Hey dudes, another remix from the big cheeze. This one is a piano remix of the song 'Peaceful Days'. A one movement sonata, the first and only movement being in a loose sonata-allegro form.
youtube.com/watch?v=0A2S5cENpTEDownload available at:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b2g031e/n/Peaceful_Days_Sonata.wavhttp://soundcloud.com/chee-zee/peaceful-days-sonataAnd last but not least, here is the analysis:
The intro to this sonata takes the chord progression of the original's intro, puts it into dominant form, and superimposes a sequenced variation of the descending arpeggios theme over it. To modulate back to the home key, the melody and chord progression land on the tonic. The melody plays an eight note on the mediant (E) just before moving on.
I could have just as easily played the subdominant (F) to clearly define the tonic as C major, but I'm cool like that. I decided to stick with the mediant as the iii is more consonant than the IV, and Peaceful Days is nearly always about consonance.
Slow and and ominous, the intro is actually not a reliable premonition of what's to immediately follow...And that leads us into the first section, the elaboration. The mood slowly changed to upbeat over the 8 bar intro, and now the happiness is in full swing.
Yasunori Mitsuda's original cue is left nearly untouched here, with the exception of dynamics changes and a couple of other features: a more upbeat melody through repeated eigth notes (the original was just using single quarter notes, this keeps the motion going better), and staccato on some of the rhythm section's chords.
That leads into a transition to the subordinate group of themes that are entirely mine. The dominant (G major) is stressed here. A completely different mood from the upbeat minuet-like section we just heard. Sort of contemplative, with a decently constrasting rhythm. One of the subordinate themes gets repeated and sequenced, leading back to the tonic. And with that the elaboration is repeated, as per tradition. No variation though, but there is an alternative bar at the very end, the final chord does not lead to the tonic this time, which would imply a static repeat of the song. Instead it ends on a chord that will lead us into the development section.
Unlike most sonatas in a major key, I did not put the development in dominant key. Instead, the final chord of the elaboration's transition was a flat mediant (d# minor). And that just so happens to be the same key signature of 'Secret of Forest' (Guardia Forest). The primary theme group of Mitsuda's is liquidated here, and the rhythm section begins to look more and more like Guardia Forest's.
Very different to the original song, slow, sad, and all things generally negative beginning with the letter 's'. The melody then begins to pick up a hint of the forest as well. This doesn't last long, and the harmony roves along with the melody into the flat mediant of the flat mediant of the tonic (what a mouthful!).
Which is A minor. Which happens to be the same key as Memories of Green. The rhythm begins to look much like Memories o' Green very abruptly. Mitsuda's Peaceful Days theme appears in remote form,more closely resembling the intervals of Memories' melody. The rhythm repeats the theme of Memories, and we turn to a minuet-like remote motive form of the primary group. Next the melody repeats a sequenced variation on the subordinate group. Once again, the second time around there is an alternative last bar to serve as a transition. A long linger on the dominant seventh on V of the home key.
We are then led through an accelerando featuring a remote motive form of the melody superimposed upon a pedal point of the dominant. The accelerando leads us back to the pace of the main section, to start up the recapitulation section. The recap looks pretty darned simlar to the elaboration. It is not repeated, however, and there is no modulatory chord progression transitioning to the subordinate group. Instead, the chord prog is a repeat of the tonic, and the subordinate group now appears in tonic form, leading us to the final cadence.
V-I4-I
The sus4 has F, the subdominant. This finally clearly defines the tonic/home key as C. C what? Well the last chord is C major, finishing it all off.
