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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-us">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta description="Aaron Freed's notes on their musical compositions from 2023-2024">
<meta keywords="electronic music, video game, original soundtrack, remix, progressive rock">
<title>Liner notes for Aaron Freed’s album Compositions 2023-2024</title>
<link href="https://free.bboxtype.com/embedfonts/?family=FiraGO:100,100i,200,200i,300,300i,400,400i,500,500i,600,600i,700,700i,800,800i,900,900i" rel="stylesheet">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/css.css">
</head>
<body class="compositions2023-2024 light">
<h1 class="centred petitecaps" style="margin-bottom: 4px;">Aaron Freed · <em><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/music/compositions2023-2024.html" target="_blank" class="underlinelink songlink weight6 noprintlink">Compositions 2023-2024</a></em></h1>
<h2 class="centred petitecaps italic" style="margin-top: 4px;">Complete Credits & Composer Commentary</h2>
<ol class="toclite fixheight toc-counter noprintlink" id="toc">
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#tracklist">Detailed tracklist <span class="weight2">(with track subtitles, movements, & lengths)</span></a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#translations">Quick Reference to Foreign-Language Titles</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#credits">Credits</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#compositions">Compositions</a></li>
<li><a href="#lyrics">Lyrics</a></li>
<li><a href="#arrangements">Arrangements</a></li>
<li><a href="#performances">Performances</a></li>
<li><a href="#artwork">Artwork</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#frontcover">Front Cover</a></li>
<li><a href="#backcover">Back Cover</a></li>
<li><a href="#interior">Interior Gatefold</a></li>
<li class="noprint"><a href="#exterior">Exterior Gatefold</a></li>
<li><a href="#trayexterior">Tray Exterior</a></li>
<li class="noprint"><a href="#cdlabels">CD Labels</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#commentary">Album Commentary</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#stravinsky">On Stravinsky and Musical Freedom</a></li>
<li><a href="#anachronisms">On Musical Anachronisms</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#tracks">Track Commentary</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#01">Not Actually FFIV</a></li>
<li><a href="#02">7:6:5:4</a></li>
<li><a href="#03" class="dotted" title="Latin for “Aquatic Ambiance”" lang="la">Ambiēns aquãtica</a></li>
<li><a href="#04">Disco Apocalypse in 5/4</a></li>
<li lang="la"><a href="#05" class="dotted" title="Latin for “The Singular Personification of Evils”">Singulāris persōnificātiō mālōrum</a></li>
<li lang="grc"><a href="#06" class="dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Locrian Lament” (romanized: “Lokrôn thrê­nos”)">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος</a></li>
<li lang="it"><a href="#07" class="dotted" title="Italian for “Portrait in Gray”">Ritratto in grigio</a></li>
<li><a href="#08" class="dotted" title="Italian for “Deadly Game”" lang="it">Ludo mortale</a></li>
<li><a href="#09" class="dotted" title="Latin for “Time of Storms”" lang="la">Tempus tempestātum</a></li>
<li><a href="#10">You Wanted To</a></li>
<li><a href="#11" class="dotted weight3" title="ancient Greek for “Downward Spiral” (romanized: “Kataibaté hélix”)" lang="grc">Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ</a>
<ol class="noprint">
<li><a href="#11a">Ὁ ζῐ́γγος αὔξεται μέγᾰς</a></li>
<li><a href="#11b">Ὀνειροπολεῖς βῐαίᾱν αὔξησῐν</a></li>
<li><a href="#11c">Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη / Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς – Musical Commentary</a></li>
<li><a href="#11lc">Lyrical Commentary</a></li>
<li><a href="#11lyrics">Lyrics</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#12" class="dotted" title="Latin for “A Storm of Wrath”" lang="la">Tempestās īrae</a></li>
<li><a href="#13" class="dotted" title="Latin for “Hang to Dry”" lang="la">Pende siccāre</a>
<ol class="noprint">
<li><a href="#tutelachords">Chord progression</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#14" class="dotted" title="French for “The Girl Who Stole the Stars”" lang="fr">La fille qui volait les astres</a></li>
<li><a href="#15" class="dotted" title="Latin for “Wrath of Time”" lang="la">Īra temporis</a>
<ol class="noprint">
<li><a href="#extemporischords">Chord progression</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#withoutwhom">Those Without Whom</a></li>
<li><a href="#influences">Artistic Influences</a></li>
<li><a href="#alloftheabove">All of the Above</a></li>
<li><a href="#notleast">…but Not Least</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#endnotes">Endnotes</a></li>
</ol>
<h1 class="centred noprint" id="intro" style="margin-top: 24px;">Introduction</h1>
<h1 class="centred noscreen" id="intro" style="margin-top: -10px;">Introduction</h1>
<p class="fixheight">This is a (still un­fin­ished) col­lec­tion of tracks I’ve writ­ten (or, in one case, cowritten) for game sound­tracks since 2023. They’re cur­rent­ly all in­ten­ded ei­ther for <em class="accent weight3">hell­pak Vol. 2</em> or <em class="accent weight3 dotted" lang="la" title="Latin, literally meaning “Time of Wrath Returned”. Obligatory Latin pedantry: “returned” is a participle modifying ”time” (this is syntactically clear due to “īrae” being the only word of the title in the genitive case); also, the ‘I’ is a long vowel (i.e., if using macrons to stand in for apices, we’d have “Tempus Īrae Redux”). Now cross off a square on your bingo cards.">Tem­pus Irae Re­dux</em>, which are both forth­com­ing third-par­ty sce­na­ri­os for <span class="accent weight3">Bun­gie</span>’s <em class="accent weight3">Ma­ra­thon</em> se­ries, though I don’t know for sure where they’ll end up.</p>
<p class="fixheight">You may <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/music/compositions2023-2024.html" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">freely stream or down­load this al­bum</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨aaronfreed<span class="breaker">.</span>github<span class="breaker">.</span>io<span class="breaker">/</span>music<span class="breaker">/</span>compositions2023-2024<span class="breaker">.</span>html⟩</span> in two forms:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgeo9dCMSz8QFVNaQTA?e=Oj7nWw" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">In­di­vi­du­al tracks</a></li>
<li><a href="https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgew6JLt1nHBweaY4QQ?e=Mq7eeP" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">Audio CD images with embedded cuesheets</a></li>
</ol>
<p class="fixheight">Any me­di­a play­er worth its salt can read the in­di­vi­du­al songs within the images; I also pro­vide cue­sheets to split disc images into tracks and to split either into their com­pon­ent move­ments.</p>
<p class="fixheight">I’m also preparing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">stems</a> and variant mixes of nearly the whole album: <em><a href="https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuD0MykSsmaRge9GwxZWT9TKBlutYA?e=uoaWCv" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink" lang="it-IT">Composizione 2023-2024: Edizione dell’ingegner</a></em> (<em class="weight3 accent">Compositions 2023-2024: Engineer’s Edition</em> in slightly archaic Italian). Currently, only four of the album’s fifteen tracks are present, and all are subject to change in the final release. Furthermore, since I have left the synthesizer lead of <span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ»</span> substantively unchanged from <a href="https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/track/ror213-08-leads" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">its source</a>, it will be excluded. (Chris usually puts the <a href="https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/album/risk-of-rain-2-engineer-edition-2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="underline songlink noprintlink"><em>Risk of Rain 2</em> stems</a> up on sale about one Bandcamp Friday per year.)</p>
<p class="fixheight">I’ve made this free for per­son­al listening, but <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html" class="underline songlink noprintlink">please ask</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨aaronfreed<span class="breaker">.</span>github<span class="breaker">.</span>io<span class="breaker">/</span>aboutme<span class="breaker">.</span>html<span class="breaker">#</span>contact⟩</span> if you wish to use any of it in your own pro­jects. The first two tracks are the sole ex­cep­tion: like all <em class="toc-counter weight1">hellpak</em> tracks, they’re li­censed as <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en" target="_blank" class="songlink underline noprintlink">Cre­at­ive Com­mons At­tri­bu­tion-Non­Com­mer­cial-Share­Alike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨creativecommons<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>licenses<span class="breaker">/</span>by-nc-sa<span class="breaker">/</span>4<span class="breaker">.</span>0<span class="breaker">/</span>deed<span class="breaker">.</span>en⟩</span>, allowing <em>non-commercial</em> uses that are:</p>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li>clearly attributed,</li>
<li>not used for commercial purposes, and</li>
<li>shared with the same restrictions attached.</li>
</ol>
<p class="fixheight">I’ll probably grant most noncommercial uses for other tracks if asked; I’d just like to know who’s using it and why. (I may even al­low com­mer­cial use if of­fered fair com­pen­sa­tion, though per­mis­sion for track 11 is not mine to grant.) You may also <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html" class="underline songlink noprintlink">con­tact me</a><span class="noscreen"> (see above)</span> with ques­tions, praise, con­struc­tive cri­ti­ci­sm, job of­fers, <span lang="la">etc.</p>
<p class="noscreen fixheight">I link to many of the songs I mention on the web-based version of this document. Because those URLs would be wildly inconvenient to type, I don’t include them on the printable version of this document. Visit this page on the web <span class="linktext nohyphens">⟨aaronfreed<span class="breaker">.</span>github<span class="breaker">.</span>io<span class="breaker">/</span>compositions2023<span class="breaker">-</span>2024notes<span class="breaker">.</span>html⟩</span> for the links. The web-based version also includes additional information that’s currently only included in hover text (I plan to make it more accessible eventually).</p>
<p class="fixheight noprint">Click on any track name in the track­list to jump to my com­men­ta­ry ab­out that track; click on its ti­tle in the com­men­ta­ry to lis­ten to it. After this ex­am­ple, <span class="underline" style="text-decoration-color: color-mix(in srgb, currentcolor 66.66667%, transparent); text-underline-offset: 2px;">a so­lid un­der­line</span> on this page will always de­note a link (though not all links are un­der­lined); <span class="dotted" title="This is a tooltip">a dot­ted un­der­line</span> sig­ni­fies text that you may hover your mouse over for fur­ther in­for­ma­tion. Fre­quent­ly, though not al­ways, this in­cludes trans­la­tions of for­eign terms or names, or fur­ther com­men­ta­ry on links I’ve pro­vid­ed. (I real­ize this isn’t ideal for ac­ces­si­bi­li­ty and plan to work on a so­lu­tion ev­en­tu­al­ly, but I’m cur­rent­ly too busy fin­ish­ing the un­fin­ished songs in this col­lec­tion and wor­king on <em class="toc-counter weight1" lang="la">Tem­pus Irae Re­dux</em> to im­ple­ment the so­lu­tion that comes to mind, i.e., con­ver­ting ev­er­y last one in­to an end­note.)</p>
<p class="fixheight noprint">I link to You­Tube vi­de­os of most songs I men­tion by oth­er ar­tists. I us­u­al­ly link to the or­ig­in­al stu­di­o al­bum re­lea­ses of rock songs, though I oc­ca­sion­al­ly link to mu­sic vi­de­os or no­ta­ble live per­for­man­ces as well. Like­wise, I us­u­al­ly link to the OST ver­sions of game tracks, on of­fic­ial chan­nels where pos­sib­le (cer­tain de­ve­lo­pers, Nin­ten­do es­pec­ial­ly, rare­ly up­load their OSTs), with a few spe­ci­fic ex­cep­tions:</p>
<ul class="fixheight noprint">
<li>For <span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="kanji: 植松 伸夫; hiragana: うえまつ のぶお; rōmaji: Uematsu Nobuo">No­bu­o U­e­mat­su</span>’s <span class="weight1 toc-counter">SNES</span>-era <em class="weight3 accent">Fi­nal Fan­ta­sy</em> mu­sic (<em class="weight1 toc-counter">FFIV</em>, <em class="weight1 toc-counter">FFV</em>, and <em class="weight1 toc-counter">FFVI</em>), I link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKqNek98rqpapwTTGxjTGjQ" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">Ma­thew Va­len­te</a>’s <em class="weight1 toc-counter">Syn­the­tic Or­ig­ins</em>, full re­makes using the syn­the­siz­ers U­e­mat­su or­i­gi­nal­ly com­posed it on <em>with­out</em> the da­ta com­pres­sion their voi­ces un­der­went to fit on a <span class="weight1 toc-counter">Su­per Fa­mi­com</span> cart­ridge – i.e., what U­e­mat­su heard when he or­ig­in­al­ly wrote it. The im­prove­ment in sound qua­li­ty is dif­fi­cult to ov­er­state. Valente has remade:
<ul class="fixheight">
<li><span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span> – <em class="weight1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lYnG7mkn6jjH48qmleTqESCTtLQdRG_e" target="_blank" class="underline songlink dotted noprintlink" title="Japanese: ファイナル・ファンタジーＩＶ (Fainaru Fantajī Fō)">Final Fantasy IV</a></em></li>
<li><span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span> – <em class="weight1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lhh47xhe3Xu28QMF1sK9LzX5yc8w-d6-" target="_blank" class="underline songlink dotted noprintlink" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶ (Fainaru Fantajī Faibu)">Final Fantasy V</a></em></li>
<li><span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span> – <em class="weight1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lepyjSg8tmeuxjvZba3nRG-XR7fqZ3Ne" target="_blank" class="underline songlink dotted noprintlink" title="Japanese: ファイナル・ファンタジーＶＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Shikusu)">Final Fantasy VI</a></em></li>
