Saturos & Menardi | Golden Sun | Orchestral Cover
Hmm, I wonder if these guys are the baddies... what could've possibly given it away ... 🤔
Enjoy the villain's theme from the first Golden Sun, Saturos and Menardi, now for orchestra!
Feel free to check out the landing page with links to the recording, sheet music and more!
This includes individual part scores for:
Full Score
Panpipes
Flute
2 Clarinets in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
2 Bassoons
Contrabassoon
2 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in Bb
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Drum Kit
Bass Drum
Tam-tam
Piano
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 arrangement now available to download from Patreon!
Arranger's Note:
The first of Sakuraba's villainous themes from Golden Sun, what techniques does he employ to convey this atmosphere?
The first of these is chromaticism. From the first 2 bars alone, if we look at the melody (the parallel 4ths found in the choir), they move consecutively up and down in semitonal intervals. This creates an intense chromatic clash, particularly when coupled with the bass notes which move in contrary motion chromatically against the melody (0:07; the bass moves up while the melody moves down).
At 0:12, we have some scalic movement, outlining F♯-G-A-B. This could suggest certain tonalities, the most likely being F♯ Phrygian (F♯-G-A-B-C♯-D-E) due to the C♯ in the countermelody. But it could also suggest the more dissonant F♯ Locrian (F♯-G-A-B-C-D-E) which is what it harmonically feels it is moving towards (and would be vastly more appropriate for a villain theme!)
By 0:15, the opening material is repeated. Here, I have added embellishments so that it is not a direct repeat, such as additional chromatic trillings and wind fluttertonguing (a rather unsettling-sounding technique).
We reach a new section at 0:26, with a surprising choice of panpipes taking the melodic role (an instrument highly favoured in this OST). The panpipe melody here outlines the devilish tritone interval (F♯-B♯) - another excellent interval to exploit for a villainous theme. Underneath this, a new syncopated ostinato (an off-beat rhythmic phrase) is repeated by the bass instruments, further destabilizing the material.
The end of this section (0:40) is littered with another technique: false relations. This is where you have multiple accidentals of a note playing at the same time (similar to chromaticism). To identify this, look at the panpipes and violins playing an E♯, while the bass ostinato revolves around an E♮. This creates quite the semitonal clash!
This section is largely repeated at 0:42, but with additional development (octave violins, larger brass ensemble, and choir support). The false relation clash (now at 0:48) is exacerbated in all its evil glory.
And to finish, I wrote a brief outro based off of the opening material.
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