"Der Erlkönig" can have two meanings in German: once as "elf king" but also something I´d translate with "king of the alders". The alder is a tree widely spread through swampy areas and is associated with death. It was said that the alder trees (wich look pretty cool and beautiful but at the same time dark) "lured" people in the swamps where they sank and died.
Isn't the tree in Erlkönig the Erlkönig? Didn't the Boy died (ist das richtig für stirb 😅😂) because of a fever and hand hallucinat the Erlkönig? As they are riding through a swamp. Schade das ich Erlkönig nicht mehr auswendig kann
To be nit picky: while I think that 'elf king' might be a translation that gets the idea across without further explanation, 'alder king' has the better connotations and 'king' in this case is the humanized attribute to something that is scary and overpowering. And yes, most interpretations go with fever that is fatal. Although it can be read with dying of fear or taken literally as an occult theme of taken to the underworld.
Erlkönig literally translates from German to English as Alder King, but it came to German from Danish, where it *did* mean Elf King, so Elf King is a better translation that Alder King. The Elfking is a figure in European folklore that in basically every other language is called Elfking, not Alderking
I got messed up by Gwyn's theme from dark souls. It wasn't when I first heard it I saw my friend play it on piano. When he finished I noticed he never touched a black key. At that moment it blew me away because Gwyn's name means white. His entire theme is played only with the white keys.
I didn’t expect to know the song and was so excited and surprised that I jumped up and yelled ‘I love Der Erlkönig!’ My chorus teacher would show us this song every Halloween because of the subject matter and it is by far one of my favorite pieces
I hope so! I am an emerging Game sound designer and original soundtrack composer. This video really inspired me. The C Major thing is indeed very predominant and asked for by the game designers. I then still try to convince them with a different style but they'll say "it sounds a bit off, idk let's just go back to the C major one". I need to substantiate my reasons more. This song might help.
Dude nice, thanks for the tips! I love the Streets of Rage intro music, and mario's music has always been great. Some examples of game music that made me want to get into the craft are; Super mario 64 especially 'Dire dire docks', medal of honor frontline (especially the main theme), the Halo and zelda games. But also The last of us and Unravel gave me goosebumps. Cheers and game on!
What the hell? Why would a game designer care or know about C Maj? To begin with game soundtracks in Maj are super uncommon, so what the hell are you even talking about?
Yeah, this one 12 minute youtube video gave me the exact same impression. Keep making motifs that express characters through an audio format all you bros!
music literacy is pretty much inaccessible to most people, even musicians, because they might not necessarily be as well-versed in the cultural and historical aspects of it and the fact that he makes it easy for us laymen to understand such a highly specialised field and its connection with stuff we're familiar with and the complexity and intricacy of it all is... awesome. if only we could do this for all disciplines
This made me remember something taught at Cal Arts: Imagination is memory in disguise. True originality comes from real life observation and experience.
Also, it bugged me that he kinda got the story wrong... the kid is not being killed by a fairytale creature, but is dying and hallucinating from fever. The Erlkönig doesn't exist really it's more like death trying to lure the kid to him symbolically. Also, the father is trying to get the kid to a doctor, not home. Der Erlkönig itself is such a sad poem, I cry everytime I hear the last verse
@@binnieskywalker7458 That isn't solely true. Both interpretations are valid, as it is left ambigues. Both the hallucination explanation and the metaphysical Erlkönig explanation are possibilities that are left for interpretation.
northern_lights also our school systems only give us two language options, French and Spanish, and with most people choosing Spanish and not many white Americans knowing much about the European countries they come from and the languages from those countries, again due to our education system, we aren’t very good at pronouncing other languages but we sure do try.
Every Frame a Painting - visual moviemaking Lessons from the Screenplay - storytelling moviemaking Sideways - music for moviemaking I'm getting a fantastic film education right now.
Just a small pet peeve. Guardians of the Galaxy is not a great example for lazy movie soundtracks - it may have caused copy-cats to go down that road because of its success, but in the context the movie itself, the soundtrack is integral to the main character's personal journey and development. There is a plot-related reason for the soundtrack consisting almost entirely from 80's music. This is not the case for Suicide Squad and others and I agree in that regard.
The important thing is that the movie doesn't trust that music to fully carry the weight of the narrative, much like shrek 1, and Into the Spiderverse, the licensed music is supplemented with original scoring and motifs for moments it can't be expected to handle. (In shrek, there's that melody Fionna sings, prominent after the big kiss in the chapel. In spiderverse, it's the little high-low-high flare used for the spider heroes, and the low-high-low flare used for Miles, especially prominent in the final leap of faith scene. In Guardians. . . it's some smaller stuff in fights and the final conflict.)
Irving IV not true at all. The score is very present in Guardians, and delivers the majority of the emotion in the film. The Awesome Mix is used as a story device primarily. There is plenty of score used in Guardians.
Has this channel ever covered the Undertale soundtrack? Because looking at the web of how all the songs connect to one another is WILD, esp bc all of the songs are deeply intertwined with the characters and narrative, so themes being used or reworked in other parts of the soundtrack are purposeful and add to the greater whole
+TheGooseinator well said. +Sideways very well done video, my friend. Keep up the good work! edit: also, Der Erlkonig plays a pretty hefty part in the book Lila (by Robert Pirsig. It's the sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence) You might consider reading them. Well worth the time, and they're easy reads at that. Cheers!
You know, Der Erlkönig is my favorite poem. I was never really happy with Schubert's adaption, possibly because I made the mistake of using it as an alarm for a while. But part of my displeasure came from a simple difference in interpretation; I imagined the tone being much quieter, more subtle and softly nefarious than Schubert's blatant threat. I feel that both interpretations are valid, but it just didn't fit mine. I still liked it, but it just didn't click with me quite the way I'd wanted it to. But now I have a whole new level of respect for it. Even if that wasn't intentional, it's still there, which I think is incredible. Thank you for showing it to me.
Oh no I’m so sorry! Maybe try, um, imagining the boy’s soul actually gets taken to some beautiful elf spirit world thing? And he gets to come back and tell his dad as a ghost or something and they all have a happy ending? Does that help?
"An Die Freude" (Ode To Joy) ... I first Listened this when I was in my teens (sure, I _heard_ it before then, but never listened to it). It was on a soundtrack album for "A Clockwork Orange" and was performed by the electronic music genius Wendy Carlos. Back then the Moog synthesizer was a mono-phonic instrument which meant that she played every note of every chord independently, one track at a time. The result, with "Vo-coded" electronic vocal performance of Rachel Elkind (also recorded one "voice" per track for the entire chorus) was astounding. I bought other recordings of An Die Freude and started reading up on the history of the symphony (this is before the internet, in case anyone was wondering), and became fascinated as to what it was that inspired Beethoven to write this masterpiece, and why it has been so influential to people like Wendy Carlos and myself. It was based on a poem of the same name, written by Fredrick Von Schiller almost a hundred years before Beethoven set it to music. So what was in the poem to deserve such music? I found English versions of the choral symphony, but those words just didn't fit. Eventually I found an English translation of the poem done in the late 1800's, and started working on my own verbatim translation using that and a German-English translation book as a reference. The more I worked on the translation, the more I understood the music Beethoven wrote, and why I was swept up in that music even though I knew not one word of what was being sung. As it turns out, there are many German words that just don't have a good English translation that make sense for the time the _poem_ was written. The first line, "Freude, schöner Götterfunken," literally translates to "Joy, beautiful God-Radio" by modern standards, but makes no sense in 1785 when Fredrick Von Schiller wrote the poem (probably inspired in part by the Mythology of Greece since he had been there earlier that year). In the time of Beethoven, it might have translated as "Joy, beautiful Spark of Divinity" which is much closer in concept and far, far better than "Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee" as it starts in a number of English recordings. As with any translation, all the words must be looked at before one can truly start to comprehend, and the next line "Tochter aus Elysium" helps even more: "Daughter of Heaven" - Elysium being a Greek concept of Heaven: If you're up high enough and can see over the tops of clouds, that's Elysium. With just those two lines translated we can now understand that "Joy" is both a beautiful feeling and a goddess. Now Beethoven's Ninth Symphony makes perfect sense. In a nutshell the First Movement introduces all of the feelings we can have, from Strife, Fear, and Worry to Curiosity, Glee, and even Calmness. The Second Movement adds madness, both playful and dangerous. The Third Movement is a recovery from that madness, a discovery of peace and tranquility, a personal retrospection of all things good. The Fourth Movement brings a wonderful feeling inside yourself, a personal joy, until the madness of rest of the World suddenly kicks down your door. It is then that you, as the Tenor, exclaims "O friends, no more these sounds continue! Let us raise a song of Mirth! Of Sympathy! Of Joy!" From then on he expounds "Joy" as the feeling and as the Goddess, rallying the crowd into an ever growing chorus of voices, providing a variety of examples to which the Crowd relates. With the Crowd fully on board, wanting deeply to go to Joy, the Tenor leads them in a March to build a vessel to traverse the heavens. We hear that flight shortly after in the Fugue and can easily imagine a frantic and fantastic flight though space, culminating with their arrival at heaven. Triumphant the Crowd again sings the virtues of Joy, happy they have finally found her. but when they are met by Joy, she questions them, asking why they have come all this way. She explains that she has always been with them, all they needed to do was open their hearts to their fellow man. It was Beethoven who either wrote or added this last bit into the lyric (a re-print of the poem in 1808 left out some stanzas, including the final). And with that, Beethoven's Ninth ends with our brave heroes returning to Earth to spread the word of Joy.
what a shame this only has 7 likes :( this was beyond interesting and enlightening! I had never known how much deeper this song was than the simple sound of it
great comment, made me listen to Ode an die Freude again and thats always good. Just a little addition from a german-speaker: 'Götterfunken' would never transalte as god-radio (in the sense of sending something over radio, the device itself would be called Radio or Funkgerät), not even today because the word is made out to be male by the preceding adjective (schön-er). Nominalizations of verbs always become neutral :)
fuxor15 -Thank you for your insight. Indeed my verbatim translation of “God-radio” was from a best pick out of both a translation book and from help from a old German gentleman who escaped To America in the 1930s. With my own father a HAM radio operator I’m more used to using “radio” as an adverb, instead of, say, transmitting. So yes, not the device but the action: A transmission or message from God. Thinking about it more, “Devine Inspiration” fits even better as the idea I feel is being expressed. It even scans better when sung to the tune: Joy the Devine Inspiration, Daughter of Elysium...”
fuxor15 - Joy, the Devine Inspiration, Daughter of Elysium. We come to thee filled with passion, Heavenly! Thy sanctuary! Thine enchantment, spreads ever wider, through every culture in the world; All mankind will be as brothers, where thy gentle wings have flown. More? (The “Through every culture in the world” part is typically translated along the lines of “uniting those estranged...” but I feel the point being made was that Joy is felt by everyone, regardless how different their culture may be).
