[MUL] Star Wars Battlefront (2015) - "Nien Nunb Theme" by Fantastic Ike

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Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Star Wars Battlefront (2015)
Console: Multiplatform
Title: Nien Nunb Theme
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Fantastic Ike

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[Fantastic Ike]

Another short and sweet sheet. The new Battlefront games were incredibly middling to say the least, but Gordy Haab's scores are excellent. He's able to imitate John Williams' Star Wars style so perfectly.

A thing about some of these character themes is that they use existing leitmotifs from the Star Wars movies (why wouldn't you use the Imperial March for Darth Vader?) but the track composition was done solely by Gordy Haab. I don't know how this would affect the composer credits, but at any rate we shouldn't have to worry about it for this track. If it's pulling from an existing Star Wars cue, it's a very obscure one. I'm 99% sure this is all original.

Also there's no official labels from what I can tell for the various sections, but having played the game I know one theme plays when you enter the match as said hero, and the other plays when you're defeated. So I've labeled them as "Intro Fanfare" and "Death Fanfare" respectively.

A fun balancing act trying to capture all the chords and countermelodies and still keep it playable!

[Kricketune54]

To my pretty good Star Wars film music knowledge/ear, this does not reference a cue of any sorts.  Just Gordy Haab being a generative AI making his own John Williams music lol.

I saw that this game's music is on a cd, but it's weird they didn't bother to include original character cues.  Unless this is a part of the Sullust Suite? The motif from the Intro Fanfare section can be heard in SoroSuub Skirmish but I don't think it makes sense to call this that.  I guess if being super specific you could include credit for Gordy Haab as "Composed and Arranged by", and yourself "arranged for piano".  But that's kind of being pedantic imo

- For different sections of a song or movements, put a box around the title.  You can play around with the enclosure size (make sure it's not a fixed width in the options menu) so that the rectangle is not around the bpm marking.

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- I think this song in the credits should not be to Lucasfilm, but rather to DICE, Electronic Arts.  Maybe put LucasArts between DICE and EA, but wikipedia doesn't list them as a credit.
-The title probably shouldn't be Star Wars: Battlefront (2015).  I get the point of doing that because Battlefront 2015 is how most people know the game,  but the original Battlefronts had no original music anyway so I don't think there's going to be confusion about this.  Maybe updaters will think differently tho.  Fun fact, official title of old games was "Star Wars: Battlefront", while this is actually "Star Wars Battlefront"

Formatting
-This bit is for future reference provided further feedback in the notes section Flip the ties of m4 second layer downwards  There also should be a setting in special tools to fix the collision between the triplet line in that measure... I'm not sure what it is though.
-For whatever reason the pickup measure rest in the LH is forward of the beat 1 for the RH.  Just click into the quarter rest and it'll fix itself though.
- The rest in the Death Fanfare part m2 beat 2 should probably be a bit higher or a bit lower.  Personally not sure...

Notes - Intro Fanfare
-m2 the descending line in the LH is more prominently Ab,G,F,Eb.  On a more transcription level, here is how I hear m2 actually going, octaves and all.
-For m2, having the top layer of the RH as those notes doesn't really make much sense to me.  The melody notes in that lower layer get too obscured; either leave out those second layer notes, or consider raising the melody up an octave, and putting that second layer below it in its original position.  I'm assuming these are the trombone notes, and they don't really work up an octave as is for m2

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-m3's LH chords are not correct either.  The first chord is a D major.  Consider this for the m3 LH:

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-m3 top layer beat 2 should be a D, and beat 3 this should be a Eb/D#.   
-m4 the C in the top layer is correctly beamed as a dotted whole note
-m4 LH there should be a G on the bottom instead of Ab.  What are your thoughts on making m5 LH a tremolo between two G's?  Would emphasize the rolling drums there at this pitch.  A cresc. would work under it and help build towards the ff in m5.
-m4 Ignoring the messy rests in the different layers, this is how I hear the RH part transcribed pitchwise:

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   I think what would work best is to move the first lower notes up an octave from what I have, shorten the half note to a quarter note.  In the second grouping, you have the last couple pitches correct as is.  What I think would work best is something like this:

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-m6 RH the G sounds shorter on beat 1, make it a triplet eight, and put an eighth rest between it and the B on beat 1.66


