Castle in the Sky
Film Score Analysis

Brought to you by:

Lawrence Lee

Preaface
The multi-award-winning Japanese animated film: “Laputa: Castle in the
Sky”, originally titled: “Tenku no shiro Rapyuta”, written by Hayao Miyazaki, was
released in Japan in 1986. Streamline Pictures distributed an English dub in 1989
and the Disney Production released in 2003. It was released under the name
“Castle in the Sky” in the United States because apparently the world “Laputa”,
which has no meaning in Japanese, is the word for “ the whore” in Spanish. And
for the United States having Spanish as the 2nd most common spoken language,
the changes obviously have taken place and was released under the title: “Castle
in the Sky”.
Joe Hisaishi is the composer and arranger for the score to “Castle in the
Sky”, having studied composition at Kunitachi College of Music in ’69, starting his
career as a composer in the early 1970’s. He teamed up with filmmaker Hayao
Miyazaki in the early 1980’s and composed his first score for him in 1984 for the
title Nausicaa, followed by Castle in the Sky in 1986 along with many to come as
the years went.
In comparison to the Japanese 1986 release versus the 2003 Disney dub
release, quite a lot of changes have taken place regarding the movie’s score as
well as the overall audio production and even the storyline to a mild extent (bits
and pieces tweaked in specific scenes), meanwhile the original story of Castle in
the Sky has remained unchanged. The score was originally composed primarily
with synthesizers and, accumulating a total time of 37 minutes of music in the
film. In 1999, Hisaishi rescored the film with live symphonic orchestra, extending

the amount of music from 37 minutes of synth music to 90 minutes of symphony
orchestra, being able to meet the standards of the score to Miyazaki’s Spirited
Away, also recorded with full symphony orchestra.
The rescore to Castle in the Sky in comparison to the original, fills in
empty spaces from scene to scene, creating a stronger interaction with the
audience, ultimately increasing and strengthening the film’s emotional impact. At
least to me, the original score was “too” minimalistic, whereas the rescore feels
more complete and a lot more seamless with the increased amount of music
used. This may have something to do with the differences between musical and
cultural differences of American Hollywood cinema composition to the techniques
of East Asian cinema, or simply the techniques of Joe Hisaishi himself.
In an interview with Keyboard Magazine Japan for the August 1999 issue,
Hisaishi has commented on the rescore to Castle in the Sky. Here’s what he had
to say:

"According to Disney's staff, non-Japanese feel uncomfortable if there is
no music for more than three minutes. You see this in the Western movies, which
have music throughout. It's the natural state for a (non-Japanese) animated film
to have music all the time. However in the original Laputa, there was only onehour's music in the 124-minute movie. There were parts that don't have music for
seven to eight minutes. So, we decided to redo the music as (the existing
soundtrack) will not be suitable for markets outside Japan."
"If we just add new music, it won't go well with the music made in 14 years
ago. So we completely re-recorded everything. Of course, we cannot demolish
the melody of Laputa, so I changed the arrangement of it while keeping its
integrity.
"The American way of putting music in a movie is basically very simple.
They just match the music with the characters. For example, when the army
shows up on screen, you hear the army's theme. The music explains the screen
images--that is the point of Hollywood music. Until this time, I avoided such an

approach, as I felt that it would make music dull, although I understand such an
approach. But when I redid (the music of Laputa this way), I learned a lot.

Now, myself being so used to the sound and atmosphere of American
Hollywood cinema, where I would clearly have a bias for Hollywood scores,
based on the comments of Hisaishi’s interview, it turns out that we have complete
opposite opinions on how the final results would turn out to be dull or not
depending on the approach taken. However, despite the different approaches
utilized, I really did feel a bit of emptiness and wanted to hear more of the score
when I watched the original version. I am very used to the score taking the role
as narrator, having it carry me thorough the film like a ride on a rollercoaster,
common in Hollywood style scores. The original version contained thematic
material, however the storyline was the primary driving force of the film’s impact
whereas the score was serving as supportive accompaniment. Secondly, I was
expecting thematic material musically to appear whenever someone/something
new was introduced or re-introduced on the screen, which virtually defines the
traditional Hollywood approach of film scoring; where themes and motifs were
essentially married to the characters, geographical locations and time periods.
Once it has appeared on the screen, the score immediately gives a direct
narration through a theme or motif.
The rescore transitioned from cue to cue nearly immediately in segue,
whereas the original contained gaps minutes at a time during cue transitions,
which made the film lose its momentum for me, despite both films being
equivalent in length. In regards to the use of thematic material, the initial scope of

