the tune.

[00:05:54]Yeah. They change the bass. They don't just linger on that one. But that beginning moment of tension, it's very similar to what we hear here.

[00:06:14]Now, this isn't stealing. It's a compositional technique. Everybody can use it. And I think the way they used it here is beautiful because these long choir notes, they kind of clue us in to what this track is actually about. This track, it doesn't develop in the traditional sense. It doesn't go from point A to point B. Now, it's true that loops in video games often have this status quo that they have to work around. So, it doesn't feel like you're telling three different stories with one track, but still here we have this nondirectional movement. It's intensifying not through development, but through assertion, which musically is ridiculously appropriate considering the rest of the decision that Taitoisawa made here. But, you know, let's let's listen to some more of it and then we'll dive into it.

[00:07:25]While the first musical phrase is pretty understandable, the second musical phrase is already throwing curveballs.

[00:07:33]It reharmonizes the third note of the melody all of a sudden. And the last note goes up instead of down in this chromatic unsettling way, creating maximal tension before the fight launches into its flow, into the engine that moves it around. Really beautiful.

[00:07:54]Check it out.

[00:07:57]Da da da da. First phrase.

[00:08:05]Now it brightens up and then then the level of dissonance just jumps upwards. That moment of tension, it really helps launch you into the fight. Nothing says rising stakes like moving from something bright and majestic into something dissonant and dangerous. And so they are basing this dark ominous beginning just to twist it with something bright and perhaps heroic, almost hopeful, supernatural to put a sting in it and say, "Yeah, this is something that is almost divine in its nature. It is superb and it is terribly dangerous.

[00:08:58]Bright and beautiful and dangerous.

[00:09:12]Now we have an expansion of that melody da but it never has a resolution. It is this hymn which is what I was kind of aiming at earlier. This repetition, this intensification not through development but through assertion. It is deeply religious. This entire phase is steeped in this air of religious ritual.

[00:09:41]something that has a massive amount of following and something that defeats anything the individual can put in front of it. It is really dogmatic in the way that it's presenting its musical material. And I think that pedal tone below and that choir chanting, all of it is not coincidental. There is a clear musical direction here.

[00:10:20]You see how it goes around and round but doesn't arrive at a destination. It sort of repeats the same mantra and there's nothing you can do to stop it which I find to be hypnotizing in a fight like this. the music is not moving very fast.

[00:10:38]That fight is very aggressive. So when the music is moving like that, it is if a ritual is taking place and you are powerless to stop it. Or at least that's how they want you to feel until you actually defeat them. Also, let me tell you something about brass instruments in the orchestra. They are loud. Their volume output is significant. So significant in fact that when horns are playing for example, a lot of the times the bell of the horn would be turned backwards. So it can mainly go in the opposite direction of the audience, hit the wall and reflect off the wall. It can be that loud. So that is a balancing element that sometimes is used in the orchestra. The reason why I'm bringing it up is even though these instruments are very very loud, they never bury the choir here. The choir remains a prominent part of this and it's for a reason. It gives you this religious ritualistic air that you're not going to get if the brass, the epicness, the action is overwriting the theme. It's a beautiful example of what happens when you don't forget the concept you're going with the idea that the track exists for when you execute even the editing and the balancing between the instrumentalists. Some of these brass players are playing loudly in a way that wouldn't make the choir pop up this way if not for artificial balancing of volume. putting that choir front and center instead of pushing them to the back as is often done with epic tracks like this. It really make this track stick out. There is this meme about Dark Souls music from software music in general. There's no music, then you enter a big room, the door locks behind you, huge choir starts screaming, iconic from software boss music moment. While this resembles it in some ways, it does go against that pattern because it's not the mass of the choir that is supposed to intimidate you. If anything, this choir is quite intimate. They're singing loudly, but it's not the numbers of them that we are worried about. It's not the numbers of them that I'm worried about.

[00:12:50]Something I wish I could say about the Godskin duo fight. Me still salty about Timone and Pumba really messing me up in Farazula? No.

[00:13:00]Me? Hell, I'm past salty. I'm apple cider vinegar. Levels are sour. But we don't want to linger on things that are skin deep. Let's continue listening to this thing.

