[MUL] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - "Divine Beast Vah Medoh (Dungeon)" by Bloop

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: The Legend of Zelda
Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Console: Multiplatform
Title: Divine Beast Vah Medoh (Dungeon)
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Bloop

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[Bloop]

it's that time of year again

Divine Beast Dungeon themes change depending on how many of its terminals are activated. When you enter the Divine Beast and none of the terminals are active, "Enter Divine Beast" plays (which is always my favorite part of the tracks :p). When the first terminal is activated, a new track starts playing (at 1:15 in video). With each terminal that's activated, some instruments get added, but I decided to leave those out as they're mostly in the background. In this version, the track changes to a faster-paced version in 4/4 time (at 6:03 in video).
Little note: I don't think there are official titles for the different versions within this track, so I gave them my own titles.

[XiaoMigros]

at least this ones short ish

Enter Divine Beast:

• m9: I sense a slight pause/separation between m9 and m10, might be worth marking that in the sheet somehow
• I'm not a huge fan of page 1's spacing, I feel like it gets too close to the header and footer whilst leaving a lot of extra space between systems
• similar pause thing between m20 and m21
• If possible I think the arrowheads on the arpeggiate thingies would be better a little smaller, and perhaps leaving more (horizontal) space between them and the preceding notes would be good

One Terminal Active

• I hear the gong play the G at the start in the repeat loop too, is the cue note supposed to represent something else? Also is the eighth length purely arbitrary or is there some reasoning behind it I'm missing?
• What do you think of the R.H. taking over more of the viola(I think its viola, its the right range at least) part? I feel like most of your L.H. jumps are warranted, but not all of them...
• courtesy accidentals for m45 L.H.?

All Terminals Active
this exists

[Bloop]

• m9: I sense a slight pause/separation between m9 and m10, might be worth marking that in the sheet somehow
• similar pause thing between m20 and m21

Good catch, even the background instruments seem to stop for a little bit there. Changed the whole note in m9 and m20 into a dotted half note.

• If possible I think the arrowheads on the arpeggiate thingies would be better a little smaller, and perhaps leaving more (horizontal) space between them and the preceding notes would be good

Yeah I would've liked them smaller too, but the other options were even bigger and too small to be noticeable. For some reason Finale doesn't have a reasonably sized arrowhead for these custom lines. I checked if I could do something with articulations, but the arrowheads in there aren't that useful either. I could use straight lines instead of these wavy ones, however, as the smaller arrowhead does become more noticeable then, though I preferred having something related to the normal wavy line. I edited the placements of the current wavy ones a bit, but lmk if these straight ones would look better ^^
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• I hear the gong play the G at the start in the repeat loop too, is the cue note supposed to represent something else? Also is the eighth length purely arbitrary or is there some reasoning behind it I'm missing?

Oh oops, that was meant to be "only second time". I added this in during my last revision before submitting it. It's meant to be the high G on the repeat from m54 back to m23, like the high G in m31.

• What do you think of the R.H. taking over more of the viola(I think its viola, its the right range at least) part? I feel like most of your L.H. jumps are warranted, but not all of them...

I wanted to keep the R.H. focused on playing the thirds, as those are hard enough to play as is. The high G's I mentioned before were a late addition as a compromise, because I did want to include the voice leading of the F in the measure before, but in other places I think it'll be hard for the R.H. to play them comfortably and differentiate them enough from the rest of the fingers (for example m44: it's hard to have the R.H. play the C on beat 1 and have it stand out between the Bb and D, but it's easier for the L.H. to do so a little bit later).

The other two things have been fixed as well, updated the files!

[XiaoMigros]

though I preferred having something related to the normal wavy line.

I prefer that too, leaving them as is it is

Oh oops, that was meant to be "only second time". I added this in during my last revision before submitting it. It's meant to be the high G on the repeat from m54 back to m23, like the high G in m31.

Ah I see, that makes more sense now. Might I suggest changing the text to "second time only" or "on repeat only" idk its super minor I just feel like those flow better for some reason?? what do you think

I wanted to keep the R.H. focused on playing the thirds, as those are hard enough to play as is.

