One-Winged Angel
I've been meaning to write about this for some time now, but I kept putting it off. Other things distracted me and...
Well, anyway, about-must be two months now- I saw the Carmina Burana, the musical/opera that's based off some really old Latin poems. The entire thing was maybe 30-40 minutes (of course, that's based on my horrible skills of estimation), and was quite exciting. Especially since we got front row seats. A small town like mine, and not only was it showing, but we got Front Row Seats!
The thing that made me really excited about this, though, was that I heard that Uematsu's "One-Winged Angel" was based on this musical. And so, throughout the entire thing, I found myself straining to hear any familiar parts.
I was not disappointed. During that first fiery theme, "O Fortuna", I was rewarded by the sound and sight of a hundred vocalists chanting:
Sors immanis Fate - monstrous
et inanis, and empty,
rota tu volubilis, you whirling wheel,
status malus, you are malevolent,
vana salus well-being is vain
semper dissolubilis, and always fades to nothing,
obumbrata shadowed
et velata and veiled
michi quoque niteris; you plague me too;
nunc per ludum now through the game
dorsum nudum I bring my bare back
fero tui sceleris. to your villainy.
Then, "In the Tavern"...fast and furious, like a dance in an inferno...
Estuans interius Burning inside
ira vehementi with violent anger,
in amaritudine bitterly
loquor mee menti: I speak to my heart:
factus de materia, created from matter,
cinis elementi of the ashes of the elements,
similis sum folio, I am like a leaf
de quo ludunt venti. played with by the winds.
(Hey look! The word "materia" is in there!)
And near the end, repeated and overlapped as a round..
Veni, veni, venias, Come, come, O come,
ne me mori facias, do not let me die,
hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, hycra, hycre, nazaza,
trillirivos... trillirivos!
(appearantly, those last words don't translate into anything...)
Basically, the entire musical revolves around cruel fate, and the insipid quality of life and...
Generally, not a happy story at all.
..I could swear there was a part of the tune that Nobou borrowed as well. It was in one of the love songs, with the girl singing it. It reminded me of a part in Those Chosen by the Planet (you know, the creepy song with organ and gong that plays during Nibelheim? I'm mentioning Chosen because it reappears in every Sephiroth-related theme, including OWA.)
In music notes, it would be ..... B-flat C B-flat C D-flat E-flat D-flat C B-flat
This little progression of notes doesn't appear in OWA, but still...I'll have to find a video for this, and see if I was right.
Oh, yes, those wonderful translations were provided by http://www.classical.net/~music/comp.lst/works/orff-cb/carmlyr.html . What, did you think I could translate entire songs in Latin from months-old memory. Even I can't be that awesome all the time...
This opera inspired me so much, I got out my Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections Book and....
Well, I did about as good a job as someone who doesn't play piano can do. I was determined though to do this song, which lead me to using a computer music program *coughcheatchough* where I could simply enter notes on a staff and let it play itself. Easy, right?
First off, I didn't know how to use the program anymore than I could play piano. However, I know computers pretty well, so I managed to figure out the basics without even using the help menu. Put down notes of the right length, at the right spot in the staff, remember key and time signature, watch out for triplets and slurs and ties and...
Why is my favorite song the hardest in the book?
Within the song (and I'm looking at it right now) there are: 3 key changes, a brief stint into 7/8 time, anywhere between 3 and 5 different melodies/parts running at the same time (I have new respect for the person who plays this on the piano soundtrack CD. Seiji Honda, was it? A demon at the keyboard!). Plus, the program was being difficult. Whole notes would get broken into eighth-notes, notes from the treble clef would end up in bass..And don't forget the dynamics...
It took me almost a week, but in the end, I had something that actually impressed both my family and -this is truely uncommon-myself. I might not be able to play it, but for a moment there, I owned that song.
I wonder what my bell teacher would have said if I suggested we play that? It can't be much harder than Capriccio...
And this eventually led to me trying to learn those extra bits in Advent: OWA, including the words. It bugged me that I only knew a couple of them. But when I looked up the words, I wanted to know what they meant, which led to...
