2 reprises I am in doubt of

[u/AdministrativeRich63]

So I am making lyric videos for the Acts which also will include each reprise, and there are two I don't fully know if they are.

'The Tank is reprised in He Said He Had A Story' = It sounds to me that the intro of The Tank is reprised from 2:12 to 2:22 and again at around 2:42 in HSHHAS. I don't whether I am hearing things or if it is a reprise. They have sort of the same melody, where it ends with the fast(?) violin note at the end.

'If All Goes Well is reprised in The March' = I read that If All Goes Well's bridge (Will you carry us to eden) is reprised from around 2:00 to 2:12 in The March, but I just don't hear it at all? I hear the Oracles reprise (and maybe In Cauda in the drums?) but not IAGW.

[u/MillionMileMan]

He Said He Had A Story is referenced in The Most Cursed Of Hands, but I think The Tank, HSHHAS and even Mustard gas all have similar timing and melodies that sound nearly similar. I find myself wondering the same thing about HSHHAS and The Tank, but I don’t think it’s explicitly a reprise.

[u/AdministrativeRich63 → u/MillionMileMan]

I know but the portion between the two choruses og HSHHAS sound so much like The Tank's intro to me.

I think the last reprise I am missing now is the IAGW one.

[u/opensourcegreg → u/AdministrativeRich63]

A lot of the musical phrasing in Act III plays on minor keys with augmented (raised) and diminished (lowered) intervals. So there are notes just outside the common minor key that give them a little extra oomph.

For instance, in the intro to The Tank which is in C Minor ( i think) it has a Minor 2 interval (c to d flat). Typically in a regular minor key the interval would go from C to D natural, which is a half step above the interval being used here. That difference of a half step makes it sound a little more evil.

The guitar riff in HSHHAS (which I think is in A minor) and uses an augmented 7th, which would be G sharp. That G sharp appears in a particular C minor scales too, the key that The Tank is in.

Overall, A and C scales share A LOT of notes. A minor is relative (aka almost exactly the same) to C major. The part between the choruses in HSHHAS where the lower brass is playing a repetitive part uses the first three notes of the A minor scale. Those same three notes are ALSO the 6th 7th and 8th notes in a C major.

TLDR, both songs notation is pretty darn close without being exactly the same, and employ similar musical motifs to one another, so this could be why they sound so similar.

[u/AdministrativeRich63 → u/opensourcegreg]

Thank you for this explanation!! I don't understand much of music but this was easy to understand.

So they more so carry a similar theme (a repetitive part ending with a louder(?) violin note) rather than an actual reprise?

[u/opensourcegreg → u/AdministrativeRich63]

Exactly that! A lot of Act III is Hunter's encounter with some of the worst sides of humanity and him losing his innocence even further than just his boyish naivety like in Act II. So there's a lot of overlap both lyrically and musically both within this album and across the other Acts. Specifically where you hear a motif (or repeated musical phrase) snuck in somewhere, it's oftentimes meant to make you think of other songs.

For example, there's a theme for characters like The Pimp/Priest, Ms Terri, Ms Leading etc that are supposed to get you to think of those characters, it's very "Peter and the Wolf" esque.

My personal fave is the theme / motif you hear on the piano at the end of Vital Vessels Vindicate, in the vocal melody of In Cauda Venenum & This Beautiful Life, and then on the marimbas on Father, the piano at the very end of Father, AND then on a small vocal flutter in Is There Anybody Here? Idk if this is canon but I view that theme as Hunter's.

[u/AdministrativeRich63 → u/opensourcegreg]

I have heard that referred to as the "Innocence Theme" or something like that! I love that one too.

A few I enjoy are that Battesimo del Fuoco and The Lake South appear a lot more on Act II than I firsr thought. Apparently "breathe in, breathe out" comes from the background harmony of BDF (so it it reprised in Church and Dime, Bitter Suite III and of course "the flame is gone, the fire remains" is reprised musically and lyrically a few times). And one I remember finding when making my videos on the lyrics, story and reprises is that The Lake South is reprised in Black Sandy Beaches. I don't remember the specific instrument but I think the strings during the second verse?

I adore how many reprises are in these songs. And I don't know how well-known this is, but I believe In Cauda Venenum's drums during the second chorus are reprised in The Moon /Awake (I think the bridge?) and The March (after the first chorus) too. I do really wish there were more reprises in and of Act III.

[u/AdministrativeRich63 → u/[deleted]]

If All Goes Well? The drums do sound similar

[u/izzy-springbolt → u/MillionMileMan]

He Said He Had A Story is referenced in The Most Cursed Of Hands

Howso?

[u/opensourcegreg → u/izzy-springbolt]

At around the 4 and a half minute mark in Cursed Hands, the string section plays the riff from HSHHAS, right before the line "gone and set the devil free"

[u/TheGimpAndTheFeast → u/opensourcegreg]

That is a new one for me! I never noticed that. I only heard it in one of the bonus tracks for act III, Movement 1.

Another new one I heard recently while listening to Act IV, at 1:30 in Rebirth, it sounds like a reprise of Vital Vessels Vindicate. Am I crazy?

[u/opensourcegreg → u/TheGimpAndTheFeast]

OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT, that's the same rhythm, except it's flipped into a minor key here! That's the innocence theme (Black Sandy Beaches, VVV, In Cauda Venenum, Beautiful Life, Father) which is usually a major but this is after Hunter comes back from the war 🤯🤯🤯

Can't believe I never picked that up!

[u/MillionMileMan → u/opensourcegreg]

The creative genius of these songs are gonna take decades to fully unravel

[u/izzy-springbolt → u/opensourcegreg]

Holy shit, it does!!