<li><span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="kanji: 光田 康典; hiragana: みつだ やすのり; rōmaji: Mitsuda Yasunori">Yasunori Mitsuda</span>, <span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span>, & <span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="kanji: 松枝 賀子; hiragana: まつえだ のりこ; rōmaji: Matsueda Noriko">Noriko Matsueda</span> – <em class="weight1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kboJDrVDxk30b_KqPhgkl62MrE1Gv-Y5" target="_blank" class="underline songlink dotted noprintlink" title="katakana: クロノ・トリガー; rōmaji: Kurono Torigā">Chrono Trigger</a></em></li>
<li><span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="kanji: 下村 陽子; hiragana: しもむら ようこ; rōmaji: Shimomura Yōko">Yoko Shimomura</span> – <em class="weight1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jHrwfTOFajCp82VvK7A6d210aXwknt3M" target="_blank" class="underline songlink dotted noprintlink" title="Japanese: スーパーマリオ　ＲＰＧ; rōmaji: Sūpāmario RPG. “Legend of the Seven Stars” isn’t part of the Japanese title… which bothered me enough to try to translate it to Japanese, despite my extremely limited knowledge of the language. I came up with 「星七つの伝説」 (hiragana: 「ほしななつのでんせつ」; rōmaji: “Hoshi nanatsu no densetsu”). 「星」 (「ほし」, “hoshi”) means “star”, 「七」 (「なな」, “nana”) means “seven”, 「つ」 (“-tsu”) is a suffix turning a number into a generic counter, 「の」 (“no”) is a genitive case marker (similar to “-’s”), and 「伝説」 (「でんせつ」, “densetsu”) means “legend”. I don’t know enough Japanese to know a better counter for stars than 「つ」, if one even exists; nor whether to use 「つ」 or 「個」 (「こ」, “-ko”, another generic counter); nor whether the number and counter precede or follow 「星」 – 「シンドバッド　７つの海の伝説」 (kana: 「シンドバッド　７つのうみのでんせつ」, rōmaji: “Shinobaddo: Nanatsu no umi no densetsu”; translation: “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”) puts the number and counter first, but Japanese Wikipedia’s article on space tends to put nouns first.">Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars</a></em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>For <span class="weight3 accent">David Wise</span>’s <em class="weight3 accent dotted" title="known in Japan as スーパードンキーコング (Sūpā Donkī Kongu), or “Super Donkey Kong”">Donkey Kong Country</em> music, I link to the OST (to show <span class="toc-counter weight1">Wise</span>’s vir­tu­os­ic use of the <span class="weight1 toc-counter">SNES</span>’ sound chip) and to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKaTWjXt6tJ9S6K0YFJVEfQ" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">Jam­min’ Sam Mil­ler</a>’s <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vJuAh_vWPdtWtOIVWFeZXAL9K0L8K3SV" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">re­makes</a> (which use the same eth­os as <em class="weight1 toc-counter">Syn­the­tic Or­ig­ins</em>’).</li>
</ul>
<p class="fixheight noprint">For clas­si­cal music, if I know the per­for­mance date, con­duc­tor, or or­ches­tra, I list it in a tool­tip.</p>
<p class="fixheight">The “DR” scores mea­sure songs’ overall dynamic range via <span class="weight3 accent">foo­bar­2000</span>’s <a href="https://foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dr_meter" class="weight3 underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">TT Dy­nam­ic Range Me­ter</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨foobar2000<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>components<span class="breaker">/</span>view<span class="breaker">/</span>foo<span class="breaker">_</span>dr<span class="breaker">_</span>meter⟩</span> plug­in. High­er scores correlate to higher dy­nam­ic range. (This doesn’t universally correlate to better sound quality, but low dynamic range can cause listener fatigue, especially on head­phones.) Modern popular music often scores in the DR5–DR7 range; thus, this al­bum is both more dy­nam­ic and qui­e­ter. Use your vol­ume knob if ne­ces­sa­ry.</p>
<p class="fixheight">Lastly, the predominance of Italian and Latin song titles is a direct result of <em>Tempus Irae Redux</em>’s Italian setting. I left a few direct references to other works in English (the isolated phrase “you wanted to” is literally, not figuratively, untranslatable to Italian or Latin, neither of which has split infinitives, while any translations I could formulate of “co-starring” to either language were infuriatingly wordy), and I titled one movement in Spanish, one in Japanese, one track in French, and two tracks in (very likely ungrammatical) Greek for reasons explained below, but titling most of them in Italian or Latin felt appropriate.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<h1 class="centred" id="tracklist" style="margin-top: 24px;">Detailed Tracklist</h1>
<ol class="tracklist fixheight">
<li><a href="#01" class="noprintlink accent weight5">Not Actually FFIV</a> <span class="green">(11:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#01a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="weight3">Not Actually ‘</span>Main Theme of <em>Final Fantasy IV<span class="weight3">’</span></em></a> <span class="green">(0:00-2:52)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></li>
<li><a href="#01b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="weight3">Not Truly ‘</span>Another World of Beasts<span class="weight3">’<span class="weight1"> including </span>Not Really ‘</span>Infiltrating Shinra Tower<span class="weight3">’<span class="weight1"> and excerpt of </span>Almost but Not Quite ‘</span>Fracture<span class="weight3">’</span></a> <span class="green">(2:52-7:08)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></li>
<li><a href="#01c" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="weight3">Technically Not ‘</span>Clash on the Big Bridge<span class="weight3">’<span class="weight1"> including </span>Legally Distinct from ‘</span>J-E-N-O-V-A<span class="weight3">’</span></a> <span class="green">(7:08-11:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#02" class="noprintlink accent weight5">7:6:5:4<span class="weight3"> (A Study in Musical Proportions)</span></a> <span class="green">(9:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#02a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">Pythagorean Blues</a> <span class="green">(0:00-2:24)</span> <span class="orange">[DR18]</span></li>
<li><a href="#02b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">Euclidean Prog</a> <span class="green">(2:24-6:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
<li><a href="#02c" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">Newtonian Counterpoint</a> <span class="green">(6:00-9:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#03" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “Aquatic Ambiance”" lang="la">Ambiēns aquātica</a> <span class="green">(6:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span></li>
<li><a href="#04" class="noprintlink accent weight5">Disco Apocalypse in 5/4<span class="weight3"> (co-starring the delicious talents of Logic Pro)</span></a> <span class="green">(12:27)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#04a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">Side A</a> <span class="green">(0:00-6:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></li>
<li><a href="#04b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">Side B</a> <span class="green">(6:00-12:27)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#05" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “The Singular Personification of Evils”" lang="la">Singulāris persōnificātiō mālōrum</a> <span class="green">(10:42)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span>
<ol class="lowerroman">
<li><a href="#05a" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “Grant Him Rest”" lang="la">Dōnā eī requiem</a> <span class="green">(0:00-5:17)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span></li>
<li><a href="#05b" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “Pfhor [Is] a Wolf to Pfhor”" lang="la">Pfhor Pfhōrī lupus</a> <span class="green">(5:17-10:42)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#06" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Locrian Lament” (romanized: “Lokrôn thrê­nos”)" lang="grc">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος</a> <span class="green">(8:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span>
<ol class="lowergreek">
<li><a href="#06a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Locrian Lament (chaotic)” (romanized: “Lokrôn thrê­nos (tarakhṓdēs)”)" lang="grc">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος<span class="weight3"> (τᾰρᾰχώδης)</span></a> <span class="green">(0:00-4:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span></li>
<li><a href="#06b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Locrian Lament (peaceful)” (romanized: “Lokrôn thrê­nos (galēnós)”)" lang="grc">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος<span class="weight3"> (γαληνός)</span></a> <span class="green">(4:00-8:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#07" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Italian for “Portrait in Gray”">Ritratto in grigio</a> <span class="green">(10:20)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#07a" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Italian for “Portrait in Gray (electric)”" lang="it">Ritratto in grigio (elettrico)</a> <span class="green">(0:00-5:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
<li><a href="#07b" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Italian for “Portrait in Gray (acoustic)”" lang="it">Ritratto in grigio (acustico)</a> <span class="green">(5:05-10:20)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#08" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Italian for “Deadly Game”">Ludo mortale</a> <span class="green">(11:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#08a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Italian for “Fractal Dance”">Danza frattale</a> <span class="green">(0:00-5:22)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></li>
<li><a href="#08b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Japanese for “Fractal Jazz” (romanized: “Furakutaru jazu”)">フラクタル・ジャズ</a> <span class="green">(5:22-11:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#09" class="noprintlink accent weight5"><span class="dotted" title="Latin for “Time of Storms”">Tempus tempestātum</span></a> <span class="green">(11:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#09a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Italian for “Stormy Weather (electric)”">Tempo tempestoso (elettrico)</a> <span class="green">(0:00-5:44)</span> <span class="orange">[DR18]</span></li>
<li><a href="#09b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Spanish for “Stormy Weather (acoustic)”">Tiempo tempestuoso (acústico)</a> <span class="green">(5:44-11:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#10" class="noprintlink accent weight5">You Wanted To</a> <span class="green">(4:20)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#10a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">You Wanted To<span class="weight3"> (metal)</span></a> <span class="green">(0:00-2:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span></li>
<li><a href="#10b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4">You Wanted To<span class="weight3"> (jazz)</span></a> <span class="green">(2:00-4:20)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#11" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Downward Spiral” (romanized: “Kataibaté hélix”)">Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ</a> <span class="weight0 accent">(ft. <span class="weight3 dotted" title="Greek: Χρήστος Χριστοδούλου (Chrístos Christodoúlou)">Chris Christodoulou</span>)</span></a> <span class="green">(19:37)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="lowergreek">
<li><a href="#11a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="dotted" title="ancient Greek for “The Whirring Grows Loud” (romanized: “Ho zíngos aúxetai mégas”)" lang="grc">Ὁ ζῐ́γγος αὔξεται μέγᾰς</span></a> <span class="green">(0:00-5:41)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span></li>
<li><a href="#11b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="dotted" title="ancient Greek for “You Dream of Violent Growth” (romanized: “Oneiropoleís biaíān auxísin”)" lang="grc">Ὀνειροπολεῖς βῐαίᾱν αὔξησῐν</span></a> <span class="green">(5:41-10:36)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span></li>
<li><a href="#11c" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="dotted" title="ancient Greek for “A Love Supreme” (romanized: “Mía agápē anṓtate”)" lang="grc">Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη</span></a> <span class="green">(5:41-10:36)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span> <span style="font-size: 16px;" class="weight0 noprint">[<a href="#11cmc">musical commentary</a>, <a href="#11lc">lyrical commentary</a>, <a href="#11lyrics" class="weight0">lyrics</a>]</span></li>
<li><a href="#11d" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4"><span class="dotted" title="ancient Greek for “Diēs Īrae” (romanized: “Hēmérā orgês”); “Diēs Īrae” (Latin for “Day of Wrath”) is the source of the lyrics">Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς</span></a> <span class="green">(15:31-19:37)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span> <span style="font-size: 16px;" class="weight0 noprint">[<a href="#11cmc">musical commentary</a>, <a href="#11dlc">lyrical commentary</a>, <a href="#diesirae" class="weight0">lyrics</a>]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#12" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “A Storm of Wrath”" lang="la">Tempestās īrae</a> <span class="green">(5:12)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></li>
<li><a href="#13" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “Hang to Dry”">Pende siccāre</a> <span class="green">(16:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="lowerroman">
<li><a href="#13a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Latin for “Protection”, “tutelage”, “guardianship”, “defence”, “care”, “dependent”, “client”, etc.">Tūtēla</a> <span class="green">(0:00-8:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR14]</span></li>