Notes - Death Fanfare
-That top layer run is actually missing a few pitches, and isn't quite at the correct subdivision.  It starts on a G, and doesn't quite start at the same time as the first eighth note in your lower RH layer.
-In the lower layer, the first note is an Gb
-After the first 2 beats of the last measure, I hear the low brass repeat the same pitches.  Perhaps make the original part you have a half note, and then have another half not with the fermata on this instead of Death m3.  Could use pp dynamic on it

[Fantastic Ike]

I saw that this game's music is on a cd, but it's weird they didn't bother to include original character cues.  Unless this is a part of the Sullust Suite? The motif from the Intro Fanfare section can be heard in SoroSuub Skirmish but I don't think it makes sense to call this that.  I guess if being super specific you could include credit for Gordy Haab as "Composed and Arranged by", and yourself "arranged for piano".  But that's kind of being pedantic imo

This isn't part of any suite. Same with all the other character themes, I think since they're so short they didn't bother putting it on the album.

Tried to implement your suggested changes, I think I got everything except the run on Death Fanfare, which I'll take a crack at later.

[Fantastic Ike]

Still not 100% sure on the Death Fanfare run, but I think it's closer than before.

[Fantastic Ike]

Little update, just made the section markers a little less wack looking. Anyone is free to look this over whenever still, I'm sure there's going to be quite a bit of refining before it's site-ready.

[Kricketune54]

Giving this another look, as some of my thinking on it has evolved a bit, as some of the feedback I'm going to give is stuff I've learned from a couple of my recent subs that have gone through:

Both of the title boxes are just a tad outside the margins at the moment.  Move them a bit to the right should the rectangle lines up with the staff box's rectangle below it

Intro Fanfare
- First and foremost, the pickup measure actually shouldn't count towards the measure count (just uncheck the box in the screenshot I attached below).  Hope this won't be confusing but I referred to measures as what they are before making this change.

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- I think in the RH the French horn melody part should take more precedence than currently.  I think I somewhat led you astray last time by changing that horn part  and still having the strings over them.  m2-3 doesn't really reflect the original's melody very well and that's mostly due to my feedback at the time. As far as making this more piano friendly, I have some ideas
- Here is a screenshot for what m1-m3 probably would work better as. The idea here is to focus more on the melody, and to also have a sort of drum roll tremolo going in the 6/4 measure.  m2 there's a Bb that would work better in the LH than a Dn between the G's. And, I realized in m3 RH the second half hit a beat later than in the original. Just a suggestion, so if you have your own ideas for improvements feel free to incorporate this with them.
 

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- The Fortissimo dynamic mark in m5 could come down a bit from the treble cleff staff and be centered between the staffs
- m6 LH the descending line is actually F-Eb-Db as opposed to G-F-Eb.  Same octave range tho
- m7 second layer the descending note on beat 4 is a C
- For m7, either remove the accents from the second layer notes or remove the pedal mark here. There's not really a way to sound accents and also pedal on piano

Death Fanfare
- I don't think that it's actually a good idea to include that flute/piccolo line that is so hard to make out. It just kind of sits on top of the melody and doesn't really fit the rest of the parts too well. By taking this out, move the second layer notes in the RH to the 1st layer.
- Just so it doesn't sound a little emptier though, perhaps include the notes on RH beat 4 and the 2/4 measure with their lower octaves as well

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Just for future best practice, if you have notes in two separate layers sharing the same pitches (as in m2 "Intro Fanfare" currently ), you can use the note position tool to reset notes to default position it so the notes are not off center like they are in this screenshot.
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Ideally, do the following

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Hope this helps!  Would like to see this one go through this month in time for May the 4th 

[Fantastic Ike]

Thanks for the changes! I was definitely a bit disappointed with how I'd last left it; these changes definitely help bring back the melody. I'm still not in love with how m3 sounds but there's only so much you can do with it. I think that should be all the changes suggested, thank you so much.

[Kricketune54]

Wanted to give some additional follow-up after reviewing the changes

Some additional stuff:
- I think the section title and tempo marks could move more to the right, and also flipped so the tempo mark is below the section titles. Maybe reference how I did it on my "Round Intros" sheet from Pokémon Colosseum

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You've got a lot of room to work with as far as spacing so shouldn't be a big change.

