Jump to content

M201

From Kanzenshuu Dragon Ball Wiki
This page is incomplete.
Kanzenshuu wiki team members are aware that they must edit this page to add missing information and complete it.
« K-153
K-202 »
M201
Setting
M201 (Setting)
Score 1
M201 (Score 1)
Score 2
M201 (Score 2)
The narrator tells of the ancient legend of the Dragon Balls.
M201
M201
Tonality C7
Length 1:29
BGM Data
Catalog Number K-201
Composition Shunsuke Kikuchi
Debut and Release
Debut Year 1986
First Appears Dragon Ball Movie 1
Debut Release Daizenshuu (1994 CD)
BGM Suite The Legend of Shenlong
v · d · e

M201 is the Kanzenshuu catalogue number assigned to a piece of background music (BGM) composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi for Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong. The film premiered at Tōei Manga Matsuri on 20 December 1986.

Overview

M201 is a very atypical composition among Shunsuke Kikuchi's Dragon Ball works. It is very loosely centered on C, the dominant of F Minor—the film's main key—but the piece is largely atonal and employs a composition technique known as serialism. The full composition is part a of the suite entitled "The Legend of Shenlong", which is track #2 on disc #5 of the Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z Daizenshuu.

K-201 is given the title "Legend Of The DragonBalls" on kenisu's Magicant,[1] the most common source for fan titles of Kikuchi's compositions.

Form

Kikuchi uses something very close to a strict Twelve-tone technique in the composition of M201. Not counting the two introductory bars (a Jaws-like motive resolving down to C), only one note repeats before all twelve tones are used. Two voices alternate in a canon at the tritone, the dissonant interval that divides an octave into perfect halves.

  • Bass voice (dux): D♭-C-D-E♭-B-B♭-A
  • Treble voice (comes): G-F♯-G♯-A-F-E-E♭
  • Interval pattern: 1 (-½) 2 (+1) 3 (+½) 4 (-2) 5 (-½) 6 (-½) 7

The A in the treble voice is the first note that repeats, following the 10th unique tone (G♯). The A is followed by F, the 11th unique tone, and E is the 12th; then E♭ is another repeat. As standard in a canon, these two voices are identical; one of them is merely transposed up a tritone.

This pattern repeats four and a half times before the ending, which contains all the elements of C7, the dominant 7th chord in the key of F Minor, except for the unnecessary, "implied" 5th (G). The most prominent elements are the C and B♭ (1 and 7 in the C7 chord), but the third (E) can be heard in the background instruments, primarily violin and glockenspiel.

The ending of M201 indeed functions as a dominant leading into the title card music, M202, which is a "Mystical Adventure!" reference in F Minor.

Usage

References

  1. "The DragonBall BGM Daizenshuu" (11 June 2008). The Suburbs of kenisu's Magicant. Retrieved: 30 June 2019.