Common melodies in soundtracks

[DeadEnd000PL]

In soundtracks, there may be a melody that appears in multiple tracks.
Is there a way to acknowledge it through relationships (musical quotation seems to be the closest relationship to it)?
If so, what are the requirements to do so?

[ernstlx]

You mean a main theme that appears in several tracks. I’ve never added a relationship for this, but that’s an interesting question.
From the definition, “quotes music” would fit, although usually this is not used if the work is from the same release. It could get complicated - which work quotes music from which.

[DeadEnd000PL]

For that, I guess there would need to be a concrete statement saying what track was composed first, and where its melody appears.

What made me think about the topic is Persona 3 soundtrack.
The game has 2 or 3 melodies that can be heard across multiple tracks.
One of them is Aria of the Soul. Its melody is heard in:

• The Path Was Closed
• Blues in Velvet Room
• Battle Hymn of the Soul (it uses the same vocals as Aria of the Soul)

One wiki says:

“Aria of the Soul” plays in the Velvet Room normally, while […] upon defeat, a shorter, piano-only arrangement titled “The Path Was Closed” plays. The final battle […] features a new metal version, though still incorporating Komiya’s vocals in the chorus, called “Battle Hymn of the Soul”, or in Japanese “The Battle for Everyone’s Souls”.

Another wiki mentions:

The melody was also remixed as The Battle for Everyone’s Souls

Those wikis don’t mention the melody usage.
I guess those tracks may be arrangements unless as said above, it’s explicitly stated that they reuse the melody from other track.

[aerozol]

I had a similar question on the forums ages ago regarding leitmotifs/themes. The discussion has a bit of relevant input:

The General Chatter/Off Topic Thread

Does anyone have any advice on how to link common themes? A bit out of my depth, entering the scary world of ‘works’ here. There’s an iconic theme that is referenced/used throughout the Halo soundtracks, tweaked a bit, or mixed with other bits of music, usually with a new name and without crediting the original composers. Two are already there as a basic ‘recording of’ relationship (on that link above). One of those already sounds quite different to the other, so not sure if that’s correct. B…

Specifically the style lead has this to say:

@reosarevok

For stuff like “variations on piece X” I’ve always used “based on”, but for stuff like “this contains a brief quotation of Beethoven’s Emperor piano concerto” we have nothing rn

I ended up doing this:

[Halo theme]

Note: Not saying your examples should necessarily be a separate “leitmotif” work, I have not compared them.

[reosarevok]

That quote of mine was from before we had “musical quotation”, I think

That would seem to be the most appropriate option nowadays?

[DeadEnd000PL]

For using “musical quotation” relationship, does there need to be a proof that melody is used from other track?
One could find one melody in multiple songs (not even in the same soundtrack) and then add those relationships without checking for some proof of reusing that melody from somewhere else.

Another question now is which track to choose for the base of “musical quotation” relationship.
I didn’t find any info about Persona 3’s tracks’ composed date.
Aria of the Soul in this case seems to be a track dating back to the first Persona game (I know that the Persona 3 version is the arrangement that is used from now on in the games), so in this case that would be the base.

Also, I don’t hear Aria’s melody in Battle Hymn of the Soul, just the vocals.
I don’t think musical quotation would fit here, nor lyrical quotation, because there are no lyrics.