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Writer's pictureJonathan Shaw

New Transcription: "Tarir, the Forgotten City" from Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns (2015)

I've just released a new full transcription and sheet music of Lena Chappelle's "Tarir, the Forgotten City" appearing in the first expansion for the excellent MMORPG, "Guild Wars 2" (2012) alongside a recording to test its accuracy. Feel free to check it out!

If you're after the sheet music for "Tarir, the Forgotten City", you can find it here!

This includes individual part scores for:

  • 2 Flutes

  • Oboe

  • 2 Clarinets in Bb

  • 2 Bassoons

  • 4 Horns in F

  • 2 Trumpets in Bb

  • 2 Tenor Trombones

  • Bass Trombone

  • Tuba

  • Timpani

  • Tambourine

  • Marimba

  • Vibraphone

  • Harp

  • Violin I

  • Violin II

  • Viola

  • Violoncello

  • Contrabass

If you are one of my Patrons, you can now find the MIDI, XML and SIB files I created for this transcription now available to download from your Patreon Google Drive folder!

 
 

Arranger's Note:

"Arguably the most popular of "Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns'" tracks, this one by Lena Chappelle accompanies the lost, golden city of Tarir in the dazzling Auric Basin.

As such, there is the use of some twinkling instruments, notable the harp and vibraphone. The use of the marimba feels as if it is associated with the landscape of a dense jungle, which is fitting here as the city lies within the depths of the Maguuma Jungle.

The track itself begins with an F# minor chord outlined in the harp (F# - A - C# - E), and the majority of it will take place in keys surrounding this tonic, most notably the submediant (the 6th; D major; 0:25) and the relative major (A major; 1:28).

There are some brief excursions to chromatic keys outside of the related scales, notably allusions to D minor in the 1st violins (1:51) and Bb major (3:27) - a flattened supertonic in A, which is interestingly more often associated with that of a desert (and, yes, is then quite common in "Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire's" soundtrack).

To transcribe this, I used both the official recording in-game, but also the 2017 concert performance given by the Evergreen Philharmonic, which proved invaluable for determining which instruments were playing, and other information such as string bowing and phrasing."

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