Today is the last article of my Single-Track Analysis: Kingdom Hearts Union Cross series! I will continue to do Single-Track Analysis articles in the future—which will focus exclusively on mobile game music—but not quite as often as one article a day ;P

When the new, huge update was made, and the official switch from Kingdom Hearts Unchained X to Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, I knew I wanted to end this 30-day series with an article about the new “Dearly Beloved”. I initially thought I would write about picardy third—which is still an interesting concept that I might tackle later—but I thought as the last article of the series, I would write about something a little more poignant.

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In the penultimate STA: KHUx article, we are going to be talking about the theme of one of the Kingdom Hearts series most interesting and tragic characters. While I don’t know exactly what happens with Roxas, as I have not yet finished KHII or 358/2 Days, I do know that Roxas is a character you get to know and love, which makes it all that much more heart-breaking when you have to say good-bye to him, whenever that is. Again, I haven’t played all the games through yet so I don’t know exactly what happens… All I know is that it is very sad…!

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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 ^_^

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This article and the next two will be based around character themes that show up ever so briefly (or for a while, depending on how long you stay on the screen ;P) in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. I’m not sure when exactly they added in this feature, but for certain characters (Casual Roxas, Illustrated Xion, Illustrated KHII Kairi, Illustrated Sora, HD Roxas, and possibly others), when you tap on their medal info, their theme plays as you check out their stats. I think it was a wonderful addition, and props to whoever had the idea. In today’s article, we are going to be talking about the musical theme of one of the central characters of Kingdom Hearts, Kairi.

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In high school, right after I had composed my first two or three pieces of music, I started to take what were called at the time “jazz piano lessons”, but they really turned out to be a combination of piano, jazz, theory, and composition. From those lessons, and from that amazing teacher, I learned so many things over the next three years. Among the countless useful techniques, tips, and tricks he showed to me, my teacher introduced me to a concept that I had barely begun to scratch the surface of at the time, and the topic of interest today: chords that go beyond simply major and minor.

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Yesterday and the day before, we talked Raid Boss battle themes, and we will do so again today! The article of interest for today is “Shrouding Dark Cloud”, which first showed up in the original fight against the Guard Armor in Kingdom Hearts I, and is now also the battle music for the Guard Armor Raid Boss in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. And just as the title suggests, today’s article is going to be about pieces that incorporate different time signatures–that is, the number of beats per measure changes throughout the piece.

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Today’s track of focus is “Fragments of Sorrow”, one of the Raid Boss battle themes in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. The piece first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II, though I’m not sure exactly where. A track that features a multi-part choir, I thought it would be a fitting piece to illustrate today’s topic of interest: vocal range types, and specifically SATB.

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Today’s article is going to be the first of a few epic boss battle themes that are used in the Raid Boss battles in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. All of these themes were used originally in Kingdom Hearts I, for various boss battles. This one, “The Deep End”, was first heard in KHI during the battle with Ursula (“The sea and all its spoils BOW TO MY POWERRRRR“). The topic of interest for today is inspired by the track, though is not entirely illustrated by it: vamping.

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Not uncommon in video game music is the use of “found sounds“, or recordings of everyday or unusual objects which are not usually thought of as musical instruments. In the super foreboding track “Apprehension”, we introduce percussive effects which are either recordings of industrial objects (anvils, brakes, or other mechanical/metal-type materials) or are at least imitating the sounds of these objects.

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Today’s article is one of those “inspired” write-ups; that is, we are going to be talking about something that is inspired by something I heard in the piece, not necessarily about the piece itself. In my music theory classes, I like to go over the mechanics of the piano, and how its predecessor was the harpsichord. Now there are quite a few tracks that use the harpsichord, especially in whimsical video game music, including the one of interest for today, “Dance of the Daring”.

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