New Transcription: "Main Theme" from Xenoblade Chronicles (2010)
A new full sheet music transcription of the gorgeous main theme from "Xenoblade Chronicles", complete with instrumental part scores and piano sheet music.
If you're after the sheet music or score for the "Main Theme" from Xenoblade Chronicles, you can find it here!
This includes individual part scores for:
Full Score
Panpipes
Oboe
4 Horns in F
2 Trombones
Tuba
Timpani
Suspended Cymbal
Harp
Piano
Solo Violin I
Solo Violin II
Solo Viola
Solo Violoncello
Solo Contrabass
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:
"Right, let's do this! I'm certain they'll update this track for the definitive edition, but nevertheless let's press on (and on, and on!)
We open with a wide major 7th chord spread out across a piano, delicately twinkling in its exposed upper register (0:02; Eb-G-Bb-D). This chord is expanded to a major 9th as the melody falls down to an F (the 2nd (or "9th") degree of Eb major). This is quickly accompanied by a major 7th/9th string chord (0:07), again spread over a vast expanse as if looking over a g(au)reat plain from a rocky precipice.
After this opening phrase fades into silence, we get a solo piano passage playing a partial snippet of the main theme (0:19), now shifted from the opening key of Eb major and into the relative minor - G minor (G-Bb-D) - and decorated with major 7th chords (Eb-G-Bb-D). This alternation of major/minor and consonance/dissonance parallels the main narrative of Xenoblade (which I shan't spoil here!)
By 0:37, the full main theme is revealed, now with additional string accompaniment decorating the gorgeous major 7th dissonances, and also with an extended harmonic progression to the relative-dominant (0:44; Bb major; Bb-D-F), subdominant (0:46; C minor; C-Eb-G) and the first diminished 7th chord (0:50; C#-E-G-Bb) acting as a pivot to the dominant key (0:53; D major; D-F#-A) as we complete the 4-bar phrase with a perfect cadence back to the tonic key (0:54; G minor).
Here, the harmonic progression repeats, this time with the addition of a panflute (which I believe never appears in the OST again). By the next time we complete this 4-bar phrase, it is now the solo violin's turn to take the lead (1:09), now with a countermelody appearing in the piano to embellish the harmonies with further added-note chords (7ths/9ths).
At 1:27, our first common wind instrument appears; a yearning oboe passage with new material calling out with a brief opening of 16th notes that are echoed back by the piano moments later - a form of call and response. Here, the harmonic progression takes a slight detour; rather than modulating to Bb major, the harmony floats down to the relative major (Eb major; 1:33), before rising back to the flattened leading chord (F major; 1:36) and into the tonic (G minor). This alternation of ascension/descent once more parallels the narrative (which - ack! - I don't want to spoil!)
As the oboe completes its phrase at 1:46, we get our first brass and percussion instruments (excluding piano), with horns, timpani and cymbals. All this time, the forces have been slowly growing from an isolated solo piano to a near full orchestral cohort (lacking some woodwinds, which the definitive version may rectify!) as we now reach the climactic section (1:46).
The strings jump to their emotional registers, the piano echoes the oboe's call and response, and the horns fall down to a yearning major 7th clash - incredibly moving material! By 2:03, we remain in the relative major (Eb) and spiral through a Phrygian progression of Eb - F (over an Eb pedal) as the strings soar upwards. By 2:21, we return to the tonic.
The climactic section concludes with a "Tierce de Picardie" (2:38); the tonic major (G) rather than tonic minor (Gm), before quickly remembering its place and falling back Gm for a final somber statement of the opening main theme in a string quintet (the only time the piano is absent).
The track concludes with a bare 5th chord (3:28), obfuscating the final tonality - is the ending happy or sad? Well, we'll have to play the game and find out ;)"
