Pirate's Gigue

"Pirate's Gigue" is a musical composition by Yoko Shimomura. It is used throughout the Kingdom Hearts series primarily as the main battle theme for Neverland.

Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
"Pirate's Gigue" serves as the battle theme for Neverland.

Events

 * Neverland: "Defeat the Heartless"

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
"Pirate's Gigue" serves as the battle theme for Neverland.

Composition
"Pirate's Gigue" is approximately one minute and forty-five seconds long in Kingdom Hearts and the HD remake of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. In Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, the piece is slightly extended to one minute and fifty-seven seconds. Regardless of the game, the piece has a time signature of 12/8, and a tempo of 83 beats per minute, where the dotted quarter note gets the beat.

For instrumentation, each version uses the same instruments, though for games not in the HD remakes, some voices are covered through electronic means- such as synthesizer. In general, the instrumentation includes: a complete strings section- violin, viola, cello, and stringed bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, xylophone, marimba, snare drum, timpani, crash cymbals, tambourine, and castanets.

True to its namesake, a is a lively piece of music that was often meant for dancing. The compound supports this, with specific beats being slightly brought out either by rhythmic value or through accents. This translates to as if someone were to dance- the accented rhythms would line up with when one would step while dancing. Humorously, and a bit contradictive, gigues were originally dances performed only by nobility; the version appearing in the Kingdom Hearts series is meant to be played for pirates. This long-standing tradition has since faded away, with a gigue being a style of dance music.

A constant cycle of tension and release persists throughout the duration of the piece. A slight crescendo at the introduction of the piece implies a build-up of "tension" as it continues towards the first "release"- the first melody played by the violins. In a call-and-response fashion, the longer or stretched rhythms of the violin's melody is answered by a brief, quick flourish in the flute. Such musical phrasing continues throughout the piece with several different instrument groups playing both "question" and "answer" parts. "Pirate's Gigue" has a very thick texture that features almost the entire orchestra at some point.