That one 'Haunting Chorus'-- Others like it?

Ducard · Post by **Ducard** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:34 pm

One of my favorite pieces of DBZ music is that almost-creepy choral piece that plays during DBZ Movie 3, Bardock's death, and some other places. It's got a very distinct tragic quality to it and I'm curious to find other moments in Japanese entertainment like it.

I did a little digging and found this 1975 Japanese film about the Little Mermaid. The ending is true to the original, so the mermaid walks to her death at the end of the story. About four minutes into the clip there's this tragic choral piece used to accompany her passing that is fairly similar to the DBZ one.

I'm really curious about this sort of thing, and I'm wondering if there are any other precursors/examples of this that anyone's aware of?

SSj_Rambo · Post by **SSj_Rambo** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:20 am

Why yes, yes there is!

It's not that exact piece but it is what I believe to be the greatest choral piece used throughout the entire anime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNqoQTi963U&fmt=18 (it starts at 0:36)

It was first used in July of 1987 in the theatrical film The Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (DB Movie 3), and then again in September of 1987 for Dragonball episode 081, Goku Goes to the World of Spirits. It was first used in DBZ in episode 027, for the death of Piccolo, and was later recycled a few times (three, I think) for the Freeza Arc (most famously in Freeza's flashback of when he destroyed Planet Vegeta and in the episode right after 2nd Form Freeza first gores Kuririn, when the goring scene was replayed).

An interesting little tidbit on the song, is that the two variations of it (with the vocals and without the vocals) seem to be used in a pattern. For the two times the song was used in Dragonball, it was used as a sort of theme for the demons, and the vocals were included. When it was used for DBZ (for Piccolo's death) the song was played with the vocals, but as the scene faded out, the end of the song was played in its entirety, and that contained no vocals; perhaps to illustrate Piccolo's abandonment of his demonic traits, as he sacrifices himself for Gohan. All of the other times the song was used in DBZ, it was not for any demon related characters, and the vocals were never used. [Kunzait_83 really helped me notice this]

Sadly, only the vocal version has been released on CD: DragonBall & DragonBall Z: Daizenshuu (the five disc set); disc 5, track 3, piece 3.

Note: My curiosity and love of this song is actually the main reason I decided to become a member of this forum (after being a fan of the site for a while), since I first came here with a question about its usage and name: http://db.schuby.org/daizex/viewtopic.php?t=7731

kenisu3000 · Post by **kenisu3000** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:11 pm

There's another piece, "The Ceremony's Eleventh Hour," which is also from Sleeping Princess, and also uses a choral track. It's pretty similar to the first one, except it's only the intro, and it's faster-paced (as it's used in the scene when Bulma's tied to the chair and culminates with her screaming "HELP!!"
I'm pretty sure it too has an instrumental version, because there's a piece in Episode 107 of DragonBall that sounds like it could very possibly be a minus track to that theme.
Neither version is on CD, though.

Ducard · Post by **Ducard** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:09 am

Much thanks!

Some great music here.

By any chance is anybody aware of music like this outside of Dragonball?

Puto · Post by **Puto** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:05 am

SSj_Rambo wrote:Sadly, only the vocal version has been released on CD: DragonBall & DragonBall Z: Daizenshuu (the five disc set); disc 5, track 3, piece 3.

An interesting thing is that in FUNimation's Season Sets, for whatever reason, they played it without vocals throughout the scene in the video you posted. (and in the following episode, when he actually dies, it was removed entirely)

Levlik · Post by **Levlik** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:01 am

Puto wrote:
SSj_Rambo wrote:Sadly, only the vocal version has been released on CD: DragonBall & DragonBall Z: Daizenshuu (the five disc set); disc 5, track 3, piece 3.
An interesting thing is that in FUNimation's Season Sets, for whatever reason, they played it without vocals throughout the scene in the video you posted. (and in the following episode, when he actually dies, it was removed entirely)

That error was only present on Season 1. Any other time it's used in the series (Such as Vegeta's death) it's included on the 5.1 track, chorus and all.

Puto · Post by **Puto** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:01 am

Well, I did specifically state "in that scene".

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:39 pm

Levlik wrote:
Puto wrote:
SSj_Rambo wrote:Sadly, only the vocal version has been released on CD: DragonBall & DragonBall Z: Daizenshuu (the five disc set); disc 5, track 3, piece 3.
An interesting thing is that in FUNimation's Season Sets, for whatever reason, they played it without vocals throughout the scene in the video you posted. (and in the following episode, when he actually dies, it was removed entirely)
That error was only present on Season 1. Any other time it's used in the series (Such as Vegeta's death) it's included on the 5.1 track, chorus and all.

Wait, I thought the vocals were missing from those scenes in the original?
Gah! The backwardness!