the canvas hasn’t changed, but rather the tools have; upgrading the pallet from
minimal orchestra and synths to full symphony orchestra and minimal synths, just
like a computer monitor being upgraded to display at higher resolution than
before, covering the same amount of surface area with smaller sized pixels in
larger quantity, dramatically increasing the quality.
To quickly go over the animated film’s plot and background, it takes the
genres of fantasy, science fiction and adventure. The film takes place in what
seems like to be a blend of America and Europe. Not only are there geographical
blends, but cultural and technological blends are taking place as well. You see
the technologies nineteen and twentieth centuries as well as futuristic science
fiction blended together, ranging from it’s vehicles, architecture, weapons, and
wardrobe. Pretty much put all of that into a mortar or crucible and that’s what you
get. Some examples being that military and commercial airships operate on
helium, jet power and propellers all at once, which most are all powered by steam
engines. To complete the science fiction picture, that world also contains, or
rather contained an ancient civilization that had superior technology to the point
that they could have towns and castles airborne and travel in the sky, (hence the
name “Castle in the Sky”).
The initial story of “Castle in the Sky” is about a boy from a mining town
named Pazu (one of our main protagonists) see a girl (Sheeta, our other
protagonist) falling from the sky, or rather floating from the sky. Sheeta owns a
crystal that contains an extreme amount of power, which legend says that the
people of the ancient civilization of “Laputa” used to power their kingdoms and

keep them in the sky. Meanwhile, Sheeta is an escaped abductee of the
government, led by a corrupt government official named “Muska”. She is also
trying to evade from the local pirates as well, also known as the Dola Gang.
They both want to steal her crystal and utilize it’s awesome power for their own
selfish, personal gains. As for Sheeta and Pazu, they are both highly motivated to
find out the truth about the kingdom of Laputa. As we learn in the film, Pazu’s
father claimed that he saw the kingdom and none of the townsfolk believed him.
Now, Pazu wants to restore his father’s name and find it himself in order to prove
to everybody that the legend was true and not just a myth. Whereas Sheeta is in
fact the descendent of royal ancestry to the Laputan kingdom, she yearns to
learn about her family’s past. Both of their endeavors sharing the same goal, they
both decide to team up and go on a quest to find the lost kingdom of Laputa, and
that’s how our story begins.
At times, the original score contains some common qualities of a
traditional Hollywood film score in terms of thematic material for characters,
locations and time periods, whereas the re-score contains many. Each character,
location and time period contain their own musical theme or motif that we can
easily associate with, which serves as an effective aid in creating the identities of
its characters and locations. Not only do the main characters contain their own
identifiable motif/movement, they also contain specific orchestration as well. As
for the characters and locations that possess such motifs, I have them contained
in the following list below:
-Sheeta/Laputa Theme

-Main Title Theme
-Gondoa Theme
-Pazu’s Fanfare Theme
-Dola Gang/Pirate’s theme
-Robot Soldier’s Theme
-Muska/Army Theme

Each of those motifs, are often recycled and you can hear them reoccur
often as new orchestrations for different cues. It was able to fill in the majority of
the emptiness in spots where the 1986 release did not have music at all. The
differences are so great due to the sparseness in the original score, that it has
nearly changed my entire perception on the film as I watched both all the way
through. I would guess the most difficult part of the whole thing was to create
more music to simultaneously keep the initial integrity of the original score so that
all the cues would congeal and all sound like random cues just placed into a
scene.
This did not just apply to the score, but the same applied for the English
dialogue versus the Japanese dub, which contained more dialogue and vocal
gestures, such as breaths and grunts from running, climbing, jumping, falling,
essentially during any sort of physical action. And whether it would be the
townsfolk, or battalions of soldiers, the re-release production also covered the
ambiences of mass crowds and mobs whereas the original version pretty much
missed the majority of it. And ultimately, I was captivated by the power of a live
symphony orchestra in comparison to synthesizers and small ensembles. It may
however have been either Miyazaki’s creative vision to use synth for the original
version, or possibly not having the finances and resources to record a full-scale

