Ya Gotta Help Me /// Music Monday #11

All right, ladies and gentlemen! We have for you today another magnificent piece of music. But today's post is going to be a little bit different. You'll find out why in a moment.

And our song is . . .

"A Closer Understanding of the Past" from Ori and the Blind Forest

Composed by Gareth Coker

Yes, I have picked this soundtrack before. I can't help myself. The music for Ori and the Blind Forest is just so perfect. This actually comes from the additional soundtrack for the game, which is free to download, if I'm not mistaken. With this and the original soundtrack, you'd have virtually all the music made for the game.

I love the tone of this song. The only descriptive word that comes to mind is bittersweet. Well, that and absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how Gareth does it. He has created a score that I not only find memorable, but also very emotional and moving.

I mentioned in my other Music Monday post about this score that it's a very piano-based score, which is one of the main reasons why I adore it so much. There's just something about that instrument that I enjoy so much. It's probably used in most of the tracks for this game. It's even used in the final battle music! How often does that happen?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this song also utilizes some type of flute and a marimba (or maybe a xylophone?). The combination of all the instruments in the song work well together to create a "forest" feel, if you know what I mean.

I know my thoughts are all over the place, but I'll just chalk that up to beautiful music turning my brain into mush. (Don't tell me that's never happened to you.) But one of the best things about this score is its use of leitmotifs. Gareth has managed to invent key themes that are easy to recognize and are simply fantastic in every sense of the word. In fact, this track uses Ori's theme very poignantly from 2:43 to about 3:21.

You might recall that in my tenth Music Monday post, I asked for a bit of help today, and here's why. I thought that I knew and recognized all the themes in this soundtrack. But now I'm a bit unsure, which is why I decided to see if any of you guys know music better than I do. To do that, I'm going to need to add two more songs to this post. Disclaimer: these tracks are not the "official" song for today, and therefore may be used in future Music Monday posts.

So this track (titled "Ori, Lost in the Storm") is where you can hear Ori's theme the best. It pops up from about 0:23 to about 0:46.

Somewhere along the line, I had the startling revelation of just how often this leitmotif appears in this soundtrack. I thought it was just the coolest thing! And it made sense, because the little guy is the main character. Of course his theme is going to be reiterated in the album to make it stronger.

But a few weeks ago, I suddenly became unsure. Pay attention to the theme that plays from 0:30 to about 1:18 of this song, "Restoring the Light, Facing the Dark."

This leitmotif is extremely recognizable when it shows up in other tracks, and it's one of my favorites. I love it to pieces. But here's where my confusion comes in. I thought this was the same as Ori's theme for the longest time, and now I'm not sure. In some ways, they sound different, and yet in other ways, this one feels like a fuller version of the leitmotif for Ori.

I know next to nothing about things like musical notes and such. I can't look at sheet music for these two songs and see if they're similar in any way. And this may sound totally ridiculous, but I really want to solve this conundrum. When something like this bothers me, I feel very compelled to solve it.

Now, on Gareth's website, there is a way to email him. But if I do, to ask him about this, how do I know if he'll even read it, much less respond? He's probably a busy guy, and no doubt someone screens his inbox. They might see my email and just delete it. So before I go down that road, I want you, the best blog readers in the world, to help me with this "problem" of mine. If you have taken music lessons, your ears are probably more musically inclined than mine. You would be able to tell the difference, wouldn't you?

Well, that's all I got. I figured there would be at least one person on here who knows music more than me. If you can help me, great! If not, that's fine. I would just try contacting the composer then.

Thanks for allowing me to ask for help with this! (Not that you really had much of a choice.) What did you think of the official song for today? Can you differentiate between the two leitmotifs? If you do play an instrument, which one is it? (I'd really love to play either piano or cello.)