Medieval fiesta
Hah!
How thoughtful for a game about time travel of having the foresight to throw a fair honoring its original player base.
It is a fair that sets the mood for the adventure to come, the calm before the storm that just introduces you to the vibe of characters and the environment they find themselves in. Because even though we will end up getting to a future full of robots and a past brimming with dinosaurs and the like, the main vibe and design spirit is fundamentally that of a medieval fantasy full of swords and magic. And nothing brings to mind this spirit quite like a castle town full of life, merchants and music where an unique renaissance festival takes place; the setting with a bohemian lifestyle that will always attract rich princesses wanting to experience what is it like to blend in with the commoners by going incognito. This is exactly how Crono ends up bumping into the kingdom of Guardia royalty and kickstars the adventure.
The music, which is presumably diegetic, with a group of people coming together bringing the instruments from their homes to sing and dance around the plaza, and chanting hah! in sync with the clank of their huge beer bottles, instantly puts yourself in the medieval mood by using a mixture of folk instruments and older late middle ages/renaissance staples sounds such as the clavichord.
Unexpectedly it also relies heavily on modal mixture, with the church modes that immediately sound like an ancient British folk tune such as the Mixolydian profile that helps to color what otherwise would be a standard D major key piece.
The cue begins right away combining the Mixolydian and Ionian profiles which will be the basis of the entire composition; this means that since they differ in only one note we will see both the C and C♯ featured. So we will find here either A major or A minor chords that are born from this. The bass line is playing the usual perfect fifth intervals colored with the major second interval characteristic of the Mitsuda approach. The first chord progression would be D – C – G – A, the first two chords establishing the Mixolydian profile and the A from the Ionian/Major team.
Then onto a post-intro where all the instruments and main backing track forms sustaining the D harmony and the main vamp which will sound modal and thus medieval to any player, the D to Am (the G note in the harmony makes it an Am7). The tambourine and ostinatos had already established a ternary meter but there is some kind of interesting polyrhythm going on with the congas since they have a pattern in 4/4:
So there are many ways that the piece can be counted such as a fast 3/4, slow 6/8 and even normal 4/4. Since everyone is dancing here the safe bet is in compund time signature.
The bass now plays only perfect fifths and the melody prominently features the Mixolydian note C natural; also known as the note that does the heavy lifting in making this a true medieval fair. Still, the cue uses the rather modern sound of the accordion which gives it a more original sound; it could be imitating the bagpipes of some Scottish jig though. Alongside it another musician with a flute joins in repeating the melody.
The next section cements that this is meant to be diegetic by adding the handclaps of the same crowd that shouts in replacement of the percussion section. This calmer section features melodic and harmonic interplay of the accordion and clavichord. The instruments, even the bass, find some spaces to throw in some licks. The vamp is now from G to A major which means the composition is now flirting more with the D Ionian/Major profile. Yet the coda to the section brings back the Mixolydian feeling with its proud Cmaj7 chord. The full harmony would be:
G – A – G – A
G – D – A
G – A – G – A
G – D – Cmaj7 – Aadd9
Next section gets even more sparse—there is not even a hah! that marks the transition—with just the flute and clavs filling all of the space with even some little counterpoint and an ascending chromatic progression. The ascending chromatic notes in the bass voice of the keyboard produce new chords via inversions introducing the spicy E major that is outside the D key since it has the tritone note Ab. So the full harmony would be D – G – E – A. It sounds less cutesy than the standard I – IV – ii – V progression used in nursery rhymes and pop standards. The melodic phrase repeats exactly the same and for the last part all the instruments return minus the daf percussion which is the maraca sounding frame drum you can play by rubbing your palm against it. This last section is a callback to the intro, beginning its melody in the same way and with the same instrument over the similar bass accompaniment that just sustains the D chord until it arrives at the same C – G – A cadence to join the loop points smoothly. The flute becomes savage during this part playing some jungle patterns. The accordion also gets in one last flourish before the cue loops.
And so the player, Crono and Princess Nadia get acquainted with themselves and the world that will be at stake. We are about to experience why this festival exists in the first place.
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