#0 | World Map — Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (GBA, 2001)

Or "Plan your next move carefully... but with confidence!"

Composers: Hitoshi Sakimoto/Masaharu Iwata
Developer: Quest
Track Type: Loopable
Placement: World Map (managing hub)
Key: G (+Mixolydian modal interchange)
Chord progression: ǁ:G|%|%|%|F|%|%|%:ǁ
Functional map: ǁ:I|%|%|%|bVII|%|%|%:ǁ
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: 120BPM (Moderato)
Scale: G Major
Instrumentation: Chiptune (Folk-like)
Lenght: 0:24 (16 bars)
Structure: A (theme), A' (response)

¹#0? Why not #1? Well, I just realized I have a track called "Beginning of the Journey" in my stack and I figured that one should be #1. Do you know what game it's from? :)

²Thanks everyone for coming, and my utmost gratitude to the early bird adopters who embraced the paid model from the very first kick-off post here. Thanks an awful lot!

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Among the 30-something tracks in The Knights of Lodis' soundtrack this is one of the only 3 that are both a) calm (more on that soon) and b) happy-ish (I mean, at least in a Major key); but, despite being an odd duck in the project, it's probably the one a player will be listening to most while organizing their troops and planning strategies over the spread table-like world map scene. What features such a track must bring in then?

I think the most important this one achieves is being able to lend the player a feeling of "strenght" and/or "resolve"; and this is achieved here through the use of a Mixolydian modal interchange. The deceptively simple 2-chord progression (ǁ:G|F:ǁ) hides the interesting effect of dropping the "right" chord (F#dim, which would bring both "sadness" AND "tension" on) for a much simpler (but "stronger" due to getting to fill an unexpected slot with a Major sound) and straight-to-the-point one. The fact those chords' arpeggios are presented with their 3rds missing (sus-piled) does a good job in preventing them sounding too euphoric too, making for some excellent emotional/harmony balance.

On the melody side there's another quite interesting decision: avoiding the acidic natural F (G's minor 7th) brought in with the Mixolydian mode. That ensures the main theme will still sound comfortable enough to be hummable along the journey without getting grating.

Lastly, why does it sound calm if the tempo itself isn't that slow? Well, sticking to a single chord for many bars (as is the case) can trick a listener's mind into "feeling" the music more slowly--and it works particularly well here coupled with the long notes in the melody.

Take a listen to the original theme and an impromptu rendition of it I did a while ago. Pro users will be able to access sheet music for this theme plus a link for its interactive sheet at Soundslice. See ya next week!