Oh, wait, question from one who gave up on following the season sets years ago: the Japanese audio is completely in tact, right? (I mean the just Japanese voices and bgm, not the Dub + Japanese BGM track).
*cries because doesn't want to buy them because of the ad tactics, but probably should since can't see the screen worth crap anyway*

SSj_Rambo · Post by **SSj_Rambo** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:03 am

caejones wrote:Oh, wait, question from one who gave up on following the season sets years ago: the Japanese audio is completely in tact, right? (I mean the just Japanese voices and bgm, not the Dub + Japanese BGM track).
*cries because doesn't want to buy them because of the ad tactics, but probably should since can't see the screen worth crap anyway*

Yes, despite being in low quality (the audio was probably taken straight from the actual Japanese masters, and not touched up upon), the Jap audio/Jap BGM track is complete and accurate in the season sets.

And regarding what you said about the mis-use of the BGM in the season sets; when it comes to the choral piece that I brought up, it is always used properly, with the exception of DBZ ep. 027, when Piccolo was sacrificing himself. The BGM piece used is the right one, it just starts playing a little late in the FUNi version; which really isn't a big deal, but because of it the big "DUN DUN" doesn't quite line up with Gohan's full panneled look of shock and awe.

kei17 · Post by **kei17** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:21 am

A new piece appeared in the end of ep3 of DBKai.

Puto · Post by **Puto** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 2:09 pm

SSj_Rambo wrote:
caejones wrote:Oh, wait, question from one who gave up on following the season sets years ago: the Japanese audio is completely in tact, right? (I mean the just Japanese voices and bgm, not the Dub + Japanese BGM track).
*cries because doesn't want to buy them because of the ad tactics, but probably should since can't see the screen worth crap anyway*
Yes, despite being in low quality (the audio was probably taken straight from the actual Japanese masters, and not touched up upon), the Jap audio/Jap BGM track is complete and accurate in the season sets.

And regarding what you said about the mis-use of the BGM in the season sets; when it comes to the choral piece that I brought up, it is always used properly, with the exception of DBZ ep. 027, when Piccolo was sacrificing himself. The BGM piece used is the right one, it just starts playing a little late in the FUNi version; which really isn't a big deal, but because of it the big "DUN DUN" doesn't quite line up with Gohan's full panneled look of shock and awe.

Except the song didn't play at all in the next episode when Piccolo actually dies and Gohan yells, like it does in the japanese version.

Bura · Post by **Bura** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:14 pm

SSj_Rambo wrote:All of the other times the song was used in DBZ, it was not for any demon related characters, and the vocals were never used. [Kunzait_83 really helped me notice this]

It also plays with vocals after Vegeta's passing in the Freeza arc. Pretty sure he ain't a demon.

SSj_Rambo · Post by **SSj_Rambo** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:42 pm

kei17 wrote:A new piece appeared in the end of ep3 of DBKai.

I made an .mp3 of that audio clip: http://www.4shared.com/file/100312094/4 ... nting.html

I have to admit I'm not really feeling this one. It's a nice piece and well composed, but it doesn't really say "Dragonball" for me. But I do think Mayumi Tanaka did an excellent job capturing the emotion in Kuririn's voice, and that's what saved the usage of the piece for me.

Puto wrote:
SSj_Rambo wrote:
caejones wrote:Oh, wait, question from one who gave up on following the season sets years ago: the Japanese audio is completely in tact, right? (I mean the just Japanese voices and bgm, not the Dub + Japanese BGM track).
*cries because doesn't want to buy them because of the ad tactics, but probably should since can't see the screen worth crap anyway*
Yes, despite being in low quality (the audio was probably taken straight from the actual Japanese masters, and not touched up upon), the Jap audio/Jap BGM track is complete and accurate in the season sets.

And regarding what you said about the mis-use of the BGM in the season sets; when it comes to the choral piece that I brought up, it is always used properly, with the exception of DBZ ep. 027, when Piccolo was sacrificing himself. The BGM piece used is the right one, it just starts playing a little late in the FUNi version; which really isn't a big deal, but because of it the big "DUN DUN" doesn't quite line up with Gohan's full panneled look of shock and awe.
Except the song didn't play at all in the next episode when Piccolo actually dies and Gohan yells, like it does in the japanese version.

I know. Not in the FUNi set or in the original. I wasn't trying to say otherwise.

Bura wrote:
SSj_Rambo wrote:All of the other times the song was used in DBZ, it was not for any demon related characters, and the vocals were never used. [Kunzait_83 helped me notice this]
It also plays with vocals after Vegeta's passing in the Freeza arc. Pretty sure he ain't a demon.

Hmm, that's right. Well the whole demon thing is of course just a slight coincidence. That's an exception that makes it not 100% consistent, but for the most part the theory of the vocals being in relation to the character's demonic nature does stand.

Of course you could just say the vocals are used in the case of a dramatic moment with a character of evil nature; in which case it still works with Piccolo, Vegeta, the demons, etc,

Kanzenshuu

That one 'Haunting Chorus'-- Others like it?

That one 'Haunting Chorus'-- Others like it?

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