House of Sacred Remains - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

House of Sacred Remains / 聖骸共鳴院 , arranged for (player) piano.

Has it been 12 years since I uploaded my last Lament of Innocence arrangement? Well, here is another.

Out of all the "religious" tracks in Castlevania, "House of Sacred Remains" is probably the most mature and evocative of them all. People often go to "Requiem for the Gods" as a prime example of Castlevania's High Baroque, but as with much of Lament's soundtrack, the chapel theme is one of many that surpasses the many milestones that Yamane set for herself in Symphony of the Night: "Requiem..." walked so that "House ..." could run.

In isolation, "House" evokes a panorama of imagery that the game itself sadly fails to match. It starts off with a lone meandering theme that Bach would have gladly taken as a fugal subject, and which sedately resolves as the player is cautiously bidden to plumb the depths of the crypt. The vocal synths have obviously aged a lot, but the effect is still sublime, with the oblique shifting of the voices (technically speaking, fourth-species counterpoint) underlined with tabla and a reverby percussion effect I've heard everywhere but can't name. The organ theme slides back in, pushing the player through what up to now has merely been the chapel's winding entrance.

The ensuing middle section is a virtuosic fantasy that frankly, I have never heard again in the series, let alone in Yamane's oeuvre. Over the tabla rhythm established prior, a syncopated harp pattern outlines a new repeated melody that builds over an airy choral texture, as if sweeping the player up towards the chapel's high vaulted ceiling. "Requiem of the Gods" did something similar with its organ break, and in Bloodstained's "Holy Wisdom", high ceilings are implied throughout. But here, the layered harp + percussion achieves an effect both ecstatic and otherworldly, which is somehow much more evocative of religious fervour than the austere formalism of "Requiem...".

Of course, "House" also has its own organ break, and despite the modernist addition of drums here, it basically involves the traditional turnaround strategy that Yamane has since used in every following soundtrack: a Baroque semiquaver figuration shifting over a pedal point. In newer games (like Portrait of Ruin and Bloodstained), this has become rather cliché, but here the effect is very welcome - the organ figures build as the tonality undulates beneath, and after a few dramatic sequences (involving diminished seventh chords), the player is led to believe that the recap would be nigh.

But lo and behold! The initial organ theme returns, soaring over an improvised cadenza after the other instruments fall away. The richness of the organ by itself is sublime (and is almost impossible to recreate on a piano), and after the spacious chords resolve, the player is guided back down to earth, to the gloomy vocals from the start of the track.

Religious genre tracks are a mainstay of Castlevania, and in my opinion this is the crowning jewel. "Requiem for the Dark Soul" (Aria of Sorrow, also rearranged in Lament's soundtrack) and "Garibaldi Temple" (Curse of Darkness) explore the sombre and tender sides of the trope, but "House" stands alone in its evocativeness and quasi-strangeness in its fantastical construction. What an unlikely masterpiece this is.

Composer: Michiru Yamane
Game: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Platform: Playstation 2
Year: 2003

作曲者：山根ミチル
ゲーム：キャッスルヴァニア
コンソール：プレイステーション2
年：2003