Ceremony

February 28, 2021

In our article on Thanatos, we established his character as a literal personification of evil (like so many other antagonists).  How he arrived in the Emperor’s circle is unknown. Dialogue from the Japanese version tells us that he was a recent addition to the inner circle.

Ceremony is more or less Thanatos’ theme.  We hear it four times: once in each Ruins, and briefly in the Grand Palace and the Mana Fortress when we encounter him.  Its title sheds light not only on the thematic focus of the music, but perhaps on Thanatos himself.  If Thanatos is the embodiment of evil, what is the idea of a Ceremony that follows him?  It’s not difficult to see the prospect of a religious cult surrounding Thanatos, albeit an involuntary one as the followers in Pandora and the Empire appear to be under his control.  The theme of a hellish cult surrounding a malevolent entity can also be found with that of Kefka in Final Fantasy VI, or the zealotry of the elites in Chrono Trigger in regards to the power of Lavos.  As Dyluck tells us, Thanatos sold himself to the underworld, so perhaps the ritual is actually an appeal to a higher (or lower) authority.  The ceremony motif may also reference his dark magic.  Thanatos can manipulate “life forces”, turning other people into mindless servants, or transferring his own to other people to live indefinitely.  

Kikuta has spoken of his interest in minimalism, and Ceremony is a model of this.  It has a gamelan arrangement, consisting of the sound of two bells struck with mallets, then a flute and a gong.  The gong opens the piece, and the low bass remains as a drone for the first section.  The lack of resolution and persistent intensity of this drone gives the rest of the instruments an appropriately unnerving sound.  A bell plays the top line with one note per beat, while another bell plays a supporting rhythm underneath. A low flute plays a phrase mostly between the notes of the top line.  The choice of notes here often results in dissonance with the high bell, giving the sound its unsettling quality.  Side note—I played this track for an Indonesian friend who didn’t think of it that way—all she wanted to do is dance.

Ceremony uses the notes of the pelog scale starting on F#:

At :25, there’s a rush of sound that calls both a gong and a wailing choir to mind.  This intensifies the track, but the flute and middle voice pause and only the upper line of bells is heard. After this, the piece repeats ad infinitum, even with the introductory gongs, meaning the ritual is repeated forever.

In 2018, the middle bell was changed to a purely rhythmic timbre, eschewing the melodic accompaniment of the SNES version.  This track also removes the reverb of the earlier version. Ironically, it sounds more synthetic, although it does replicate the unique feel of the original.

We may not have the explicit pronouncement of a cult aspect to Thanatos, but can get an idea with Ceremony.  A fun one to blast your friends with while driving at night in the middle of nowhere (I may know from experience).