Inside The Score - Undertale - Dogsong / Dog Theme

A song about dogs

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Just like back in December now we are celebrating the April 2nd day milestone with the annoying dog and his cohort of royal guard dogs singing together the ultimate troll anthem in gaming, a track that conveys what we imagine to be inside the head of our canine companions since they almost always have that happy, carefree, empty head look to them and who are usually depicted as only functioning by instinct or impulse; it also does not help that several breeds of dogs, the very first creature humans domesticated, ended up with that wide-eyed and buffoonish look so in media they are usually depicted as a little bit dim-witted friendly wolves.

And the closest thing to what a dog could—in our imaginations— do musically would be what a human toddler would write in Mario Paint trying to arrange the battle music from his favorite game (the sounds do actually come from Mario Paint, albeit in Mario Paint you would not get to use such low notes that distort the dogsound); there was not even any thought put into the name of the song. As toddler (meaning dog) music we get very simple structures, harmonies and a very erratic rhythmic playing since presumably the sense of rhythm of a dog is all over the place as they get excited or bored arbitrarily.

In the Undertale soundtrack this is the way that the developer lets you know something preposterous is happening and it might as well be the signature tune of Toby Fox since he is always trying to subvert players expectations and deliberately sabotage either them or the characters in his game.

That is the reason why the mascot of Undertale, the Annoying Dog, is the self insert of the developer in the game, with the dog even getting in-game powers that only a developer could get such as appearing arbitrarily on a player’s inventory or being able to appear anywhere and go anywhere outside the frame.

Like many things Undertale, the main inspiration for this white dog and his significance is found in the Mother series since in Earthbound we find Ruffini, the dog or the Itako Dog in Japanese (meaning possessed dog) a white dog that is being possessed by the spirit of the game developer and out of nowhere starts giving players advice about the game before returning to being a regular dog; at least he is there to help and not to irritate like in Undertale. The Mario Paint pixelated dog icon might also have been another source of inspiration.

However, the first time we encounter this track is appropriately as the battle music against the imposing Greater Dog since this is pretty much a dog arrangement of the standard battle music of the game. Just like Greater dog, this is all about living the life of a dog and nothing more; naturally, it turns out that even though he is fully and inexplicably clad in armor, Greater Dog just wants to play and this piece reflects this.

Musical Analysis

Dogsong and its self insert counterpart Tem Shop both derive from the same melody, of which is the battle theme named Enemy Approaching.

You can hear it clearly on the cadences of melodic phrases

Dogsong is the unstable, happy, major key version of this classic battle theme straight from a Pokemon game using similar melodic profiles; in fact, its inspiration is likely Pokemon itself since as the most popular RPG where you have to fight random encounters, it is prone to be taken by Undertale as the ultimate deconstruction of said RPGs:

The half clave pattern based around syncopation is key for making your battles feel epic and stress inducing; this half clave pattern in the melody ended up as the DNA for a zany track like Dogsong; that is quite the journey.

As toddler music interpreted by the dog voices themselves we also have a cute music box sound filling in and doubling the melody. Musically, the track uses the standard chords of the Db Ionian/Major scale, the I, IV, V and straightforward melodies that end up on the tonic with perfect cadences. In typical B Section fashion we go to the IV chord. The melodies are repetitive and symmetric and the only disrupting thing is the erratic tempo that conveys the amateur nature of a dog playing music. Full chords would be:

A Section

Db – Gb – Ab – Db – Gb – Ab – Gb – Ab – Db

B Section

Gb – Db – Gb – Ab – Gb – Db- Gb – Ab –

Not modal at all which means it sounds more infantile with all phrases ending on the tonic.

Undertale is a soundtrack so interconnected and self referential that even a joke piece like Dogsong has connection to the standard battle music of the game. Also, a very slowed down, distorted, echo-intensified version of this song is found while fighting Endogeny, one of the Amalgamates composed of the SOULs from several dog monsters including family members of Greater dog.

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