Vestiges of the Ancients
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"Vestiges of the Ancients" is a theme from Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe that plays primarily in stages of Raisin Ruins. It was composed by Jun Ishikawa.[1]
Composition[edit]
"Vestiges of the Ancients" is a speed jazz song set on the key of C minor. It starts mostly melody-less at first, with a heavy and quick percussion pattern, and also introduces its main countermelody consisting of a diminished triad, both of which persist for the whole song. The main melody then kicks in, played within a hexatonic C minor blues scale, which contrasts with the A natural heard in the counterpoint. The first section of the melody has no rests at all, playing out in a long phrase. The first segment of this section only uses one note at a time, and starts slow at first with only a half note and some quarter notes, but then it speeds up with only eighth notes, ending with the last bars also using some sixteenth notes. The next segment also only uses one note at a time and starts fairly slow, with only quarter and eighth notes, but soon it blasts off in speed with a fast melody mostly consisting of sixteenth notes. The following segment is much slower, and it instead uses only dyads of half notes and quarter notes. The section that follows instead features rests, and its first segment only uses triads, and uses many types of notes, but mostly eighth notes. The triads eventually go up in pitch until the song reaches a climax and transitions to the next segment, that only uses tetrads of quarter notes, which also keep going up in pitch, until another climax is reached. The song then goes back to the roots where it started, only using one note at a time, and mostly using quarter notes, with some eighth notes, ending with two tetrads in its final bar. The song then loops.
The data of the original Kirby's Return to Dream Land contains an arrangement of "Vestiges of the Ancients" which goes unused, featuring more retro-style instrumentation. The track's filename is KbyW_MINE1, fitting in with the other similarly named tracks. It's also worth noting that the final track's filename is IUK_LP_MINE1.
Game appearances[edit]
Kirby's Return to Dream Land / Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe[edit]
In Kirby's Return to Dream Land and its remake, the theme plays in some rooms of the first stage of Raisin Ruins, as well as in the second stage, and in most of the fourth stage. It also plays in a room in the first stage of Dangerous Dinner.
Trivia[edit]
- The title of the song alludes to the "ancients" mentioned by Magolor in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, which goes along with the mobile North American website of the game that calls the structures in Raisin Ruins "ancient temples".
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 古代の人々のあとかた Kodai no hitobito no atokata |
Traces of the Ancients |
| Traditional Chinese | 古代人們的行跡 Gǔdài rénmen de xíngjì |
Traces of Ancient People |
| Simplified Chinese | 古代人们的行迹 Gǔdài rénmen de xíngjì | |
| Dutch | Sporen van de voorouders | Traces of the ancestors |
| French | Vestiges des anciens | Vestiges of the ancients |
| German | Was von den Urvätern blieb | What remained from the Forefathers |
| Italian | Tracce degli antichi | Traces of the ancients |
| Korean | 고대인들의 흔적 godaeindeul-ui heunjeog |
Traces of the Ancients |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Ruínas ancestrais | Ancient ruins |
| Spanish | Vestigios de los ancestros | Vestiges of the ancestors |
