Day 20: Sad Waltz - Nam Hye Seung, Park Sang Hee

Song: Sad Waltz (Dong-mae's Theme)
Composer: Nam Hye Seung, Park Sang Hee
Jan 20

I've spent the better part of my Sunday binge watching "Mr. Sunshine". Full of drama and intrigue it's hard for me to step away at the current moment. The relaxing and calm mood I have been in all day decided that my song today would be entirely instrumental.

"Sad Waltz" is the theme for Dong-mae who has quickly become my favorite character from the show. I have this propensity to favor characters that are either hysterically funny or mysterious damaged "bad guys" who ultimately have a soft, gentle side. I don't really know what this says about me as a person but that's probably best left alone.  That being said, Dong-mae fits the latter description. I don't yet know the roll he will play in the end but I'm pretty sure that I am rooting for one of the so called "villains" of this story. 

Seeing as this is a waltz I found myself focusing a lot on the meter at the beginning. It sounds like we are in a compound meter maybe 9/8? but I am crap at figuring out meter by ear so I could very well be way off. What I can hear are the very clear counts of three that are indicative of a waltz.  The very first beat is a timid cello followed by the march of the ensemble strings. The next time our lone cello joins in it's much more pronounced and dominant over the other strings. The addition of a solo violin leads the journey filled with sadness and loneliness. I'm not going to lie though, I did think briefly that the solo was a viola for a second, the sound in the beginning is quite rich for a violin. It would have been a really cool storytelling method if it had been. Much like Dong-mae (in his youth), violas tend to be the outcast of the orchestra, typically just keeping the beat and playing the harmony. But give the viola the melody and you have this masculine and robust sound walking over the top of the dainty sounds of the violin, similar again to Dong-mae's return to Korea from Japan, wherein he established himself as someone to be feared and not trifled with. As a violist this is all clearly wishful thinking on my part but it would have been a really cool choice. Featuring two solo instruments among the steady harmony of the rest of the ensemble, however, is a great storytelling element. Our cello isn't doing anything more than just keeping a steady beat, deep and present, whereas our violin is twirling, full of emotion as if we are seeing the two sides to this character. The first being a dark and dangerous presence. The second a person gentle and full of hurts from the past. The contrast is really stunning and if the title wasn't indicative enough, sad. Something about this theme screams redemption at me. I obviously don't yet know the full story of this character so I can't really compare or read into whether that is something being foreshadowed. I am leaning towards it being an element of foreshadowing based off of what I have seen thus far. I do have to talk about how outstandingly beautiful this harmony is when it finally blooms into more than just a pretty metronome. Somehow it feels like despite being the harmony our solo violin is forever trapped on the outside unable to join in with the rest and again that contrast is so unbelievably beautiful in it's isolation.

Lyric that attacked me:
N/A

Song Color: Burnt Orange

Mood: Calm