symphony orchestra at the time. Another fact to take into consideration is that
Hisaishi’s composing was different in the 80’s than what he was doing in the late
90’s early 2000’s based on the technologies available and the latest trends at the
time. However they both do have one important thing in common, despite the
differences in compositional approaches. It’s that they both contain vital thematic
materials: A global theme (the main title) and three sub-category themes, which
are character themes, geographical location themes and time period themes.

Table of Contents:
- Prologue/Pirates Theme
- The Girl who Fell from the Sky (Main Title) & Reprises
- The Levitation Crystal and Additional Cues
- Morning in the Mining Villave
- Pazu’s Fanfare Theme
- Laputa Theme
- Gondoa Theme
- Muska Theme
- Robot Theme
- Conclusion

Prologue/Dola & the Pirates Theme
Here is where the movie opens up, showing the open skies and introduces
to the characters, so far (in order of appearance), the Dola Gang/Pirates, Sheeta
and Muska), and the opening scene is of the pirates raiding Sheeta’s airship. As
Sheeta attempts to make her escape, she knocks out Muska with a wine bottle
as he is signaling for reinforcements during the firefight between the Dola Gang
and Muska’s henchmen and retrieves her crystal from his coat pocket.
Meanwhile, it is absolutely clear that Dola and the gang are after her crystal. As
she makes her escape, Sheeta falls out of the airship (nearly about 30,000 in
altitude), and ends there, making us believe that she has fallen to her death.
The original score begins with the Pirate theme within 01:25 into the film
and then abruptly stops when Dola’s gang of pirates, come into contact with the
main antagonist, Muska. The 2003 release on the other hand, opens up with a
brief horn intro, followed by a melody played on the quena, accompanied by
orchestra, to which later on becomes the motif for Sheeta’s hometown on earth,
Gondoa. The orchestration of that motif then slowly thickens with lower
frequencies and fades out into a crescendo, followed by the full orchestral
movement that identifies the Dola Gang/Pirates once they commence their raid
upon the airship. The Pirate theme in the 2003 release is pretty much the exact
same starting point of the original 1986 release. The Dola Gang theme is not
exactly melodic by definition, but rather extremely identifiable rhythmic
movements in exchange. The movement’s orchestration contains lots of
staccato strings, brass and woodwinds, accompanied with various melodic and

rhythmic percussion instruments. The strings contain movements of 4-note
scales moving up and down and arpeggios of the root, fifth and octave, probably
illustrating the motion of the Flaptors (the flying vehicles/planes the pirates yield)
going up and down, virtually exactly like a plane would flying in the air. As the
film’s pace slows down, transitioning into a different area of the scene, you get a
brief hint of Muska’s theme with the low “eerie” strings and snare ensemble.
There’s also a hint of Sheet’s theme or the initial Laputa theme; the melody
being played on the piano, followed by the Dola Gang theme finishing the
development of the cue.
The main difference between the two scores is that they have swapped
roles with each other, the original score supporting the narration of the story,
whereas the re-score “is” the narrator. In the re-release, the newly recorded
sound design and additional dialogue (including main and ambient dialogue),
also contributes to increasing the general impact of the film, working together
with the re-score seamlessly. The re-release literally spells it out for you,
introducing the characters to you one by one, and a very typical Hollywood
American technique. The original has the cue only beginning at the raid, adding
to the emotional weight to increase the storyline’s impact. Aside from the cue
identifying the pirates, it does not tell you who the characters are, and neither
does the dialogue. You don’t even learn everyone’s until a bit later into the movie,
whereas the re-release dialogue tell you everyone’s names on the spot. It makes
me question how the pirates knew everyone’s names, but lets realign my
tangents and move on.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (Main Title) & Reprises
This is where the main title sequence is introduced, following the line of
major credits and such, giving a sneak peak of what the ancient kingdom of
Laputa was like, showing the ore of the crystal being mined and seeing islands
and other castles flying together in flocks. The main theme starts out with a
introductory piano movement, then crescendos into full strings with timpani,
followed by a filler woodwind movement that segues into the main theme. The
violins play the main melody, whereas violas play in counterpoint to the violin
melody as the cellos and basses hold the bass. The brass play a counter
melody to the main violin melody as the theme develops. Then the roles of
melody and counter-melody are briefly switched as a developmental episode
takes place. The woodwinds play a new melody and the violins play the
countermelody. Then, the cellos take over the melody role and repeat the main
theme line, violins supply accompaniment. The scene then cuts back to Sheeta
falling out of the sky. The pace of the orchestra slows down not in tempo but by
meter change, legatos strings taking the foreground and the harp transitioning
from arpeggios to glissandos. The orchestra then builds up into a large
crescendo, hitting on a downbeat in tutti when Sheeta’s crystal lights up and
breaks her fall. However, the sync point hit does not take place in the original
version, which dramatically diminishes the impact in my opinion. Without the
sync point hit, the flow of the scene did not feel so fluid. It just feels like a beat
has been missed, though Hisaishi’s intentions at the time were not of employing