<li><a href="#13b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Latin for “Attack”, “impetus”, “vehemence”, “ardour”, “rapid motion”, “incursion”, etc.">Impetus</a> <span class="green">(8:00-16:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#14" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="French for “The Girl Who Stole the Stars”">La fille qui volait les astres</a> <span class="green">(9:48)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li><a href="#14a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="French for “The Girl Who Stole the Stars (acoustic)”">La fille qui volait les astres (acoustique)</a> <span class="green">(0:00-4:48)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></li>
<li><a href="#14b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="French for “The Girl Who Stole the Stars (electric)”">La fille qui volait les astres (électrique)</a> <span class="green">(4:48-9:48)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#15" class="noprintlink accent weight5 dotted" title="Latin for “Wrath of Time”">Īra temporis</a> <span class="green">(8:19)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span>
<ol class="lowerroman">
<li><a href="#15a" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Latin for “Out of Time, Out of Place”">Ex tempore, ex locō</a> <span class="green">(0:00-4:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
<li><a href="#15b" class="noprintlink toc-counter weight4 dotted" title="Latin for “Not Everything Was in Its Right Place”">Nōn omnia in sua locō corrēctō erant</a> <span class="green">(4:00-8:19)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="accent" style="margin-top: 24px; padding: 0px 20px;"><span class="dashed-vertical-borders" style="padding: 8px 10px;"><span class="weight5">Current total:</span> <span class="green">2:34:55</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span></span></div>
<!--<div style="margin: 24px 0px 0px 60px; color: var(--heading-color);">*much to my annoyance, the track scan and movement scan currently return different scores</div>-->
<h2 class="centred" style="margin: 18px 0px 0px;" id="translations">Quick Reference to Foreign-Language Titles</h2>
<table style="font-size: initial; width: 800px;" class="curved fixheight centred noleftpad norightpad" id="translationtable">
<thead class="weight4 toc-counter">
<tr><th colspan="6" class="centred">
Translations of Foreign-Language Titles, or, “What Language Even Is That?”<br />
<span class="weight0">(<span class="weight4">F</span>rench, <span class="weight4">G</span>reek, <span class="weight4">I</span>talian, <span class="weight4">J</span>apanese, <span class="weight4">L</span>atin, <span class="weight4">S</span>panish)</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="translation-number mediumrightborder" width="40" colspan="2">#/Lang</th>
<th class="translation-title right rightpad6 mediumrightborder">Title</th>
<th class="translation-romanized left leftpad6 mediumrightborder">Romanization <em class="weight0">(if applicable)</em></th>
<th class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Meaning</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="nowrap">
<tr class="bottomborder toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">3</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ambiēns aquātica</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Aquatic Ambiance</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">5</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Singulāris persōnificātiō mālōrum</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">The Singular Personification of Evils</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">5.i</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Dōnā eī requiem</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Grant Him Rest</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">5.ii</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Pfhor Pfhōrī lupus</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">Pfhor [Is] a Wolf to Pfhor</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">6</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Lokrōn thrēnos</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Locrian Lament</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">6.α</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος (τᾰρᾰχώδης)</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Lokrōn thrēnos (tarakhṓdēs)</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Locrian Lament (chaotic)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">6.β</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Λοκρῶν θρῆνος (γαληνός)</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Lokrōn thrēnos (galēnós)</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Locrian Lament (peaceful)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">7</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ritratto in grigio</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Portrait in Gray</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">7.a</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ritratto in grigio (elettrico)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Portrait in Gray (electric)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">7.b</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ritratto in grigio (acustico)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4"> Portrait in Gray (acoustic)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">8</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ludo mortale</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Deadly Game</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">8.a</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Danza frattale</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Fractal Dance</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">8.b</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">J</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">フラクタル・ジャズ</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Furakutaru jazu</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Fractal Jazz</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">9</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Tempus tempestātum</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Time of Storms</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">9.a</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">I</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder nowrap" colspan="2">Tempo tempestoso (elettrico)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Stormy Weather (electric)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">9.b</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">S</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder nowrap" colspan="2">Tiempo tempestuoso (acústico)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Stormy Weather (acoustic)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">11</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Kataibaté hélix</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Downward Spiral</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">11.α</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6 nowrap">Ὁ ζῐ́γγος αὔξεται μέγᾰς</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0 nowrap"><em>Ho zíngos aúxetai mégas</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">The whirring grows loud</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">11.β</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6 nowrap">Ὀνειροπολεῖς βῐαίᾱν αὔξησῐν</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0 nowrap"><em>Oneiropoleís biaíān auxísin</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">You dream of violent growth</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">11.γ</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Mía agápē anṓtate</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">A Love Supreme</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">11.δ</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">G</td>
<td class="translation-title right mediumrightborder leftpad0 rightpad6">Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς</td>
<td class="translation-romanized left mediumrightborder leftpad6 rightpad0"><em>Hēmérā orgês</em></td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Diēs Īrae</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">12</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Tempestās īrae</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">A Storm of Wrath</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">13</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Pende siccāre</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Hang to Dry</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">13.i</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Tūtēla</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Protection</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">13.ii</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Impetus</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Attack</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">14</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">F</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">La fille qui volait les astres</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">The Girl Who Stole the Stars</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">14.a</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">F</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">(acoustique)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">(acoustic)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="bottomborder">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">14.b</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">F</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">(électrique)</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">(electric)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="toc-counter weight2">
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">15</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder nowrap" colspan="2">Īra temporis</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">Wrath of Time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">15.i</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder" colspan="2">Ex tempore, ex locō</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4">Out of Time, Out of Place</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="translation-number mediumrightborder">15.ii</td>
<td class="translation-language nowrap mediumrightborder">L</td>
<td class="translation-title norightpad mediumrightborder nowrap" colspan="2">Nōn omnia in sua locō corrēctō erant</td>
<td class="translation-meaning noleftpad rightpad4 nowrap">Not Everything Was in Its Right Place</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!--<ol class="fixheight songtranslations">
<li><span class="weight5">Disc 1</span>
<ol>
<li style="counter-set: counter2 2;"><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«Ludo mortale»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Deadly Game”</span>
<ol class="alphamovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«Danza frattale»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Fractal Dance”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3">「フラクタル・ジャズ」</span> – Japanese for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Fractal Jazz”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Furakutaru jazu”</span>)</em></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">«Ambiēns aquātica»</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span></li>
<li style="counter-set: counter2 5;"><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">«Singulāris persōnificātiō mālōrum»</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“The Singular Personification of Evils”</span>
<ol class="romanmovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Dōnā eī requiem”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Grant Him Rest”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Pfhor Pfhōrī lupus”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Pfhor [Is] a Wolf to Pfhor”</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Λοκρῶν θρῆνος»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Locrian Lament”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Lokrôn thrênos”</span>)</em>
<ol class="greekmovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«(τᾰρᾰχώδης)»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“(chaotic)”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“(tarakhṓdēs)”</span>)</em>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«(γαληνός)»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“(peaceful)”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“(galēnós)”</span>)</em>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><span class="weight5">Disc 2</span>
<ol>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«Ritratto in grigio»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Portrait in Gray”</span>
<ol class="alphamovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«(elettrico)»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“(electric)”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«(acustico)»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“(acoustic)”</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li value="2">
<ol class="alphamovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="it">«Tempo tempestoso (elettrico)»</span> – Italian for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Stormy Weather (electric)”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="es-us">“Tiempo tempestuoso (acústico)”</span> – Spanish for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Stormy Weather (acoustic)”</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li style="counter-set: counter2 3;"><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Downward Spiral”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Kataibaté hélix”</span>)</em>
