Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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A very difficult one to orchestrate, but here we are! Enjoy this orchestral cover of Taopo Swamp from Golden Sun, originally composed by Motoi Sakuraba.
--------------------
➤ Analysis:
Taopo Swamp is one of many optional dungeons in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
Outside of a Djinn, this dungeon can very well be skipped; it often gets an unfair bashing for having very little loot of value for completing. Similarly, the music accompanying it - the track you're listening to here - is regularly criticized as being one of the worst in the OST ( reddit.com/r/GoldenSun/comments/19d8gfz/whats_your_least_favorite_area_dungeon )
Nevertheless, this is the track I've tackled today (you voted for it! :D ), so what can we do to try and enhance it?
Taopo Swamp is a swamp (genius, I know), so musically we'd expect something dark & murky. So that is precisely what I did: I favoured low instruments (notably low winds, low brass, low drums, piano & low strings, etc.) to create a dense, swampy texture, with the higher instruments providing occasional scary shimmers (0:13) to remind us that this is a hostile area.
Tonally, we seem to have a loose tonal centre on E signified by the bass instruments pivoting between E & B every bar (tonic & dominant; 0:03). Outside of this, there isn't much more we can use to identify what tonality is being used here; hence, it is largely chromatic.
The meter is also quite ambiguous; beginning in 3/4 (or arguably 6/8), before shifting into 6/8 (0:27) and finally into 12/16 (0:39). In all 3 time signatures, the length of each bar remains the same, but the subdivisions are altered creating rhythmic dissonance throughout the entire track. I could have scored it entirely in 3/4 (or 6/8), but the change in emphasis for these subdivisions made me consider changing meter in each section as being more correct.
At 0:27, moving into the B section, we get a new dissonant ostinato (a repeating rhythm / melody) seen in the winds. This ostinato of ascending 16ths is spaced at the interval of minor 3rds - one starts on B, another on D, and another on G♯ (a minor 3rd below B). This creates a diminished chord (G♯-B-D) that ascends in parallel - a very unsettling harmony. Diminished chords (a chord constructed out of stacked minor 3rds) are one of the most unstable of all chords due to the presence of the tritone interval (an augmented 4th - here, the D to G♯).
To summarise: so far we have a lack of tonal centre, displacement of the meter, and a lack of traditional harmony. You can start to understand why this track is often received negatively.
By 0:39, the tonal centre is completely lost and borders on atonality. The trombones in particular deliver crushingly dissonant material with consecutive tritones sliding into more tritones. The bass begins to move upward quasi-chromatically while a melody tries to provide some sort of harmony on top of it.
Ultimately, while dissonant, the track serves its purpose. A good chunk of Taopo Swamp actually takes place underground - even surrounded by lava at one point. In that regard, I suppose the track was trying to complement two environments in one: a dark, murky swamp, but also a lava-filled underground cavern. If we consider its function was for the latter, some of Sakuraba's choices begin to make more sense (e.g. the use of bright, sizzling synths to represent lava, akin to Magma Rock).
It's not a bad piece of music per se, just when compared to the OST as a whole, with masterpieces such as Venus Lighthouse, Isaac's Battle Theme, and The Elemental Stars, you can start to understand why this track got an unsavoury reception.
--------------------
The score was created in Sibelius 7.5, and the audio was created in Cubase using sample libraries from EastWest, Vienna Symphonic, Musio and Addictive Drummer 2.
★Game: Golden Sun: The Lost Age
★Developer: Camelot Software Planning
★Publisher: Nintendo
★Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba
★Software: Sibelius 7.5, Cubase Elements 7, Cubase 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 15, EastWest Sample Libraries, Vienna Symphonic Library, Musio, Addictive Drummer 2
★Tags: Golden, Sun, Golden Sun, The Lost Age, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Orchestra, Orchestral, Orchestration, Arrangement, Remix, Cover
#GoldenSun
#Orchestra
#TaopoSwamp
🎵 Sheet Music & Parts ➤ mymusicsheet.com/TandA/340770
💗 MIDI / XML / Sibelius ➤ bit.ly/TandABundle
🎹 Commissions ➤ jshaw.co.uk/commissions
🎮 More Arrangements ➤ jshaw.co.uk/TandA
👍 Facebook ➤ bit.ly/TandAFacebook
🐦 Twitter ➤ bit.ly/TandATwitter
🎵 Bandcamp ➤ bit.ly/TandABandcamp
🎵 Spotify ➤ bit.ly/TandASpotify
🎵 Deezer ➤ bit.ly/TandADeezer
🎵 YouTube Music ➤ bit.ly/TandAYouTube
🎵 Apple Music / iTunes ➤ bit.ly/TandAApple
A very difficult one to orchestrate, but here we are! Enjoy this orchestral cover of Taopo Swamp from Golden Sun, originally composed by Motoi Sakuraba.