Honestly I clicked on this video because of the title and the thumbnail was a picture of a gremlin so I thought this HAD to be something worth watching, I almost clicked off just because it was nearly 15 minutes. But I have to say that after watching this I have a new appreciation for video game music and music as a whole.
As an aspiring music major, this video has inspired me. Due to depression and everything else going on, I have been doubting myself and my singing/potential digital composing ability. Plus me realizing this dream at almost 30. But just because others were able to learn an instrument from childhood or they know a lot more about music than I do, it does not mean I can’t become something of myself despite being a late bloomer. And anyone in the same boat as me, you can do it too. Just don’t give up.
So, in case anyone's wondering what's going on in the song, I learned this in school: So, one night, there's a father rushing home with his son, who is terribly sick. The son has fever dreams/is close to death and the "Erlkönig" is kind of resembling death and the kid can see him. He tries to lure the son towards him but the boy is scared and tells his dad about it but since he's hallucinating, the father tells him that what he's seeing is just a tree in the mist. The Erlkönig keeps telling the dying son what great stuff he has and that he should trust him but he keeps refusing to the Erlkönig tells him that if he won't join him willingly, he'll take him by force. At the end the father arrives at home but notices his son had died, probably because of the sickness so the Erlkönig succeeded in taking the boy by force.
There are several popular interpretations. The sickness one from our friend above. The sexual abuse one, visible in the comments of the Erlkönig regarding the son‘s appearance and how he touches him, while the father downplays it. In the end the child(-hood) is gone. And the coming of age one: the Erlkönig shows his daughters and the world away from home and pulls the child towards all that. The father tries everything to get him home but nature (Erlkönig) ends the childhood despite that. That is why it is such a great poem
Great job at explaining the theory behind the piece. It is a great work by Schubert. But here is another tidbit that might interest you. There are more than 4 characters in this piece. That’s right, there are 6 total players. In addition to the vocal characters there are 2 non-vocal ones. The right hand in the piano plays the repeating octaves throughout the piece representing two horses riding along each other. The father’s horse and the Erlkonig’s horse. Everyone forgets the accompaniment. Schubert was a pianist first and knew how to tell a story with the instrument. Liszt transcribed it for piano alone and you should take a listen to it. Enjoy!
"we got candy and hookers" is probably the best summary of the erlkönigs promisses XD And the best thing with it is, its 100% true! XD Also, I'm currently studying game production and management :D (so basically tech management specifically for games) and I am one of those dreamer type people who'll prolly never get more than that one big score but you got me 100% for this cause.
Easily one of the most well spoken and well read content creators on TH-cam. Insta subbed after watching my first video. Please keep up the commendable content sir.
That conceptual Justice League theme combo is similar to the one I've been hungering for in TMNT for years. If some day, some Ninja Turtle work gives me four individual motifs that combine well into a single team theme, I can die happy. Bonus points for good duo arrangements too, when appropriate. Can you imagine the classic Leo/Raph tension, but as a musical argument? And then the themes can complement each other instead of dueling when they swallow their egos? Augh. I wish I had time to learn to be good at everything. Would love to make this.
We had to read Faust in class and I was intrigued but not overwhelmed. A few weeks later I heard 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' on the radio and it was like the lighning strike that reanimated Frankensteins monster. Suddenly the character Gretchen came to life and was a real human not just a book character. It was magical.
It's been almost two years since I saw this video for the first time, and I swear I've rewatched it at least three dozen times sense then. Probably my favorite TH-cam video ever. Dude's video about the song that changed his life ended up changing mine too.
The Lord of The Rings is the closest I've experienced to help progress a narrative musically... Still this is one of the best music theory videos I've seen on the internet so thank you for making these!! Might I recommend a video? The Music Theory of Skrillex? or perhaps Aphex Twin? I can see those being food for though as well... Cheers!
Jhon Sherfey Certainly, not only that but every Elder scrolls game running up to Skyrim are intertwined. Go listen to ''Nerevar rising'' (Morrowinds main theme), ''Reign of the Septims'' (Oblivions main theme) and ''Dragonborn'' (Skyrims main theme) in one sitting, you'll see what I mean ;) (and I'm not just talking about the themes and motifs btw, listen out for everything).
i have an example. ok computer by radiohead has an opener song about surviving a car crash, feeling reborn. the song is in e minor. the final song is about rushing around not noticing where youre going and all the beauty youre missing. the song ends on a triangle ding and that signals the car crash. the song is in b mixolydian, linking them together with a V - i end, enforced more by the dominant 7 one chord in mixolydian. amazing album and amazing lyrics and amazing theory. perfection.
I watch this video once a month since I first discovered it and it’s why I take youtube creators seriously. Thank you for this, from the bottom of my heart every day. Thank you!
When I discovered Erlkönig in my Music 101 class, I too became enamored with it. I didn’t have specific theory reasons for loving it like you, though, I just viscerally responded to the feel of the piece-the intensity, the creepiness, the shifting of the narrative...it was one of the highest played songs in my music library for several years because I loved it so much. And there was always the desire in the back of my mind to perform it someday, but alas it hasn’t happened yet, as I am too unconfident in my ability to sing in German and too scared to ask a pianist to subject themselves to this accompaniment.
So after watching like all of your videos, and rewatching ATLA, I have noticed SO MUCH MORE!!!!! There are leitmotifs EVERYWHERE and, especially in the second and third books, THEY EVOLVE!!!!!!!! The composition for ATLA is amazing and I never really noticed its intricacies before.
7:35 OH GOD YES PORTAL 2. It has one of the most coherent videogame soundtracks I've ever heard, without sounding too repetitive. My fave part of the game is going through the Spheres for this very reason. When you encounter the Repulsion Gel after minutes of wandering around the most desolate parts of Aperture, you get this "Great! Retro testing! New gameplay elements!" feeling and the music starts calm but happy and curious, and more instruments are added as you progress. When you get to the Propulsion Gel, you get a similar song, but this time it's more energetic and vibrant, more fitting for this specific gel. By the time you meet the Conversion Gel, you *know* you're close to meeting up with Wheatley, you're excited to return to the same Aperture you know, feeling more powerful than ever, and the music is once again similar, but way more epic and percussion-heavy, as if celebrating your final ascension to present day Aperture.
Why couldnt you have been my music teacher!? 5 years and 7 grades later on the harp and music theory and you've taught me more and made me able to remember things more in 5 mins! Loving your videos! 😁👍🏻
This video gave me the confidence to go out and write something hard, time-consuming, something that conveys a story. I've always thought it was best to stick to pop-culture music because that's what 'everyone' wants, but that's not fun! Your video really opened my eyes to the possibilities of music, thank you.
Well shit, this video has made me reconsider my music taste and how I see music in storytelling (I wanna be a writer and I am considering making games), and to an extent my life decisions, because I fucking love music but I have only gotten like two good music teachers, so, uh, thanks. You sir, is one of the best content creators in this platform, and I really want to hear your work.
I think that the Ballad of the goddess being Zelda's lullaby backwards is more of a sign that Zelda is under the goddess' protection, or she's just been blessed with the goddess' power, but that's just the way I interpret the score. :)
@@amanda1271 this, finally someone remembered that nintendo puts gameplay over story, mario world uses one song 3 times, normal, slow and reversed, and the reason was to save space in the cartridge, in zelda when a song is similar to another they have a related function in the game, that makes it easier for the player to remember, like song of time, inverted song of time and song of double time
Der Erlkonig has always been a haunting piece of poetry to me. What if, when we are ill or close to death, the elf king actually comes to lure us from life? It makes me hope I die in a way that I don't see coming...
Hans Zimmer did this in The Simpsons Movie. Danny Elfman's original theme played around between the Lydian mode and the Hexatonic scale (connecting them easily through how they both have the same first four notes) to create a nonsensical sunny and bizarre sound that didn't seem grounded but still had that major feeling to it (the dissonance of the augmented fourth also helps. it's fucking brilliant). Zimmer understood this, so for the film he created litemotifs for each character that is actually a variation on the basic one, and because the Lydian mode is awesome it meant he could make a soothing one for Lisa, a playful one for Bart, a tender one for Marge and a freaky one for homer, all unique but at the same time from the same family of the main theme that represents all of them
gabber 0 I'm pretty sure he mistyped Zimmer.... he was talking about Hans Zimmer in the beginning after all.....and btw Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman :)
We listened to this song in my high school intro to music class! I honestly forgot the name of it and didn't remember the melody (I recognized it when it was played) but the existence of "that one song about the boy riding with his father trying to outrun death that ends with with him dying and has the boy say 'mein Vater, mein Vater' a lot" HAS stuck with me and randomly pops up in my mind from time to time. (I know now that it wasn't death, but that's how I remembered it)
Doesn't really seem special? I mean, I've only played DS1 and DS2, so my opinion is probably not very important, but the only thing that really stuck out to me was Gwyn's battle song in the first game due to its contrast from all the other boss songs. I dunno. I'd like to hear what you think about it, though, as you think it's worth discussing.