I figured that was the case, just wanted to check-

[Latios212]

If possible I think the arrowheads on the arpeggiate thingies would be better a little smaller, and perhaps leaving more (horizontal) space between them and the preceding notes would be good

Yeah I would've liked them smaller too, but the other options were even bigger and too small to be noticeable. For some reason Finale doesn't have a reasonably sized arrowhead for these custom lines. I checked if I could do something with articulations, but the arrowheads in there aren't that useful either. I could use straight lines instead of these wavy ones, however, as the smaller arrowhead does become more noticeable then, though I preferred having something related to the normal wavy line. I edited the placements of the current wavy ones a bit, but lmk if these straight ones would look better ^^
You cannot view this attachment.

I prefer that too, leaving them as is it is

There's got to be some way to make them not so ludicrously large... but that aside yes I do think the wavy line fits better than a straight one. However, have you considered writing out an explicit suggestion with a cross-staff arpeggio? The wavy arrow at least to me seems to imply that you roll the LH and RH chords simultaneously, and even with the text note it doesn't seem super clear to me that it's supposed to sound something like a wave up and down from the low to the high to the low notes. Maybe others find it clearer, though.

All Terminals Active
this exists

One other thought as I peruse - the transition to the "All Terminals Active" variant. I don't remember how prominent this is in the original game, but in the video it's pretty apparent that the tempo stays the same but it's the meter that changes to give the piece a sense of urgency. I think it's equivalent to (dotted 8th = quarter) from the previous variant. It might not be that important to convey to the performer but I thought I'd just point that out because it feels deliberate to me and at a surface level the last few measures look really bland

[XiaoMigros]

However, have you considered writing out an explicit suggestion with a cross-staff arpeggio? The wavy arrow at least to me seems to imply that you roll the LH and RH chords simultaneously, and even with the text note it doesn't seem super clear to me that it's supposed to sound something like a wave up and down from the low to the high to the low notes. Maybe others find it clearer, though.

Personally I found it pretty clear but it can't hurt to specify (if there's space to do so).

[Bloop]

There's got to be some way to make them not so ludicrously large... but that aside yes I do think the wavy line fits better than a straight one. However, have you considered writing out an explicit suggestion with a cross-staff arpeggio? The wavy arrow at least to me seems to imply that you roll the LH and RH chords simultaneously, and even with the text note it doesn't seem super clear to me that it's supposed to sound something like a wave up and down from the low to the high to the low notes. Maybe others find it clearer, though.

I originally had it as a written out arpeggio, but I noticed while playing that I played it a bit more freely and felt that spelling it out takes away from the effect. It's also not supposed to be one wave, but multiple waves depending on what fits in the time. I could rephrase the performance note to something like "freely and repeatedly arpeggiate chords up and down [or maybe even "up, then down"] through both hands.", if that makes it clearer?

One other thought as I peruse - the transition to the "All Terminals Active" variant. I don't remember how prominent this is in the original game, but in the video it's pretty apparent that the tempo stays the same but it's the meter that changes to give the piece a sense of urgency. I think it's equivalent to (dotted 8th = quarter) from the previous variant. It might not be that important to convey to the performer but I thought I'd just point that out because it feels deliberate to me and at a surface level the last few measures look really bland

I checked a gameplay video (at 8:46) where the music stops before starting the All Terminals Active version, so it's not really supposed to smoothly go over, though it's interesting it has that exact meter change. As for the blandness, I noticed that too and considered replacing the current voice with one of the other background voices that I didn't include in the One Terminal Active part, but none of them were really in the foreground enough compared to the strings, which made the arrangement sound less like the original. Though now that I look at it again, if I forego the staccatoness of the chords, remove the first chord, and have the L.H. play the others, I could have the R.H. play that 16th note synth voice, do you think that might work?

[XiaoMigros]

if I forego the staccatoness of the chords, remove the first chord, and have the L.H. play the others, I could have the R.H. play that 16th note synth voice, do you think that might work?

