Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door is a musical composition by Yoko Shimomura that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series. Its name refers to what lies beyond the Door to Darkness and the heart of all worlds: the great Kingdom Hearts itself.

Appearances
"Beyond the Door" appears only in cutscenes.

Kingdom Hearts

 * End of the World: "Kingdom Hearts is light!

Terra's Story

 * Keyblade Graveyard: "Return to Silence!"

Ventus's Story

 * Dive to the Heart: "The Fractured Heart's Return"

Aqua's Story

 * Realm of Darkness: "With You"

Composition
"Beyond the Door" is approximately one minute and eight seconds in Kingdom Hearts. In the HD remake of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the piece is approximately one minute and nine seconds long.

The instrumentation for the piece, regardless of game, includes: pipe organ, chorus, and tubular bells. In Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, the once synthesized chorus is now actually orchestrated. Also, the piano is introduced towards the end of the piece for one chord in the lower extremes of the bass clef.

While the piece starts out in a rather foreboding tone, it briefly resolves- through the use of sixteenth note runs in the organ- into a more triumphant and lighter theme. The orchestral bells herald of the victory, while the now major chords in organ and vocals suggest the long-awaited happy ending of a prolonged, difficult struggle. However, this is a short-lived moment of victory, as the organ and accompanying instruments returns with the minor, ominous tone. This contradictive, "down-up-down" cycle takes further analysis to completely understand.

To truly understand the context of the piece, one should refer to the scenes in which it is played. In Kingdom Hearts, the track is heard upon Sora, Donald, and Goofy successfully defeating Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. However, in doing so, Sora is forced to lock Riku and the King inside the Dark Realm. In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, for Terra, the track plays after he successfully defeats Master Xehanort by tapping into the darkness within his heart. In doing so, Master Xehanort successfully implants his own heart into Terra's. Ventus shares a similar fate. While he defeats Vanitas and thwarts the complete reconstruction of the χ-blade, his physical body fades away alongside Vanitas's. For Aqua, while she is able to defeat Terra-Xehanort, his body collapses into a portal of Darkness, prompting Aqua to immediately give chase. While Aqua successfully reaches the unconscious Terra-Xehanort, she is forced to sacrifice and trap herself in the Realm of Darkness in order to send Terra back to the world of Light.