Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Chase Music Analysis

I decided my next task in gaining a better understanding of the Assassin's Creed: Revelations soundtrack was to take a very in-depth look at some of the chase music. It's not terribly complicated, but I didn't let that stop me from doing something a little excessive; I mapped out an entire track in Excel. Insane? Probably.

Here's the track I used (which is fantastic):

And here's my map, so you can follow along:

Here's why I did this: Chase music is all about texture. At some point, it's dense (there's a lot going on), and suddenly it's all open (very few instruments playing). It never does the same thing for too long, even though there are some elements that are almost always present, and carry on throughout the near entirety of the track. So this Excel sheet maps out what instruments are playing, and when, so you can see how it works.

But it also illustrates the four major components of AC:R's chase music.
1. Percussion
Obviously, there's a lot of it, and it's varied in order to maintain interest. It's a mix of taiko/Godzilla drums, ethnic instruments, and electronic drum sounds. Look how much of it there is! But notice that only a small portion of it is playing for very long, besides the hi-hat and pulse elements (they're special). Sometimes the percussion is used melodically, but only in very limited ranges (like halfsteps). This track doesn't do this, but others do, and it's pretty cool.
2. Melodic Elements
These are actually very sparse. Any melodies are very slow, and very subtle. These are usually strings, maybe horns or ethnic instruments, and occasionally gregorian vocals (because, you know, Templars). You know what's nice about this map I made? You can actually see the counterpoint in the melody elements. Look how they trade off throughout the first half of the track!
3. Chordal Elements
I'm talking about the low strings, rhythmic strings, harps, guitars, and instruments that suggest chords. These are usually synched up with the percussion, and are pulsating/rhythmic rather than held out. But notice that there really isn't much of a chord progression, here. It's very static. That's important.
4. Weird Stuff
Nonsense singing, shouts, atmospheric effects, strange metal noises and whatnot. It adds a "what the hell was that?" factor. It's a hook to catch your interest and keep you in to the track, and add individuality.

So it's all laid out for you up above, but here's a few other things to take note of:

• These texture changes, where instruments drop out and new ones come in, they aren't gradual. They're very sudden, very punctuated. 
• To me, the most interesting part of this track is at 1:41. The composer's really trying to throw you off your timing, which is a really neat thing to do considering what the track is being used for. Go ahead, try to keep your timing through that part. It's actually pretty tough, but it keeps you interested, right?
• Also look at how measures are grouped. 3 measures, then 4, then 2, then 8, then 12.75, then 12 (4 + 8 or 8 +4?), then 8 (and the melody suggests subdivisions of 3 + 2 + 3 ). Basically, it's not 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 the whole time, like nearly all songs on the radio are.
• Did you notice the even larger groups? It seems like there's 4. Segment 1 (up to 1:00) is melodic, and building. Segment 2 (up to 2:16) is nearly all percussion. Segment 3 (up to 2:44) is more chordal. Segment 4 (to the end) is all weird junk. Hey, doesn't that sound familiar? Oh yeah, it's the same 4 components I outlined above! Neat how they each seem to get their own little segment in the track, huh?

I have one other little tip, but I'm not going to share it just yet. Mainly because I have to see if it actually works or not, so when you see some more Assassin's Creed style chase music from me, I'll let you know.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the read, and maybe even learned something. Stay tuned for some more new music this Friday from the Sagramore OST!

Heroic Key Changes!

So I had a few people (technically true, it was more than one person!) asking me about the key changes and strange chords in the track I shared last Friday, so I thought I'd make a (not so) quick update on some of the ways I change keys in my music.

In case you missed the track, here it is:
Heroic Mockup by ryanleber

Now, it all starts with a very simple progression. It begins on an A minor chord, and moves to an F major chord. In the key of C major, that's vi (the A minor) and IV (the F major). This is an extremely common progression, you hear it all the time. What you don't hear all the time is where it goes next. It returns to the A minor (iv) and then there's a really bizarre chord (contextually speaking), an Eb major (right at an0va's first comment). There is no Eb major chord in the key of C major. So how did I end up here?

Well, the solution lies in the melody (the male choir), which goes like this:

So as you can see, the melody is in two halves, which more or less repeat. While over the A minor chord (labeled Am, above), the melody plays the notes A, E, D, and G. Now, all of those notes (except for D, D's a little dissonant, but whatever) fit very well over an A minor chord. When it switches to F major (labeled F, above), it sticks on that G, and then moves down to C. Again, both are notes which work very well over the F major chord. Now, on the second pass, I repeat everything verbatim over the Am chord, and again stick with the G in the melody at the next chord, but this time the chord is an Eb major chord (labeled Eb, above).

So, why does this work? Because there's a G in an Eb major chord! How is an Eb major chord spelled? With the notes Eb, G, and Bb! So G fits perfectly over the Eb major chord. Once we're on this Eb major chord, I simply treat it as the IV in the new key, which is Bb major. IV (Eb major) goes to V (F major) goes to G minor (vi), which is where all the more rapid chord changes happen. At this point, the new key is well-established, and what follows is just standard chord changes in that new key, nothing special.

If I had to give this technique some kind of name, I'd call it an "expected melody pivot," or something like that. Because after hearing the melody once, we know that G at the end is coming, That G in the melody can be applied to various chords, so I then use that G as a pivot point to work myself in to a strange out-of-key chord, and then in to a new key where the out-of-key chord makes more sense (moving out of C major, and in the Bb major, in this case).

[UNNECESSARY EXPLANATION:] If you're wondering why I chose to explain this in major keys, choosing C major instead of A minor, and Bb major instead of G minor, it's because of the progression that is used. If it was V - i in a minor key, then yeah, I'd explain it in a minor key, but it's not. It's IV V vi, which is VI VII i in minor keys, and that just looks weird. It's a personal preference, and I'm sure if anyone was wondering, they weren't confused by it. If you're confused now that you've read this paragraph, though, don't worry about it. You don't really need to understand the roman numerals to get what I did to change keys.

Well, I hope that sheds some light on what I did. Stay tuned for a new track on Friday (sad music!) and another compositional breakdown next Monday (again, sad music!). Also, be on the lookout for more serious music theory posts in the future, from basic stuff like diatonic theory (i.e. those roman numerals I was using) to more crazy stuff like other ways to switch in and out of different keys. So yeah! Tell your friends, keep up to date using the links to the right, and, uh, have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for reading!