Chorus 1:
NOLI (be unwilling; refuse to)
MANERE (stay)
IN (in)
MEMORIA (memory)
Chorus 2:
SAEVAM (savage; fierce; violent)
IRAM (anger; wrath)
ET (and)
DOLOREM (pain; misery; anguish; sorrow)
Verse:
FERUM (wild; savage; fierce)
TERRIBILE (frightful; terrible)
FATUM (fate; destiny; doom; calamity)
Chorus 1
Bridge:
VENI (come [command])
MI (my)
FILI (son; child)
HIC (this; these; here, in this place)
VENI (come [command])
DA (give; offer; surrender)
MIHI (me; myself )
MORTEM (death)
ITERUM (again; a second time;)
Bridge 2:
Composed of:
Chorus 1
Chorus 2
Verse
Followed by:
ILLE (he; that)
ITERUM (again; a second time)
VENIET (to come; will come)
Closing (male part):
MI (my)
FILI (son; child)
VENI (come [command])
Closing (female part):
QUI (who; that; which)
MORTEM (death)
INVITAVIS (reluctant to)
POENA (pain; punishment; revenge)
FUNESTA (deadly; calamitous; destructive)
NATUS (birth; born)
NOLI (be unwilling; refuse to)
NOMEN (name)
VOCARE (call; summon; invoke)
ILLE (he; that)
ITERUM (again; a second time)
VENIET (to come; will come)
Like I said, I don't know Latin, and have no way of learning it. This is very rough, and subject to some interpretation.
I was talking to my online friend Zain one night, and mentioned this song. Thus spawned the following conversation... (I'm 1wngdngl, in case you couldn't figure it out ; /)
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls I was trying to translate Advent owa earlier
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls but latin is evil
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl mhm
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl very
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls the nouns not so much, but the verbs...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls denclensions, tenses, infinitives...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls :'(
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl .. ... .... .....
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls so, i can tell that someone dies, someone is calling someone, and someone is angry, but not WHIch someone
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl ><
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XD
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls i really want to know who the song is directed to, and who its from
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls in any case, NOT a happy song,,,
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl hmm tried asking a pro ?
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl I mean
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl you are a clllege student
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl use the resources
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls ech
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls doesn't really work unless i've got a lot of time to actually learn the grammer rules
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls I've got most of it though...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Do not allow yourself to remain in memory"
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Fierce anger, and misery"
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl sounds like talking to Sephiroth
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl :I will, never be. A memeory"
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls is what I thought!
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Wild and terrible fate"
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl ^.^
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Come to this place, as I offer myself in death again"
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl sounds a lot lik etalking to Sephi
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl *note: I shortened his name differently thatn i normalydo
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls plus, his name is all over that song
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl LMAO
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Who is reluctant to die, who is born for deadly revenge?"
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl ... ... yeah Sephi
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls veni, veni mi fili
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls come, my son
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls "Refuse to call the name, of those who are to come again"
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl Sounds like Jenova (JENova) takling
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl mhm
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls 0-0
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls she can sing?
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl Its a possibility
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls the world will never know o-o
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XD
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls or you could go up to Seph and ask "Was Jenova singing that song during your fight with Cloud"
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls ?
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl LMAO
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Sephiroth:...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Sephiroth : ...I thought I heard something...o-0
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : Wait, you heard it too?
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : Are you one of Mother's children?
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XD
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Me : No, no I'm not :S
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : Cloud, did you hear it?
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Cloud : You're asking about this now?
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph: Just answer the question like a good little puppet...>3
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XD
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Cloud : Fine, fine, I think I might have heard something, but I couldn't make it out, what with fighting for my life and all...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Cloud: Although, I think they were calling your name...
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : WHAT?
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : That's...mildly disturbing
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl lol
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Cloud: This is coming from the guy who refers to an alien corpse as his mother...|-)
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph: You're just jealous because she likes me better than you.
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Cloud : As though I would want her - it - to like me
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls Seph : How Dare you refer to Mother as an it?! For that you will die!
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl LMFAO
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls *Music starts again*
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl ROFLMAO
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls 'Veni Veni Mi Fili*
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls *Fight continues*
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls ok, i'm done now (sigh)
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XDXD
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl Taht was great
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl *saves*
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls *also saves*
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls i've been meaning to do something like that for a while, but never got around to it
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl XD
Zain - Writer of Scrolls 1wngdngl I'm glad i bring it out of you ;)
1wngdngl Zain - Writer of Scrolls yeah, shanks! *hug*
Wow, just looking at this makes a great idea for a fic. And there are tons of other conversations I've had about FF with him. Maybe I should put some of them up..
The sad part about all this is that I was singing this song while getting ready for my sister's wedding. Not really appropriate, but it sounded cool with the good acoustics...
*Edit note - Fixed some spelling and formatting, and improved the readability of the song lyrics. I've since improved my translation a bit, but I kept the original here, otherwise the MSN convo doesn't make as much sense. 12/13/07