Excellent piano playing and scoring. Kajiura songs always utilize key changes and relationships in interesting and metaphorical ways, as I’ve attempted to dissect on before.
I am going to try and off the cuff response to this song
Far on the Water is another song that utilizes the music to express a concept through not just the lyrics but beneath all of that, the key progressions and melodies, kind of like the shape of the course/circuit the ‘vehicle’ of the melody will go down, carrying the lyrics on it.
I’m cross-comparing the lyric, the performance, and the score you wrote (very nicely i might add), and I’ll try and explain the key relationships here both bit by bit, and then overall to tie it up in a neat little knot.
——————————
The first musical phrase after this intro part moves in F# minor with the motif beginning on the pickup to measure 18, the section transitioning (B as I’ll call it) between the Opening (A), and (C) - C being the A major part you focused on. This F minor is an important transition because it expression the trepidation and anxiety of entering the boat, beginning the first ‘wave’ or ‘ripples’ in the water with the metaphorical paddle.
You mentioned how there is a transition to F# Major, within the 2nd half of this little (B) section - yes, this is the crux of it. The switch from F sharp minor to major seems abrupt and strange, but only if you are looking at it from a purely musical standpoint, but combined with the implied meaning of the song this makes more sense
We are moving from ‘unreliable radiance’ into the yearning for our (that one) future, this is important as minor moves into major, from trepidation to confidence.
F sharp minor is the natural minor state F# occurring within D major, so this is a natural trepidation, and fitting. But quickly is overturned into the precondition for Aflat major, the key of the setting out towards the ‘yearning’ for the future, the overturning of the trepidation if you will.
A harmonic outline of the piece is this, from my quick read:
1. [D major -> (#F major)] —>
2. [A Major - > (F flat major/E Major)] —>
3. [D major -> (#F major)] —>
4. [A Major (intro section)- > (A Major recap) ->] —>
5. [A Major ((F flat major/E Major intro) -> (A flat Major finale section/cadenza)]
[Aflat Major] - within this section we have more trepidation expressed as D natural often appears which leads/portends into C minor, the relative minor of Aflat Major (G major being the V for C minor in the so-called melodic minor), but then jumps back to the initial uplifting ‘adventure start’ theme that characterizes this Aflat section, so it demonstrates a sort of ‘vacillation’ on the part of the character who isn’t sure of their destination yet.
At measure 48 the song moves into the ethereal range one octave up, implying the rarified and exalted feeling of finally being ‘far on the water’ - or the liminal point of being off the shore but not yet at the final destination - and so the mystical kajiurago lyrics come up to portray this mysterious yet exalted idea, being carried off to their destination by fate or what have you.
At measure 55 the song moves into F flat major - a theoretical key which is rarely used because it can more simply be notated as E major, which we can interpret as the turning point of the song from the liminal phase back into the strident A major phase which carries on again at measure 59-62, implying that the F flat major was a extended tonal variation within A flat major (or an arc if you will, which you depict nicely with arpeggiations), and then landing back at home key of D major.
Here at measure 62 we have a recapitulation of the intro. melody/setting off theme, but re-arranged to be a resting place for that theme, in other words a reflection of the original theme in order to put it to rest, or looking fondly back on it with the confidence endowed from the journey of the Amajor section. I can say this is implied not just by the slower, more serene tempo, but because more major chords are borrowed into this section from F sharp major, rather than falling back into F sharp minor as they did at the start.
Measure 72-75 depicts a a descending line that implies a relaxation of tension/coming down off of an anxiety and may be a sort of word-painting to reflect the new-found ideas gleaned from their moving ‘onto the water’.
As you can see, there is a prolonged resting on F sharp major at measure 85-88 before moving into the next section.
the final section is in Aflat M (starting M. 89), it begins with a slower, longer notes intro which contains more references to C major, followed by a more strict melodic recap, but it contains references to the previous parts of the song in interspersed ways, almost as if playing on top of each other such as in measure 97 and on, which may reflect the lyrics, as to convey their story from start to finish in retrospect, an epilogue if you will
the truth is that
we just point at a distance
rather than actually going
once our ship abides with the wind
it will advance towards the future
the light shines
beyond the dark ocean
(ifito)
our disappearing song
will (fito) surely reach you
This part of the song has references to C minor like before, as well as Cmajor which is considered the cardinal key, the most basic key with no sharps/flats, which reinforces the message of ‘understanding the whole story’ and ‘settling in’ - you can see this continuously in say M. 92, M. 100, the vacillation between implying C minor/major here as discussed in the earlier part of the song with F# makes more sense now in context of the brief slower intro which is a very comforting “coming to peace” moment - an example of tone painting.
At measure 114 we are moving into the final ‘cadenza’ section which contains harmonic anomalies to lead us to the conclusion, which again will be in Aflat Major.
This brief intro to the cadenza from 114 -> 119 is in Fflat Major once again, which is a bit of a reference to the excited arpeggiated section in Part 2(outline above), but quickly leads us to relax in the serene state in Aflat Major again, rather than going back to D major.