[00:13:14]The strings are just keeping this 16th p.

[00:13:33]The strings are kind of coming forth a little bit.

[00:13:41]This moment is super interesting because what you have is the main theme of the game or Ratagon's theme. You can call it the PA which we do tie to the game in general but we also tie it to the Ratagon America contrast. The reason why I find it interesting is because they linger on it for quite a while. They want you to hear it but then they answer it with a negative mirror representation of it. Instead of going the whole step down, da da, then they take this final note we landed on and they go another step down and a step up. Ta. This is a mirror image of the motif we associate with the title of the game. Something that really contributes to this representation of the glomite queen as this shadow of America. This shadow is buried so deep. America was so effective in defeating her and erasing her from history that years after the game is out, we are still struggling to really pinpoint who she was, what she wanted, and why she's gone. Of course, there's much to talk about, and we'll talk about it in the lore portion, but notice how the music reflects it as well. This is not the wild imaginings of Reddit when it comes to Elden Ring lore. This is something that is clearly represented in the music of the game. And if nothing else, this is a lore discovery onto its own. I think it's extremely intentional.

[00:15:13]A lore discovery that sounds really self-important. Somebody should call Vatividia and Smount to humble my ass.

[00:15:19]Regardless, I do find it meaningful and artistically very coherent.

[00:15:42]What we get here is very unique for the Elder Ring soundtrack. We did talk about it in the Night Train tracks that this contrast between the few instruments or the soloist versus the massive ensemble is a very effective tool in manipulating space, manipulating intimacy within the contrast of a track. Here we have this moment of respit in which just a few women are singing this coral music almost bright, something that is beautiful, something that is pure and it really points us in a few directions that are unique. If you want to present something menacing, corruption, you're going to need to kind of contrast it with something clean, with something that is pure, so you have a measuring point. Not only that, the choice of women as the prime drivers of this track. We later have the teners kind of taking a moment to give this menacing air of the nobles and the apostles, but women are mainly driving the squire in this track. And I think it's for a good reason. You see it in different cultures. In Shaman Village, you see it with the Nox. You see it with America's reign, of course, and the Gloomite Queen. the matriarchal structure, this duality of someone who's in charge of death, the death of everything and the mythological and you know historical depiction of women as the bringers of life, right?

[00:17:15]That contrast is almost requiring a moment like this to acknowledge. The Glomite Queen is depicted as a motherly figure, and that duality is crucial to keep, especially when we're talking about her as a shadow of America. We'll keep some of it for the lore talk.

[00:17:43]>> That was the closest thing to like a directional melody we've had so far.

[00:17:49]Yow. The chanting of the men.

[00:18:00]Oh, that's such such a beautiful moment tonally. Let's let's examine this moment more closely.

[00:18:08]What we have after the gentle singing of the few women, we have the mass of men.

[00:18:15]We have that hierarchy, the majestic glomade queen at the top and then the mass following she has with this ritualistic cult that she's leading. And just by manipulating where the highest note of the so-called melody is moving, not when the women sing, but when the men sing and the strings are moving above them, you really get this building of tension.

[00:18:40]It refuses to give you something to move you forward. Once again, what we have here with the resistance of the melody to progress, to move on to another phrase, to change in a way that is musical or understandable to us, it really resembles what we've seen with the pedal tone. There's this element here of change and resistance to it that I find is also very appropriate because death does beget change and America's resistance to death is going to create this tension that will end up exploding and messing a lot of things up.

[00:19:28]Such a good moment.

[00:19:44]It is still an acceleration of the first motif that we've heard in the song. It just it's happening faster. It's more condensed. And this flow just shows you it doesn't matter if you try to slow it down, if you try to accelerate it.

[00:20:01]Destined death is destined. This looming threat of an inevitable end is really driving this track quite a bit.

[00:20:19]It's majestic.

[00:20:22]This royal and noble and majestic dark dance that we get here is the duality of the glowite queen. The cultish and the gruesome combined with the majestic and the heavenly This moment makes you feel like something changed in a battle. And it's not synced to anything as far as I know.