--------------------
➤ Analysis:
Taopo Swamp is one of many optional dungeons in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
Outside of a Djinn, this dungeon can very well be skipped; it often gets an unfair bashing for having very little loot of value for completing. Similarly, the music accompanying it - the track you're listening to here - is regularly criticized as being one of the worst in the OST ( reddit.com/r/GoldenSun/comments/19d8gfz/whats_your_least_favorite_area_dungeon )
Nevertheless, this is the track I've tackled today (you voted for it! :D ), so what can we do to try and enhance it?
Taopo Swamp is a swamp (genius, I know), so musically we'd expect something dark & murky. So that is precisely what I did: I favoured low instruments (notably low winds, low brass, low drums, piano & low strings, etc.) to create a dense, swampy texture, with the higher instruments providing occasional scary shimmers (0:13) to remind us that this is a hostile area.
Tonally, we seem to have a loose tonal centre on E signified by the bass instruments pivoting between E & B every bar (tonic & dominant; 0:03). Outside of this, there isn't much more we can use to identify what tonality is being used here; hence, it is largely chromatic.
The meter is also quite ambiguous; beginning in 3/4 (or arguably 6/8), before shifting into 6/8 (0:27) and finally into 12/16 (0:39). In all 3 time signatures, the length of each bar remains the same, but the subdivisions are altered creating rhythmic dissonance throughout the entire track. I could have scored it entirely in 3/4 (or 6/8), but the change in emphasis for these subdivisions made me consider changing meter in each section as being more correct.
At 0:27, moving into the B section, we get a new dissonant ostinato (a repeating rhythm / melody) seen in the winds. This ostinato of ascending 16ths is spaced at the interval of minor 3rds - one starts on B, another on D, and another on G♯ (a minor 3rd below B). This creates a diminished chord (G♯-B-D) that ascends in parallel - a very unsettling harmony. Diminished chords (a chord constructed out of stacked minor 3rds) are one of the most unstable of all chords due to the presence of the tritone interval (an augmented 4th - here, the D to G♯).
To summarise: so far we have a lack of tonal centre, displacement of the meter, and a lack of traditional harmony. You can start to understand why this track is often received negatively.
By 0:39, the tonal centre is completely lost and borders on atonality. The trombones in particular deliver crushingly dissonant material with consecutive tritones sliding into more tritones. The bass begins to move upward quasi-chromatically while a melody tries to provide some sort of harmony on top of it.
Ultimately, while dissonant, the track serves its purpose. A good chunk of Taopo Swamp actually takes place underground - even surrounded by lava at one point. In that regard, I suppose the track was trying to complement two environments in one: a dark, murky swamp, but also a lava-filled underground cavern. If we consider its function was for the latter, some of Sakuraba's choices begin to make more sense (e.g. the use of bright, sizzling synths to represent lava, akin to Magma Rock).
It's not a bad piece of music per se, just when compared to the OST as a whole, with masterpieces such as Venus Lighthouse, Isaac's Battle Theme, and The Elemental Stars, you can start to understand why this track got an unsavoury reception.
--------------------
The score was created in Sibelius 7.5, and the audio was created in Cubase using sample libraries from EastWest, Vienna Symphonic, Musio and Addictive Drummer 2.
★Game: Golden Sun: The Lost Age
★Developer: Camelot Software Planning
★Publisher: Nintendo
★Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba
★Software: Sibelius 7.5, Cubase Elements 7, Cubase 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 15, EastWest Sample Libraries, Vienna Symphonic Library, Musio, Addictive Drummer 2
★Tags: Golden, Sun, Golden Sun, The Lost Age, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Orchestra, Orchestral, Orchestration, Arrangement, Remix, Cover
#GoldenSun
#Orchestra
#TaopoSwamp