OH MY GOD! There is so much in this video, I don't even know, where to start. First of all: I love how art history seems to repeat itself at a steady frequency of 100 years. I've spent the past weeks reviewing 300 years of German literature history (fun stuff, I know) and what I've realised is that well, we think that all those artists from the early 20th century were crazy punks for doing stuff so distinctively different from what the average person would like. I don't know why, but for some reason I just expected that we were special in this and that everyone loved the romantic pieces and thought they were just wonderful depictions of harmony but no, I started reading a book by an expressionist author and it basically starts with him saying that romantic authors were just crazy punks who did weird stuff. What else did we have around 1900? Yes, a creative crisis that ended in super interesting genres such as dadaism or 12 tone music. Everyone (who knew about art history) hated the fact that there was such boring pop culture when you could do so crazy things with material/syllables/sounds. Right now we are sort of once again falling into that same hole and I'm so existed for how we are going to get out of there again. Second thing: I love how people who don't really know German pronounce it. No offence, I really do like it. It's cute. Third: I love the Erlkönig even though I don't really like any of Schuberts work and I think that Goethe is overrated. Fourth: Isn't what Schubert does there basically what Wagner does all the time? I mean, he basically invented this whole motive stuff, even though, I don't really know a lot about Wagner (except for what my super good music teacher who doesn't really like Wagner, though, taught us), so he probably didn't go as deep. Anyways: Amazing video.
I was amazed when we broke down this piece and really delved into the portrayal capabilities of music, and to then go to my repertoire and break it down myself and realize all the ways the story is told not just in my lyrics but in the structure of the music itself! It’s amazing!
I've heard alot of fans discussing the soundtrack for games like Red Dead 2, so there's hope in that demand (Also I feel like Howard Shore's crafting of the Lord of the Rings motifs is what you're looking for)
Go and watch Nerdwriter1's video on how Howard Shore in the Lord of the Rings trilogy used leitmotifs in the Fellowship to tell a story. It's brilliant and I think it's what you're looking for.
*Minor note* about the triplet motion that "imitates a horse galloping", the triplet gait is called a canter...most horses running will canter; a gallop is the 4-beat gait, normally when the horse is racing or in fear of its life (and it doesn't sound like the horse understood the Elf King was after them). Just something this reminded me of when I learned to ride a horse and was taught that most times you think you're galloping you're really not.
This channel is so interesting! In writing, we have something similar called "forms." Usually we think of writing used to tell a story via it's narrative, but elements of grammar, syntax, punctuation, tense, dialogue tags, pronouns, etc. can also be used to metaphorically enhance the story. A famous example happens in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" where singular, third-person pronouns shift to the collective, emphasizing the narrative's progression from individual characters' perspectives on the lottery to the group-mentality that carries out the village's ritualistic murder.
"This person is distilling music they've heard in the past" I'd feel personally attacked by this if I had the opportunity to write a soundtrack for once. Even though it's a useful formula that work even better when combined with synchronization techniques you've described. Soundtracks could use a lot more attention to detail these days though.
I wonder what he thinks of Ori and The Blind Forest... It's my favourite video game, but I don't have that much knowledge of music. Or Toby Fox' undertale? This music is so important through the game.
Toby Fox's tracks for Homestuck would also be interesting to look at. Or Homestuck in general. I know it's a huge order and if he's not into the comic it would be impossible to dissect properly but I find it interesting how many tracks are remixes of other tracks or mashed up with different tracks to tell a story about the character and what point in their development their in.
I think of Wandersong. I think he'd like Wandersong. I may be an uneducated plebian in terms of music theory but even I can hear the story unfolding in the music. So many leitmotifs, different instruments carrying different meaning, ahhh. The more I listen to it the more I notice. The King of Hearts theme especially stands out with the violin vs the guitar, the Hero theme and the Heart theme phasing in and out to illustrate the characters' internal struggle as well as the physical confrontation, ahhh. I love it so much.
I don't fully agree with some of your philosophy in the rant, but perhaps it's due to my music philosophy developed from Adam Neeley. Actually, that would be really cool, if you and Adam discussed your philosophies on music and the "purpose" to music.
@@pookz3067 Yeah in retrospect they aren't, but I'm just not as critical of the "pop music mindset". The defense of a highly structured, narrative piece of music is that it's just, well, more complex, which generally means more interesting if you can break it down and appreciate the structure yourself. However, at the end of the day, if I don't find that a piece just happens to sound good, for whatever reasons may be that it happens to sound good, I'm not going to listen to it. If structure over derivation was what made music sound good, damn, we'd all be listening to Sorabji (and I'm no Sorabji hater, but there's not a lot of people who can genuinely say they just pop on some Sorabji for listening. Even late Scriabin is more accessible. On the note of early Scriabin, why do so many people prefer his early works over the later, more hyper-developed ones? Because they clearly have been made with that sort of "pop music mindset"; the early works are clearly inspired from the works of Chopin).
@@pookz3067 It may be I'm just misinterpreting how much Sideways actually is critical of the pop music mindset, but sometimes it just comes across as if he's explaining that there's a critical flaw in how most music is typically developed "these days".
@@bobjob7924 Exactly. The whole notion of "'storyline & complex music' = enjoyable" is pure bs. Would I listen to that german piece listed in the video in my free time? Hell no. (Iirc heard that piece when studying music history [or maybe forced to listen to it by my teacher] and I hated every single second of it.) Would I listen to Bravely Default 2 final boss theme and loop it for one hour? Would I listen to Sangnoksu's arrangement of Dancing Mad and drift off into eargasm? FUck yes. But yes I agree 'story-connected' composition is something to be commended for as it shows great mastery in one's control of music, but in terms of it *always* resulting in more musical enjoyment and the worth the potential action of forfeiting otherwise great sounding arrangement instrumental choices? *HELL NO* And yes I kind of hate modern pop as well, but leave JRPG music out of this. (Can't speak for western game music because they're mostly relatively bland & atmospheric)
The story in this video is exactly why I love your channel so much! I could listen to you talk about theory forever and I never would have known about the things you talk about here if I'd never found your Sweeney Todd video.
I appreciate the depth that you've gone into with this video and I think you did a great job at explaining how Erlkönig is so well made. That being said, I personally disagree with the statement on how directors shouldn't choose music simply because it sounds good. I think first and foremost that a great creator works by basing narrative off of personal feelings and experiences, even if what they convey can be lost in translation to others. That way, an artist's soul is integrated as the work itself. Of course, every creator has a different approach: some will value personal attachment and subconscious connections in their work over meticulous detail and choreographed ties to theory, and vice-versa. However, whether Kubrick used the track originally made for 2001 or the music he finally ended up using, there will always be substance to analyze from. If someone wanted to convey a feeling using familiarity in music, it would be just as reasonable because that feeling indeed exists and can therefore be expressed with just as much meaning as a piece planned specifically for the subject. Personal associations are key. While music like Erlkönig can be incredibly appreciated for its effort and construction, creative decisions based on the creator's attachment should be encouraged just as well. The best parts of music aren't what can be explained but what can be expressed and, better yet, felt.
Judgy fools. VG music is some of the best out there, esp the older, classic stuff, and is often based in real world music. Id think that music majors would appreciate how difficult it is to create a catchy instrumental that will be remembered for years on end, AND something can move you, evoke emotion, represent a time or place, tell a story, etc. I still feel a sense of dread whenever I hear the opening drums to the Golden Axe theme or One Winged Angel. I feel light n like a little kid when I hear the Super mario theme (which was based on a Latin Chant i think) VG music is awesome!
yo i just found your channel and i'm vibing on the exact same thoughts you bring up in this video!!!! music as an integrated aspect of a narrative is absolutely amazing and it's awesome to see someone thinking about it with a music theory lens :)
Hey dude, I’ve been binge watching all your videos for the past two days or so, and I’ve always had a sort of appreciation for music but you just made it even bigger. Music has such incredible potential for story telling, and I wish I could create games and music so I could help people see that too
NordiLand *German intensifies* I did too. But I think that it is probably the best known ballad in Germany. Which German doesn't know "Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind"?
As I understand it, complicated narratives in music don't fit visual media because they can distract from the narrative of the visual. Sound that adds to the visual and compliments it usually goes under the umbrella of "sound effects," but I agree with you, it possibly doesn't need to be this way.
As a streamer and someone who grew up playing classical piano, you are a god send. Please keep working on this goal. We need richer and better music in games.
I mean, I have been watching a really cool analysis on the kingdom hearts soundtrack and it goes pretty close to what you're looking for I think, seeing the example of the elf king music you explained in the video.
I know it's overdone, but I really love Undertale's soundtrack. He reused the same leitmotifs in different spots though the game, in a way that you could recognize them if you payed attention. One of the tracks (just named Undertale) goes along with a dialogue heavy part where they explain a particularly sad incident. The music, as long as you go at a normal pace, will stop at the last words of the story, leaving only silence and tears.
I know the soundtrack's been picked apart to pieces already but goddamnit you've given me an excuse to talk about it again. Everybody talks about Undertale's use of leitmotif. With good reason, it's fucking spectacular, and deepens the relationships between characters where the writing of the actual dialogue kinda left vagueness. (The actual writing of Undertale is one of my biggest critiques, the world-building is left to a few intense moments of exposition rather than sprinkling it throughout the game.) But nobody really talks about Toby's grasp over the more basic elements and how he puts them to use. A Redditor put it really well while talking about rhythm and the time signatures used in the game. Heartache vs. Asgore is a really good example of not only recontextualizing but also twisting a motif to suit the composer's purpose. Heartache is composed in 6/8 time. Asgore is composed in standard 4/4. 6/8 is a triple time, 4/4 is duple. So when the first theme of Heartache is played in Asgore, things are going to be shuffled around, squeezed together. And what was originally desperate and apologetic, becomes aggressive and decisive. But the connection to the character of Toriel is still indelibly marked in the player's head and called to subconsciously when that theme plays in Asgore, even if the player doesn't quite know it. Just. UGH. Love this game so much. I'm still not over it I probably need help
General809 I know the game has flaws. It's hard to show that sometimes because some crazy fan will come along and flip out. I never noticed the timing of the music, but it's easy to hear the affect. I mostly just know the leitmotifs. :/
I wanted to say this too, but it goes so much further than what you've said already. The song that A Bird Lover has a motif that is reproduced 666% times slower in one of the final tracks of the game. The background music for the first two areas have motifs that appear in the boss fight at the end of the second, the primary antagonist which is created in a secret lab has a theme that is a sped up version of the track from the lab, the two ghosts that appear in the game have remixed elements, same is true for the skeletons, and then as the game progresses the fight music incorporates more and more real instruments instead of chiptunes to represent the game breaking out and becoming "meta". Basically, without being "that guy"... Undertale.
