Hero's Journey Analysis

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Reflections
Hero’s Journey
Hero’s Journey is a jazz-influenced 4-hand piano piece containing 127 measures with a duration of 4:42. The piece is inspired and written for 8-bit video game background music (BGM). Some of the pieces and games I was inspired by include: The Final Fantasy franchise’s official soundtrack (OST), the Sesame Street theme song, and Shostakovich’s Fugue no.7 in A major. Referring to the title, the piece revolves around the typical archetypes surrounding the hero’s journey. Although there are have been several adaptations to the hero’s journey the stages I used were: The Call to Adventure, Threshold, Revelation, Death, Rebirth, Transformation, Atonement, and Return. My intentions for the piece was to create memorable short …show more content…

There were numerous instances in which I had to listen to each individual chord to make sure it met the atmosphere I was trying to convey. However, after carefully listening to each chord I am satisfied with the tonality of each section. Another location I found difficult was the swing section of Vil-MUH-mu-Fufled. Even though I adore jazz music, as indicated with several places of the piece based on jazz chords, I was not confident in which chords and the harmonic material to use. I believe the reason for this was because the melody was intervallically sporadic in nature and determining where to place the chords proved to be the largest issue. Additionally, another area that could have been improved upon was the overall jazz feel of the piece. While the intentions of each theme were apparent, incorporating a wider variety of jazz styles--Latin, ballads, ragtime--would improve the overall “personality” of the piece. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with the outcomes of the piece for my intentions of a programmatic and memorable video game BGM came to …show more content…

As indicated by the title of the last theme, the piece depicts Edna Pontellier’s physiological and cognitive journey from muddled to resolved to find her Awakening, as indicated by the tempos and rhythmic markings to act as Edna’s heartbeat through the piece. Each solo instrument--violin, viola, flute, and oboe--was chosen to represent certain stages of Edna’s life while the harp and pianos were used to create the ambiance of each stage. The piano was used to create the aggressive and adventurous aspects while the harp creates her infatuated and joyous

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