[00:21:03]It It's just that trick. I always say that reduction can be so much more effective than addition. And here what we get is a reduction of the bases. They are pulling the rug beneath your feet.

[00:21:15]And you will feel like something happened. You will feel like what's going on and it will throw you off for a good reason because this is something you grow accustomed to. Your ears get used to the fact that this lower register is a part of the music and when they pull it away, your brain is like, "What's up?" You are up to something and I need to know what it is. You're paying attention again. So, while attack pattern-wise it can be a little misleading, it does keep you at the edge of your seat, which is a good idea with these fights. They are pretty aggressive.

[00:21:57]This little That's a really cool ending. I want to dig into that a little bit. We have this squeezing of the rhythm. We have a slowing down. It's barely noticeable, but it's there. It's this type of thing that a conductor would do to squeeze out every last moment of emphasis out of this track before it resolves. I want you to try to pay attention to that how the brass line especially since they kind of mark the rhythm for us. They show us like they're squeezing out. They're going a little bit late just to have the gravitas of the moment land.

[00:22:41]Bum bum. So good.

[00:22:44]And this eerie.

[00:22:47]It is so different than the choir at mass. It is close and intimate and eerie. And they're singing a singular note close to us there. There's something somewhat unnatural about it.

[00:22:59]And I would stay and gush about this banger of a phase a while longer, but look at the time. It's a clock. So, I mentioned the Glowite Queen a lot, but let's talk about the Godskin Apostles themselves because as far as I know, no matter where you fight them in the game, whether it's singular or duo, it's the same track that is playing and it's called the Godskin Apostles. So while it also plays when we fight the godskin noble, we still have the godskin apostle as the name of the track which supports this religious this lurggical connection. The idea of this as this ritualistic cult. It's a unique type of body horror that I do want to address because the godskin apostles are made of something specific. It's pretty hard to place the gods skins as any of the races we know in the game. They somewhat resemble artificial life forms. On the other hand, they are very close to the crucible given their serpentine appearance and the tail for example on the gossky noble. But their most dominant element in design is obviously the skin suit that they're wearing. And their armor descriptions are not sentimental about this. The the hood is made by sewing together patches of smooth skin. The robe, the trousers, they're all the same. These aren't fantasy garments. These are craftsman work. Be it a very grotesque craft, but it's being treated with reverence. The hunt is being treated with reverence.

[00:24:28]And that grotesque nature is being matched by the weaponry. Because for example, the godskin apostle is wielding a twin blade that's called the godskin peeler. One end of that weapon is a sickle for slicing and the other one is this winding spike for boring into the flesh. The noble on the other hand, he carries a godskin stitcher. It is a piercing sword, but the naming gives us a lot about it because it's about the weaving of that skin post hunt. It's not only for the hunt itself, which is why all of this gets such a ritualistic feel. Why Taitomisawa did an amazing job when it comes to tying the musical elements to the lore elements. The hunt is a ritual. The weaving of the skin is a ritual. The wearing of the skin is a ritual. All of it very very faithoriented. Of course, that gives a lot of credit to Buffalo Bill over there. But I mean, so already we have this connection in function between these two. The Apostle Peels and the Noble Stitches. We have this relationship in craft and right that has happened. Speaking of names, the word apostle does a lot of carrying for what these characters are in the world of Elder Ring. They're not soldiers and they're not assassins in the secular sense. These guys are disciples of something. And the text tells you as much. The apostles once said to serve destined death are wielders of the gods laying black flame. That's the verbatim line from every piece of their armor.

[00:26:03]Destined death is this world's deepest layer of death magic. It is a rule of existence, a natural function. It's almost more of a biome element than it is a force of malice. But as people who are afraid for the precious time they have to live, we of course will view it as menacing. And that deepest layer of death magic at a rule of the world basis, that is the thing that's been sealed by Malikth on America's order.

[00:26:34]That destined death regardless of how they were created. The idea that everything ends, even gods, is going to be change no matter what happens. We can already see how the greater will which we don't know much about but we do know that it strives for order order of any sort naturally this type of change is necessary. So this type of change will beget some instability some disruption to order but you can also say it serves a function for an order to stay because stagnation will destroy order in itself.