I see why this piece changed your mind. Thank you for sharing this, it really opened my eyes as well to the potential that music has for story telling. It's a shame it is getting left behind in this way.
I have one big criticism to an otherwise phenomenal video essay: This all is exclusive to a perspective of common practice western music. I've seen people taught in this way try to understand pieces as simple as rock music, and because they think that common practice technique is the only way music can harmonically function, they can't wrap their minds around it. Its actually kind of humorous at times. In the same way, there is more to composition outside of common practice as well. And you can't tell me that there isn't music out there with the same level of care, technique, and thought put into their composition. It just doesn't translate into common practice analysis.
1:09 "Johann Wolfgang von GOATH" Me, an English Major: *eyes twitch* Just so you know, it's pronounced more like "Ger-teh." ;-) Love your videos, by the way. I've been binging them for the past few days. I'm more of a words person than a music person myself, but I did learn to play the piano and picked up a little music theory along the way. The way you dive so deeply into your analyses of these pieces is really wonderful and inspiring!
Me, a German: actually has to plug "Ger-teh" into google translate to see how English people would say Göthe Me: that's remarkly close . . . but still very much off
This was the favorite song of my late chorus conductor. Thank you for breaking it down for me.
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Just discovered Erlkonig tonight looking for an audition piece for a choir, and this was food for thought not only for why it's such a compelling piece of music, but also the role of music composition in wider artforms. Thanks!
You receive the end product. Lots of thing are complex ou here.... some turn gold to shit and make money like bit.ly/1zSXrCi turn to this bit.ly/29piuZ7
Micah Beard Sincerely, music is a very complex thing... But sometimes, seriously, you just need to feel and say by yourself if the thing connect with your soul or not. And in spite of recognizing that it probably took a lot of time do create this video (disclaimer: next sentence isn't really a critique, but only an opinion/tip) the way the topics were presented was kind of fun, but unnecessarily boring sometimes. I mean, I think we need more videos like that! So, I would only change the way it was presented (or it's just, you know... me)
I was making music as a way to support my writing, when I found a writing advice about creating playlists for your characters. Since no music I knew matched them, I chose to learn music to create them on my own, so ideas like the Erlköning and Wagner's leitmotifs were the reason for me to learn music in the first place, to support the narrative. What blew my mind and changed my life was Vivaldi's four seasons, when I discovered he made sonnets to accompany them. Vivaldi gave me a whole new way of thinking about music, to the point that my entire story, which has already passed 100k words, should follow a seasonal structure like Vivaldi's. It's not about his music per se, although many themes I composed in my story are based of Vivaldi's, but the idea of program music of a sonnet about the seasons. From that day, all of my music has this intention. It is made to "tone paint" a scene, like a BGM in a videogame scene. It is meant to be on the background and help setting the mood, but if you look at the score, I make sure each note was put there not because of some "inspiration" or " I wrote what felt good" because I suck at this, but carefully calculated to fit elsewhere in another context. Even a simple rhythm there will become a motif, even a key signature has meaning, even the instrument matters. If I put a b2 here, be sure there will be a #4 there, etc... It adds the difficulty by a lot, and I'm an amateur at best, but I want to write music like this.
This video really does bring up a good point. I REALLY love video game soundtracks, or rather the soundtracks for any piece of media in general. As of recent, I’ve only started to play certain games or watch certain shows because I heard a song or two from their soundtracks and was immediately drawn to it. It truly is a shame however that you can’t really find a soundtrack that tells its own story, or better yet tells the story of the narrative it’s been tied to without the need of the listener having to have played the game beforehand. I sincerely hope that one day some devs out there create their game working very closely the music director from the ground up to really have their narrative transcend that “next level” as you put it, because there really is a lot of potential in that field which we just haven’t seen fully used thus far.
Loved the video but that analogy with the 60fps was really bad. "You aren't going to have a masterpiece today that doesn't run at 60 fps". Framerate has almost nothing to do with the artistry in the game, and a lot to do with limitations of the console, or a pc.
Games can use a terrible engine where no matter how good your hardware is, it will suffer framerate drops, crashes, and other bugs. This is not due to the game being too complex for the console or pc to run, it is due to the garbage engine and it will never improve, not even with a high-end PC made 100 years from now.
..sounds like someone who doesn't know that there used to be a "Turbo" button on Intel-based computers to make them go slower because their clock-speed was too fast to play older games. The 60 FPS analogy is quite apt, as much thought goes into the complexity and design of making a game provide a certain desired smoothness regardless of the hardware speed (lack of, or overabundance of). Plus - It was just a darn analogy.
My guy. You are to me what this song was to you. I discovered u like 6 hours ago, binged all your stuff, and have had my mind continually blown. I'm not a huge music guy but I love movies and the craft, and i always judged music in movies based solely on if it sounded good. U redefined how I'm gonna watch, or at least listen to movies. thanks
I did something similar to this in a film score. It was a leitmotive score based in C-minor then each theme were in a key based on the C-min scale (Cm-Dm-Ebm-Fm-Gm-Abm-Bbm). The main character was in C-minor... Next theme in D-minor, etc until I came to all the scale pitches of C-min also had their key represented in the leitmotive. Also the themes are combined so they were not locked into that key--- just their main presentation was in the key. The film is called CHASING GHOSTS for Sony Pictures recorded with the Slovak Radio Orchestra. No one would ever catch that little musical puzzle I did. Fun stuff! "Der Erlkönig" is a great piece. Cool video.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
I thought the theme from Gremlins was the song that changed your life.
It changed mine, dammit.
@@WombieFerguson especially when they start singing along to it.
Especially after midnight
ajzeg01 me too 😭😭🤣🤣
I thought it was about gremlins too
"Der Erlkönig" can have two meanings in German: once as "elf king" but also something I´d translate with "king of the alders". The alder is a tree widely spread through swampy areas and is associated with death. It was said that the alder trees (wich look pretty cool and beautiful but at the same time dark) "lured" people in the swamps where they sank and died.
Isn't the tree in Erlkönig the Erlkönig? Didn't the Boy died (ist das richtig für stirb 😅😂) because of a fever and hand hallucinat the Erlkönig?
As they are riding through a swamp. Schade das ich Erlkönig nicht mehr auswendig kann
@@rabea7843 I had to learn it too
To be nit picky: while I think that 'elf king' might be a translation that gets the idea across without further explanation, 'alder king' has the better connotations and 'king' in this case is the humanized attribute to something that is scary and overpowering.
And yes, most interpretations go with fever that is fatal. Although it can be read with dying of fear or taken literally as an occult theme of taken to the underworld.
Erlkönig literally translates from German to English as Alder King, but it came to German from Danish, where it *did* mean Elf King, so Elf King is a better translation that Alder King. The Elfking is a figure in European folklore that in basically every other language is called Elfking, not Alderking
@@caboose202ful oh, thank you. Didnt know that.👍
I got messed up by Gwyn's theme from dark souls. It wasn't when I first heard it I saw my friend play it on piano. When he finished I noticed he never touched a black key. At that moment it blew me away because Gwyn's name means white. His entire theme is played only with the white keys.
Ikr. Sakuraba is a genius
Woah, OK that's cool as fuck.
That’s so awesome!!! Woah!!!
Even his music is avoiding the darkness and gripping desperately to the light.
Soulsborne games have fantastic scores which really work with and enhance the story
"...the narrator, the father, the son..."
me: the Holy Gho--oh right no, goblin-elf dude
Lmaooo
Yasss
YES
Me too😂 same when people say, "may the force be with you... And also with you" my brain goes, "let us pray"
@@SwordandKeyboard29 Yeah every May 4th I'm constantly reminding myself to not respond "and with your Spirit" 🤣
I didn’t expect to know the song and was so excited and surprised that I jumped up and yelled ‘I love Der Erlkönig!’
My chorus teacher would show us this song every Halloween because of the subject matter and it is by far one of my favorite pieces
Same. I actually performed this piece in high school and was surprised that literally anyone else knew about it.
Haha, same! I learned about it in my German class though.
Same reaction! Literally my favorite piece of music ever made, trying to get proficient enough to perform both parts
Do you want to die and have your soul stolen away into the woods? Because that's how you die and have your soul stolen away into the woods.
I also jumped up and yelled lmao such an amazing song!
Dude, with this mentality and ambition; I believe you are going to be known for changing the way video game scores are composed.. Good luck
I hope so! I am an emerging Game sound designer and original soundtrack composer. This video really inspired me. The C Major thing is indeed very predominant and asked for by the game designers. I then still try to convince them with a different style but they'll say "it sounds a bit off, idk let's just go back to the C major one". I need to substantiate my reasons more. This song might help.
Dude nice, thanks for the tips! I love the Streets of Rage intro music, and mario's music has always been great. Some examples of game music that made me want to get into the craft are; Super mario 64 especially 'Dire dire docks', medal of honor frontline (especially the main theme), the Halo and zelda games. But also The last of us and Unravel gave me goosebumps. Cheers and game on!
What the hell? Why would a game designer care or know about C Maj? To begin with game soundtracks in Maj are super uncommon, so what the hell are you even talking about?
Yeah, this one 12 minute youtube video gave me the exact same impression. Keep making motifs that express characters through an audio format all you bros!
*Came for Stripe from Gremlins.*
*Stayed for music epiphany.*
stayed for goat more like
How is this channel so freaking good?
Yeah man, I have the same question! xD
Its crazy how he doesn't have more subscribers.... he deserves more recognition =)
VZ Matthews Agreed!
music literacy is pretty much inaccessible to most people, even musicians, because they might not necessarily be as well-versed in the cultural and historical aspects of it and the fact that he makes it easy for us laymen to understand such a highly specialised field and its connection with stuff we're familiar with and the complexity and intricacy of it all is... awesome. if only we could do this for all disciplines
This made me remember something taught at Cal Arts: Imagination is memory in disguise. True originality comes from real life observation and experience.
I like that!