<ol class="greekmovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Ὁ ζῐ́γγος αὔξεται μέγᾰς»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“The Whirring Grows Loud”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Ho zíngos aúxetai mégas”</span>)</em></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Ὀνειροπολεῖς βῐαίᾱν αὔξησῐν»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“You Dream of Violent Growth”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Oneiropoleís biaíān auxísin”</span>)</em></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“A Love Supreme”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Mía agápē anṓtate”</span>)</em></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="grc">«Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς»</span> – Ancient Greek for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Diēs Īrae”</span> <em>(romanized: <span class="toc-counter">“Hēmérā orgês”</span>)</em></li>
</ol>
<li value="5"><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Tempestās īrae”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“A Storm of Wrath”</span></li>
<li value="6"><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Pende siccāre”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Hang to Dry”</span>
<ol class="romanmovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Tūtēla”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Protection”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Impetus”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Attack”</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li value="7"><span class="accent weight3" lang="fr">«La fille qui volait les astres»</span> – French for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“The Girl Who Stole the Stars”</span></li>
<li value="8">
<ol class="romanmovement">
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Ex tempore, ex locō”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Out of Time, Out of Place”</span></li>
<li><span class="accent weight3" lang="la">“Nōn omnia in sua locō corrēctō erant”</span> – Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Not Everything Was in Its Right Place”</span></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>-->
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<h1 class="centred" id="credits" style="margin: 24px 0px 6px;">Credits</h1>
<h2 class="centred" id="compositions" style="margin-top: 6px;">Compositions</h2>
<div class="fixheight centred" style="margin: 8px 0px 16px;">all com­po­si­tions by <span class="toc-counter weight4 petitecaps">Aaron Freed</span> except:</div>
<ul class="fixheight">
<li><span class="accent weight1" lang="grc">«<span class="weight5">Καταιβᾰτή ἕλῐξ</span>»</span> in­ter­po­lates <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6mMw1G9f98D5EEbXS5KY5sW" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight4 noprint">several songs</a><span class="noscreen">several songs</span> by <span class="toc-counter weight4 dotted petitecaps" title="Greek: Χρήστος Χριστοδούλου (Chrístos Christodoúlou)">Chris Chris­to­dou­lou</span>, with his kind per­mis­sion:
<ul class="fixheight">
<li><span class="accent weight4">“The Rain­drop That Fell to the Sky”</span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Risk of Rain 2</em>, 2020-08-11; song release: 2019-03-28)</li>
<li><span class="accent weight4">“They Might as Well Be Dead”</span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void</em>, 2022-03-01)</li>
<li><span class="accent weight4">“Mois­ture De­fi­cit”</span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Risk of Rain</em>, 2013-11-08; song release: 2013-09-04)</li>
<li><span class="accent weight4">“Once in a Lul­la­by”</span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void</em>, 2022-03-01)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li style="margin-top: 16px;">brief interpolations of <span class="accent weight4">“Diēs Īrae”</span> (author & date unknown) on 4, 5a, 9, 11δ, & 15, plus:</li>
</ul>
<p><table class="sidepad2 fixheight" style="margin-left: 40px; font-size: initial;">
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter notoppad notopmargi nowrap" valign="top">1b.</td>
<td class="norightpad notoppad notopmargin" valign="top"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">King Crim­son</span>, <span class="accent weight4">“Frac­ture”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter">Star­less and Bi­ble Black</em>, 1974-03-29), writ­ten by <strong class="petitecaps weight4 toc-counter">Robert Fripp</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">2a.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px;"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Al­ex Se­ro­pi­an</span>, <span class="accent weight4">“Fat Man”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter">Ma­ra­thon</em>, 1994-12-21)</p>
<p style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4 dotted" title="kanji: 植松 伸夫; hiragana: うえまつ のぶお; rōmaji: Uematsu Nobuo">No­bu­o U­e­mat­su</span>, <span class="accent weight4 dotted" title="Japanese: 「更に闘う者達」 (Sarani Tatakau Monotachi); also known, less accurately, as “Fight On!” or “Still More Fighting” on some soundtrack releases">“Those Who Fight Further”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶＩＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Sebun)">Fi­nal Fan­ta­sy VII</em>, 1997-01-31)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">2b.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Al­ex Se­ro­pi­an</span>, <span class="accent weight4">“Chom­ber”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter">Ma­ra­thon</em>, 1994-12-21)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">3a.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Edvard Grieg</span>, <span class="accent weight4 dotted" title="Norwegian: “I Dovregubbens hall”, literally “In the Dovre man’s hall”">“In the Hall of the Mountain King”</span></span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Peer Gynt</em>, 1876-02-24)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">5a.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; text-indent: -20px;" class="left balanced-wrap"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Genesis</span>, <span class="accent weight4">“Supper’s Ready”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter">Foxtrot</em>, 1972-09-15), written by <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Tony Banks</strong>, <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Phil Collins</strong>, <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Peter Gabriel</strong>, <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Steve Hackett</strong>, & <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Mike Rutherford</strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter" valign="top">6.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px;"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="dotted petitecaps weight4" title="kanji: 近藤 浩治; hiragana: こんどう こうじ; rōmaji: Kondō Kōji">Kō­ji Kon­dō</span>, <span class="accent weight4 dotted" title="Japanese: 「迷いの森」 (Mayoi no Mori), literally “Forest of Confusion”">“Lost Woods”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter dotted" title="Japanese: ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ (Zeruda no Densetsu: Toki no Okarina)">The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time</em>, 1998-11-21)</p>
<p style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Wolf­gang Am­a­de­us Mo­zart</span>, <span class="accent weight4 dotted" title="Latin for “tearful”" lang="la">“Lac­ri­mo­sa”</span></span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2" lang="la">Re­qu­iem</em>, 1791)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">7α.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px;"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Rush</span>, <span class="accent weight4 dotted" id="ftnt_ref01a" title="Pronunciation etiquette note: Rush are Canadian and named this instrumental after the three-letter code for the Toronto airport, so ‘Z’ is pronounced ‘zed’, not ‘zee’. (The opening riff spells out ‘YYZ’ in Morse code. It also happens to live rent-free in my head, which is why I’ve quoted it so many times.) Also, the drummer’s surname is pronounced ‘Peert’, not ‘Pert’.">“YYZ”</span><a aria-describedby="footnote-label" href="#ftnt01" class="normal weight3 noprintlink">⁽¹⁾</a></span> (<em class="toc-counter weight2">Moving Pictures</em>, 1981-02-12), written by <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Geddy Lee</strong> & <strong class="toc-counter weight3 petitecaps">Neil Peart</strong></p>
<p style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"><strong><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Johann Sebastian Bach</span>, <em class="accent weight4 dotted" title="German: Toccata und Fuge d-moll, literally “Toccata and Fugue D-minor”. It is quite possible that “Toccata” is a later addition; in the Baroque era, similar pieces were commonly called “Praeludium” (Latin for “prelude”) or “Preludio e fuga” (Italian for “Prelude and Fugue”).">Toccata and Fugue in D minor</em>, <span class="dotted" title="German: “Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis”, meaning “Bach works catalogue”">BWV</span> 565</strong> (date unknown)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad nobottompad toc-counter nowrap" valign="top">11γ.</td>
<td class="norightpad nobottompad" valign="top"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Nine Inch Nails</span>, <em class="accent weight4">The Downward Spiral</em> motif</span> (1994-03-08)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right noleftpad toc-counter" valign="top">15.</td>
<td class="norightpad" valign="top"><span class="toc-counter weight3"><span class="petitecaps weight4">Al­ex Se­ro­pi­an</span>, <span class="accent weight4">“Flowers in Heaven”</span></span> (<em class="weight2 toc-counter">Ma­ra­thon</em>, 1994-12-21)</td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<h2 class="centred" id="lyrics">Lyrics</h2>
<ul class="fixheight">
<li><span class="accent weight1">«<span class="weight4">Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη</span>»</span> takes its lyrics from the <span class="accent weight4">Trisagion</span>, a traditional prayer of unknown origin.</li>
<li><span class="accent weight1">«<span class="weight4">Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς</span>»</span> takes its lyrics from <span class="accent weight4">“Diēs Īrae”</span> (ca. 13th century CE, author unknown).</li>
</ul>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
<h2 id="arrangements" class="centred">Arrangements</h2>
<div style="margin: 16px;" class="fixheight centred">arranged by <span class="weight4 toc-counter petitecaps">Aaron Freed</span> with the following software & hardware:</div>
<table class="sidepad4 nowrap fixheight" style="font-size: initial;">
<tr class="notoppad"><td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">writing, arranging, mixing:</td><td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">Apple <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">Logic Pro</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">additional instruments:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">East West <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">Composer Cloud+</span><br />Cherry Audio <span class="accent weight4">GX-80</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">mastering:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">iZotope <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">RX Standard</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">computer:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">Apple <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">M2 MacBook Air</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">speakers:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">Klipsch <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">ProMedia 2.1 THX</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">in-ear monitors:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">Sennheiser <span class="accent weight4 petitecaps">IE 100 Pro</span></td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">headphones:</td> <td class="weight3 toc-counter" width="50%">Sennheiser <span class="accent weight4">HD-598</span><br />Sony <span class="accent weight4">WH-1000XM4</span></td></tr>
</table>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
<h2 id="performances" class="centred">Performances</h2>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px;" class="centred">per­for­mers on <span class="weight1 accent" lang="grc">«<span class="weight5">Ὁ ζῐ́γ­γος αὔ­ξε­ται μέ­γᾰς</span>»</span> & <span class="weight1 accent" lang="grc">«<span class="weight5">Ὀν­ει­ρο­πο­λε­ῖς βῐ­αί­ᾱν αὔξ­ησ­ῐν</span>»</span>:</div>
<table class="sidepad4 nowrap fixheight" style="font-size: initial;">
<tr class="notoppad"><td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">bağlama, bongos:</td> <td class="weight4 toc-counter petitecaps" width="50%">Petros Anagnostoupoulos</td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">keyboards, guitars, vocals, drums:</td><td class="weight4 toc-counter petitecaps" width="50%">Chris Christodoulou</td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">oboe, English horn:</td> <td class="weight4 toc-counter petitecaps" width="50%">Christos Tsogias-Razakov</td></tr>
<tr> <td class="right" valign="top" width="50%">violin, vocals:</td> <td class="weight4 toc-counter petitecaps" width="50%">Kalliopi Mitropoulou</td></tr>
</table>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<h2 id="artwork" class="centred">Artwork</h2>
<div class="noscreen"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; width: 800px;">
<tbody style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">
<tr>
<td style="width: 400px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">
<img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024.png" width="400"/>
<h4 class="centred weight0 italic nobottommargin" style="margin-top: 4px;">(front cover: Sagittarius A*)</h4>
</td>
<td style="width: 400px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">
<img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024back.png" width="400"/>