I believe this ending signifies the ‘handing off’ of the theme to the listener from the singer, who did not return to their starting place but were carried into the serenity ‘beyond the dark ocean’ as the continuation of their journey; if they had returned to D major the song would ultimately be meaningless. They have handed off this message to the listener/audience. They wanted to display the heights of the serenity waiting for them, thus the brief call to Fflat major/E major, before returning the substrata of Aflat Major.
Now you are probably wondering why this all relates to D major and how so?
——————————
A common type of cadence you found in court music of the 17th century in Italy was called the Neopolitan Sixth or ‘flat 2nd’ in practice, to force a major-major cadence to create a more uplifting sounding cadence when one wouldn’t normally be possible, or to modulate more smoothly.
For instance D major authentic cadence progression might often be like this, in chords: DMajor - G Major - A Major - D Major.
But to force a cadence to match you can lower the E to E-flat (or practically speaking D #) and ‘force’ a major chord into a cadence such as “D Major - D sharp major/E flat major - A Major, D major’.
This isn’t normally called a key change but just a tonal borrowing, or variation such as when in say A minor, the E chord is major in order to give a ‘alternate color’ to the major cadence of a-E-A. In other words its a coloration but it has harmonic implications.
Here is a better explanation than I give, with examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_chord
This song can thus be seen in two different ways - as either being grounded in D major or A flat major, and thus moving from its ground or moving away from its ground, or as being a progression from D to A flat through various transformations. Arguably either is accurate, but I’ll explain why the key choice is not random.
It can’t be the case that D major is being used as a plagal cadence to end up in Aflat Major, since Dflat rather than D is native to Aflat major. It also can’t be that the Aflat major is meant as a backward reference to the authentic cadence to return to D, since A natural is native to D major rather than A flat. Also taking into considering how the story is about departing onto the water and achieving or finding a sort of brilliance or serenity, neither of those explanations is sufficient.
So idea #1: The Neopolitan chord for D major is E flat major - created by diminishing the E minor to E Flat Major. If you use this diminished chord to then transition to A major, you have a very natural sounding modulation which comes about unexpectedly.
Here is a pic I made on my scoring app, Notion:
https://i.imgur.com/6vJKaM1.png
here is what it sounds like :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eMZ204mm_3QyDS27Zo33Lu_1rQ92oOmJ
the problem with this is the lack of Eflat major chords in this piece. So I scratch my head wondering how to draw the conclusion from D to Aflat.
Well the best theory I can come up with right now is this:
Firstly E flat is the Vth or Dominant of A flat major, meaning the most crucial chord for resolving progressions in the key of Aflat Major, as V - I is the standard progression of western music theory. So in a sense, E flat is in fact implied as a chord missing between D and A flat major as a natural modulation crux somewhere along the line.
Well it also happens to be that the Neo. chord for this missing key of Eflat Major is in fact F flat major, or in other words E major enharmonically speaking. This F flat major appears as a crucial key change, as mentioned earlier, around measure 55 during the liminal phase of the song, heading from dark into light/dusk to dawn/asleep to awake.
The Fflat Major section appears immediately following the Aflat major section at measure 54, and also resolves back to it in measure 59. F flat major is also modulated to in the final cadenza section in part 5. in the outline above, in measure 115 and back again to Aflat.
You also have to keep in mind that E flat Major is a key that occurs naturally within Aflat Major, so even if it is not played clearly it is always implied as an anchor, a counter-force to the Aflat major key. In fact the lack of usage of Eflat major chords outright almost implies an intended avoidance of it. Is this an allusion to the lyrics;
we just point at a distance
rather than actually going
once our ship abides with the wind
it will advance towards the future
the light shines
beyond the dark ocean
our disappearing song
will (fito) surely reach you
its almost like the music itself is cognizant of this ephemeral, evasive outline of its path, only alluding to its destiny
heres a demonstration and sound sample of how the progression from Eflat - Fflat - Aflat major sounds good, theoretically
https://i.imgur.com/Im8jxsX.png
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14GzGAsJWAVkkFc1Si_Rfv6h5_MMJ_eHN
Judging from the confluence of factors, I can only judge that this allows us to assume that the harmonic progression of works because of this implied correlation. I don’t see where in the music there is an outright modulation to E major but it certainly is alluded to in the Aflat sections, and in fact they can’t be separated in terms of importance, and thus E major is always implied in Aflat major. So my thesis is that the double intertwined progressions of D to Aflat and Eflat to Aflat by way of ‘shuffle’ chords has allowed D to wind up at Aflat through the power of allusion and transformative passages, the two progressions overlap like a Venn diagram to speak
If D is the cardinal ‘starting point’ and Aflat is the goal, you must then construct a ‘musical path’ to get from one place to the next. I hope my key here helps to guide how this was done.
Now yes the song is a pop song and not a ’symphonic poem’ so in fact it may be formulaic, but therein lies the genius of meshing a catchy and memorable tune with a more profound progression.
If you look at some of my past posts I’ve also done this sort of analysis on other Yuki and Kala songs so you could say I have experience with this
Sorry if this is really long but its actually a project I’ve had on the backburner in my mind for months.
;P
———————
Tl;DR ; Music theory wankery, ignore at will