As a german the struggle to pronounce the german names/lines was the most entertaining part of this
Hope that's not offensive, you tried your best
Also, it bugged me that he kinda got the story wrong... the kid is not being killed by a fairytale creature, but is dying and hallucinating from fever. The Erlkönig doesn't exist really it's more like death trying to lure the kid to him symbolically. Also, the father is trying to get the kid to a doctor, not home.
Der Erlkönig itself is such a sad poem, I cry everytime I hear the last verse
@@binnieskywalker7458 That isn't solely true.
Both interpretations are valid, as it is left ambigues.
Both the hallucination explanation and the metaphysical Erlkönig explanation are possibilities that are left for interpretation.
I still laugh aloud everytime he says "goethe" and then i feel really bad
northern_lights also our school systems only give us two language options, French and Spanish, and with most people choosing Spanish and not many white Americans knowing much about the European countries they come from and the languages from those countries, again due to our education system, we aren’t very good at pronouncing other languages but we sure do try.
You sound like you could come from langfocus
Every Frame a Painting - visual moviemaking
Lessons from the Screenplay - storytelling moviemaking
Sideways - music for moviemaking
I'm getting a fantastic film education right now.
Together they make the Powerpuff Girls
I know, right? I love these channels.
Dude if you haven't check out Channel Criswell as well. Terrific channel
Dude Austin Mcconnell's pretty good to. Check him out.
No joke though there's so many great channels for this stuff they're making film school obsolete
Just a small pet peeve.
Guardians of the Galaxy is not a great example for lazy movie soundtracks - it may have caused copy-cats to go down that road because of its success, but in the context the movie itself, the soundtrack is integral to the main character's personal journey and development.
There is a plot-related reason for the soundtrack consisting almost entirely from 80's music.
This is not the case for Suicide Squad and others and I agree in that regard.
Valid but at the end of the day it is still just a compiled score instead of a composed score
Antonio Buys the movie also features an amazing written soundtrack by Tyler Bates.
@@colevakamusic Yes you are right! great score. Thanks for pointing it out
The important thing is that the movie doesn't trust that music to fully carry the weight of the narrative, much like shrek 1, and Into the Spiderverse, the licensed music is supplemented with original scoring and motifs for moments it can't be expected to handle.
(In shrek, there's that melody Fionna sings, prominent after the big kiss in the chapel.
In spiderverse, it's the little high-low-high flare used for the spider heroes, and the low-high-low flare used for Miles, especially prominent in the final leap of faith scene.
In Guardians. . . it's some smaller stuff in fights and the final conflict.)
Irving IV not true at all. The score is very present in Guardians, and delivers the majority of the emotion in the film. The Awesome Mix is used as a story device primarily. There is plenty of score used in Guardians.
Refers to the English language with an American flag
*sipping tea intensifies*
*angrily butters crumpet*
We have our own English and it's BETTER'N yours!
*Inhales*
It’s called English Americans.
It’s called English.
Just accept it.
Dylan Crofton *he fuckin’ did it again*
*dumps it into the harbor*
Me, showing up three years late with Starbucks: oh this here is real interesting
I literally just did the same thing wtf
@@purplechicken86 Hear hear!
Same
And here I am
Now I'm the latest.
Has this channel ever covered the Undertale soundtrack? Because looking at the web of how all the songs connect to one another is WILD, esp bc all of the songs are deeply intertwined with the characters and narrative, so themes being used or reworked in other parts of the soundtrack are purposeful and add to the greater whole
Toby fox is a motherfucking genius
Please keep making videos as complex as this. You could be to music what Every Frame a Painting is to movies
TheGooseinator Exactly! Both great channels!
And what game maker's toolkit is to video games!
That's what I was thinking
He could be. He's not a great video editor, but he never claimed to be. I come to his channel to learn about music, so I'm happy with his videos.
+TheGooseinator well said. +Sideways very well done video, my friend. Keep up the good work!
edit: also, Der Erlkonig plays a pretty hefty part in the book Lila (by Robert Pirsig. It's the sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence) You might consider reading them. Well worth the time, and they're easy reads at that.
Cheers!
You know, Der Erlkönig is my favorite poem. I was never really happy with Schubert's adaption, possibly because I made the mistake of using it as an alarm for a while. But part of my displeasure came from a simple difference in interpretation; I imagined the tone being much quieter, more subtle and softly nefarious than Schubert's blatant threat. I feel that both interpretations are valid, but it just didn't fit mine. I still liked it, but it just didn't click with me quite the way I'd wanted it to.
But now I have a whole new level of respect for it. Even if that wasn't intentional, it's still there, which I think is incredible. Thank you for showing it to me.
Yeah, setting a song as your alarm is a pretty good way to wind up disliking it
Dude, I discovered you an hour ago, and I already love you.
same
saaaame
boi, same!
Same
Same
i gotta say: that song freaked me out and now im probably not gonna be able to sleep tonight
Right?? It's really hard to find a truly scary song, proof that this one is really well-composed. Not that's any surprise.
Oh no I’m so sorry! Maybe try, um, imagining the boy’s soul actually gets taken to some beautiful elf spirit world thing? And he gets to come back and tell his dad as a ghost or something and they all have a happy ending? Does that help?
@@pinkajou656 haha thank you
"An Die Freude" (Ode To Joy) ... I first Listened this when I was in my teens (sure, I _heard_ it before then, but never listened to it). It was on a soundtrack album for "A Clockwork Orange" and was performed by the electronic music genius Wendy Carlos. Back then the Moog synthesizer was a mono-phonic instrument which meant that she played every note of every chord independently, one track at a time. The result, with "Vo-coded" electronic vocal performance of Rachel Elkind (also recorded one "voice" per track for the entire chorus) was astounding. I bought other recordings of An Die Freude and started reading up on the history of the symphony (this is before the internet, in case anyone was wondering), and became fascinated as to what it was that inspired Beethoven to write this masterpiece, and why it has been so influential to people like Wendy Carlos and myself.
It was based on a poem of the same name, written by Fredrick Von Schiller almost a hundred years before Beethoven set it to music. So what was in the poem to deserve such music? I found English versions of the choral symphony, but those words just didn't fit. Eventually I found an English translation of the poem done in the late 1800's, and started working on my own verbatim translation using that and a German-English translation book as a reference. The more I worked on the translation, the more I understood the music Beethoven wrote, and why I was swept up in that music even though I knew not one word of what was being sung.
As it turns out, there are many German words that just don't have a good English translation that make sense for the time the _poem_ was written. The first line, "Freude, schöner Götterfunken," literally translates to "Joy, beautiful God-Radio" by modern standards, but makes no sense in 1785 when Fredrick Von Schiller wrote the poem (probably inspired in part by the Mythology of Greece since he had been there earlier that year). In the time of Beethoven, it might have translated as "Joy, beautiful Spark of Divinity" which is much closer in concept and far, far better than "Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee" as it starts in a number of English recordings. As with any translation, all the words must be looked at before one can truly start to comprehend, and the next line "Tochter aus Elysium" helps even more: "Daughter of Heaven" - Elysium being a Greek concept of Heaven: If you're up high enough and can see over the tops of clouds, that's Elysium. With just those two lines translated we can now understand that "Joy" is both a beautiful feeling and a goddess.
Now Beethoven's Ninth Symphony makes perfect sense. In a nutshell the First Movement introduces all of the feelings we can have, from Strife, Fear, and Worry to Curiosity, Glee, and even Calmness. The Second Movement adds madness, both playful and dangerous. The Third Movement is a recovery from that madness, a discovery of peace and tranquility, a personal retrospection of all things good. The Fourth Movement brings a wonderful feeling inside yourself, a personal joy, until the madness of rest of the World suddenly kicks down your door. It is then that you, as the Tenor, exclaims "O friends, no more these sounds continue! Let us raise a song of Mirth! Of Sympathy! Of Joy!" From then on he expounds "Joy" as the feeling and as the Goddess, rallying the crowd into an ever growing chorus of voices, providing a variety of examples to which the Crowd relates.
With the Crowd fully on board, wanting deeply to go to Joy, the Tenor leads them in a March to build a vessel to traverse the heavens. We hear that flight shortly after in the Fugue and can easily imagine a frantic and fantastic flight though space, culminating with their arrival at heaven. Triumphant the Crowd again sings the virtues of Joy, happy they have finally found her. but when they are met by Joy, she questions them, asking why they have come all this way. She explains that she has always been with them, all they needed to do was open their hearts to their fellow man. It was Beethoven who either wrote or added this last bit into the lyric (a re-print of the poem in 1808 left out some stanzas, including the final). And with that, Beethoven's Ninth ends with our brave heroes returning to Earth to spread the word of Joy.
what a shame this only has 7 likes :( this was beyond interesting and enlightening! I had never known how much deeper this song was than the simple sound of it
great comment, made me listen to Ode an die Freude again and thats always good. Just a little addition from a german-speaker: 'Götterfunken' would never transalte as god-radio (in the sense of sending something over radio, the device itself would be called Radio or Funkgerät), not even today because the word is made out to be male by the preceding adjective (schön-er). Nominalizations of verbs always become neutral :)
fuxor15 -Thank you for your insight. Indeed my verbatim translation of “God-radio” was from a best pick out of both a translation book and from help from a old German gentleman who escaped To America in the 1930s.
With my own father a HAM radio operator I’m more used to using “radio” as an adverb, instead of, say, transmitting. So yes, not the device but the action: A transmission or message from God.
Thinking about it more, “Devine Inspiration” fits even better as the idea I feel is being expressed. It even scans better when sung to the tune: Joy the Devine Inspiration, Daughter of Elysium...”
@@Vodhin - Divine inspiration is a really good translation, I've never even thought of the german text in that way 👍
fuxor15 - Joy, the Devine Inspiration, Daughter of Elysium. We come to thee filled with passion, Heavenly! Thy sanctuary! Thine enchantment, spreads ever wider, through every culture in the world; All mankind will be as brothers, where thy gentle wings have flown. More? (The “Through every culture in the world” part is typically translated along the lines of “uniting those estranged...” but I feel the point being made was that Joy is felt by everyone, regardless how different their culture may be).
