Melodies of Life: The Soundtrack of A Realm Reborn and Leitmotifs

[Clawtooth]

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting in the Lore forums and I wanted to bring something up that I thought was generally interesting. If this is in the wrong place, I'm sorry, but seeing as there's no 'Music' forums that I could see - in addition to the fact that this is kind of 'meta-lore' in a sense, I thought this discussion fit best here.

As a musician, I've always been a fan of the Final Fantasy series - and in particular since I have been playing FFXIV:ARR since launch last year, I have been listening to the music in the game a lot. Recently, I got the Original Soundtracks for both 1.0 and ARR. While listening to the latter, and while I have been playing, I have noticed certain things about the structure of the pieces of music on the OST. The most notable of these is the presence of certain 'leitmotifs' throughout the score.

For those of you unfamiliar with German Romanticism and Opera, I'll start out by giving a basic summary of what a leitmotif is. A leitmotif - [laɪtmoʊtiːf] (light-moh-teef) - is a musical idea or 'theme' that is used to represent an idea or theme throughout a body of work. This term was popularised by the German composer Wagner, who used this technique throughout his lengthy operas collectively titled "The Ring" or "The Ring Cycle", where various short musical themes were used to represent characters, objects, plots points etc. throughout all 4 operas (which last about 15 hours in total). The origins of the term are largely arbitrary for the purposes of this discussion - suffice to say that Wagner was not the first to do this kinda of thing, he developed the idea from a French idea called the ideé fixe, which has been superceeded by Leitmotif as a term for this kind of thing.

One thing to note is that a leitmotif is never the "main focus" of a piece of music. FF fans will be well aware of various themes which recurr throughout the series: chocobo theme, victory fanfare, main theme, prelude, etc. However, A leitmotif is slightly more subtle than this - it just appears in places as maybe a single melodic line, or in the bassline or something. In Wagner's work, leitmotifs seem to come up whenever the related character etc is mentioned.

While playing FFXIV: ARR, I have noticed that there are some leitmotifs at work throughout the sountrack of the game. One notable and prevalent one that I have found is what I am going to call the "Eorzea" letimotif:



For those of you who cannot read sheet music, the easiest place to find it is in the promotional videos posted during development - for example this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2RghB8r4tA

In the intro to the video - aside from the FF Prelude theme - the first part of the "Eorzea leitmotif" plays twice. I'm not quite decided on whether this means that the second part of the leitmotif is only found sometimes or is a linking section or whatever, but it's fair to say that since it's in these videos it's "a thing".

While just taking a glance through the ARR OST, I found this Leitmotif in a lot of places - some of which I didn't even think I would find:

The list of tracks includes:

• A New Hope (Ul'dah Day)
• Wailers and Waterwheels (Gridania Day)
• And You! - A Realm Reborn Medley / And You!
• Defender of the Realm
• Saltswept
• Another Round (this one was surprising because it's in the bassline)
• Return of the Hero
• Bliss
• Conundrum

And I'm sure there are many more than this. What was interesting was where I couldn't find it - notably "I am the Sea", Limsa Lominsa Day, though it might be my ears because it would make sense since it's in the other two starting City-states themes. This is not to say that I think that Limsa will leave Eorzea at some point - that's pretty farfetched of a claim, even more so based on the soundtrack.

There are other Leitmotifs in the game - like one for each of the City states - but I just think it's interesting that even at a base level of soundtrack, there's some story being told in this game through things like this.

Anyway thank you for reading - I'm sorry if this isn't in the right place, it just sort of felt like the right place?

P.S. I thought about calling this thread "Melodies of Leif" but I thought that was too much of a pun ...

[Anonymoose]

While playing FFXIV: ARR, I have noticed that there are some leitmotifs at work throughout the sountrack of the game.

Really interesting read. A friend and I were recently discussing how we found similar bits worked into many (if not all) of the dungeons within the same region, though I didn't know the name for the concept. I wonder how many there are...

I thought about calling this thread "Melodies of Leif" but I thought that was too much of a pun ...

