Yes, I love how Kajiura's songs are emotionally complex and so can be interpreted in many different ways. I think you can discover new depths to her songs even if you continue to listen to them over and over again.
Yane no Mukou ni has a nostalgic, whimsical quality with a tinge of sorrow. It's undoubtedly a gentle and cheerful song, but I also feel undertones of regret and longing. There's definitely something else lurking beneath the happiness, as mentioned before with:
I want to laugh with a shine, always
telling you tender lies
And here:
Because the rotating spinning wheel,
shortening our counting song,
spins out invisible things
that increase unnoticed
To me, rather than being a tragic song, I think it sounds more like the song that would play after the tragedy, conveying hope for the future, liberation from past sadness. That's why I'd call the song 'happy' but not 'light', because I still feel an underlying darkness that seems to make the song 'heavier' and gives it more depth. I think Yane no Mukou ni is bittersweet, but optimistic.
Of course, there's also the effect of Wakana's voice which, as Yuki said, can make any song sound tragic or sad
We don't know whether Yuki intended to use Wakana to imply sadness beneath the cheerfulness of the song, or if the vocal part allocations were in fact irrelevant (Or do Sony people allocate the singing parts and decide who sings what?
) And even though Wakana certainly isn't sounding her most tragic in this song, and we know she is capable of singing happier, I don't think she quite fully reaches that sort of mood in Yane no Mukou ni...
But of course, this is all subjective, and it really doesn't matter if you think it's a happy song or tragic song, or something in between. I'm sure Yuki would have wanted and expected people to interpret it differently. (To the point of dropping in mysterious lyrics that sound different on each occasion
>.> /looks at manten)
On a side-note, Yuki writes beautiful, poetry-like lyrics
I hope she doesn't write the more tragic ones from personal experience
P.S. Liana, you should share some of your poetry with us!