[00:27:11]The gods slayer's great sword item description tells us sacred sword of the glomemeyed queen who controlled the godskin apostles before her defeat at the hands of Melkith. The black flames wielded by the apostles are channeled from this sword. So that black flame that they're using isn't channeled from the glomite queen herself but from an instrument that she is wielding much like destined death which kind of looks like a sword in itself. the rune shape.

[00:27:39]I mean, the glomite queen is the prior holder of destined death and America and Malikth dethroned her to seal that power away. Now, it does say that they defeated her instead of killing her or destroying her, which brings a lot of credence to the idea that Melina is this repressed element of the gloomite queen, a ceiling within America herself that America had to do in a way to allow her golden order to run free without the limitations of destined death. What could go wrong? So by that notion of the concept of the end of the gods, the end of anything, it kind of messes with time or at least our perception of it because if our time isn't limited, it's also less measurable as a result. And that does create a lot of the problems that we see in the lands between the whole those who live in death situations for example. Now, with all of that in mind, think of what the music depicts with its ritualistic liturggic assertion of a melody that isn't allowed to go anywhere. Dogma and limits is the essence of what these creatures are. And the way the world of Elder Ring is built with the Golden Order, it is removing that crucial function from the cosmic balance of the lands between. It also gives us somewhat of an insight towards the outer gods because they became outer gods because they got rejected from the existing hegemony the order. They're not outer because they're from outer space.

[00:29:09]At least I think that's the what the Japanese implies in the game is that they are rejected from the circle that is the order of the rune of the elder ring. This entire phase really sounded like what happens to a cult after the leader of it is gone. They are left with function that has been rejected by the world order and they have no direction and therefore they also cannot go anywhere. Once again no reason for a melody to have a direction and to go somewhere. It is just this power of nature that stays stagnant and seething.

[00:29:48]And when you take something natural out of its habitat and you strip it of its function, it will, much like people, when you take away their sense of meaning, develop malice. Now, there are a couple more things that I do want to bring up when it comes to these gods skins before we move on to phase two.

[00:30:06]The godskin duo fight is apparently one of the most despised encounters in Elder Ring. There is something odd about the fact that in the Godskin duo fight, the music doesn't track the resurrection and the shifting between the two enemies.

[00:30:22]There is no difference. But I do think that while it can feel alienating in the fight itself, as if their death doesn't matter, so you achieve nothing, I do think it is intentional. These are not individual warriors that you're defeating. These are just vessels, instruments that will continue moving in the direction they're going at, no matter how much you try to strip them of their powers. You can destroy them as many times as you want, but their function in the world is a crucial one.

[00:30:56]They take things apart. They make sure things also disappear and are just being created. I think their background as well does support that because you have this item description explaining how when they're born, I think it's a talisman. I'll put it on the screen.

[00:31:12]When they're born, they have this cloth, that skin cloth, right, that they're being swaddled with. I also think there's a reason for why destined death is being depicted as the natural state of things in the world of the lands between. Not only because it's sensible to us, of course, all things end, but it's depicted as natural even within the cultish nature of the god skins. There's something motherly about the way the glomide queen swaddles them in that skin cloth when they're born. That's an important word for us to stick to. They are being born with all the elements of motherhood that are represented in Elden Ring like the formless mother and America and the gloomite queen and Rala.

[00:31:58]All of these you hardly ever get normal births actually being mentioned. But a lot of the places in which you do see the potential for the world to move forward, they are referring to some births. Whether it's Ronnie that uh hatched from the egg, a different story for a different day, or when we're talking about Melina that was born at the foot of the earth tree, the fact that these creatures are born and not made, I do think sets them apart from a lot of the other enemies that we fight in the game. It gives them something that the rest of their design would never do, which is humanity. Since we only have two phases, I'm going to bring my unhinted speculation right here. And no, it's not about the identity of the Glomite Queen. I think it's more about the god skins themselves. The Glomide Queen was an Imperion, supposedly a competing one to America. And while it doesn't seem like she was a god of this world, it does seem like she at least had her domain. in a conversation I had with YouTuber Boris Dragoani. Finish your Norse mythology video, Boris. I want to see it. So, in that video of the balancers, in that conversation, Boris brought up how the Newman are somewhat inspired by the elves either in Norse mythology or Tolken's lore, I can't fully remember, but they are named the new man. So, calling them new mans, the shamans, right, is a clear parallel. And they are long lived and seldom born.