I'm not sure there can be too much of a pun for the people who brought us Quake Me Up Before You O'Ghomoro.

[Mysteltain]

I've noticed some of those leitmotifs, as well. I often whistle some of the music to myself as I'm playing, and I sometimes notice that I'm whistling rather familiar bits of a different song, heh. I'm also curious if this would count as a leitmotif as well, but if you listen to Answers, you'll find that Primal Timbre--and its battle version, Spiral--draws heavily from the opening melody. Specifically, the lyrics:

I close my eyes, tell us why must we suffer?
Release your hands, for your will drags us under.
My legs grow tired, tell us where must we wander?
How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?

Anyway thank you for reading - I'm sorry if this isn't in the right place, it just sort of felt like the right place?

This is about as good a place as any, haha. I did the same for a different music thread (that I have been neglecting to work on, d'oh!) =P

[Clawtooth]

I'm also curious if this would count as a leitmotif as well, but if you listen to Answers, you'll find that Primal Timbre--and its battle version, Spiral--draws heavily from the opening melody.

Hmm ... I'm not too sure that it counts as a leitmotif - mostly because Spiral and Primal Timbre are more ... overt? A similar effect is achieved though: Answers is the theme most closely associated with the Calamity (and some other things like the lyrics are associated with the Echo but that's an entirely different can of worms), and since the arrangement of its theme into the two themes in BC - there's a mental link between the two melodies, which is like ... these two things are closely related.

Which kinda seems to be stating the obvious but it adds to the story and the atmosphere around the place.

Incidentally, Spiral is one of my favourite tracks on the OST, kinda wish it was used more than the trash in T1 and in T3 ... though idk if it's using in SCOB at all.

[Mysteltain]

Yeah, I kinda felt the same way about it: it seemed a bit too obvious. Although, given what we know of the events of the SCoB, I'm curious to check out a few more themes to see if it was present back then, too.

And I actually specifically searched for your "Eorzean Leitmotif" in the city themes you mentioned, and they were surprisingly subtle, haha! Definitely an instance where you won't notice it if you aren't really paying attention. Although, like you, I couldn't seem to find it in I am the Sea. The bagpipes at 3:40-3:55 sound close to it at points, but it's not an exact match. Perhaps Soken altered it to fit the change to 6/8 time at 3:33 (or were they just doing everything in triplets in 4/4 time? It's been a while since I've played or studied music, but it definitely reminds me of--and feels like--a shift to 6/8)?

[Magis]

One FC mate also noticed that the Halatali theme and the Praetorium theme share a single melody.

Go to 30s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/The+Ludu...i/6PMVps?src=5

Go to 12m50s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Penitus+...m/6PNd3s?src=5

Also The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak is a instrumental version of "The Dark's Embrace".

[Mysteltain]

One FC mate also noticed that the Halatali theme and the Praetorium theme share a single melody.

Go to 30s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/The+Ludu...i/6PMVps?src=5

Go to 12m50s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Penitus+...m/6PNd3s?src=5

That same theme is also present in Torn from the Heaveans (Hydra, Chimera, and Castrum's normal boss theme) and The Maker's Ruin (Ultima's first form). There are a few others that share that same line, but I can't quite remember the locations or instances off the top of my head.

[Valerathon]

One FC mate also noticed that the Halatali theme and the Praetorium theme share a single melody.

Go to 30s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/The+Ludu...i/6PMVps?src=5

Go to 12m50s:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Penitus+...m/6PNd3s?src=5

Also The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak is a instrumental version of "The Dark's Embrace".

Oh wow, that's a remarkable find! I just love the Prae theme - got it on heavy rotation when I'm at the gym, and it's that 12:50 point, and the percussion interlude that follows, that I find thrilling beyond words! - and I hadn't picked up on this little overlap!

[Sylkis]

The praetorium theme is a huge combination of many 2.0 themes actually, there's haukke manor, fate music etc

[Saikou]

I've been listening for lietmotifs in the Soken versions of old FF songs. CT, Gilgamesh, zombie fate... I'm not very good at this to begin with, but nothing sticks out for me.