Final Fantasy VII Main Theme

The setting of a video game is very important. In Final Fantasy VII’s Main Theme, it both creates an atmosphere for the Final Fantasy VII world, and acts as the theme of the video game by incorporating a lot of the musical aspects he includes in songs throughout the video game. Since the game first starts in the slums of a giant city, it has some depressing tones in it, but it also has majestic melodies that show how beautiful the world is. Since the company Shinra is draining “Mako energy” or “life stream” for energy, it has both the sadness of the depleting life energy of the planet and also the majestic nature of the Earth and life in general. However the power of the planet is very mysterious, and powerful, and thus there’s an ominous feel to the game, like something is always about to happen. This theme has to wrap all of that up and set the feel of the entire game in general since it’s the map music that you listen to all the time. 

Bars 1-18

To capture the mood of the entire video game, Nobuo Uematsu took the highs and lows of the game and put it together in sections. He starts the theme like the game starts, in the impoverished slums of Midgar, so after outlining the motif melody (bars 1-3) he goes into a dark atonal section that utilizes the minor second to convey this. With slow minims and crotches and a slow crescendos, it emphasizes the minor chord movements disparaging feel. He ends the atonal section with a Lydian mode of the motif melody (bar 14-15) which then transfers to the B section in the key of E. 

Bars 19-30

The motif melody contains a basic minims and crotchets rhythm, with a simple melody containing major thirds and perfect fourths and fifths for a majestic feel (bars 19-30) which portrays the games theme of "life" as a whole. The harmonies contribute by adding some modulation to the parallel minor (bars 22 & 29) and ending the phrase on the V like an imperfect cadence. The strings playing the melody with the horns as accompaniment (bars 29-30, not shown on score) make a quiet, peaceful, yet dramatic effect with the crescendo in to the more full repeated section. 

Bars 31-42

This section (bars 31-42) has the same melody only an octave up, and a 2^nd violin harmony and a more full backing section, the lower strings emphasizing beats 3 & 4 (bars 31-39, not shown on score). The dynamics are also fortissimo, varying with the contours of the melody. 

Bars 43-58

The next section is quieter, reaching down to piano; the timbre changing with clarinet and marimba doubling the melody, and harp laying the chord progression of ii – I – IV – I in quaver arpeggios. The violins then take over the melody for a variation of the first eight bars of this section, playing a ii - I - IV - V7 progression instead. At bar 55, the violins crescendo and play a majestic variation of bar 47 and then transfers to the perfect cadence (bars 57-58)  into the B₁ section again. 

Bars 61-81

The B₁ section then changes keys to the parallel minor’s relative major, or from the key of E major to G major for the D section. Horns, crash cymbal, timpani and violins add to the exciting climax of the piece. the timpani plays important quavers (bars 62, 66, & 70) that accentuate the declarative nature of the climax. This bright sound lasts until a slow minim rhythm with a short quaver introduces a minor feel. However, Uematsu again modulates to the parallel minor of G and back to G with tight string section chords and some added arpeggios on the marimba at the end. A soft, eerie minor section with the string section is introduced, reflecting the games wayward, disturbing storyline. 

Bars 82-99

During this section, he modulates to the dominant over the repeated bass line and harp, creating a lot of tension. This section reflects a lot of the evil that is encountered in the game by modulating to the major dominant like it does in various other pieces in the game. The soft crotchet rhythm and diminished chords (bars 85-87 & 94-95) give an eerie, almost supernatural feel to the section, which matches the strange supernatural events in this world.

Bar 100-114

He pretends to resolve this section with dramatic chord changes from C major to E major, which uses the chromatic mediant much like a romantic era piece. This raises the drama and tension greatly through a gradual crescendo; even though it's more pleasing to the ear than the previous diminished chords it still causes drama. The drama is defused when it moves to the V chord in bar 104. It resumes to a more quiet section, with some borrowed chords from B minor and other keys, making the chord progression from bars 108-111 look like vii˚7/V – iv(maj 7) – bVI – iv/vi using modulations from parallel minors and the dominant for a unique harmony. 


The piece ends with a quiet string section with some chromatic movement in the chords and finally on a leading chord into the B section, where it plays for the final time on the recording.

The contrasting sections of the majestic and the eerie, shows the contrast of the game, illustrating the super-natural events of the game and the amazing, majestic scenes depicted throughout the game. It also reflects Nobuo Uematsu's themes he used in this game of modulating to the parallel minor and diminished harmonies. This with it's pronounced, very easy to remember motif, it sticks in the mind as a well written theme for a video game. 

Introduction

This blog is an investigation into the use of compositional techniques in three selected pieces by Nobuo Uematsu: Aerith's Theme, Final Fantasy VII Main Theme, and One Winged Angel to determine how the composer portrays a person, a place or an event within the music.

Nobuo Uematsu, a Japanese composer, did his first published compositions with the small video game company Square back in 1985 for a video game with little success called Genesis. For the next few years, their video games continued to have moderate success and financial troubles plagued the company with potential bankruptcy. Then, as a last ditch effort made by the company, they made a game that would either make or break the company, and aptly named it Final Fantasy. Luckily, the video game was a huge success and it catapulted the company, along with the team that worked on it, into fame and reversed their previous fortunes. Ever since then, Nobuo has been a legendary composer, composing for Final Fantasy's one through nine and most recently, fourteen. He's also written music for Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssy, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as several motion pictures that generally tie into his video game compositions.

His musical style is very distinct from other composers, having a very clear, repeated melody over classically influenced harmonies that don't go to the extremes of the Romantic Era,

but uses dramatic dynamics, creative instrumentation, and diverse textures in the Romantic style. In his writing method, he writes the melody first, which explains his melody heavy song writing. The particular game of Final Fantasy VII is one of the finest examples of Nobuo Uematsu's implementation of his writing technique: it ranges across multple styles and moods of music from western style fiddle music, to music based on Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. Some of these pieces include Aerith's Theme, which portrays the character of Aerith, Final Fantasy VII Main Theme which represents the world in which the game is played, and One Winged Angel, representing the dramatic final clash between the protagonist and the antagonist.