[00:33:32]That is a very close artistic connection. So I thought to myself, what if you would have a parallel to the elves, something that would be an opposite of them, a shadow of them? And in Norse mythology, we do have the dark elves. They are deeply connected to the underworld. They're deeply connected to death and to resisting what they call the fair elves, the light elves. But in my research, I could not find a connection between the dark elves and snakes. Now, obviously, that connection could have been made from multiple mythologies, but I was looking for that connection because the glomide queen is connected to snakes in many different ways. Whether it's the serpentine form of the godskin apostles or the fact that you literally fight one of them in the temple of Igllay. But while the Norse mythology dark elves did not have a lot of serpentine connections that I could find, different dark elves did and these are the D. The dark elves from Dungeons and Dragons. They had a strong connection to death. Drow society is extremely lethal. It is full of violence and stabbing and ritualistic murder and poisoning. So that was one connection.

[00:34:45]Now, their connection to snakes is also very interesting because they have a spider goddess that would have in some lore strong serpentine associations. Not only that, her priestesses are wielding this snakeshaped whips. Something I think it's called a whip of fangs or something like that. So, both in their iconography and rituals, snakes do appear for the D from D&D. But that's not everything. They also have connections to skinning because the D are super into ritualistic torture. And that's the craziest bit is when a D falls, the priestesses would strip away their flesh from their bones and they would use their skin as wearable ritualistic uh armor of sorts. And the fact that this is a ritual that the priestesses do when a draw falls, they don't kill it to skin it. They respect their death by skinning them and wearing their skin.

[00:35:43]This does give a different heir to the interesting nature and mysterious nature of the god skkins. Their ritualistic job of keeping destined death as an existing power that applies even to the gods.

[00:35:57]They're not hunting the gods for the skin. They're hunting the gods because that's their job. and their wearing of their skin is a ritualistic not not uh necessarily just a trophy but as a representation of what their function in the world is. So if we view this cult of death of the glowite queen, let's say a fellow shaman, right, that that is competing with America, looking at that buried conflict as a long past conflict between the bride and the dark elves, we do see a lot of connections with the gods and the mythology that's surrounding the dark elves as they are in a way descendants or children of the gloomite queen regardless if she personally birthed them or not. I think it's pretty cool and it's a pretty cool note to send us off to the second phase uninterrupted reaction, the Godskin Apostles.

[00:37:05]Heat.

[00:37:12]Heat.

[00:37:22]Heat. Heat.

[00:37:51]That was a really cool brush.

[00:38:03]Is the I like this.

[00:38:16]Oh, the reduction is Yeah.

[00:38:22]Smart.

[00:38:24]Give me an explosion, baby.

[00:38:32]Yes.

[00:38:35]back to the original motif.

[00:38:45]Oh, the emphasis on the two. Yes.

[00:39:12]Ah, that's such an epic ending. I love it. We once again see the effectiveness of assertion. The fact that yeah, the leader of that cult is gone, but their dogma isn't and their function isn't.

[00:39:25]Even when removed from the rules of the world, they will still continue doing the thing that they were born for. And I think that that is beautifully depicted.

[00:39:36]Also, we get a little bit of a difference from what we had in the first phase. First phrase was very religious and menacing and this one is flat out a threat. It is a threat. It's a direct threat. And I I find it to be very compelling and effective because they used all these breaks and these reductions to keep the track dynamic and alive instead of, you know, keeping the explosion going on all of the time, very loud non-stop. It is an intelligent track. Doing something that's epic but feels meaningful isn't easy. It's not like, okay, make all of the instruments scream, great, that works for 3 seconds.

[00:40:17]What now? When you get to fully utilize the dynamics of your track, you you make things fall down a little bit. The only things that gives a triumphant moment its power is the lows that came before it and the low that will come after it.

