Xian | Golden Sun | Ethnic Orchestral Cover

Step into the ethnic realm of Xian with this Chinese-styled track from Golden Sun.

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Arranger's Note:

First heard in the village of Xian & Lama Temple in the original Golden Sun, how does Sakuraba convey the orient through music?

The first answer is, of course, pentatonicism (strictly adhering to only 5 notes) which is a common characteristic of East Asian music. Here, these 5 notes are E-G-A-B-D (E minor pentatonic), and are the only notes used in the entire track.

Another characteristic, largely one as a result of pentatonicism, is that of parallel 4ths & 5ths (i.e. material that moves together at the interval of ether a perfect 4th or 5th). The opening has an example of this, looking at the strings moving largely a perfect 4th apart (with the 3rd appearing on occasion to adhere to pentatonicism). This intervallic parallelism persists throughout the entire track.

A further element Sakuraba could draw on would be the use of authentic oriental instruments. In his original, Sakuraba displays the heavy use of drums, strings & choir, with oboe and marimba melodies - an unfortunate lack of authentic instruments due to the hardware limitations of the time. But here, I have remedied this by incorporating Dizi (a membraned-flute), Suona (a reed), Sheng (a mouth organ), Pipa (a lute) & Guzheng (a zither) - traditional Chinese instruments that significantly enhance the oriental sound.

For the first statement of the melody (0:04), it is presented in the strings, pipa and guzheng. As it repeats (0:24), we now have additional dizi, sheng & string glissandi.

Moving into the 2nd section (0:42), the suona & violins deliver a new melody, soaring atop alternating bare 5ths chords in the choir & guzheng. This progresses to a faster mallet section (1:00), introducing marimba & guzheng on the melody with more bare 5ths accompaniment. This faster material continues through to the loop.

To close, I wrote a short ending (2:33) using the opening earlier material, now solely for the oriental instruments as a pleasant finisher to this East Asian track.