Space Battleship Yamato
“Farewell, Earth. The ship we’re travelling in is Space Battleship Yamato…”
This is the theme song of Space Battleship Yamato, which was a hit movie based on the popular TV anime. The sequel to this SF anime was released in the summer of 1978, and it was a big hit again. A few years ago there was an occult boom, and recently there has been a big hit in SF movies, but this summer in particular it seems that the SF boom has reached its climax with the two films Star Wars and Farewell to Yamato.
Although we refer to them both as science fiction, there is a slight difference between SF and what is called space opera, and fans clearly distinguish between the two. It is more appropriate to call Star Wars and Yamato space opera.
Space opera is a space adventure story. To put it bluntly, it is far-fetched, but interesting. SF is a bit more logical and denser in literary terms. In short, you can think of space opera as a storybook and SF as a literary work. The movie Close Encounters belongs to the field of SF, and the theme of this movie is contact with aliens, which is different in quality from Star Wars where people fight with ray guns and lightsabers.
Enough with the lecture, let’s change the theme completely and enjoy the two songs of Yamato, the main theme and sub theme.
Main theme
I know what you’ll say about this, but when I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with the movie Kato Hayabusa Fighter Squadron and was intoxicated by the title song [listen to it here and here]. Now, when I watch Yamato and listen to the song, I feel the same way as I did back then. I am not the only one who feels this way. Middle-aged intellectuals have commented that “the militaristic spirit of national defense is once again in Yamato. I get the same feeling from this film as I did when watching wartime films to inspire morale.” Most middle-aged people, however, sneer at the idea of young people being obsessed with manga.
“To the far reaches of space, to Iscandar, we take off with fate on our shoulders…”
“Someone has to do this, we’re the ones everyone is counting on…”
The lyrics of the second theme, “In the heart of a man leaving, he wants a piece of romance, lalalalalala,” warm the hearts of young people and even bring tears to their eyes.
Play the A section with a dignified feeling. You could use a 1-finger Rasgueado for the triplets. Add narration such as, “Yamato is about to put an end to the 296,000 light-year round trip of adventure and romance. I miss everything about Earth.” to create the atmosphere.
At the end of the A section, the rhythm gets a little faster, and a light eighth-note rhythm is introduced. In the first 5 measures of the B section, the female chorus sings a beautiful melody of “La Ti Do Re Mi” in a high octave, and the bass is very active. The melody then moves to a high note, but playing the F chord is a little difficult. The bass note on the first beat should be F, but it has been omitted.
After the quarter note triplet, an arpeggio appears four times, played with “pim” fingering. This imitates a trumpet playing “PA RA RA! PA RA RA!”
The Scarlet Scarf
The interlude begins with an A minor chord, then the intro is four bars long. The tempo is slowed down a little here. The main theme is similar to the theme song of an NHK Taiga TV drama, but the second theme is in a moody style.
The first half of the C section is a simple arrangement, using the Carter Family picking style of folk guitar, where the melody is played with the thumb and the other fingers fill in the chords. The second half cannot be played the same way, so it is arranged as an arpeggio.
In the D section, the melody moves to a higher register. This is the part that goes, “In the heart of a man setting out on a journey…” This should be played with a rock beat, but I’ve arranged it as a tango or habañera. Please mute the notes as indicated by the rests. After “Ra Ra Ra…” a triple arpeggio appears twice. It’s a common technique, but let’s make it cool. The last phrase is the same as the intro, but then ends on a 9th chord. This is also typical of a moody pop song.
Both songs were transcribed from the soundtrack, so I apologize for the roughness of the harmonies.
Also, this is just for fun, but try to get the feel of Yamato‘s Wave Engine before playing the theme. Place the jagged edge of a 100-yen coin on the 12th fret of the 6th string and rub it lightly while moving it toward the 10th fret. You should get a similar sound. This will produce various sounds on the high strings, but if you do it too much you will damage the strings and people around you will complain, so don’t overdo it. I remember that this technique was used in Sadayoshi Matsumoto’s song Execution.
See a high-rez PDF of Hideo Shinma’s composition here