Inside The Score - Undertale - Fallen Down

Embrace

You are listening to the sound of tender motherly love, a classic lullaby in 3/4 time that could be coming right from a music box left in your room by your mom that let’s you know everything will be alright in the end. You lay down in bed, who knows how much time, just looking right at the ceiling decorated with trippy figures also put there by her and feel completely safe, remembering your adventures through the underground and not knowing whether it was all a dream.

This is what Toriel and her theme represent in the very first scenes of Undertale, a character name based on her comic function of being the “tutoriel” of the game where she literally hand holds you through the first part and protects you. A character so benevolent could be suspicious right away but in the case of Toriel and her theme they remain an earnest oasis amidst the darkness of the underground till the very end. She is the fairy godmother of the adventure and is completely wholesome horn to hoof. Which is what makes the moment you have to fight her very effective and the first time that the player questions whether they really have to fight in a RPG.

Musical Analysis

The magical theme, named after her on the game files, is meant to be the light shining in the underground. The old piano sounding like a more mystical and ancient instrument straight from a fantasy RPG of the SNES era. The bass line composed of three different layers also adds that voice like, enchanted quality by employing pitch bending as if the bass guitar was a smooth fretless bass. It is a theme reserved for the caregiver and, in a soundtrack with multiple rearrangements and quotations, it is one of the few that pretty much stays intact till the end and without many quotations.

The theme was actually written for an Earthbound album fan project titled ‘I Miss You‘ where various composers submitted tracks in the style of that game and used exclusively the same original samples that appear in the score of Earthbound, hence all the instruments here coming from that soundfont. Toby Fox originally though of it as a game over cue inspired by the original game over from the first The Legend of Zelda game on the NES which had that old piano in a saloon vibe already that this track is now able to tackle in full—it could also work as the fairy fountain like file select theme.

The original version of the track, which sounds in a different key and faster, closer to the game over cue from Zelda

The samples are the Mellow Piano, the Onett Bass, a synth pad that reinforces the bass and the synthesized voices that could represent Toriel’s voice.

Earthbound also inspired the idea of manipulating the bass line to create the portamento effect:

Another song with a harmony progression that could be from more adventurous 60s pop. This Undertale track could also be called ‘Home’ (except that such a track already exists)

To add to that old, abandoned piano feel the piece is not tuned to the standard 440 Hz but down to 431 Hz, sounding like an instrument that has not received care in a long time and giving the piece an even more unique sound. So it is in D Ionian/Major but a few cents tuned down.

The chords would be a standard tender progression—including the IV to iv romantic movement—if it was not for the appearance of the VI major chord which does not belong to the key; it adds that 60s pop vibe with more colorful chord progressions the likes the Beach Boys and The Beatles used. In fact this track could perfectly be called ‘Frisk in the Sky With Diamonds’. The harmony would be:

D – B – G – Gm – D – A

Naturally, the bass line in this portamento fashion does not translate well to piano visualization style.