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Beautiful Prison

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Beautiful Prison
Various arrangements of "Beautiful Prison".
Details
Debut appearance Kirby: Triple Deluxe (2014)
Last appearance Kirby Star Allies (2018)
Composer(s) Jun Ishikawa[1]
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"Beautiful Prison"[2] is a theme from Kirby: Triple Deluxe associated with the final level of the game, Royal Road, in particular the captured People of the Sky. It was composed by Jun Ishikawa.[1]

Composition[edit]

Kirby rescues a prisoner.

"Beautiful Prison" is a sombre piece in A minor. It has irregular and constantly changing time signatures, a trait previously heard in "VS. Marx"; however, "Beautiful Prison" has a distinct pattern in such changes. The track has a short piano intro that sets the harmony and continues as the accompaniment. The initial phrase of the melody, played within a diminished fifth, has two bars of 5/4, one staccato and the other legato, while its development, based on the second bar, is in 6/4 and uses a single set of triplets each time it plays. The melody and its development play twice with instrumental changes. The second time, the development is extended, even including a bar of 8/4 (or two of 5/4 and 3/4 respectively), and has primarily rising intonations with a diminished descending broken chord at the end. The same happens once again, with different lead instruments. After these two segments end, there is a transition before a slow, eerie version of the "Reflected Laughter" opening comes, fitting within 6/4. Its final chord repeats on a suspense with a bell before suddenly transitioning back to the intro, at which point the track loops.

Game appearances[edit]

Kirby: Triple Deluxe[edit]

In its debut appearance, "Beautiful Prison" plays in Royal Road - Stage 5. It is also incorporated in the music for the "Divine Beauty" cutscene.

Kirby Star Allies[edit]

In Kirby Star Allies, "Beautiful Prison" can be heard in specific areas of Extra Planet β. It is also a part of the dimension levels' theme, "The Legend of Last World", a medley of final level music from various games. In this medley, it begins from the latter half before reaching its main melody.

Trivia[edit]

  • In 2018, Hirokazu Ando chose this song as his favorite theme by Jun Ishikawa. What stood out the most to him was the irregular time signatures and the parallel motion of the harmonies. He named it a "well-polished song" "overflowing with originality", and pointed out how it could only had been composed by Ishikawa.[3]

Names in other languages[edit]

Language Name Meaning
Japanese 監獄かんごく
bi no kangoku
Beautiful Prison


References