Honestly I clicked on this video because of the title and the thumbnail was a picture of a gremlin so I thought this HAD to be something worth watching, I almost clicked off just because it was nearly 15 minutes. But I have to say that after watching this I have a new appreciation for video game music and music as a whole.
As an aspiring music major, this video has inspired me. Due to depression and everything else going on, I have been doubting myself and my singing/potential digital composing ability. Plus me realizing this dream at almost 30. But just because others were able to learn an instrument from childhood or they know a lot more about music than I do, it does not mean I can’t become something of myself despite being a late bloomer. And anyone in the same boat as me, you can do it too. Just don’t give up.
Needed to hear that. Thank you.
So, in case anyone's wondering what's going on in the song, I learned this in school:
So, one night, there's a father rushing home with his son, who is terribly sick. The son has fever dreams/is close to death and the "Erlkönig" is kind of resembling death and the kid can see him. He tries to lure the son towards him but the boy is scared and tells his dad about it but since he's hallucinating, the father tells him that what he's seeing is just a tree in the mist. The Erlkönig keeps telling the dying son what great stuff he has and that he should trust him but he keeps refusing to the Erlkönig tells him that if he won't join him willingly, he'll take him by force. At the end the father arrives at home but notices his son had died, probably because of the sickness so the Erlkönig succeeded in taking the boy by force.
There are several popular interpretations.
The sickness one from our friend above.
The sexual abuse one, visible in the comments of the Erlkönig regarding the son‘s appearance and how he touches him, while the father downplays it. In the end the child(-hood) is gone.
And the coming of age one: the Erlkönig shows his daughters and the world away from home and pulls the child towards all that. The father tries everything to get him home but nature (Erlkönig) ends the childhood despite that.
That is why it is such a great poem
Great job at explaining the theory behind the piece. It is a great work by Schubert. But here is another tidbit that might interest you. There are more than 4 characters in this piece. That’s right, there are 6 total players. In addition to the vocal characters there are 2 non-vocal ones. The right hand in the piano plays the repeating octaves throughout the piece representing two horses riding along each other. The father’s horse and the Erlkonig’s horse. Everyone forgets the accompaniment. Schubert was a pianist first and knew how to tell a story with the instrument. Liszt transcribed it for piano alone and you should take a listen to it. Enjoy!
"we got candy and hookers" is probably the best summary of the erlkönigs promisses XD And the best thing with it is, its 100% true! XD
Also, I'm currently studying game production and management :D (so basically tech management specifically for games) and I am one of those dreamer type people who'll prolly never get more than that one big score but you got me 100% for this cause.
Easily one of the most well spoken and well read content creators on TH-cam. Insta subbed after watching my first video. Please keep up the commendable content sir.
Also: When learning this song on piano: My fingers underwent second puberty, I swear they can lift cars now.
I'm going through this and damn if it aint the truth
I thought it would be The Gremlins Theme Song... That song changed my life.
That's not a joke either.
EEK Productions same omg :0 That’s why I clicked
ditto! :D
I couldn’t watch gremlins ( my favourite movie ) because I was terrified of that song
That conceptual Justice League theme combo is similar to the one I've been hungering for in TMNT for years. If some day, some Ninja Turtle work gives me four individual motifs that combine well into a single team theme, I can die happy. Bonus points for good duo arrangements too, when appropriate. Can you imagine the classic Leo/Raph tension, but as a musical argument? And then the themes can complement each other instead of dueling when they swallow their egos? Augh. I wish I had time to learn to be good at everything. Would love to make this.
Not exactly tmnt but heres a great video on the brilliancy of hot to train your dragon's soundtrack th-cam.com/video/k87EZ5hm_BM/w-d-xo.html
Like the stuff Steven Universe did with it's soundtrack (at least occasionally)?
We had to read Faust in class and I was intrigued but not overwhelmed. A few weeks later I heard 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' on the radio and it was like the lighning strike that reanimated Frankensteins monster. Suddenly the character Gretchen came to life and was a real human not just a book character. It was magical.
3:33 "Maybe im gonna lose a lot of you here"
*PULL OFF A STAR WARS REFERENCE FOR MAIN COMPARISON*
It's been almost two years since I saw this video for the first time, and I swear I've rewatched it at least three dozen times sense then. Probably my favorite TH-cam video ever.
Dude's video about the song that changed his life ended up changing mine too.
The Lord of The Rings is the closest I've experienced to help progress a narrative musically... Still this is one of the best music theory videos I've seen on the internet so thank you for making these!! Might I recommend a video? The Music Theory of Skrillex? or perhaps Aphex Twin? I can see those being food for though as well... Cheers!
Black Sample does skyrim have any of this?
Jhon Sherfey Certainly, not only that but every Elder scrolls game running up to Skyrim are intertwined. Go listen to ''Nerevar rising'' (Morrowinds main theme), ''Reign of the Septims'' (Oblivions main theme) and ''Dragonborn'' (Skyrims main theme) in one sitting, you'll see what I mean ;) (and I'm not just talking about the themes and motifs btw, listen out for everything).
+Stephen Ward Also you spelt my name wrong.
John Sherfey What do you mean when you say "also"?
And sorry i guess...
Idk.
i have an example. ok computer by radiohead has an opener song about surviving a car crash, feeling reborn. the song is in e minor. the final song is about rushing around not noticing where youre going and all the beauty youre missing. the song ends on a triangle ding and that signals the car crash. the song is in b mixolydian, linking them together with a V - i end, enforced more by the dominant 7 one chord in mixolydian. amazing album and amazing lyrics and amazing theory. perfection.
I watch this video once a month since I first discovered it and it’s why I take youtube creators seriously. Thank you for this, from the bottom of my heart every day. Thank you!
When I discovered Erlkönig in my Music 101 class, I too became enamored with it. I didn’t have specific theory reasons for loving it like you, though, I just viscerally responded to the feel of the piece-the intensity, the creepiness, the shifting of the narrative...it was one of the highest played songs in my music library for several years because I loved it so much. And there was always the desire in the back of my mind to perform it someday, but alas it hasn’t happened yet, as I am too unconfident in my ability to sing in German and too scared to ask a pianist to subject themselves to this accompaniment.
you can do this, pay the accompanist a bit more if they refuse but i believe you should and you will be able to
So after watching like all of your videos, and rewatching ATLA, I have noticed SO MUCH MORE!!!!! There are leitmotifs EVERYWHERE and, especially in the second and third books, THEY EVOLVE!!!!!!!! The composition for ATLA is amazing and I never really noticed its intricacies before.
7:35 OH GOD YES PORTAL 2. It has one of the most coherent videogame soundtracks I've ever heard, without sounding too repetitive. My fave part of the game is going through the Spheres for this very reason.
When you encounter the Repulsion Gel after minutes of wandering around the most desolate parts of Aperture, you get this "Great! Retro testing! New gameplay elements!" feeling and the music starts calm but happy and curious, and more instruments are added as you progress.
When you get to the Propulsion Gel, you get a similar song, but this time it's more energetic and vibrant, more fitting for this specific gel.
By the time you meet the Conversion Gel, you *know* you're close to meeting up with Wheatley, you're excited to return to the same Aperture you know, feeling more powerful than ever, and the music is once again similar, but way more epic and percussion-heavy, as if celebrating your final ascension to present day Aperture.
Agreed, Portal 2 has a magnificent soundtrack.
Sorry, let me adjust my previous statement.
magnificent *S*oundtrack. With a capital S. It deserves it.
Payday 2's music is auditory junk food. It does fit the game well, though.
Why couldnt you have been my music teacher!? 5 years and 7 grades later on the harp and music theory and you've taught me more and made me able to remember things more in 5 mins! Loving your videos! 😁👍🏻
This video gave me the confidence to go out and write something hard, time-consuming, something that conveys a story. I've always thought it was best to stick to pop-culture music because that's what 'everyone' wants, but that's not fun! Your video really opened my eyes to the possibilities of music, thank you.
Well shit, this video has made me reconsider my music taste and how I see music in storytelling (I wanna be a writer and I am considering making games), and to an extent my life decisions, because I fucking love music but I have only gotten like two good music teachers, so, uh, thanks. You sir, is one of the best content creators in this platform, and I really want to hear your work.
I think that the Ballad of the goddess being Zelda's lullaby backwards is more of a sign that Zelda is under the goddess' protection, or she's just been blessed with the goddess' power, but that's just the way I interpret the score. :)
I take it to mean that they're not opposite but are the same being, as even inverted it is the same piece. Two different faces to the same entity.
Isnt it played backward because a lullaby is meant to put you to sleep and the ballad of the goddess wakes zelda up?
@@amanda1271 this, finally someone remembered that nintendo puts gameplay over story, mario world uses one song 3 times, normal, slow and reversed, and the reason was to save space in the cartridge, in zelda when a song is similar to another they have a related function in the game, that makes it easier for the player to remember, like song of time, inverted song of time and song of double time
@@tiagodarkpeasant Dude we are talking about Skyward Sword, Zelda games have basically been story over gameplay ever since Ocarina Of Time until BoTW
Der Erlkonig has always been a haunting piece of poetry to me. What if, when we are ill or close to death, the elf king actually comes to lure us from life? It makes me hope I die in a way that I don't see coming...
5:44 Me: Man, he hasn't mentioned leitmotifs or motifs at all yet. This is kinda weird. Oh, theeeere it is.
Thanks for this, I knew the poem but hadn't listened to the music before. Your video gave me a much deeper appreciation of it.
I thought it was gonna be the Gremlins theme
James Perkins true. It and For King and country and Twenty Øne Piløts songs changed my life! 😂
Me too 😂
JP the thumbnail got my hopes up
Everytime I hear the words that Major is happy and Minor is sad Beethoven's 9th comes to mind which is in D minor and is literally about happiness.
Hans Zimmer did this in The Simpsons Movie. Danny Elfman's original theme played around between the Lydian mode and the Hexatonic scale (connecting them easily through how they both have the same first four notes) to create a nonsensical sunny and bizarre sound that didn't seem grounded but still had that major feeling to it (the dissonance of the augmented fourth also helps. it's fucking brilliant).