[00:40:32]So yeah, deep dive. Let's dig in.

[00:40:50]Just an again a statement that is majestic, a statement that is decisive.

[00:40:56]And we repeat it for assertion. And now the dance will begin.

[00:41:13]this tiny moment in which the brass and the percussion are taking a step back.

[00:41:18]Same for the strings. They're pulling back a little bit, leaving just the choir. It is a small moment, but it does ground everything that we have in this phase with everything we've had in the previous one. The choir is less dominant here in the mix than from what I hear than the strings. comparing compared to the balance that we've had in the first phase. But they still let the choir shine in these moments by removing elements that could hide it.

[00:41:59]And they even go with that high note.

[00:42:04]They're using the same note of vulnerability to be the edge with which they're piercing into the next part of the phase. It's gorgeous. It could be some tempting to run straight into the next part. I need to keep the melody going. I need to keep the melodic movement. I need to move into my next idea to the next melodic idea. But if you're wise and you're letting a moment breathe, it can really be the thing that makes the difference. Whether your piece of music hits with the audience or not, it needs breathing moments. It needs to linger. It needs to allow them to think and process what they're going through.

[00:43:05]We have this tiny motif from the first phase of da once again another mirror image. So we had de we had the descending line in the first phase that was more similar to the main theme of the game. And now da it's an entire inversion of the first statement.

[00:43:27]First one was da da and now it's da the inverse shadow of the main melody of the game has gotten an inverse shadow which I definitely find to be very appropriate. It's this strengthening of their connection with the flame, the black flame of death.

[00:43:56]One more cool thing that we get here is in the string accompaniment. Once we have this pulsing dut dut dut counting of the strings, they're using a small variation. Instead of dut dut, they go dut dut dut dut dut du da just elongating one of the notes. But when you emphasize this type of note that falls on a weak beat, what you get is this challenge, this bite back that makes the whole moment feel more dynamic, more interesting, less predictable as a result.

[00:44:51]Pay close attention to that moment to the strings.

[00:45:02]So good once again.

[00:45:17]Da da da da but it doesn't solve into it does not get a resolution. It refuses it refuses to give you a resolution because their ability to cause the end of things right their ability to bring end even to the gods that has been taken away from them. That is such a strong contrast with where these type of creatures are, the time in which we meet them. Very very interesting parallels here. That's a a classic. It wouldn't surprise me if I go and check back if Taito Misawa was in charge. The one of the tracks in Night Rain that play out when the rain is starting to close in.

[00:46:02]There's like This type of flare that you get with the trumpets is such a unique, beautiful color that you can only get when you give it to a soloist. You can't give a mass of players to play that. You're going to get, you know, something that is blurred. It's not going to feel as sharp. But this type of flourish when you give an instrumentalist a moment to walk forward and really inspire the track. Listen to this again. It's a gorgeous musical moment.

[00:46:46]So good.

[00:46:55]Another respit.

[00:46:59]And much like the first track in which in the middle we had this moment of rest bit with just a few female vocalists singing. Here we have another reduction of the choir. Not as much as before, but the orchestra moves away a little bit.

[00:47:13]We don't have only the female singers, we also have male singers. They're singing two different melodies. And what you get here is the more complete picture of their relationship between the glow queen and the cult of instruments that follow her because that's what they view themselves as as instruments of the ritual. Gorgeous stuff.

[00:47:57]So here what we have is there's presence of the orchestra, strings, percussion, brass, but only for the first two beats of each bar. One, two, silence and leave it to the choir. And instead of using it as a one off, they are using it as a pattern. Assertion is the theme here.

[00:48:16]The repetition of something in a dogmatic way in which one would sing the thing that they're preaching and the audience answers. And in this case, it's a cool inversion because the orchestra is the audience singing back. Right?

[00:48:35]Look at that call and response.

[00:48:48]And now they're back.

[00:48:55]One more beautiful moment of lingering on that tense dominant. We have this sense of unfinished business. And instead of just chugging along, no, we are going to stew in it. They are going to drag that tension just one more bar.

[00:49:13]Just a little bit longer.

