The Piano and the Bell's Dance

Entry for OST Composing Jam #7, hosted by LoneRabbit.

The video attached is of the first song, "Daylight ~ Waltz Dancing with you", while the screenshots are from "Night Terrors ~ Yearning for Old Lost Times" (I could not record this as it lagged my computer)

About this project:

The soundtrack I had in mind when I was composing is a bit complicated - in my head, it's a mixture of turn based RPG and Shoot 'em Up - I'm not sure how that would be accomplished, but individually each track would make sense for each part of the game, those being first on RPG then the 2nd on Shoot 'em Up/bullet hell type.

For inspiration, I took a lot from ZUN's, Touhou Project's creator, sound design, while also borrowing catchy, repetitive tunes technique, weird but fun chords, and motif usage from the game composers Toby Fox, Shogo Sakai (Mother 3), Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki (Earthbound), as well as self-composers Nozora Yuzu and MiragEden from YouTube. Most of my nowadays work remains close to the japanese composers surrounding Touhou Project, so it's my go-to for making original themes.

The story for each track is as following:

For "Daylight ~ Waltz Dancing with you",

This piece is a dance of two characters who cannot meet for many reasons, the main one being they are hundreds of miles apart, not knowing where the other resides. The Piano and the Bell dance in a waltz, with an added two beats every now and then, to represent it's not an easy dance to keep up with.

The Piano dances in sync with the Bell, but despite not being able to see the Bell, she tries to keep it up for the sake of her own daily problems, whether they be physical or psychological. She dances, for she wishes to keep up the pace as to not let her partner dance alone.

As the piece evolves, she feels the weight of her problems weigh on her, as the other instruments join in to add difficulty to her dance. She feels she needs to continue, so as to not let her partner dance alone.

Despite being away from each other, the Piano thinks she can dance on her own, without her thoughts or daily issues weighing on her, but she keeps on thinking about her beloved Bell. The Bell is her world, after all, and she should not stop dancing just because she feels the weight of her troubles. It is a dance of two, after all, and cannot let her partner dance alone.

For "Night Terrors ~ Yearning for Old Lost Times",

The Piano cannot understand why things have to be complicated. She cannot fathom losing the Bell, and her thoughts at night cannot let her sleep. She wishes to dance for her partner, but she cannot sync to the waltz anymore. She lets her thoughts go rampant against herself.

She battles for her well-being and her dance partner's, but no matter what she does, she's restricted by her need to dance. She wants to dance, but the Bell's lament sounds different and unfamiliar to her. She doesn't understand this lament, and her obsession with wanting everything as it has been during day time, she attempts to follow this melody to no avail, as she falls while attempting to dance to this new melody she's never heard before.

The Bell is desperate to keep dancing with her, and as a last attempt, she does her best and try singing her melody from long ago, only to fall on deaf ears as the Piano attempts to stand up while failing to dance.

The Piano finally understands after failing over and over again: this is their song, the one they used to dance together to all the time. She recovers, and as soon as she's ready to dance once again, she finally realizes. She's been alone this whole time. This dance of two was being done only by herself... in solitude.