Zimmer understood this, so for the film he created litemotifs for each character that is actually a variation on the basic one, and because the Lydian mode is awesome it meant he could make a soothing one for Lisa, a playful one for Bart, a tender one for Marge and a freaky one for homer, all unique but at the same time from the same family of the main theme that represents all of them
gabber 0
One of the 5 gods
gabber 0 I'm pretty sure he mistyped Zimmer.... he was talking about Hans Zimmer in the beginning after all.....and btw Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman :)
t r i t o n e
We listened to this song in my high school intro to music class! I honestly forgot the name of it and didn't remember the melody (I recognized it when it was played) but the existence of "that one song about the boy riding with his father trying to outrun death that ends with with him dying and has the boy say 'mein Vater, mein Vater' a lot" HAS stuck with me and randomly pops up in my mind from time to time.
(I know now that it wasn't death, but that's how I remembered it)
"Why have 60 fps gameplay without 60 fps music?" that single sentence shattered my world.
But it’s incorrect because 60 fps isn’t inherently better
Would love to hear a talk on Dark Souls' use of music, or at least your own opinion on it's use and style.
Nicholas Daicopoulos and Bloodborne of course
Doesn't really seem special? I mean, I've only played DS1 and DS2, so my opinion is probably not very important, but the only thing that really stuck out to me was Gwyn's battle song in the first game due to its contrast from all the other boss songs.
I dunno. I'd like to hear what you think about it, though, as you think it's worth discussing.
Dude, literally every one of your videos is awesome. I'm learning so much. Keep em' coming!
OH MY GOD! There is so much in this video, I don't even know, where to start.
First of all: I love how art history seems to repeat itself at a steady frequency of 100 years. I've spent the past weeks reviewing 300 years of German literature history (fun stuff, I know) and what I've realised is that well, we think that all those artists from the early 20th century were crazy punks for doing stuff so distinctively different from what the average person would like. I don't know why, but for some reason I just expected that we were special in this and that everyone loved the romantic pieces and thought they were just wonderful depictions of harmony but no, I started reading a book by an expressionist author and it basically starts with him saying that romantic authors were just crazy punks who did weird stuff. What else did we have around 1900? Yes, a creative crisis that ended in super interesting genres such as dadaism or 12 tone music. Everyone (who knew about art history) hated the fact that there was such boring pop culture when you could do so crazy things with material/syllables/sounds. Right now we are sort of once again falling into that same hole and I'm so existed for how we are going to get out of there again.
Second thing: I love how people who don't really know German pronounce it. No offence, I really do like it. It's cute.
Third: I love the Erlkönig even though I don't really like any of Schuberts work and I think that Goethe is overrated.
Fourth: Isn't what Schubert does there basically what Wagner does all the time? I mean, he basically invented this whole motive stuff, even though, I don't really know a lot about Wagner (except for what my super good music teacher who doesn't really like Wagner, though, taught us), so he probably didn't go as deep.
Anyways: Amazing video.
I was amazed when we broke down this piece and really delved into the portrayal capabilities of music, and to then go to my repertoire and break it down myself and realize all the ways the story is told not just in my lyrics but in the structure of the music itself! It’s amazing!
I've heard alot of fans discussing the soundtrack for games like Red Dead 2, so there's hope in that demand
(Also I feel like Howard Shore's crafting of the Lord of the Rings motifs is what you're looking for)
THE SONG THAT CHANGED MY LIFE! (not clickbait!) [GONE WRONG, GONE SEXUAL, IN THE HOOD, 2017!]
ha. h3h3 fans dont typically make it to this bubble of yt
*S E X T U T O R I A L*
I love this. It's like a grand mathematical/conspiracy theory for music.
Go and watch Nerdwriter1's video on how Howard Shore in the Lord of the Rings trilogy used leitmotifs in the Fellowship to tell a story. It's brilliant and I think it's what you're looking for.
*Minor note* about the triplet motion that "imitates a horse galloping", the triplet gait is called a canter...most horses running will canter; a gallop is the 4-beat gait, normally when the horse is racing or in fear of its life (and it doesn't sound like the horse understood the Elf King was after them). Just something this reminded me of when I learned to ride a horse and was taught that most times you think you're galloping you're really not.
This channel is so interesting! In writing, we have something similar called "forms." Usually we think of writing used to tell a story via it's narrative, but elements of grammar, syntax, punctuation, tense, dialogue tags, pronouns, etc. can also be used to metaphorically enhance the story. A famous example happens in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" where singular, third-person pronouns shift to the collective, emphasizing the narrative's progression from individual characters' perspectives on the lottery to the group-mentality that carries out the village's ritualistic murder.
"This person is distilling music they've heard in the past" I'd feel personally attacked by this if I had the opportunity to write a soundtrack for once. Even though it's a useful formula that work even better when combined with synchronization techniques you've described. Soundtracks could use a lot more attention to detail these days though.
I don't even know how I got to this video, but this was so dope, you literally go balls deep into the art of music. Subbed!
Talk about Gyro from Hunter x Hunter please!
Like, do a 'Manga Balls Deep' ! That'd make one momentous day for me
I think this video just changed mine... Tops
High-key the little music theory moments in your videos help me brush up on my own music theory and I genuinely appreciate it.
I wonder what he thinks of Ori and The Blind Forest... It's my favourite video game, but I don't have that much knowledge of music.
Or Toby Fox' undertale? This music is so important through the game.
Oh yes
Try Hollow Knight.
Try dark souls or bloodborne.
Toby Fox's tracks for Homestuck would also be interesting to look at. Or Homestuck in general. I know it's a huge order and if he's not into the comic it would be impossible to dissect properly but I find it interesting how many tracks are remixes of other tracks or mashed up with different tracks to tell a story about the character and what point in their development their in.
I think of Wandersong. I think he'd like Wandersong. I may be an uneducated plebian in terms of music theory but even I can hear the story unfolding in the music. So many leitmotifs, different instruments carrying different meaning, ahhh. The more I listen to it the more I notice. The King of Hearts theme especially stands out with the violin vs the guitar, the Hero theme and the Heart theme phasing in and out to illustrate the characters' internal struggle as well as the physical confrontation, ahhh. I love it so much.
Who knew that i needed Der Erlköning in my life so bad...
I don't fully agree with some of your philosophy in the rant, but perhaps it's due to my music philosophy developed from Adam Neeley. Actually, that would be really cool, if you and Adam discussed your philosophies on music and the "purpose" to music.
Man there's gonna be a fight in the comment section. But I'll be siding if just a bit more with Neeley
Their philosophies don’t contradict. You don’t understand one of them if you think they do.
@@pookz3067 Yeah in retrospect they aren't, but I'm just not as critical of the "pop music mindset". The defense of a highly structured, narrative piece of music is that it's just, well, more complex, which generally means more interesting if you can break it down and appreciate the structure yourself. However, at the end of the day, if I don't find that a piece just happens to sound good, for whatever reasons may be that it happens to sound good, I'm not going to listen to it. If structure over derivation was what made music sound good, damn, we'd all be listening to Sorabji (and I'm no Sorabji hater, but there's not a lot of people who can genuinely say they just pop on some Sorabji for listening. Even late Scriabin is more accessible. On the note of early Scriabin, why do so many people prefer his early works over the later, more hyper-developed ones? Because they clearly have been made with that sort of "pop music mindset"; the early works are clearly inspired from the works of Chopin).
@@pookz3067 It may be I'm just misinterpreting how much Sideways actually is critical of the pop music mindset, but sometimes it just comes across as if he's explaining that there's a critical flaw in how most music is typically developed "these days".
@@bobjob7924 Exactly. The whole notion of "'storyline & complex music' = enjoyable" is pure bs.
Would I listen to that german piece listed in the video in my free time? Hell no. (Iirc heard that piece when studying music history [or maybe forced to listen to it by my teacher] and I hated every single second of it.)
Would I listen to Bravely Default 2 final boss theme and loop it for one hour? Would I listen to Sangnoksu's arrangement of Dancing Mad and drift off into eargasm?
FUck yes.
But yes I agree 'story-connected' composition is something to be commended for as it shows great mastery in one's control of music, but in terms of it *always* resulting in more musical enjoyment and the worth the potential action of forfeiting otherwise great sounding arrangement instrumental choices? *HELL NO*
And yes I kind of hate modern pop as well, but leave JRPG music out of this. (Can't speak for western game music because they're mostly relatively bland & atmospheric)
Dude, you like, opened up my mind with this video.
Watching these videos just REALLY makes me want to watch a show/movie with music composed by Sideways, cause I LOVE this symbolism and leitmotif stuff
The story in this video is exactly why I love your channel so much! I could listen to you talk about theory forever and I never would have known about the things you talk about here if I'd never found your Sweeney Todd video.
you just earned yourself a subscription
I appreciate the depth that you've gone into with this video and I think you did a great job at explaining how Erlkönig is so well made. That being said, I personally disagree with the statement on how directors shouldn't choose music simply because it sounds good. I think first and foremost that a great creator works by basing narrative off of personal feelings and experiences, even if what they convey can be lost in translation to others. That way, an artist's soul is integrated as the work itself. Of course, every creator has a different approach: some will value personal attachment and subconscious connections in their work over meticulous detail and choreographed ties to theory, and vice-versa. However, whether Kubrick used the track originally made for 2001 or the music he finally ended up using, there will always be substance to analyze from. If someone wanted to convey a feeling using familiarity in music, it would be just as reasonable because that feeling indeed exists and can therefore be expressed with just as much meaning as a piece planned specifically for the subject. Personal associations are key. While music like Erlkönig can be incredibly appreciated for its effort and construction, creative decisions based on the creator's attachment should be encouraged just as well. The best parts of music aren't what can be explained but what can be expressed and, better yet, felt.
