#FinalFantasy7 Music Analysis Ultimate Thread! This thread contains links to all of my FF7 music analysis and the #FF7 Thematic Catalog as well as the #FFVII Motivic Catalog ! I'll add to this as I do more. Enjoy!

ITS HAPPENING! @FFVIImusic

“It’s MTG 2027” @BDEgameowners

Everyone's posting something Cloud/Tifa related. Here's my contribution for the event: my my arrangement of Tifa's Theme/Main Theme. #FF7 #FinalFantasyVII Link to full video below -- Enjoy! https://t.co/VKGX7oNMA0

Owzer sitting on a beanbag chair like a boss. I always thought of this track as Owzer’s Theme. I love how it opens with an augmented chord, which I always saw as reflective of his large body and personality (the augmented chord itself being a “bigger” major chord)

Here it is! Part 2 will follow in the coming days or week. It’s gonna be beefy so it’ll take time

All of these motives interact and develop over the entire Main Theme track’s form, and beautifully tell the entire story of the Nibelheim Trio. We’ll talk about *how* this happens in the next thread. See you then!

So as we can see, the “Main Theme” track contains several important musical ideas: 1) main theme proper, 2) Cloud's ↑2nd gesture, 3) Cloud's ↓3rd gesture, 4) promise motive, 5) plodding motive, 6) stirring motive, 7) Tarnhelm progression, and 8) victory progression.

After climaxing, the music winds down before returning to the A section. Interestingly, the track does *not* loop to the intro, but rather the A section that plays the main theme proper.

The B section climaxes with the ↑2nd gesture from the Cloud motive played with the “victory” progression (I-bVI), which is often used by Uematsu to depict heroism and victory in the FF games (it’s also common in film and other media soundtracks!)

This section foreshadows “Anxious Heart,” which itself is comprised of the ↓3rd from the Cloud motive, and its plodding and stirring motives reference both “Mako Reactor” and “Those Chosen,” all themes which depict Cloud, Sephiroth, & Tifa’s experience in the Nibelheim Incident

Next is the B section, which in my opinion is vastly underrated. This section further develops the ↓3rd from the Cloud motive, playing it three times, each time moved up by a third, accompanied by 2 recurring ideas I call the “plodding motive” and “stirring motive"

After a beautifully tragic deceptive cadence, the A section moves to the bridge—a short 8-measure phrase devoid of the main theme proper, instead developing the ↓3rd from the Cloud motive, again harmonized with the Tarnhelm progression.

The b section then moves to the a section to complete the “aaba” song form before the music modulates unexpectedly ↑3rd to G major for one last statement of the “a” section complete with triumphant brass, strings, and percussion.

I’ve written extensively about the “promise motive” I’ll link to it. It’s also interesting that the “b” section and “Tifa’s Theme,” both of which make use of the promise motive, were composed on the same day (I can’t recall who shared this w/ me—sorry!) https://t.co/8JVXtCpKkW

While the “a” sections play the main theme proper, the “b” section plays a new melodic idea, which I’ve called the “promise motive.” This little idea makes up the majority of “Interrupted by Fireworks” and is also found in “Tifa’s Theme” (hence the name “promise” motive).

“aaba song form” has a rich tradition in early 20th century American popular music (“Tin Pan Alley” songs). It was favored by the Beatles, who mostly avoided the popular blues-based rock styles and forms of the 50s and 60s unlike their “rivals” the Rolling Stones.

We then get the A section, which presents the lyrical and tender “main theme proper” in all its glory. Set in E major before modulating to G major, it’s in a small “aabaa” form, which is commonly called “song form.”

We’ll call this 2-note gesture the “Cloud motive”—it comes back in narratively significant themes relating to Cloud over the course of the soundtrack, and it also develops throughout the Main Theme, especially in the bridge and B section. It's Cloud's "exclusive" musical identity

Immediately following the main theme proper, we hear a 2-note melodic motive that rises by a 2nd against a bass note that moves down a 3rd. The chord progression uses the eerie “Tarnhelm progression,” often used to depict malevolence or negatively-connoted uncanniness.

Let’s dive into it, starting with the Intro: at only 18 measures long, we hear a 5-note snippet of the main theme proper 3 times, each in a different key, and harmonized with some strange dissonances.