<h4 class="centred weight0 italic nobottommargin" style="margin-top: 4px;">(back cover: Messier 87*)</h4>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<h3 id="frontcover" class="centred nobottommargin">Front Cover</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<div class="image noprint"><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024.png" target="_blank" title="album cover"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024.png" width="600" height="600" title="Front cover: Sagittarius A* in polarized light" alt="Front cover: Sagittarius A* in polarized light"/></a></div>
<p class="fixheight">The <span class="weight4 accent petitecaps">European Southern Observatory</span> composited the front cover image (<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2406a/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="underline songlink noprintlink">released 2024-03-27</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso.org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2406a⟩</span>) from an <span class="weight4 accent petitecaps">Event Horizon Telescope</span> photo (<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2208-eht-mw/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="underline songlink noprintlink">released 2022-05-12</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso.org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>news<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2208-eht-mw⟩</span>); its <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CC-BY 4.0</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨creativecommons.org<span class="breaker">/</span>licenses<span class="breaker">/</span>by<span class="breaker">/</span>4.0<span class="breaker">/</span>deed<span class="breaker">.</span>en⟩</span> license allows its reuse and adaptation so long as the <span class="toc-counter weight1">ESO</span> and the <span class="toc-counter weight1">EHT</span> are: (a) credited, and (b) not implied to directly endorse the group or work in question.</p>
<p class="fixheight">Its subject is the <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">Milky Way</span>’s central supermassive black hole, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*" class="underline songlink noprintlink petitecaps" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span class="weight4">Sagittarius A*</span></a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en.wikipedia.org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Sagittarius<span class="breaker">_</span>A*⟩</span> (or <span class="accent weight3">Sgr A*</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1">“sadge a star”</span>; the asterisk signifies a galaxy’s central body), with superimposed polarized light corresponding to the magnetic field around <span class="toc-counter weight1">Sgr A*</span>’s “shadow”. The underlying photo took some <a href="https://aasnova.org/2022/05/12/first-image-of-the-milky-ways-supermassive-black-hole/" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink" rel="nofollow">five years</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨aasnova<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>2022<span class="breaker">/</span>05<span class="breaker">/</span>12<span class="breaker">/</span>first-image-of-the-milky-ways-supermassive-black-hole⟩</span> to process. Also perhaps of interest: <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2406bbh/" class="underline songlink noprintlink" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this video zooming into a view of Sagittarius A*</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>videos<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2406bbh⟩</span>.</p>
<p class="fixheight">But how did we photograph an object no light escapes? Well, the moniker “black hole” turns out not to be strictly accurate: while light can’t escape an event horizon, electromagnetic radiation bends around its edges, causing iridescent light around its “shadow”. Astronomer <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">Heino Falcke</span> <a href="https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/m87-black-hole-photograph-how" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank">explained this in depth</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨skyatnightmagazine<span class="breaker">.</span>com<span class="breaker">/</span>space-science<span class="breaker">/</span>m87-black-hole-photograph-how⟩</span> to the <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">Brit­ish Broad­cas­ting Cor­por­a­tion</span>’s <em class="accent weight3 petitecaps">Sky at Night</em> magazine.</p>
<p class="fixheight">We can thank/blame <a href="https://endless-sky.github.io" class="underline songlink noprintlink petitecaps" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><em>Endless Sky</em></a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨endless-sky<span class="breaker">.</span>github<span class="breaker">.</span>io⟩</span> for inspiring me to look up <span class="toc-counter weight1">Sagittarius A*</span>; I immediately knew I had my album cover image the instant I saw it.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<h3 id="backcover" class="centred nobottommargin">Back Cover</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<div class="image noprint"><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024back.png" target="_blank" title="back cover"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024back.png" width="600" height="600" title="Back cover: Messier 87* in polarized light" alt="Back cover: Messier 87* in polarized light"/></a></div>
<p class="fixheight">The back cover’s subject, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_view_of_the_M87_supermassive_black_hole_in_polarised_light.tif" class="underline songlink noprintlink petitecaps" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Messier 87*</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>File<span class="breaker">:</span>A<span class="breaker">_</span>view<span class="breaker">_</span>of<span class="breaker">_</span>the<span class="breaker">_</span>M87<span class="breaker">_</span>supermassive<span class="breaker">_</span>black<span class="breaker">_</span>hole<span class="breaker">_</span>in<span class="breaker">_</span>polarised<span class="breaker">_</span>light<span class="breaker">.</span>tif⟩</span>, is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">centre of the Messier 87 galaxy</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Messier<span class="breaker">_</span>87⟩</span>. The provenance is otherwise identical: <span class="toc-counter weight1">EHT</span> released its photograph <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1907a/" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">on 2017-04-11</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>eso1907a⟩</span>, and <span class="toc-counter weight1">ESO</span> released its polarized light version <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2105a" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">on 2021-03-24</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>2105a⟩</span>. <em class="toc-counter weight1">Messier 87</em> refers to French astronomer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Messier" class="underline songlink noprintlink petitecaps" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Charles Messier</a>’s<span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Charles<span class="breaker">_</span>Messier⟩</span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object" class="underline songlink noprintlink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">catalogue of 110 astronomical objects</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>Messier<span class="breaker">_</span>object⟩</span>; <span class="toc-counter weight1">M87</span> is also called <span class="accent weight3">Virgo A</span>, <span class="accent weight3">NGC 4486</span>, and the <span class="accent weight3">Smoking Gun Galaxy</span>. <span class="weight1 toc-counter">M87*</span> is thousands of times larger than <span class="weight1 toc-counter">Sgr A*</span>, and its angle makes it far easier to photograph. To date, these are the only two photographs of black holes.</p>
<p class="fixheight">Incidentally, this image’s similarity to the cover of <span class="weight3 accent">Sound­gar­den</span>’s <em class="weight3 accent">Superunknown</em> (1994-03-08), which includes their biggest hit <span class="weight3 accent">“Black Hole Sun”</span>, did not escape notice. Coincidence? Well, probably. But it’s an eerie one.</p>
<!--<p class="fixheight">Track<span class="breaker">/</span>movement durations found in the album artwork may not be current – I’ll redo all the artwork once I’ve completed <em class="toc-counter weight1">Tempus Irae Redux</em>’s soundtrack.</p>--> <!--(I think these are all correct now.)-->
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<h4 class="noscreen centred weight1">Interior gatefold & exterior tray liner (may be described on next page)</h4>
<div style="break-inside: avoid;">
<h3 id="gatefold" class="centred nobottommargin noprint">Interior Gatefold</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<div class="image" style="break-before: avoid;">
<a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024gatefold.png" target="_blank" class="noprintlink"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024gatefold.png" width="800" height="400" title="Gatefold: Artist S. Dagnello's conception of Messier 87*'s jet (NRAO/AUI/NSF)" alt="Gatefold: Artist S. Dagnello's conception of Messier 87*'s jet" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="noscreen image">
<a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024tray.png" target="_blank" class="noprintlink"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024tray.png" height="400" title="Tray exterior: SDSS J103027.09+052455.0 quasar" alt="Tray exterior: SDSS J103027.09+052455.0 quasar"/></a>
</div>
<h3 id="gatefold" class="centred nobottommargin noscreen" style="break-after: avoid;">Interior Gatefold</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin noscreen weight1">(may appear on previous page)</h4>
<p class="fixheight">Artist’s conception of the jet rising out of <span class="toc-counter weight1">M87*</span> by <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">S. Dagnello</span> <span class="toc-counter weight1">(NRAO/AUI/NSF)</span>, <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2305b/" target="_blank" class="songlink underline noprintlink" rel="nofollow">released 2023-04-26</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2305b⟩</span>. Like both covers, it was produced under the <span class="toc-counter weight1">ESO</span>’s auspices and is licensed as <span class="toc-counter weight1">CC-BY 4.0</span>.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<div class="noprint"><h3 id="bookletexterior" class="centred nobottommargin">Exterior Gatefold</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<div class="image noprint"><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024exterior.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024exterior.png" width="800" height="400" title="Printable album booklet exterior" alt="Printable album booklet exterior" /></a></div>
<p class="fixheight">Combined front & back covers, in case anyone wants to print them. The front cover is on the right so that the inner booklet spine will align with the inner part of the CD tray.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
<h3 id="trayexterior" class="centred nobottommargin">Tray Exterior</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin noscreen weight1">(may appear on previous page)</h4>
<div class="noprint image"><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024tray.png" target="_blank" class="noprintlink"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024tray.png" width="800" height="636" title="Tray exterior: SDSS J103027.09+052455.0 quasar" alt="Tray exterior: SDSS J103027.09+052455.0 quasar"/></a></div>
<p class="fixheight">The tray liner is an impression of the <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">SDSS J103027.09+052455.0 quasar</span> by the <span class="toc-counter weight1">ESO</span>’s <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">L. Calçada</span> (<a href="https://eso.org/public/images/eso2016a/" target="_blank" class="noprintlink songlink underline" rel="nofollow">released 2020-10-01</a>)<span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2016a⟩</span><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨eso<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>public<span class="breaker">/</span>images<span class="breaker">/</span>eso2016a⟩</span>. The <span class="toc-counter weight1">ESO</span>’s <span class="accent weight3 petitecaps">Very Large Telescope</span> enabled astronomers to find a cluster of six galaxies around a supermassive black hole, seen here shining brightly as it engulfs surrounding matter. It felt somehow fitting that this image has almost the polar opposite of the front and back covers’s color scheme. I left 0.125” (0.3175 cm) of extra room at the edges in case the tray prints out misaligned – the correct dimensions of a CD tray liner are 5.906” (15 cm) wide by 4.646” (11.92784 cm) high, with creases 0.25” (0.635 cm) from the edges.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<div class="noprint"><h3 id="cdlabels" class="centred nobottommargin">CD Labels</h3>
<h4 class="centred notopmargin weight1 noprint">(click to embiggen)</h4>
<div class="image"><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024disc1.png" target="_blank" class="noprintlink"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024disc1.png" width="400" height="400" title="CD 1: Sagittarius A* in polarized light" alt="CD 1: Sagittarius A* in polarized light"/></a><a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024disc1.png" target="_blank" class="noprintlink"><img src="https://aaronfreed.github.io/images/compositions2023-2024disc2.png" width="400" height="400" title="CD 2: Messier 87* in polarized light" alt="CD 2: Messier 87* in polarized light"/></a></div>
<p class="fixheight">Unsurprisingly, the CD labels also use alternate versions of the front and back covers. I haven’t left any extra space around the edges; I’ll create versions that are more suitable for printing later.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