Judgy fools. VG music is some of the best out there, esp the older, classic stuff, and is often based in real world music. Id think that music majors would appreciate how difficult it is to create a catchy instrumental that will be remembered for years on end, AND something can move you, evoke emotion, represent a time or place, tell a story, etc. I still feel a sense of dread whenever I hear the opening drums to the Golden Axe theme or One Winged Angel. I feel light n like a little kid when I hear the Super mario theme (which was based on a Latin Chant i think) VG music is awesome!
yo i just found your channel and i'm vibing on the exact same thoughts you bring up in this video!!!! music as an integrated aspect of a narrative is absolutely amazing and it's awesome to see someone thinking about it with a music theory lens :)
Hey dude, I’ve been binge watching all your videos for the past two days or so, and I’ve always had a sort of appreciation for music but you just made it even bigger. Music has such incredible potential for story telling, and I wish I could create games and music so I could help people see that too
erlkönig.... i learneed this whole thing in school.... :D
NordiLand *German intensifies* I did too. But I think that it is probably the best known ballad in Germany. Which German doesn't know "Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind"?
Blabla Tarantino :D
NordiLand As did I! Cool seeing it referenced somewhere
i would be really, really interested in hearing you talk more about music in video games
As I understand it, complicated narratives in music don't fit visual media because they can distract from the narrative of the visual. Sound that adds to the visual and compliments it usually goes under the umbrella of "sound effects," but I agree with you, it possibly doesn't need to be this way.
As a streamer and someone who grew up playing classical piano, you are a god send. Please keep working on this goal. We need richer and better music in games.
I mean, I have been watching a really cool analysis on the kingdom hearts soundtrack and it goes pretty close to what you're looking for I think, seeing the example of the elf king music you explained in the video.
“If you have a music degree you’ll have a stroke”
Anyone with perfect pitch: 👁👄👁
any of your original music online?
shy and overthinking @Sideways is shy and overthinking
I know it's overdone, but I really love Undertale's soundtrack. He reused the same leitmotifs in different spots though the game, in a way that you could recognize them if you payed attention. One of the tracks (just named Undertale) goes along with a dialogue heavy part where they explain a particularly sad incident. The music, as long as you go at a normal pace, will stop at the last words of the story, leaving only silence and tears.
Note, I am not a crazy fan.
A Bird Lover I think so too
I know the soundtrack's been picked apart to pieces already but goddamnit you've given me an excuse to talk about it again.
Everybody talks about Undertale's use of leitmotif. With good reason, it's fucking spectacular, and deepens the relationships between characters where the writing of the actual dialogue kinda left vagueness. (The actual writing of Undertale is one of my biggest critiques, the world-building is left to a few intense moments of exposition rather than sprinkling it throughout the game.) But nobody really talks about Toby's grasp over the more basic elements and how he puts them to use.
A Redditor put it really well while talking about rhythm and the time signatures used in the game.
Heartache vs. Asgore is a really good example of not only recontextualizing but also twisting a motif to suit the composer's purpose.
Heartache is composed in 6/8 time. Asgore is composed in standard 4/4.
6/8 is a triple time, 4/4 is duple.
So when the first theme of Heartache is played in Asgore, things are going to be shuffled around, squeezed together. And what was originally desperate and apologetic, becomes aggressive and decisive. But the connection to the character of Toriel is still indelibly marked in the player's head and called to subconsciously when that theme plays in Asgore, even if the player doesn't quite know it.
Just. UGH. Love this game so much.
I'm still not over it I probably need help
General809 I know the game has flaws. It's hard to show that sometimes because some crazy fan will come along and flip out. I never noticed the timing of the music, but it's easy to hear the affect. I mostly just know the leitmotifs. :/
I wanted to say this too, but it goes so much further than what you've said already. The song that A Bird Lover has a motif that is reproduced 666% times slower in one of the final tracks of the game. The background music for the first two areas have motifs that appear in the boss fight at the end of the second, the primary antagonist which is created in a secret lab has a theme that is a sped up version of the track from the lab, the two ghosts that appear in the game have remixed elements, same is true for the skeletons, and then as the game progresses the fight music incorporates more and more real instruments instead of chiptunes to represent the game breaking out and becoming "meta".
Basically, without being "that guy"... Undertale.
I see why this piece changed your mind. Thank you for sharing this, it really opened my eyes as well to the potential that music has for story telling. It's a shame it is getting left behind in this way.
I respect you so much more for wanting to pursue video game music. It’s my favorite form of audio media!
Celeste and hollow knight both have an incredible soundtrack!
I have one big criticism to an otherwise phenomenal video essay: This all is exclusive to a perspective of common practice western music. I've seen people taught in this way try to understand pieces as simple as rock music, and because they think that common practice technique is the only way music can harmonically function, they can't wrap their minds around it. Its actually kind of humorous at times. In the same way, there is more to composition outside of common practice as well. And you can't tell me that there isn't music out there with the same level of care, technique, and thought put into their composition. It just doesn't translate into common practice analysis.
1:09 "Johann Wolfgang von GOATH"
Me, an English Major: *eyes twitch*
Just so you know, it's pronounced more like "Ger-teh." ;-)
Love your videos, by the way. I've been binging them for the past few days. I'm more of a words person than a music person myself, but I did learn to play the piano and picked up a little music theory along the way. The way you dive so deeply into your analyses of these pieces is really wonderful and inspiring!
Me, a German: actually has to plug "Ger-teh" into google translate to see how English people would say Göthe
Me: that's remarkly close . . . but still very much off
As a German, i think Gea-teh is much closer. With the ea being pronounced like in Earl.
@@moonknightress5059 Depending on accent maybe Guh-tuh?
as a literature aficionado from germany i had a fucking stroke lol. even goatee would've been closer than "goath"
History majors: *stare in awkward silence only remembering how to pronounce Goebbels*
This was the favorite song of my late chorus conductor. Thank you for breaking it down for me.
Just discovered Erlkonig tonight looking for an audition piece for a choir, and this was food for thought not only for why it's such a compelling piece of music, but also the role of music composition in wider artforms. Thanks!
Who's your favorite composer? I love your videos by the way.
Welp, I found my new favourite channel.
I had no idea music was so complex.
i take it you're not a musician?
heck nope. Just an ignorant bystander.
You receive the end product. Lots of thing are complex ou here.... some turn gold to shit and make money like bit.ly/1zSXrCi turn to this bit.ly/29piuZ7
Iku Turso what
Micah Beard Sincerely, music is a very complex thing... But sometimes, seriously, you just need to feel and say by yourself if the thing connect with your soul or not. And in spite of recognizing that it probably took a lot of time do create this video (disclaimer: next sentence isn't really a critique, but only an opinion/tip) the way the topics were presented was kind of fun, but unnecessarily boring sometimes. I mean, I think we need more videos like that! So, I would only change the way it was presented (or it's just, you know... me)
I was making music as a way to support my writing, when I found a writing advice about creating playlists for your characters. Since no music I knew matched them, I chose to learn music to create them on my own, so ideas like the Erlköning and Wagner's leitmotifs were the reason for me to learn music in the first place, to support the narrative. What blew my mind and changed my life was Vivaldi's four seasons, when I discovered he made sonnets to accompany them.
Vivaldi gave me a whole new way of thinking about music, to the point that my entire story, which has already passed 100k words, should follow a seasonal structure like Vivaldi's. It's not about his music per se, although many themes I composed in my story are based of Vivaldi's, but the idea of program music of a sonnet about the seasons.
From that day, all of my music has this intention. It is made to "tone paint" a scene, like a BGM in a videogame scene. It is meant to be on the background and help setting the mood, but if you look at the score, I make sure each note was put there not because of some "inspiration" or " I wrote what felt good" because I suck at this, but carefully calculated to fit elsewhere in another context. Even a simple rhythm there will become a motif, even a key signature has meaning, even the instrument matters. If I put a b2 here, be sure there will be a #4 there, etc... It adds the difficulty by a lot, and I'm an amateur at best, but I want to write music like this.
This video really does bring up a good point. I REALLY love video game soundtracks, or rather the soundtracks for any piece of media in general. As of recent, I’ve only started to play certain games or watch certain shows because I heard a song or two from their soundtracks and was immediately drawn to it. It truly is a shame however that you can’t really find a soundtrack that tells its own story, or better yet tells the story of the narrative it’s been tied to without the need of the listener having to have played the game beforehand. I sincerely hope that one day some devs out there create their game working very closely the music director from the ground up to really have their narrative transcend that “next level” as you put it, because there really is a lot of potential in that field which we just haven’t seen fully used thus far.
“When was the last time you refused to buy a game because your favorite reviewer said that the soundtrack sucked?”
Me: ... *yes.*
Most game soundtracks are rather repetitive, so after a while I set the music volume to 0 and play my own anyway.
Loved the video but that analogy with the 60fps was really bad. "You aren't going to have a masterpiece today that doesn't run at 60 fps". Framerate has almost nothing to do with the artistry in the game, and a lot to do with limitations of the console, or a pc.
Games can use a terrible engine where no matter how good your hardware is, it will suffer framerate drops, crashes, and other bugs. This is not due to the game being too complex for the console or pc to run, it is due to the garbage engine and it will never improve, not even with a high-end PC made 100 years from now.
..sounds like someone who doesn't know that there used to be a "Turbo" button on Intel-based computers to make them go slower because their clock-speed was too fast to play older games. The 60 FPS analogy is quite apt, as much thought goes into the complexity and design of making a game provide a certain desired smoothness regardless of the hardware speed (lack of, or overabundance of). Plus - It was just a darn analogy.
"I'm going to watch a few videos and then do my homework."
*discovers this channel*
_Nope!_
My guy. You are to me what this song was to you. I discovered u like 6 hours ago, binged all your stuff, and have had my mind continually blown. I'm not a huge music guy but I love movies and the craft, and i always judged music in movies based solely on if it sounded good. U redefined how I'm gonna watch, or at least listen to movies. thanks
I did something similar to this in a film score. It was a leitmotive score based in C-minor then each theme were in a key based on the C-min scale (Cm-Dm-Ebm-Fm-Gm-Abm-Bbm). The main character was in C-minor... Next theme in D-minor, etc until I came to all the scale pitches of C-min also had their key represented in the leitmotive. Also the themes are combined so they were not locked into that key--- just their main presentation was in the key.
The film is called CHASING GHOSTS for Sony Pictures recorded with the Slovak Radio Orchestra. No one would ever catch that little musical puzzle I did. Fun stuff! "Der Erlkönig" is a great piece. Cool video.