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" Infinite Incomplete Cycles: Musicial and Narrative Transformation in Nier and Nier: Automata "
Greene, Christopher
Lehman, Frank
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1053663
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| Doc. No
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TL52780
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| Main Entry
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Greene, Christopher
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| Title & Author
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Infinite Incomplete Cycles: Musicial and Narrative Transformation in Nier and Nier: Automata\ Greene, ChristopherLehman, Frank
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| College
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Tufts University
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| Date
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2020
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| Degree
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M.A.
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2020
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| Note
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65 p.
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| Abstract
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The last twenty years have seen an explosion in ludomusicological writing. While some early work has been done on the analysis of video game music, pioneered by scholars such as Elizabeth Medina-Grey, Sean Atkinson, and Jason Brame, many fruitful methods of inquiry have remained untapped. While the intricacies of dynamic game music can be a daunting task for analysts, one can look to ludomusicology’s cousin, film music studies, for inspiration. While film scores do not have the same indeterminacy as video game scores, many video game scores take inspiration from the cinematic style of film scoring, particularly video games in the RolePlaying Game (RPG) genre. One video game series that received particular acclaim for its music is the Nier franchise. Consisting of two games, three manga, several novellas, and at least three different stage plays, what began as a cult classic has grown into a full-blown franchise. Just as many film scores will re-use and rearrange various themes and motives between entries to reflect character, setting, or story developments, the Nier series features music that ties to specific characters, events, or meta-level story structures that is maintained or transformed in some way. This thesis aims to examine the music of Nier and its sequel Nier: Automata through the lens of linear reduction and harmonic analysis to show unity across the series as well as demonstrate the viability of such techniques on the analysis of video game music. As both Nier and Nier: Automata contain massive soundtracks, each one worthy of a full analysis on its own, the scope of this thesis will be narrowed down to four tracks that appear in one or multiple forms across both games: “Grandma,” “Song of the Ancients,” “Emil,” and “Dark Colossus.” These four tracks are tied to specific characters or are used in specific story moments in the original Nier and reappear, like echoes, in Nier: Automata. By examining the harmonic and melodic transformations that these tracks go through, I will elucidate their narrative and character significance. This is accomplished through adopting linear reductive techniques in the spirit of Schenkerian analysis, if not exact in original aesthetics and usage.
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| Descriptor
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Music
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Music theory
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Lehman, Frank
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Tufts University
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