<h1 class="centred" style="margin-top: 24px;" id="commentary">Album Commentary</h1>
<h2 class="centred" id="stravinsky">On Stravinsky and Musical Freedom</h2>
<div class="fixheight">
<p>Many of my favorite game composers were working against the limits of their era’s technology. This forced them to exercise a form of creativity that otherwise would’ve been absent. You see, I feel <span class="accent weight3 dotted" title="Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский; romanized: Igor’ Fyodorovich Stravinskiy">Igor Stravinsky</span>’s <em class="accent weight3 dotted" title="French: Poétique musicale sous forme de six leçons">Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons</em> expresses an unassailable truth about the creative process:</p>
<blockquote id="stravinsky" class="toc-counter">
<p>“I have no use for a theoretic freedom. Let me have something finite, definite – matter that can lend itself to my operation only insofar as it is commensurate with my possibilities. And such matter presents itself to me together with limitations. I must in turn impose mine upon it.</p>
<p>So here we are, whether we like it or not, in the realm of necessity. And yet which of us has ever heard talk of art as other than a realm of freedom? This sort of heresy is uniformly widespread because it is imagined that art is outside the bounds of ordinary activity.</p>
<p>Well, in art as in everything else, one can build only upon a resisting foundation: whatever constantly gives way to pressure, constantly renders movement impossible. My freedom thus consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings.</p>
<p>I shall go even further: my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am in no place to argue with a composer of such importance, whose works I am only beginning to understand. Unfortunately (or not), the era in which I am composing no longer imposes such restrictions upon video game music; in fact, I live in an era where synthesized DAWs can create often tolerable recreations of guitars, a feat I couldn’t even have imagined in 1997, the last time I’d seriously composed new music.</p>
<p>I therefore self-imposed many other restrictions instead. Some were fairly simple: “Write a pastiche of one of my favorite composers,” “Base a song on a mathematical pattern.” Some were more complicated: “Use Phrygian mode and several time signatures,” “Use Locrian mode and change time signatures every measure.” And I don’t even understand how I pulled this one off: “Write a pastiche of a song I’ve only heard once.”</p>
<p>This resulted in several forms of experimentation I doubt I’d have otherwise engaged in – and I suspect that restricting individual tracks’ content paradoxically made this album far more diverse overall. I hope you enjoy it.</p>
</div>
<h2 class="centred" id="anachronisms">On Musical Anachronisms</h2>
<p class="fixheight">My music for <em class="toc-counter weight1">Tempus Irae Redux</em> is deliberately anachronistic. For instance, <span class="accent weight1">«<span class="weight3">Μίᾰ ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη ἀνώτατη</span>»</span> and <span class="accent weight1" lang="grc">«<span class="weight3">Ἡμέρᾱ ὀργῆς</span>»</span> mix:</p>
<ol class="loweralpha">
<li>the vocal style of Gregorian chant (ca. 9th century CE-now)</li>
<li>the words of a famous Medieval Latin poem (ca. 13th century CE)</li>
<li>harmonies inspired by <span class="accent weight3">Johann Sebastian Bach</span>’s four-part chorales (ca. 17th-18th century CE)</li>
<li>a jazz/soul/funk-style backing (ca. 1950s-1980s)</li>
<li>a rhythmic focus inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_music" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">minimalists</a><span class="linktext"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Minimal<span class="breaker">_</span>music⟩</span> like <span class="accent weight3">Philip Glass</span> and <span class="accent weight3">Steve Reich</span> (ca. 1960s-now)</li>
<li>a guitar solo inspired by more than 50 years of heavy metal (ca. <span id="ftnt_ref02" class="dotted" title="Narrator, voiced by an uncredited Ron Howard: In a footnote far too long to reproduce here, Aaron went off on a tangent opining that Blue Cheer’s “Summertime Blues” (1968-01-16) was the first heavy metal song, that the Mothers of Invention’s Absolutely Free (1967-05-26) was the first progressive rock album, that King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” (1969-10-10) was the first progressive metal song, that Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were one of the most underrated rhythm sections in rock history, and that Black Sabbath didn’t need to be the *first* heavy metal band to be the most influential. Aaron also worked in a pun that only Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt might notice and flexed about singing with a Beatle at the first rock concert they ever attended.">1968-now<a aria-describedby="footnote-label" href="#ftnt02" class="normal weight3 noprintlink">⁽²⁾</a></span>)</li>
<li>a hypnotic atmosphere inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeuhl" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">zeuhl</a><span class="linktext"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Zeuhl⟩</span> bands like <span class="accent weight3">Magma</span> and <span class="accent weight3 dotted" title="Kanji: 高円寺百景; hiragana: こえんじ ひゃっけい; literally “One Hundred Sights of Kōenji”. Kōenji is a district of Tōkyō in the Suginami ward, west of Shinjuku.">Kōenji Hyakkei</span> (ca. 1970s-now)</li>
<li>a crescendo inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-rock" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">post-rock</a><span class="linktext"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Post-rock⟩</span> bands like <span class="accent weight3">Talk Talk</span> and <span class="accent weight3">Godspeed You! Black Emperor</span> (ca. 1980s-now)</li>
<li>arpeggiation inspired by game composers like <span class="accent weight3">Tim Follin</span> and <span class="accent weight3 dotted" title="kanji: 植松 伸夫; hiragana: うえまつ のぶお; rōmaji: Uematsu Nobuo">Nobuo Uematsu</span> (ca. 1980s-now)</li>
<li>cavernous production inspired by ’80s pop acts like <span class="accent weight3">Genesis</span> and <span class="accent weight3">Tears for Fears</span> (1980-1989)</li>
</ol>
<div class="fixheight">
<p>And believe it or not, it’s actually more complex than that – <span class="accent weight3">Martin Hannett</span>’s production for the post-punk act <span class="accent weight3">Joy Division</span> (1977-1980) also influenced my cavernous production, while <span class="accent weight3">Brian Eno</span>’s work with the post-punk act <span class="accent weight3">Talking Heads</span> (1978-1980) heavily inspired my use of arpeggiation (as I note in the acknowledgements). Zeuhl can be considered to focus on rhythm just as much as minimalism does; minimalism in turn can be considered to have an atmosphere as hypnotic as zeuhl’s. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.</p>
<p>This is only slightly atypical; similar anachronisms abound throughout the soundtrack. I had several reasons for this. For starters, I saw <span class="accent weight3">Baz Luhrmann</span>’s <em class="accent weight3">Moulin Rouge!</em> (2001-05-09) at just the right age to give me a lifelong appreciation for musical anachronisms. But more importantly, <em class="toc-counter weight1">Tempus Irae Redux</em> is a time-travel story, and that has Implications (with a capital I).</p>
<p>In <em class="toc-counter weight1">Tempus Irae Redux</em>, the Security Officer (or SO, i.e., the player character) has come to Renaissance Italy from the 29th century CE, probably with only a vague sense of what Renaissance music actually sounded like. Just as importantly, an alien invasion has driven away the actual humans in the area. As a result, the SO doesn’t actually get a chance to <em>hear</em> Renaissance musicians perform – and, it’s statistically likely, probably has heard too little Renaissance music to have a clear mental picture of its sound. (“Mental picture” of sound? English is stupid.)</p>
<p>As a result, I decided the soundtrack should go more for “how the SO might imagine Renaissance music sounding” than for “how Renaissance music <em>actually</em> sounded” – and, lest we forget, <em>at least</em> 787 additional years (as of this writing) have elapsed between our time and the SO’s. (“The present” for <em>Tempus Irae Redux</em>’s time travellers is, per <em class="accent weight3">Marathon 2</em>’s ending, between 2811 and 2881.) It’s therefore easy to imagine the SO having even more discombobulated a sense of musical chronology than we do today. Think how little most people know about actual Renaissance music’s traits, then imagine how much less they’ll know in eight centuries. Even people who’ve actually heard it might not be able to piece together its chronology accurately.</p>
<p>I also can’t stress enough that the SO, the Pfhor (the alien slavers that are the central antagonists of the series), and the S’pht (their former slaves and <em class="toc-counter weight1">Tempus Irae Redux</em>’s mission control) are all anachronistic themselves – none of them belong there! Thus, in my estimation, the soundtrack including, nay, being dominated by elements that don’t belong in Renaissance music serves the storytelling perfectly.</p>
<p>This approach had one final benefit: it allowed me to compose by instinct. Since I learned harmony from Bach, forcing myself into a pre-Bach harmonic mentality would be a stretch roughly like learning how to type on the Dvorak layout. I could <em>do it</em> – it would just take a long time, and since I’m already delaying <em>Tempus Irae Redux</em>’s release by writing these songs in the first place, I’d rather not delay it longer than necessary.</p>
</div>
<h1 class="centred">Track Commentary</h1>
<ol start="1" class="contents weight0" style="font-size: 20px;">
<li id="01"><div class="songtitle"><a href="https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgdlnNAB3TgVj7eqFfg?e=ceYgCl" target="_blank" class="accent weight5 underline songlink noprintlink">Not Actually FFIV</a> <span class="green">(11:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></div>
<p><table class="toc-counter sidepad2 nowrap initialsize fixheight" style="break-before: avoid;">
<tr class="nobottompad notoppad">
<td class="right" valign="middle">composer:</td>
<td valign="middle"><span class="accent weight3">Aaron Freed</span>, 2022-12-29 to 2023-11-30</td>
</tr>
<tr class="notoppad nobottompad">
<td class="right" valign="middle">primary inspiration:</td>
<td class="accent weight3" valign="middle">Nobuo Uematsu</td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<p class="fixheight">Reviewing the file creation dates on my hard drive led me to realize this album’s name was inadvertently a lie: I started writing this track in late December 2022. I’d have to change the title in too many places to count (including the URL of this very file) to fix it, but nonetheless, I regret the error.</p>
<ol style="font-size: 18px;" class="loweralpha">
<li id="01a"><div class="movementtitle"><span class="toc-counter weight3">Not Actually ‘<span class="weight4">Main Theme of <em>Final Fantasy IV’</em></span></span> <span class="green">(0:00-2:52)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></div>
<p><table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize">
<tr>
<td class="noleftpad right initialsize" valign="middle">inspired by:</td>
<td class="noprint noleftpad norightpad"> </td>
<td valign="middle" class="initialsize hyphenate"><span class="accent weight3 dotted noprintlink" title="Japanese: 「ファイナル・ファンタジーＩＶ　メインテーマ」 (Fainaru Fantajī Fō Mein Tēma). ¶ I’ve linked to Mathew Valente’s Synthetic Origins version. The synth voices Uematsu used to compose the song had to be greatly reduced in quality to fit on a Super Famicom cartridge. Valente painstakingly reconstructed FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG’s soundtracks using uncompressed versions of the exact voices Uematsu, Mitsuda, Shimomura, and Matsueda used. His versions are revelatory.">“<a href="https://youtu.be/NTxBWKQWf6E" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Main Theme of <em>Final Fantasy IV</em></a>”</span> (<em class="accent weight1 dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナル・ファンタジーＩＶ (Fainaru Fantajī Fō)">Final Fantasy IV</em>, 1991-07-19; OST 1991-06-14)</td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<p class="fixheight">While writing this movement, I briefly thought I’d rewritten <span class="accent weight3">“Main Theme of <em>Final Fantasy IV</em>”</span>; then I played it back and realized I hadn’t, which resulted in this song’s admittedly bizarre title. At this point, writing a pastiche of <span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span>’s music felt inevitable, so I leaned into it and gave what became its three movements cheeky titles based on their obvious inspirations.</p>
<p class="fixheight">Since I hadn’t fully settled on this being a <em class="accent weight3">Final Fantasy</em> pastiche when I wrote it, this movement probably has the most distinct identity. Despite its relative melodic and harmonic simplicity, its arrangement goes through several major changes that hopefully will keep it engaging. The transition at the end is probably this movement’s most complicated and unexpected aspect.</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
</li>
<li id="01b"><div class="movementtitle"><span class="toc-counter weight1"><span class="weight3">Not Truly ‘<span class="weight4">Another World of Beasts</span>’</span> including <span class="weight3">Not Really ‘<span class="weight4">Infiltrating Shinra Tower</span>’</span> and excerpt of <span class="weight3">Almost but Not Quite ‘<span class="weight4">Fracture</span>’</span></span></span></span> <span class="green">(2:52-7:08)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></div>
<p><table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize fixheight">
<tr class="notoppad nobottompad">
<td class="noleftpad right" valign="top">inspired by:</td>
<td class="noprint noleftpad norightpad"> </td>
<td>
