New Transcription: "Respite and Sunlight" from Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)
As "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" has been out for some time now (and I finally completed it ;) ), here is another track from what I consider to be their greatest soundtrack yet. This is one of the background support themes, "Respite and Sunlight".
If you're after the sheet music for "Respite and Sunlight", you can find it here!
This includes individual part scores for:
Flute
Oboe
Drum Set
Marimba
Piano
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabass
If you are one of my Patrons, you can now find the MIDI, XML and SIB files I created for this transcription now available to download from your Patreon Google Drive folder!
Arranger's Note:
"Being one of the support background themes, it is a fun, quasi-comedic one!
It begins with some added-note chords (now quite typical for this franchise's support themes) built on the key of Ab major. This first chord, Ab+Db+Gb+Bb - is also known as a "Gospel Chord" (for its common use as a cadence from chord V - I, in this case, Ab+Db+Gb+Bb, to Db+F+Ab). These added-note chords persist for nearly the entire track.
On top of this harmony, a melody arrives at 0:19 with one of Three Houses' musical motifs that appears throughout the soundtrack (akin to Awakening's "Id" motif, and Fates' motif accompanying "You are the ocean's grey waves").
This melody, made interesting by the combination of piano and oboe timbres, dances quickly downward before receiving a response from a flute, imitating this motif with its own melodic excursion to finish.
Once this repeats, a marimba provides a quick 4-bar interlude of seemingly random material unrelated to any motif (0:37). Nevertheless, the function of the marimba here is to add to the light-hearted aesthetic of this track (which the dry, snappy marimba certainly achieves).
The marimba passage is followed by a return to the piano and oboe material (0:46), now doubled interestingly by a parallel 5th below on a flute (or another instrument, I couldn't quite identify it). This rare use of melodic parallel 5ths works quite well in enhancing the un-serious nature of the theme (and simultaneously makes all Baroque composers roll in their graves).
After a minute of static harmonies, the track shifts at 1:03 for a short, chromatic string section. This segment contains some intriguing harmonies, including tertiary shifts (1:06; A#/Bb major to D major) and suspended 7+9 to 8 chords (1:14; D+F#+A#+C# resolving to B minor; B+D+F#).
Then a short interlude in G major (a semitone below the tonic) with added 6th and 9th chords allows for a smooth transition back to the beginning."
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