One Winged Angel

                This is the final boss battle music, which reflects the ominous, threatening, and theatrical last confrontation with the infamous Sephiroth. Sephiroth is a descendant of the Cetra, an ancient race attuned to the planet, and a race that Sephiroth believes is far superior to humans. Thus he wanted to literally become a god and destroy the world. He was going to do this by utilizing the power of the planet to summon a meteor to destroy all of human kind. The song reflects the archaic, religious overtones by using Latin lyrics and simple repeated singing and lyrics. Oddly enough, the lyrics are borrowed from the same medieval poetry as Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, and the beginning is apparently inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. Nobuo Uematsu has said in interviews that he has always thought of this song as a rock song rather than a choral and orchestra piece, and that reflects in some of the loud and aggressive ways that the violins play and the strong beat that it has. It was later adapted into a rock song by Nobuo Uematsu’s band, The Black Mages, who played progressive rock versions of his Final Fantasy compositions. The version I will deconstruct will be the original choral and orchestra version.

                Nobuo Uematsu instils a very strong fear and sense of danger through the music; playing off of the finality of this event and the plot line leading up to it; he must convey this fear and threat in the most theatrical way possible. This is achieved by establishing and maintaining several musical ideas such as diminished intervals, extreme dynamics, and the use of extreme ranges as well. The structure of this piece is not unlike a rock opera tune, which would have theatrical instrumentals (sections A, D, E, & F), a catchy chorus (Section B), and verses (Section C) and a bridge (Section G).

Section A Part 1, Bars 1-25

Section A Part 2, Bars 26 - 35

                It starts with a diminished fifth interval crotches being pounded out by the orchestra in a lower register (bars 1-2) invoking feelings of marching, followed by a clarinet using melodic minor like melody ideas and the very high violin (bars 3-4). This introduction is meant to invoke fear, for example, high violin parts are used in many horror and suspense scenes, and the dissonance keeps the listener on edge. The flatted fifth throughout the first section (bars 1-2, 5-6, 9, 12-14, 19-25) adds dissonance along with a lot of chromatic movement (such as bars 7-8, 11-14, 16, & 21-23), and modulations to the relative major (like the D sharps in bars 3-4, 8, 11-12, & 16-21). The minim chords that are played before the singing build tension by changing the key a step down and adding a peddle bass that conflicts more and more with the chords used while climbing in pitch. Examples are the C sharp in bar 30, and the C flat major chord in bar 35.

Section B, Bars 36 - 51

                The vocals then come in at bar 36, taking borrowed chords from F minor singing very simple archaic rhythms on the beat using crotchets and quavers. When they sing “Sephiroth” (bars 40, 42, 48, & 50) the vocals are fifths apart and fortissimo for a declarative effect. The bass uses a lot of pedal bass, with some modulation to the parallel minor (bars 37, 39-40, 42). The lyrics in this section were taken from Estuans interius, taking the first two lines of the song and repeating them. It literally translates to "Burning inside with violent anger, burning inside with violent anger. Sephiroth!"

                

Section C, Bars 52-59

                This next section has a G flat in it, which is borrowed from A flat minor, located directly across the circle of fifths from D minor. It's used to create an unfinished feel in bars 53 & 56 so that the listener would be kept on edge. The entire section is using a borrowed chord from F minor, the parallel minor of the relative major of D minor, and uses peddle bass, except it alternates octaves instead of staying constant. The lyrics, borrowed from Carl Orff's most famous piece, O Fortuna, say "Sors immanis / et inanis" or translated, "Fate - monstrous / and empty".

Section B₁, Bars 60-67

                This section is exactly the same as section B except for the instrumental fills in between the vocal lines. At bars 64-65, the fill features a syncopated rhythm, pointing towards the song's rock roots. In bar 67, the bass line segues to the key change with a chromatic, walking bass line.

Section D, Bars 67-79

                After repeating the B section, it changes keys back to E minor with occasional use of the flatted fifth (bars 69 & 75), and soon uses chromatic movement with parallel movement a major sixth apart (bar 70-73 & 76-77). This chromatic movement can also be described as modulation to E major that uses borrowed chords from the dominant (bar 70 & 76 us A sharps). In bar 77, the chromatic movement goes up instead of down to create a lot of dissonance in bar 78 to carry onto the next section. 

Section E, Bars 80-91

                In section E, the horns backed up by low strings use a quick quaver and semi-quaver rhythm that alternates between the IV7 – i, causing chromatic movement and tension between the B flat and B natural. Also, the C sharp in bars 82, and 86, borrowed from E major, causes tension with it's chromatic movement. Suddenly, in bar 88, the horns blast out with fortissimo parallel major sixth quavers, that mirrors the proclamation of "Sephiroth!" made by the choir in section B. The triplets create suspense and also harbour chromatic movement in bar 88-89 & 91. 

Section F, Bars 92-102

                It bursts into a flute playing a quick quaver and semi-quaver melody in the key of E minor, backed up by strings using the C sharp like in section E. The meter changes to 6/8 with the horns taking the melody with chord movements like the ones in Section A part two. The flute melody repeats again except this time, the horns take the melody to forte with a loud crotchet and triplet rhythm, with forte-piano dynamics on the semi-breves. In bar 102, the horns crescendo to a loud fortissimo. 

Section G, Bars 103-122

               The choir and piano come in for a ominous, low register, chant like section. The bass singers and piano play in synchronous a chromatic bass line that is centred around D and the violins add a creepy horror element to it in bar 107. The sopranos and altos then start singing at bar 111 a counter melody, utilizing the C sharp motif. This crescendos with added vocal octaves and horns at bar 115 into a climax of the song where they repeat the “Sephiroth” chorus at bar 119. After the "Sephiroth" chorus, the song repeats back to Section B.

                One Winged Angel is considered one of the best boss battle songs ever written in video game music, winning various gaming magazine awards and public opinion polls. It has made numerous comebacks in later video games involving Final Fantasy VII as different remakes of it. It's use of harmonic devices to convey the evil, fear, and danger of the final battle and will be engraved in fans' ears forever.