<span class="weight3 accent dotted hyphenate" title="Japanese: 「幻獣界」 (Genjū-kai), literally “Phantom Beast World”. ¶ I’ve linked to Mathew Valente’s Synthetic Origins version. The synth voices Uematsu used to compose the song had to be greatly reduced in quality to fit on a Super Famicom cartridge. Valente painstakingly reconstructed FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG’s soundtracks using uncompressed versions of the exact voices Uematsu, Mitsuda, Shimomura, and Matsueda used. His versions are revelatory.">“<a href="https://youtu.be/Jl9GUPJqKM4" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Another World of Beasts</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナル・ファンタジーＶＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Shikusu)">Final Fantasy VI</em>, 1994-04-02; OST 1994-03-25)<br />
<span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="Japanese: 「神羅ビル潜入」 (Shinra Biru Sen’nyū), literally “Infiltrating the Shinra Building”">“<a href="https://youtu.be/_b_sGXXCxrQ" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Infiltrating Shinra Tower</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶＩＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Sebun)">Final Fantasy VII</em>, 1997-01-31; OST 1997-02-10)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="noleftpad right">briefly interpolating:</td>
<td class="noprint noleftpad norightpad"> </td>
<td><span class="weight3 accent hyphenate">King Crimson</span>, <span class="weight3 accent">“<a href="https://youtu.be/ZaD7gk7BTwU" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Fracture</a>”</span>, by <span class="weight3 accent">Robert Fripp</span> (<em class="weight1 accent">Starless and Bible Black</em>, 1974-03-29)</td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<p class="fixheight">The first thing I’ve ever written entirely in a whole-tone scale. I planned for this movement to be a pastiche of <span class="accent weight3">“Another World of Beasts”</span>, which has a very surreal, dreamlike feeling; a whole-tone scale felt perfect to replicate that. (And since <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Another World of Beasts”</span> is in 7/8, so is most of this movement.) A segment inspired by <span class="accent weight3">“Infiltrating Shinra Tower”</span> snuck its way in while I was writing it – I hadn’t planned on that. (Neither <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Another World of Beasts”</span> nor <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Infiltrating Shinra Tower”</span> use whole-tone scales, I should note.) The brief quote from <span class="accent weight3">King Crimson</span>’s <span class="accent weight3">“Fracture”</span>, on the other hand, was <em>entirely</em> planned (and naturally shifts to 6/4).</p>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p></div>
</li>
<li id="01c"><div class="movementtitle" style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="toc-counter weight1"><strong>Technically Not ‘Clash on the Big Bridge’</strong> including <strong>Legally Distinct from ‘J-E-N-O-V-A’</strong></span> <span class="green">(7:08-11:05)</span> <span class="orange">[DR12]</span></div>
<p style="margin-top: 0px;"><table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize fixheight" style="margin-top: 0px;">
<tr class="notoppad">
<td class="noleftpad right" valign="top">inspired by:</td>
<td class="noprint noleftpad norightpad"> </td>
<td>
<span class="accent weight3 dotted hyphenate" title="Japanese: 「ビッグブリッヂの死闘」 (Biggu Burijji no Shitō), literally “Battle to the Death on the Big Bridge”. ¶ I’ve linked to Mathew Valente’s Synthetic Origins version. The synth voices Uematsu used to compose the song had to be greatly reduced in quality to fit on a Super Famicom cartridge. Valente painstakingly reconstructed FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG’s soundtracks using uncompressed versions of the exact voices Uematsu, Mitsuda, Shimomura, and Matsueda used. His versions are revelatory.">“<a href="https://youtu.be/y6Zp6lPuLKk" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Clash on the Big Bridge</a>”</span> (<em class="accent weight1 dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶ (Fainaru Fantajī Faibu)">Final Fantasy V</em>, 1992-12-06; OST 1992-12-07)<br />
<span class="accent weight3">“<a href="https://youtu.be/G8eCJCcBelo" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">J-E-N-O-V-A</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶＩＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Sebun)">Final Fantasy VII</em>, 1997-01-31; OST 1997-02-10)
</td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<p class="fixheight">This movement wears its influences on its sleeve far more conspicuously. It initially sounded even more like them, but I changed several notes and chords because I felt it was <em>too</em> close. It’s still closer than I’d feel comfortable using in a commercial game, but <em class="accent weight4">hellpak</em>’s entire OST is licensed as <span class="toc-counter weight1">Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike</span>, and I think it’s distinct enough for noncommercial use.</p>
<p class="fixheight">Incidentally, as great as <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="Japanese: 「片翼の天使」 (Katayoku no Tenshi), literally “An Angel with a Wing on One Side”">“<a href="https://youtu.be/pzQE_7mn8ts" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">One-Winged Angel</a>”</span> is, <span class="accent weight3">“J-E-N-O-V-A”</span> is low-key the best track in <em class="toc-counter weight1">Final Fantasy VII</em>. But Uematsu’s best composition – and (with all due respect to <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="Greek: Χρήστος Χριστοδούλου (Chrístos Christodoúlou)">Chris Chris­to­dou­lou</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 濱野 美奈子; hiragana: はまの みなこ; rōmaji: Hamano Minako">Mi­na­ko Ha­ma­no</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 菊田 裕樹; hiragana: きくた ひろき; rōmaji: Kikuta Hiroki. Note that his birth name was Kikuta Yūki (katakana: きくた ゆうき; kanji: also 菊田 裕樹).">Hi­ro­ki Ki­ku­ta</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 近藤 浩治; hiragana: こんどう こうじ; rōmaji: Kondō Kōji">Kō­ji Kon­dō</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 光田 康典; hiragana: みつだ やすのり; rōmaji: Mitsuda Yasunori">Ya­su­no­ri Mit­su­da</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1">Marty O’Donnell</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1">Michael Sal­va­to­ri</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 下村 陽子; hiragana: しもむら ようこ; rōmaji: Shimomura Yōko">Yōko Shi­mo­mu­ra</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 山本 健誌; hiragana: やまもと けんじ; rōmaji: Yamamoto Kenji">Kenji Yamamoto</span>, and countless other great game composers throughout history) <span id="ftnt_ref03" class="dotted" title="I wrote these remarks in 2023. In July 2024, an epiphany led me to rank Chris Christodoulou’s “The Raindrop That Fell to the Sky” (from 2020’s Risk of Rain 2) just as highly; however, I’ve left my original remarks intact and have merely added this footnote. ¶ I stand by what I wrote about “J-E-N-O-V-A”, though. That song slaps.">likely the greatest song in the history of video game music – is and always will be<a aria-describedby="footnote-label" href="#ftnt03" class="normal weight3 noprintlink">⁽³⁾</a></span> <span class="accent weight1 dotted" title="Japanese: 妖星乱舞 (Yōsei Ranbu), literally “Wild Dance of the Ominous Star”. ¶ I’ve linked to Mathew Valente’s Synthetic Origins version. The synth voices Uematsu used to compose the song had to be greatly reduced in quality to fit on a Super Famicom cartridge. Valente painstakingly reconstructed FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG’s soundtracks using uncompressed versions of the exact voices Uematsu, Mitsuda, Shimomura, and Matsueda used. His versions are revelatory.">“<a href="https://youtu.be/Mx9pD7Nt9Vk" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3 noprintlink">Dancing Mad</a>”</span>. I haven’t even begun to try writing a pastiche of that. (Uematsu, an entirely self-taught musician, has written dead-on pastiches of <span class="toc-counter weight1">Johann Sebastian Bach</span>; <span class="toc-counter weight1">Emerson, Lake & Palmer</span>; <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский; romanized: Igor’ Fyodorovich Stravinskiy">Igor Stravinsky</span>; and several other infamously complex artists. That level of musical genius is beyond my ken.)</p>
<!--<p>“Dancing Mad”
<ul style="font-size: initial;" class="notopmargin nobottommargin nottoppad nobottompad">
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Official versions:
<ul>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/HnbFPYUGyMg" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Super Famicom/SNES</a>: the game audio as we’d have heard it back in 1994</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/eQWKYxFwp3g" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Pixel Remaster</a>: recent remakes that are quite faithful to the spirit of the original arrangements</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/jm1a-DwLExU" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Distant Worlds II</a>: Official symphonic arrangement performed in 2010 by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/QSEI7tkA0_k" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">the Black Mages</a>: performance by Uematsu’s first progressive metal band</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_PpVnurBRPs" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Earthbound Papas</a>: performance by Uematsu’s second progressive metal band</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/fu1r2DyqgDg" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3"><em>Final Fantasy XIV</em></a>: arrangement by Uematsu’s designated successor <span class="accent weight3 dotted" title="Japanese: 祖堅 正慶">Masayoshi Soken</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Fan remaster:
<ul>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Mx9pD7Nt9Vk" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Synthetic Origins</a>: Revelatory reconstruction of the original arrangements by Mathew Valente. The synth voices Uematsu used to compose the SNES-era Final Fantasy music had to be greatly reduced in quality to fit on a Super Famicom cartridge. Valente painstakingly reconstructed FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG’s soundtracks using uncompressed versions of the exact voices Uematsu, Mitsuda, Shimomura, and Matsueda used. I can’t recommend these versions enough.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Fan covers:
<ul>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/wFavxCmZbjg" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Grissini Project</a>: Fan cover on pipe organ</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/DMDcL0reo5Y" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">Kara Comparetto</a>: Fan cover on piano and pipe organ</li>
<li style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/-O-9U_QKhgA" target="_blank" title="Korean (written in Hangul: 상록수) for “evergreen”." class="underline songlink weight3">Sangnoksu</a>: Superb symphonic arrangement</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</p>-->
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li id="02" style="margin-top: 16px;"><div class="songtitle"><a href="https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgdlog3B11yHLdeUorw?e=EgYXON" target="_blank" class="accent weight5 underline songlink noprintlink">7:6:5:4<span class="weight3"> – A Study in Musical Proportions</span></a> <span class="green">(9:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR17]</span></div>
<div class="fixheight">
<p class="toc-counter centred">composer: <span class="accent weight3">Aaron Freed</span>, 2023-09-23 to 2024-01-03</p>
<p>Believe it or not, I merely intended this to be a study in 5:4 polyrhythms (which are distinct from, though in this case coincidentally linked to, 5/4 time signatures). However, the bassline I wrote for the first movement steadfastly refused to work in anything except groups of seven<span class="noprint"> (<a href="https://marathon.bungie.org/story/seven.html" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">yes Hamish</a>)</span>; the <a href="https://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3 noprintlink">Oblique Strategies</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨stoney<span class="breaker">.</span>sb<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>eno<span class="breaker">/</span>oblique<span class="breaker">.</span>html⟩</span> suggested keeping it that way, so I began this song with the extraordinarily unusual 7:5 polyrhythm. Groups of six and four naturally worked their way in as I wrote additional instrument parts, hence the song’s title.</p>
<p>For those curious, I actually notated this as 4/4 in Logic, so much like <span class="toc-counter weight1">Meshuggah</span>, I could truthfully claim the mind-warping polyrhythms I’ve created here are entirely in 4/4. However, time signatures are really products of <em>feeling</em> rather than of mathematics, and I don’t actually <em>feel</em> this song as 4/4; I usually feel it either as 5/4 or as 7/4, depending on whether I’m focusing more on the drums or the bass.</p>
</div>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
<ol style="font-size: 18px;" class="loweralpha">
<li id="02a"><span class="toc-counter weight4">Pythagorean Blues</span> <span class="green">(0:00-2:24)</span> <span class="orange">[DR18]</span>
<div class="fixheight">
<table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize print25toleft fixheight notoppad nobottompad">
<tr>
<td class="noleftpad right" valign="top">briefly<br />interpolating:</td>
<td class="noscreen"> </td>
<td class="hyphenate">
<span class="weight3 accent">Alex Seropian</span>, <span class="weight3 accent">“<a href="https://youtu.be/dcWHHYsoNk8?t=282" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Fat Man</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent">Marathon</em>, 1994-12-21)<br />
