As I mentioned yesterday, the track of interest today is going to be the lovely “Xion’s Theme”. Also as I mentioned yesterday, for some (awesome) reason, there are a few medals in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross that, when you look at their stats, their musical theme plays. And I also just found out that if you set that medal to your shared medal, that character’s theme plays as your home menu music! I thought that was a nice addition ^_^

So in today’s article, we are going to be talking about the concept of musical allusions. What is an allusion? Usually this term refers to cross-media references. For example, when song lyrics make a reference to literature or movies (or if literature references movies or music, or if movies reference literature or music), this can be called an allusion. Allusions are usually done implicitly or indirectly, perhaps a brief quote, so that only people who are familiar with the original medium will understand.

Let’s listen to Xion’s Theme, which is also sometimes called “Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion” (Music for Sadness of Xion).

Ahh… Now I have not played through any Kingdom Hearts that has Xion in it, so I cannot speak about her theme with full confidence about its importance and meaning in the larger context of the game. All I can say is… Listen closely to 01:29 – 01:31. Again, without knowing about Xion’s character and her role within the context of the game and the series as a whole, I cannot say what exactly this purpose is, but that very short reference is undoubtedly alluding to Kairi’s Theme.

I am planning on playing all of the games at some point though, so please don’t tell me what the reference means…!! I wanted to point it out, but don’t tell me anything more… XP

This is not the first time Yoko Shimomura has done this sort of thing. Many times in the original Kingdom Hearts game (and probably in others as well, that I have not played yet), she will throw in very brief references to other character or world themes, especially when something else has changed. I mentioned this sort of idea in my first article of this series, when we talked about variations.

What other musical allusions can you think of? I’d say this is a fairly common occurrence in video game music, especially ones that have strong story lines and characters, as Kingdom Hearts and other JRPGs do. Let us know in the comments! ♪

Stay tuned for more Single-Track Analysis Articles of tracks from Kingdom Hearts Unchained X / Kingdom Hearts Union Cross! One article every day in the month of April 2017!

—

Like what you just read? Consider becoming a patron on my Patreon page!