#3 | Victory Theme — Final Fantasy (NES, 1987)

A masterclass in developing a riff

Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
Developer: Square
Track Type: 1-Shot +Loopable
Placement: Fanfare +Stats screen
Key: Eb (+Parallel modal interchange)
Chord progression: ǁEb Cb/Gb Db/Ab|Ebǁ:Eb|Db|Eb|Db|Eb|Db|Eb|Cb:ǁ
Functional map: ǁI bVI⁴ bVII⁴|Iǁ:I|bVII|I|bVII|I|bVII|I|bVI:ǁ
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 150BPM (Allegro)
Scale: Eb Major (+Parallel modal interchange)
Instrumentation: Chiptune (Brass section)
Lenght: 0:03 +0:13 (2 +8 bars)
Structure: Fanfare, A (theme), A' (variation)

Fanfares are just like rock'n roll riffs: concise and memorable pieces of melody--and if they can pack a punch while at it it's all for the better. Usually meant for introducing important people in or making highbrow announcements, the form is put to terrific use in the original Final Fantasy release and beyond (years of iteration on what has become a staple of the series made it a widely recognizable reference in vgm in general) and helps the game to celebrate a player's victory (alongside the very characters with their uplifting 2-frame "cheer" animation) as if injecting small dopamine bursts into the longrun fuel tank.

For the epicness level intended with such a piece to actually land their hits, this fanfare had to be built upon the most aggressive approach around when it comes to borrowing chords: replacing the tonal center itself. We've talked about employing Mixolydian interchange as a tool for accessing "stronger" chords in the previous issues of GMAC (it was pointed out in both Ogre Battle and Ys' editions) but parallel borrowing takes the concept to another level because it's a clever way of allowing a composer/arranger to tap into a pool of different chords by only swapping the main one's quality--in this case, Ebm for Eb. That not only opens a myriad of interesting substitution options but also brings a brand new surprising (on the listener's side) conclusion to the table regarding what's expected to be "home"--where this technique's "euphory" mood in fact lies.

Still, what really made this track unique back then (and seminal for future soundtracks in the medium for the ages) was the way Uematsu-san developed his fanfare into the subsequent loopable theme--a perfect "stats screen" fit. Ringing an epic victory jingle is a given; but it's hard to measure the impact of having some piece of music just to follow along a player indulging in browsing through their loot or level up stats after a battle.

A final interesting detail deserving a bit of an extra digging is how Mr. Uematsu managed to set the fully-fledged theme apart from the fanfare while keeping the overall mood intact: against all odds, by messing around with rhythm. The fanfare relies heavily on conventions, and those are much more inclined to a compound feel--to the point it would probably be better written in 12/8 instead of common time--than the thematic material (which even sounds modern for its "disco" syncopated bass line).

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!