Inside The Score - Final Fantasy VII - Tifa's Theme

A delicate duet number that does not need words

Tifa Lockhard, the angelic presence and both emotional and fighting support within the Final Fantasy VII series (yes, because this single entry is now considered a series of its own). She becomes the foil to Cloud having known him since childhood, allowing her to pierce into his true self and encouraging him to find his way back. As it is presented on her theme, one that could perfectly fulfill the role of the “I want” song in this Nobuo Uematsu Broadway musical, the warmth and feminine traits of Tifa are emphasized with delicate sounds and a lyrical, sing-like melody that, more than simple romance, transmits the overall tenderness and yearning for a more encompassing form of love, one that transcends the romantic feelings and points to a deep bond of trust and love. It is the theme of the promise between Tifa and Cloud; a duet sung amidst a memory engulfed by stars.

A sound as old as time, Uematsu brings out the electric piano with chorus effect sound of countless ballads, RnB classics and musicals—similar to Dire, Dire Docks— to make a tune worth of a Disney princess singing about what she wants in life. We have just a straightforward melody on top of an harmony; pure homophony. The only ingredients you need to know if the song is good, which is why many a composition can be born from just the two hands on the piano or a singer accompanied with a guitar. They are the face and body respectively, everything else are the clothes, makeup and jewelry; ornamentation to enhance these core aesthetic qualities.

Uematsu aims to capture the vulnerability aspect right from the timbres chosen to the musical composition. It is a standard ballad powerhouse with strings and employing the entire woodwind section. Delicacy is also conveyed by the smooth movements of the voice leading in the accompaniment, trying to move by as narrow possible intervals between chords as exemplified by its the main vamp and heart of the piece, the I to iv movement which leaves the root note of the I and just moves a semitone up the other two notes to reach the iv.

Musical Analysis

There is a reason why saying the piece is just in a major key (F major) with some borrowed chords is a disservice since it does not allow anyone to see the colors that are being painted on the canvas. Just in the intro we have only the F as the tonic representative of the major scale, everything else is tinged with the moody nocturnal sounds of minor chords. The other chords, Bbm and Cm, tells us that this overture part is based around a scale with a major tetrachord as head and a Phrygian tetrachord as tail—basically a profile that begins as the major scale but ends in the same way as the natural minor—making it what is known as the Aeolian Dominant profile. For soundtrack writers is better to familiarize with the colors of the tetrachords and then mix and match them like puzzle pieces to create many other “scales” or “modes” without really memorizing any exotic names. Like, what is a Phrygian tetrachord as the head with a major tetrachord as the tail? Who knows; it probably has a name but you just know the underlying ingredients and the flavors you will get.

The 90s ballad electronic keyboard is the main driver of the accompaniment, playing organically sometimes full chords and sometimes arpeggiating them, sometimes normal chords, other times chords perfumed with ninths and sevenths. The piece begins with an intro having a woodwind pad doing a a slow melody over a piano playing standards chords in the vamp F to Bbm and then ending on the v (Cm). When the flute melody starts there are some added ninths to the harmony. The melody is made of question-answer blocks; the first answer goes to the lower register and the second to the high register where the harmony and profile changes to a more standard major scale. It reestablishes the Ionian/Major profile of the tonic F by going to the melancholic third grade (Am). The melody is also tinged with a sense of longing since its phrase is transposed to start in D and then going to the Bb of the scale, replacing the major sixth interval of the first phrase with a minor sixth in the process; contour is the same but the interval relationships are changed. Then it goes into a long melodic phrase to close the part where it uses a chromatic note (Gb) and returns to using some chords outside the standard Ionian/Major profile, including the Eb from a minor tetrachord tail and the bright G major from a Lydian head as opposed to the Gm. The full progression can be thought of as:

Intro:

F – Bbm – F

A Section:

Fadd9 – Bbmadd9 – Fadd9

Fadd9 – Amadd9 – Bb – Dm – Gm

Gm7//9 – C7/9 – F

Eb – Dm – Gadd9

And that is it, there is just one Section—okay, maybe you can say the part thatbegins with the Gm is the B Section. For the reprise, strings are added arranged as the different instruments in a string section and the bassoon takes over the same melodic line to which the flute joins at the end. In our Broadway musical number Cloud would be the one singing this lower bassoon part to which Tifa, represented with the flute, joins in to harmonize the full melody. They complement each other.

It is a piece that does stay confined to fit in a single box or profile and that represents the multiple dimensions of Tifa and her relationship with protagonist Cloud. Her music conforms to the musical tropes of the feminine tradition with a cantabile, delicate melody and arpeggiating accompaniment made with soft, pristine sounds.