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Music for Kindred

l Main Renekton·10/15/2015, 2:57:16 AM·1 votes·1,515 views

People are writing how beautiful the piece is, but to me it sounds strikingly similar to Morton Feldman's Intersection 2.

If you don't know what aleatoric music is, you should look it up.

My point being, most of you are probably thinking "Wow Riot is probably putting so much work into making the music for each champion thematic and fitting, yet sounds beautiful at the same time."

But really? You guys could literally plot music using Jackson Pollock and graph paper and record sheet music that wouldn't sound too far off from what Riot has presented in the login screen. And you guys will slam the downvote button yelling "But it's thematic and symbolic and so important for the champion design!" because that's what you guys do. You'll talk about how beautifully the instrumental selections contrast each other but what Riot has done completely defies the meaning of music theory and is the reason that this genre of music is considered "experimental" in the first place.

Constant tension by random chords and random add ins of instruments is not meaningful.

FITFO.

3 Comments

Ed the Conqueror10/15/2015, 6:27:24 AM4 votes

Hey Nuclear Braum,

Thanks for being so passionate about the way you feel regarding Kindred.

While I will not comment on matters of taste (you're absolutely entitled to your own, and should feel completely free to express it, so as long as you remain polite - which you have!), I would like to address some of the points that you are raising here regarding "factual" issues.

it sounds strikingly similar to Morton Feldman's Intersection 2.

If you don't know what aleatoric music is, you should look it up.

Yeah... I just listened to the piece you referenced. Quite frankly I don't get the comparison. I'm not going to speak about Morton Feldman's music (I'm not a fan of post modern music myself), but I can shed some light on the harmonic vocabulary used in Kindred.

what Riot has done completely defies the meaning of music theory and is the reason that this genre of music is considered "experimental" in the first place.

Constant tension by random chords and random add ins of instruments is not meaningful.

Kindred has nothing, and I repeat, nothing to do with aleatoric music. There is a theme, the music is fully tonal, and uses very common Western harmony. Pretty much every dissonance gets resolved, and, with very few exceptions, the chord progression goes through an immuable staple of standard harmony, namely subdominant -> dominant -> tonic (or variations on that). There is nothing random in here.

More specifically, Kindred largely uses Romantic harmony (and doesn't even really venture into "late" Romanticism). The only oddity might be the B minor chord (we're largely in the key of D minor throughout the piece), which is more along the lines of modal interchange, a common harmonic device used since the 60ies in popular music.

Would you say that musical devices that have been around for nearly 200 years and are still used to this very day across a wide variety of styles are "experimental"?

If I wasn't so busy working on our next project (which doesn't include aleatoric music, nor unusual harmony!), I'd be tempted to provide a full harmonic analysis of Kindred. Off the top of my head, every single note in this piece is justifiable from a music grammar standpoint (which is not to say that they sound good - just that they're part of the Western music vocabulary).

Again, I'm not trying to sell you on the idea that you should like Kindred, but the Morton Feldman reference was really far-fetched, and quite frankly, I wouldn't want our players to be led to thinking that we're just putting random notes on paper.

Thanks for voicing your concerns!

Ed the Conqueror

Toa Innodence10/15/2015, 5:54:00 AM1 votes

I honestly feel that the piece is more about the thematic differences between the piano's energetic bounding around like that of a lamb and the cello's somber and predatory stance.

the whole piece comes together with introducing the lamb as it bounds around in ignorant joy, followed by the introduction of the slinking wolf, which discovers the said lamb and watches on. the lamb unaware of the nature of the wolf, notices the onlooker and approaches, and the wolf indulges, slinking around the lamb almost playfully, to which the lamb responds with bounding enthusiasm, but just as all things seem well, something happens at 1:50. The wolf attacks, striking the lamb. the lamb realizes that all this time it was playing with death and tries bounding away only to be held down in the jaws of the wolf, the lamb kicking with the last of it's life before death falls upon it (the "intersection 2 you claim this entire piece to be). what we are left with is the somber wolf, who maybe fells remorse for ending a life, but as he finishes his meal, he slinks off, leaving the corpse behind.

I may be slamming you for the reason you expected. but only because you fail to see the underlying story this is trying to achieve. the chords are purposefully discordant in the climax for action and drama, and in various sprinkles for foreshadowing and anticipation.

hopefully you read this fully through. I'd love to hear your rebuttal. Kindred

Zielmann10/15/2015, 2:39:35 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nuclear Braum,realm=NA,application-id=aAJWt2b9,discussion-id=3u5TFhPm,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-10-15T02:57:16.050+0000) And you guys will slam the downvote button yelling "But it's thematic and symbolic and so important for the champion design!" because that's what you guys do. You'll talk about how beautifully the instrumental selections contrast each other but what Riot has done completely defies the meaning of music theory and is the reason that this genre of music is considered "experimental" in the first place.

I slammed the downvote button because you're just dead wrong, musically speaking.