<span class="weight3 accent">Nobuo Uematsu</span>, <span class="weight3 accent dotted" title="Japanese: 更に闘う者達 (Sarani Tatakau Monotachi); also known, less accurately, as “Fight On!” or “Still More Fighting” on some soundtrack releases">“<a href="https://youtu.be/ZwcvoY4ehOI" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Those Who Fight Further</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent dotted" title="Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーＶＩＩ (Fainaru Fantajī Sebun)">Final Fantasy VII</em>, 1997-01-31; OST 1997-02-10)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>I hadn’t planned on writing a blues track here, but I soon realized harmonic simplicity served ideally to introduce such extraordinary rhythmic complexity. (While neither usually work in what we could call blues idioms, I was effectively following <span class="toc-counter weight1">Tool</span> and <span class="toc-counter weight1">Meshuggah</span>’s examples in this regard.)</p>
<p>I don’t believe in concealing my influences, so I quoted <span class="accent weight3">“Fat Man”</span> and “Those Who Fight Further”</span> for eighteen seconds each near the end of this movement because I felt I’d been melodically aping them throughout it.</p>
<p><span class="weight3 accent">Pythagoras of Samos</span> (Greek: <span class="weight1 toc-counter">Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος</span>, romanized: <em class="weight1 toc-counter">Pythagóras ho Sámios</em>, literally meaning <em>Pythagoras the Samian</em>) worked his way into this movement’s title because he’s credited with discovering the relationship between mathematics and music. (He’s also a little bit famous for studying the proportions of triangles. You may, after all, recall his theorem.)</p>
</div>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
</li>
<li id="02b"><span class="toc-counter weight4">Euclidean Prog</span> <span class="green">(2:24-6:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span>
<div class="fixheight">
<table class="toc-counter initialsize notoppad nobottompad" style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
<tr>
<td class="noleftpad rightpad2 right" valign="top" style="margin-bottom: 0px;">semi-interpolating:</td>
<td class="norightpad leftpad2 hyphenate" style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="weight3 accent">Alex Seropian</span>, <span class="weight3 accent">“<a href="https://youtu.be/dcWHHYsoNk8?t=142" target="blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Chomber</a>”</span> (<em class="weight1 accent">Marathon</em>, 1994-12-21)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="midpara">The Mellotron introduces this new movement’s chords before the bass enters, followed by the organ and two different guitar parts. The bass line repeatedly suggests <span class="accent weight3">“Chomber”</span> from <em class="toc-counter weight1">Marathon</em> – since I was writing this for a <em>Marathon</em> scenario and had by this point settled on using groupings of seven for the bass parts throughout the entire track, the reference felt obligatory. However, I always throw some additional notes into the mix.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely pleased with this guitar part & may rewrite it. The organ solo is delectable, though.</p>
<p><span class="weight3 accent">Euclid</span> (Greek: <span class="weight1 toc-counter">Εὐκλείδης</span>, romanized: <em class="weight1 toc-counter">Eukleídes</em>, derived from <em class="weight1 toc-counter">εὖ-</em>, <em class="weight1 toc-counter">eu-</em>, meaning <em>well</em>, and <em class="weight1 toc-counter">-κλῆς</em>, <em class="weight1 toc-counter">-klês</em>, meaning <em>fame</em>, thus <em>renowned</em> or <em>glorious</em>) wrote the most famous studies of geometry in history.</p>
</div>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
</li>
<li id="02c"><span class="toc-counter weight4">Newtonian Counterpoint</span> <span class="green">(6:00-9:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR16]</span>
<div class="fixheight">
<p>Guitar and bass rarely engage in counterpoint in rock music. I love counterpoint and would love to hear more of it, so I wrote the guitar part as a counterpoint to the bass line. I’m extremely pleased with the effect; it almost sounds like a rock fugue.</p>
<p>Midway through this movement, I add strings and some ethereal <em class="weight3 accent">Dark Side of the Moon</em>-style choral vocals that end up being the song’s final elements as the others stop playing. (Before adding the strings, I’d begun writing a fourth movement that I yeeted after noticing that it was virtually identical to <span class="weight3 accent">Chris Christodoulou</span>’s <span class="weight3 accent">“<a href="https://youtu.be/67BwWgrMlxk" target="_blank" class="underline songlink noprintlink">Coalescence</a>”</span> [<em class="weight1 toc-counter">Risk of Rain</em>, 2013].)</p>
<p><span class="weight3 accent">Sir Isaac Newton</span>, while probably most famous for studying gravity, also independently invented calculus (he and <span class="weight1 toc-counter">Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz</span>, unaware of each other’s work, developed it around the same time). In short, the movements are named for central figures of trigonometry (Pythagoras and Euclid), geometry (also Pythagoras and Euclid), and calculus (Newton).</p>
</div>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li id="03" style="font-size: 21px; margin-top: 16px;"><a href="https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgdlibYGoam2Ji4VT1A?e=tHGhLU" class="accent weight5 dotted underline songlink noprintlink" title="Latin for “Aquatic Ambiance”" target="_blank">Ambiēns aquātica</a> <span class="green">(6:40)</span> <span class="orange">[DR13]</span>
<div class="fixheight">
<table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize" width="800" style="margin-left: -30px;">
<tr class="nobottompad">
<td class="right" valign="middle">composer:</td>
<td valign="middle"><span class="accent weight3">Aaron Freed</span>, 2024-06-11 to 2024-06-19; 2024-10-14 to 2024-10-16</td>
</tr>
<tr class="nobottompad">
<td class="right nowrap" valign="middle">briefly interpolating:</td>
<td valign="middle"><span class="toc-counter weight3">unknown author, <span class="accent weight4">“Diēs Īrae”</span></span> (unknown date)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="right nowrap" valign="top">inspired by:</td>
<td class="hyphenate" valign="top"><span class="weight3 accent">David Wise</span>, <span class="weight3 accent">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span> (<em class="weight3 accent dotted" title="known in Japan as スーパードンキーコング (Sūpā Donkī Kongu), or “Super Donkey Kong”">Donkey Kong Country</em>, 1994-11-18)<br class="noscreen" /><span class="noprint"> (<a href="https://youtu.be/1XM8ReW9NvA" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">OST</a>; <a href="https://youtu.be/39hGqV42CkM" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3">fan restoration</a>)</span></td>
</tr>
</table></p>
<p>I’ve never played a <em class="accent weight3">Donkey Kong Country</em> game and, to my knowledge, hadn’t heard any of its brilliant music until <span class="dotted" title="June 11, 2024, in ISO 8601 (the objectively correct date format)">2024-06-11</span>. I note this because any <em class="toc-counter weight1">Donkey Kong Country</em> fan will immediately peg <span class="weight3 accent">“Ambiēns aquātica”</span> as an unapologetic tribute to its most famous track, <span class="weight3 accent">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span>. (Right down to its title, in fact: <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Ambiēns aquātica”</span> is Latin for <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span>. I see little point in concealing my influences.)</p>
<p>I grew up listening to <span class="accent weight3">David Wise</span>’s music; I played the NES <em class="toc-counter weight1">Marble Madness</em> ad nauseam as a child, plus <em class="toc-counter weight1">California Games</em> and likely <em class="toc-counter weight1">Battletoads</em> and maybe a few other games he worked on as well. But Wise’s reputation primarily rests on his <em class="toc-counter weight1">Donkey Kong Country</em> soundtracks, and with good reason: they use the <span class="toc-counter weight1">Super Nintendo</span>’s limited sound chip as virtuosically as <span class="toc-counter weight1">Square</span>’s greatest 16-bit composers (<span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 菊田 裕樹; hiragana: きくた ひろき; rōmaji: Kikuta Hiroki. Note that his birth name was Kikuta Yūki (katakana: きくた ゆうき; kanji: also 菊田 裕樹).">Hiroki Kikuta</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 光田 康典; hiragana: みつだ やすのり; rōmaji: Mitsuda Yasunori">Yasunori Mitsuda</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 下村 陽子; hiragana: しもむら ようこ; rōmaji: Shimomura Yōko">Yōko Shimomura</span>, <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 植松 伸夫; hiragana: うえまつ のぶお; rōmaji: Uematsu Nobuo">Nobuo Uematsu</span>, etc.) did. They’d be the absolute upper echelon in this category if <span class="toc-counter weight1">Tim & Geoff Follin</span> hadn’t existed – on which note, R.I.P. <span class="toc-counter weight1">Geoff</span> :(</p>
<p>I first heard <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span> in a <a href="https://youtu.be/4DgPmI6S_So" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3 noprintlink">video</a> jazz pianist <span class="toc-counter weight1">Charles Cornell</span> ostensibly made about <span class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="kanji: 近藤 浩治; hiragana: こんどう こうじ; rōmaji: Kondō Kōji">Kōji Kondō</span>’s (also brilliant) music for <em class="toc-counter weight1 dotted" title="Katakana: スーパーマリオ６４; rōmaji: Sūpā Mario 64">Super Mario 64</em>’s <span class="toc-counter weight1">“Dire, Dire Docks”</span>. Cornell actually spent more than half its runtime gushing about Wise’s track, and I immediately understood why; it struck a nerve on a primal level. Not only did I know, on first listen, that it was a masterpiece, but I immediately wanted to write a more energetic track with an otherwise similar mood – which is not an urge I frequently get.</p>
<p>So, having heard Wise’s piece probably no more than twice, I sat down and put its first two chords (which Cornell had analyzed in detail) into <span class="toc-counter weight1">Logic Pro</span>’s arpeggiator. Overnight, going entirely by what felt natural, I wrote chords, melodies, and a basic arrangement; I already had a rough mix by sunrise of 2024-06-12. I’ve since added a few background embellishments, but its fundaments are unchanged.</p>
<p>It’s rare (get it? because <em class="toc-counter weight1">Donkey Kong Country</em>’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_(company)" target="_blank" class="weight3 underline songlink noprintlink">developer</a> is…<span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨en<span class="breaker">.</span>wikipedia<span class="breaker">.</span>org<span class="breaker">/</span>wiki<span class="breaker">/</span>Rare<span class="breaker">_</span>(company)⟩</span> never mind) for a song to emerge almost fully formed so quickly for me; usually, <em>something</em> about my first attempt doesn’t work, but this (if you’ll allow an obvious water metaphor) just flowed out as an expression of my contemporary emotional and mental state. I felt particularly alienated by certain individuals within the <em class="toc-counter weight1">Marathon</em> community: one of my closest friends (who’s seriously ill) had poured eighteen months into tutoring me for seemingly fruitless ends. (I’ve withheld names and further specifics to protect the <del>innocent</del> guilty, but we ultimately <a href="https://github.com/Aleph-Bet-Marathon/alephbet" target="_blank" class="weight3 underline songlink noprintlink">forked the engine</a><span class="noscreen linktext nohyphens"> ⟨github<span class="breaker">.</span>com<span class="breaker">/</span>Aleph-Bet-Marathon<span class="breaker">/</span>alephbet⟩</span>.) Reading this song as a reflection of the existential despair I felt at the time is not strictly incorrect.</p>
<p><span class="toc-counter weight1">“Aquatic Ambiance”</span> is obviously one of the best game tracks of all time, and in no way do I think I’ve duplicated its quality – especially because, again, Wise was doing all of that on a <span class="toc-counter weight1">Super Nintendo</span>! To avoid plagiarism (<a href="https://youtu.be/UQHaGhC7C2E" target="_blank" class="underline songlink weight3 noprintlink">a famous Russian mathematician’s advice</a> aside), I didn’t listen to Wise’s piece again until I finished writing mine – and when I did, I was pretty astonished at how closely I’d approximated its mood and atmosphere. But I can hardly consider myself an unbiased source, so I’ll quote one of my early listeners:</p>
<blockquote class="toc-counter">“I think you really captured the spirit of the OG while still giving it a danceable (beat, rhythm, etc. – not sure on the vocab). It’s got more energy than the source material :)”</blockquote>
<p>So I’ll chalk that one up as a success.</p>
<p>This track will play on the <em class="weight1 toc-counter">Tempus Irae Redux</em> level <span class="weight3 accent">“Gauntlet”</span>.</p>
</div>
<p class="sectionbreak noprint"><a href="#top">Contents</a> · <a href="#tracklist">Tracklist</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html">Discography</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/portfolio.html">Portfolio</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io/aboutme.html">Contact me</a> · <a href="https://aaronfreed.github.io">Website index</a></p>
</li>
<li id="04"><a href="https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRgdlkddXApn0Of0LSZQ?e=GgjvFC" target="_blank" class="accent weight5 underline songlink noprintlink">Disco Apocalypse in 5/4<span class="weight3"> (co-starring the delicious talents of Logic Pro)</span></a> <span class="green">(12:27)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<ol class="shortmargin loweralpha" style="font-size: 18px;">
<li id="04a"><span class="toc-counter weight4">Side A</span> <span class="green">(0:00-6:00)</span> <span class="orange">[DR15]</span>
<p><table class="toc-counter sidepad2 initialsize fixheight" width="740">
<tr class="nobottompad notoppad">
<td class="right" valign="middle" width="25%" style="padding-right: 4px;">composer:</td>
<td valign="middle" width="75%" style="padding-left: 4px;"><span class="accent weight3">Aaron Freed</span>, 2024-06-12 to 2024-10-01</td>
</tr>
<tr class="nobottompad">