Soundtrack/Commentary/Autumn BGM

## Harvest, Pampas Grass

The theme of the nineteenth instalment of the "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin" is the autumn BGM in the village - the daytime track "Harvest" and the nighttime track "Pampas Grass".

I'm saying "village track" now, but in the game it's not called a village, or the mountain pass, but "home". There are forges and weaving huts that are built, but basically there is only one house, and it's not on the scale of a village. This is because the BGM list given to me by the developers called it "village music," and that's what I've been calling it. It may be that the word "village" is easier to convey the image the game is going for, but according to interviews with the developers, before the idea of growing rice was born, they were thinking of a game in which you grow a village, and there may have been remnants of that idea when they created the list.

As a rice cultivation game, autumn is an important season when the hard work of the year finally pays off and the harvest is ready. In the middle of the game, you will be able to trade rice with the capital to obtain new materials and ingredients.

In terms of music, among the tracks of the four seasons, only the autumn tracks are in triple time. I tried to express the exciting feeling of the harvest with the light rhythm of the waltz. In the daytime, the rhythm is a shuffle, which emphasizes the feeling of excitement.

The composition consists of four basic rhythms (electric piano, guitar, bass, and drums) with percussion to add a lively atmosphere, and shamisen, koto, and flute to express Japanese elements. In addition to the basic four rhythms of electric piano, guitar, bass, and drums, percussion adds a lively element, and Japanese elements are expressed by shamisen, koto, and flute. Also, following the summer BGM "Flourish," whistles and morin khuur are used.

(See the attached MIDI, 22\_minori.mid, in the article.)

The A melody is played on a flute, the B melody on a whistle, and the chorus alternates between the two to avoid a monotonous melody. The shamisen supports the main melody, and the morin khuur adds fullness to the lower-middle range, giving the arrangement an overall sense of richness.

As for the melody, the first version I made was too Westernized, and I was asked by the development team to revise it, so I made it more Japanese-style, and that's what we have now. There are similarities between the Japanese and Irish styles in terms of the five-note scale, and I used Irish instruments at my own discretion, but this song seemed to have less of a Japanese feel due to the triple time signature. It's quite difficult to find the right balance.

The nighttime track "Pampas Grass" is more straightforward rather than shuffling, and the rhythmic instruments are much more subdued to create a chic and soft impression.

For the original Japanese title "芒　―すすき―", As it was an autumn night, I wanted the title to be something related to tsukimi (moon-viewing festival). I had set a rule for myself that it had to be a single kanji character with a reading of three, as per the other seasonal track names, but I couldn't come up with a good word for the moon, so I chose "芒" as a landscape associated with tsukimi. The English version of the soundtrack translates it as "Pampas Grass," but if you don't know the culture of tsukimi, it may be difficult to convey the subtleties of it.

The piano replaces the electric piano, the shakuhachi replaces the flute, and a thin sho-like tone is added. The chord progression is changed to a relaxed one, and the song is arranged to be peaceful and calm. In particular, the presence of the morin khuur stands out more than in the daytime. The actual morin khuur may sound a bit rougher, but the sound in this piece is milder and more cello-like. The sound source used is ETHNO WORLD, which I have introduced before.

(See the attached MIDI, 23\_susuki.mid, in the article.)

Musical instruments that pluck strings with a bow, such as the morin khuur, or so-called "abrasive" instruments, may not be associated with Japanese songs, but the kokyu, a typical Chinese abrasive instrument, is also used in gagaku and folk songs in Japan. One of the most famous examples is Toyama's "越中おわら節". Although the tone of the music is completely different, this image led to the idea of actively using stringed instruments in a Japanese-style game, which led to the summer and autumn tracks in the village.

In the next article, I'll introduce the daytime music "Budding" and the nighttime music "Silence" that are played in the village in winter.