I had a similar idea, just involving pedal + LH crosshandedness instead. I think either would work here, whichever you prefer^^

[Latios212]

There's got to be some way to make them not so ludicrously large... but that aside yes I do think the wavy line fits better than a straight one. However, have you considered writing out an explicit suggestion with a cross-staff arpeggio? The wavy arrow at least to me seems to imply that you roll the LH and RH chords simultaneously, and even with the text note it doesn't seem super clear to me that it's supposed to sound something like a wave up and down from the low to the high to the low notes. Maybe others find it clearer, though.

I originally had it as a written out arpeggio, but I noticed while playing that I played it a bit more freely and felt that spelling it out takes away from the effect. It's also not supposed to be one wave, but multiple waves depending on what fits in the time. I could rephrase the performance note to something like "freely and repeatedly arpeggiate chords up and down [or maybe even "up, then down"] through both hands.", if that makes it clearer?

Yes, I think something like that makes it much clearer! That sounds good to me

One other thought as I peruse - the transition to the "All Terminals Active" variant. I don't remember how prominent this is in the original game, but in the video it's pretty apparent that the tempo stays the same but it's the meter that changes to give the piece a sense of urgency. I think it's equivalent to (dotted 8th = quarter) from the previous variant. It might not be that important to convey to the performer but I thought I'd just point that out because it feels deliberate to me and at a surface level the last few measures look really bland

I checked a gameplay video (at 8:46) where the music stops before starting the All Terminals Active version, so it's not really supposed to smoothly go over, though it's interesting it has that exact meter change. As for the blandness, I noticed that too and considered replacing the current voice with one of the other background voices that I didn't include in the One Terminal Active part, but none of them were really in the foreground enough compared to the strings, which made the arrangement sound less like the original. Though now that I look at it again, if I forego the staccatoness of the chords, remove the first chord, and have the L.H. play the others, I could have the R.H. play that 16th note synth voice, do you think that might work?

I'd honestly prefer it as is because the 16th line isn't very prominent and using pedal would prevent the staccato chords from being emphasized as such. Up to you, though!

[Bloop]

I went with the version I suggested myself, moving the R.H. chords to the left and adding the 16th run, I think this works pretty nicely! I also added the option to use the middle pedal, but I don't dislike how it sounds with a normal damper pedal either.

[XiaoMigros]

I think the regular pedal is best as well, but I can see why some might be against. The changes look good!

There's got to be some way to make them not so ludicrously large...

Is there at all a way to, or not? I'm not well versed enough in Finale to say though it would be possible in musescore

[Libera]

There's got to be some way to make them not so ludicrously large...

Yeah use the custom shape tool to make smaller arrowheads (more consistent) or overlap some smartshapes to get the desired effect (faster).  Definitely possible to make something that doesn't look quite as silly.

Other than that, the main thing I noticed is that I'm hearing the notes in the little line in bar 12 slightly differently.  I hear it as G D Eb Bb F, rather than G C D Bb F.  Otherwise, this looks great.

[Bloop]

Yeah use the custom shape tool to make smaller arrowheads (more consistent) or overlap some smartshapes to get the desired effect (faster).  Definitely possible to make something that doesn't look quite as silly.

I've explored the Smart Line Designer and the Shape Designer a bit to try to find how to shrink the arrowheads, but I couldn't find anything that works. The only preset arrowheads that are available were too small, too big (like the ones I chose) and way too big. On a stroke of luck though, Levi posted a .musx file with up and down pointed wavy lines on discord this morning, which happen to work very well too, so I just used those. Do let me know how to make it work with the custom shape tool though, because I couldn't figure it out :p

Other than that, the main thing I noticed is that I'm hearing the notes in the little line in bar 12 slightly differently.  I hear it as G D Eb Bb F, rather than G C D Bb F.  Otherwise, this looks great.

Fixed this too!

[XiaoMigros]

Looks great! Skimmed through this again but now that the arrowheads are a more appropriate size I'm happy to approve