[00:49:24]Now the brass are much more active. Pum bum. We get the brass acting as a moving force, an engine. Because our strings are now taking the long lines. We need something keeping the whole thing moving forward. Otherwise, it's it's kind of like filling your shoes with cement. You you don't want your music to be so heavy that it stops moving. And the brass are really helping here. This sharp nasly sound.

[00:49:51]Really really cool.

[00:50:02]Here we have a bunch of surprises one after another and it's borrowing a bit from the trick of the beginning of the first phrase which is a nice way to kind of close the loop. You get a reharmonization, a change of the harmony that happens beneath the melody and you have an emphasis on the weak beat. So instead of doing like 1 2 3 4 like they did up until now, especially with that portion in which they start with everyone and then the choir answers. No, no, no. Now they're skipping the one and they're going in on the two. That really shift things around and it always feels really satisfying because they make you wait for this landing just a little bit longer. The management of expectation and reward for the listener in this track is fantastic. And I can only imagine it's one of the reasons why it's so popular because its relationship with the listener is crafted in a way that keeps utilizing their expectations to deliver pleasant surprises.

[00:51:19]So good.

[00:51:21]Also the quickness with which it replaces the harmony. We call that the harmonic rhythm. How long does it take till a chord changes? And the fact that here on every beat from the second beat all the way to the fourth. So m 2 3 four each and every one of these is a chord. And not only is it a chord, it's a new chord that surprisingly paints the melody in a different tense light. It is really, really smart. And it would have been really easy to mess this up and overdo it, make it feel force, make it feel less organic or as if we're trying to make the track more complex than it need to be. But the choices here are impeccable. really pushing that level of tension to its natural limit rather to where I personally feel like taking it today as a composer. Very very important for people who do professional work in this field.

[00:52:42]Now we have a similar pattern to what we had before only it is reversed. The choir is going in on the first beat of the bar alone and the orchestra is joining them only on the second half of the beat. It's the same concept but when you give it a mirror image it feels different to our ears. It's a variation that is not possible without repetition.

[00:53:07]The whole idea why we would feel anything when this happens in particular is because beforehand we had the opposite happen. So this would play with our expectations and while it is similar to what we had before. So we can relate to it's not identical it is still reversed. So we feel rewarded. Our brain feels rewarded for learning the new pattern and it does give it something new to chew on. Let's listen to the moment again.

[00:53:50]And we finish with that beautiful swelling of the brass and the strings.

[00:53:56]This neat little bow to tie everything with. It is a remarkable track. A remarkable track. And I do think we can get lost in the sauce looking for things that sound completely different or that use instruments we've never heard before. And those things are cool. I I'm not diminishing them. But getting a track like this right is far more than put a big orchestra in it, then have the choir sing really loudly like a just go all the way. There's much more going into it than that because that track would not be half as enjoyable to listen to if it did not have such a broad dynamic spectrum, differences of orchestration, shifts between soloists and ensembles. Flourishes from the trumpet. Just a great showing of how you can have a whole pallet of colors without the thing falling apart or feeling like it belongs to a different track. Especially in video game music when you have to use loops because there is an element of uncertainty to the length of the fight. It's so important that your tracks without losing cohesion, without losing the thing that gives them identity still be able to hold dynamic events, to hold things that create variation. And don't just sound like you started a brand new track.

[00:55:17]Because the whole idea of a loop is that it has a somewhat consistent emotional baseline and it doesn't veer too far from it. How do you create something that's interesting and engaging while staying in a similar spot? Well, this is how you do it. So, that was absolutely fantastic. I think you guys are going to be pretty excited about the next track I'm going to cover. So, I will pose you a riddle. Our next track is what happens when you combine a jellyfish with My Little Pony. Feel free to hunt for the truth in the comments. Huge thanks to everybody who keeps this channel going, from YouTube members to patrons to you guys in the comments just speaking your mind and bringing up your theories and ideas. Honestly, I I'm extremely grateful to you and I can't wait. I have a lot of good things planned for this channel and I hope to see you with me on that journey. You already know the drill. Hydrate, stretch, take good care of yourselves, and I will see you on the next