Shared dreams
Time to take our whole adventure party to a bonding session at the Milk Bar thanks to the power of music. We will see the multiple personas Link has acquired get together with each of their musical instruments to play a true classic originally from the Indigo-Go’s, as instructed by the band’s manager. This team building excursion will serve us right just before we depart to the terrifying land of Ikana, where the game will put to the test the abilities of a Hylian, a Deku scrub, a Goron and a Zora to see if they can work together as one since, presumably, each one was a hero in their respective lands.
On this song however, the style of Mikau, the Zora hero, and his band prevails. After all it has relationship with the presentation his band is scheduled to perform at the upcoming carnival of time. The other heroes are just here to help him with checking the sound system of the venue. It’s a moment when we get to hear at the same time all the instruments the game has given us control of.
The name of the track works as a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, from which Majora’s Mask is basically a spiritual successor; plus the original song consists of the parts played when you collect all of the instruments too, so this is also a similar concept. It also continues the aquatic naming motif of The Indigo-Go’s songs. The name of the piece works in three levels of meaning: meta, in-game and narrative wise.
Musical Analysis
Structure: Section 1 / Section 2
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 108
Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: D Dorian (Section 1); D Harmonic Minor (Section 2)
The tune however is nothing like the original Ballad of the Wind Fish. In fact, this is Indigo Go’s doubling down even more into jazz, with a very dissonant, angular melody. It follows the standard model of the ocarina melodies, a question motif and then an answer. But the instruments seem very disjointed from each other. barely maintaining cohesiveness by starting their question-answer blocks at the same time; however, the melodies are very independent, and the dissonance is found courtesy of the featured tension-filled tritone between F and B. Link and the Deku hero take the lead, Mikau does arpeggio accompaniment on his guitar; the Goron plays the percussion with a tiny melodic sensibility. just a pattern where a phrase ends with the pitch down and the other responds by ending with the pitch up.
Mikau once again seems fond of playing a D minor chord, just like the riff he was working out with Japas; he even alternates between roughly the same notes he used on that songwriting session, going back and forth between Dm and Dm6—hey, if this is your band’s biggest hit ever, no shame in reusing its harmony in the hopes of capturing the magic once again—Just like ocarina warp melodies, after the back and forth progression the song goes to a coda:
Gm – A (b9)(b13) – Dm 6/9
One of the most jazzy endings possible. Full of elegance. The last chord specially is an staple of Latin jazz and Latin music which was infused with Spanish tints in general.
Still, for the definitive performance, the ensemble of the heroes requires a backing orchestra to make the song full and lush. They don’t play the full chords that Mikau is doing, just the essential notes.
For some inexplicable reason, Toto, the manager of Indigo-Go’s doesn’t seem to recognize Mikau. The developers should at least have put in some particular, personalized dialogue to their interaction.
The act of playing this song also causes a side effect in the room. On the one hand, the zora manager gets to hear what the performance of his band would have sounded like, on the other hand it awakens some nostalgic feelings in one of the lonely attendants at the bar. Gorman, the troupe leader who also had his scheduled performances cancelled due to the unnatural events happening in Termina, is brought to tears, for it was that same song that he had heard at the Carnival of Time long ago and motivated him to enter the show business. For doing this, Link is rewarded with a new mask “filled with the feelings of tenderness left behind in the back of one’s heart” It is a mask that awakens emotions long forgotten and though lost.
The musical acts don’t stop here. There is one last show to attend that must be taken cared of. Toto just taught Link how a director handles musicians, so Link is now confident that he can become a band leader. Why not start small? With a little choir of animals; spring is back after all, and the animals just wanna have fun too.
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