#congratulations tinsnip i hope this is what you wanted

[wilted-woman]

music time

ha. you fool. do you know what you’ve done.

comparing turnabout sisters’ ballad, turnabout sisters’ theme (maya’s theme) and with pearly (pearl’s theme) - this does get technical btw you have been warned:

These three tracks all build off the same basic melodic line, with variations in tempo, key, chord structure, and rhythm in order to evoke completely different feelings. I’m calling Maya’s theme (also sometimes called Turnabout Sisters’ Theme) the base melody, since it’s the one we hear first. Maya’s theme is interesting: even though it’s written in F minor, the composer is able to keep it feeling happy by centering the melodic line around Ab (the relative major), and having it at an up-tempo andante (a quick walking pace). Ending the line on a i6 rather than a i helps to soften the minor as well: by inverting the chord, we’re working with two major intervals (a third and a fourth) rather than a minor and then major third. (it feels more major because it’s made of major intervals - deceptive).

*i wrote the inversion wrong in m2, it should be vii6/4 not 6/5 i just don’t wanna rewrite it

This image of the first line shows where the main melody ends, and the fill comes in to keep the momentum going. I’ve also marked how the melody makes Ab feel like the tonal center, even though the tonic is actually F. That first point about the fill is important, because it’s one of the biggest differences between Maya’s theme and Ballad of Turnabout Sisters. 

Ballad of Turnabout Sisters has a much sadder, but just as sweet, tone to it. It’s slowed down to an adagio, and the key is lowered to A minor (with the melody still centered around the relative major - keeping that bittersweet feeling and the connection to Maya’s theme). 

When we look at the sheet music, a few more differences pop out immediately. For one, it’s a whole lot emptier. Instead of the full chords we had with Maya’s theme, this ballad has been stripped down to melody and bass line. We also don’t have those fills in between the melodic phrases to hurry the piece along, making it feel a lot more still. The lengthened pickup and the repeated note in measure 2 strengthen this effect, making you really wait for that resolution. And when you get it, we aren’t in major-interval-land like we were in Maya’s theme. That i chord is now in root position, and is missing its major third, so all we have is a minor interval, making the whole thing sound a lot sadder.

With Pearly probably has the most changes out of all three.

The biggest one by far is the time signature: we are now counting in three instead of two, making the whole thing sound more bouncy and fun. It’s also been taken faster (this sheet music didn’t have a specific marking but it feels like vivace - lively and brisk) and raised up, not to D minor, but to F major. Again, it’s a softer major (note the vii to IV in measure 2 instead of your usual V to I), but it’s major nonetheless, scrubbing basically all melancholy from the melody. The amount of space between the melody and bassline also makes it feel all the more brighter compared to even Maya’s theme, which is about a sixth lower. All-in-all, this is very nine-year-old.

The way this melody-and-variations connects Mia, Maya and Pearl, while also encapsulating a myriad of different moods is really clever, and honestly so much better than writing individual themes from scratch. It conveys a sense of family incredibly well: same, but different.

ALSO on a slightly different note i was inspired by this to write. all this

go check it out even if you’re not a theory buff it’s really cool trust me. it also gives you like. a more wholistic appreciation for all the soundtracks rather than this super-niche deep-dive i wrote