- m2 LH of "Intro Fanfare" this chord seems like it would work better as Eb-Bb-Eb instead of G-Bb-G. That way it's just a half step jump from previous chords.
- The key of this seems to be more like C minor/Ab than G minor at least from m1-m3 (I don't think you need to change key for m4 and after to C major though)
- At m5 RH, the triplet here should actually be beamed together and the triplet eighth rest moved up a bit. This might just be accomplished by clicking into one of the triplets (at least that's how it worked on my end)
- m6 RH I think this lower layer half rest looks best hidden
- m6 for those second layer notes - I think having a staccato on the Ab makes sense, and to also add either a tenuto or accent to the C
- Really small the tempo mark for the "Death Fanfare" should have a space between the equals sign and the 75 value

[Fantastic Ike]

Fixed!

[Libera]

Sorry for the wait on this.  It looks a lot better than the last few times I dropped in to have a look.  Thanks Kricketune for your help on this one!

In general, I think the main thing this sheet needs now is to be ... bigger!  I don't mean go over the top, but there are definitely lots of places where there is harmony missing from the original.  It just needs more notes really.  This is a big orchestral piece so it needs to come across fuller on piano.  I'll point out a few of places below.

-The texture is a little inconsistent in bars 1-2.  I think it'd be better to either stick to the same kind of texture as you have in bar 1 for bar 2 as well i.e. move the extra notes into the RH.  You could also instead beef up the left hand in bar 1 to compensate.  I was thinking something like this:

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You may also notice that I added a C to the chord on beat 3 of bar 1.  This would also be a nice addition to beef up the harmony in my opinion.
-I would add Cs below the Gs in bars 4-5 in the right hand.  You could also add an F and a Db below the Bb on beat 4 of bar 5 (and maybe another Bb as well?).
-Add a Gb in bar 2 of death fanfare?

Other unrelated things:
-I feel like intro fanfare would work better in 2 than in 4.  The 6/4 bar is also not really a 6/4 bar, but should be a 3/2 bar (3 beats of 2, rather than 2 beats of 3).  At least that's what makes sense to me anyway.
-You're missing notes in beat 6 of bar 3.  It's the same rhythm as in beat 1 and beat 3.
-The Fb in bar 6 should be an En.  This is a C major chord.
-Is the intention for the left hand to be rolled in bar 6?  You should write it in.
-Is there any reason to restrike the Bb octave at the end of death fanfare?  You'll get the natural fade out effect just from holding the Bb octave on beat 1 for the entire bar.
-Is the pedal held for all of bar 5-6 really the only pedal usage you want in the entire sheet?
-You could add a hidden bar or something at the end of intro fanfare if you want the playback to have more of a break there.
-I feel like we could get more dynamics into this sheet.  Cresc in bar 3 etc.  I'd have a play around with it and see what you come up with, but I definitely think it could be more expressive based on the original.

[Fantastic Ike]

Thanks for looking over this!

You're missing notes in beat 6 of bar 3.  It's the same rhythm as in beat 1 and beat 3.

I'm gonna be honest, I've never heard this despite how many times I've listened to this. But I added an educated guess to what the notes would be.

Is the intention for the left hand to be rolled in bar 6?  You should write it in.

I don't think that was my intention. I just put a pedal marking so all the RH notes could be held while the hand jumped to the lower notes.

Is there any reason to restrike the Bb octave at the end of death fanfare?  You'll get the natural fade out effect just from holding the Bb octave on beat 1 for the entire bar.

Had a held whole note originally, but had it suggested to change to restrike.

Think the rest of your changes should be implemented too.

[Libera]

I don't think that was my intention. I just put a pedal marking so all the RH notes could be held while the hand jumped to the lower notes.

Ah I now see what your intention was.  I think something like this would be clearer:

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You also don't really need the pedal marking there, as it's obvious you need to use pedal to play what is written.  I think the reason I would err against writing the marking in is that it looks like that is the only place you want pedal in the sheet, which I'm guessing isn't true?  With these big orchestral pieces pedal goes a long way in making it sound bigger.

-I would add Cs below the Gs in bars 4-5 in the right hand.  You could also add an F and a Db below the Bb on beat 4 of bar 5 (and maybe another Bb as well?).

Sorry for not being clear; I was thinking in the second layer rather than the first.  (This would also avoid all the collisions that are happening currently...)

Otherwise it looks good.

[Fantastic Ike]

Okay, think we're good here.

[Libera]

Yeah, looks good.  Approved.