Hollywood techniques. Therefore, sync point accuracy for this film may have
been a low priority. Having that sync point hit where the crystal lights up really
makes a difference in the fluidity of the scene. As the scene ends, the original
version stops right before it cuts to the mining town. The re-release tails well into
the cut of the mining town and stops right about where you hear Pazu utter his
first line in the movie. The only thing that the two versions have in common is that
they both portray the main theme holding the same role. They’re both grand,
large in size, both cues feel like you’re in a large space, which matches all the
visuals in the main theme where most are in full scale zoom and both slow down
at the end as Sheeta’s fall from the sky is broken. Again, the sync point accuracy
serves as a major contribution to the impact in the re-release, as well as the
expansion of the live orchestra also adding to the dimensional increase in sound,
reflecting the scope of the general canvas in each cut of the main theme.
There are countless cues throughout both versions of the score where all
thematic material of characters, geographical locations and time periods are
reused and re-orchestrated, transforming them into new, stand-alone cues. This
especially happens for the Main Title Theme, which you hear everywhere in the
film in as reprises in many variations of orchestral arrangement. There are
exactly seven reprises in the original score and eleven reprises in the rescore.
1.) (Main Title)

2.) In the re-release, Pazu catches Sheeta (explained further in next
chapter)

3.) In the scene where Sheeta and Pazu officially meet and make their
introductions, the motif of the main theme reoccurs. This scene marks
where our main protagonists pair up for the first time consciously,
highlighting their union with the main theme is very appropriate. Some
differences are there though. The melody in the original score is played
by a crystal pad synth and the rescore is played by flute. Chordal
harmonies are also played with a synth string pad in the original and
live strings and harp in the rescore. The general narration of both
versions, are the same here. The same story is being told through the
same medium, but through different voices.

4.) Before the Laputa theme at Pazu’s house, the intro of the Main Title is
used as the intro for the Laputa theme. (Piano and strings)

5.) The theme returns again here in both scores. While Sheeta and Pazu
are falling into the mine, the crystal’s power comes to life and breaks
their fall. The crystal theme serves as an intro into this variation. The
original score is played on synths, melodically and harmonically. The
rescore is of course with full orchestra and the melodic line falls on the
violins. The slowness and fluidity of the arrangement serves as a direct
reflection of when the two protagonists slowly and safely float down
into the mine, almost like a dance, hence the waltz rhythm. The pace of

the cue remains the same for both versions, but the rescore modulates
into a different key when the reprise of the main theme occurs, the
original score stays in the original key of the main title sequence.

6.) Only in the re-release, this scene takes place back at Pazu’s house,
where the local pirates ambush him. When Dola enlightens Pazu that
Sheeta made a risky deal with the army to spare his life, the main
theme reprises in the form of a harp movement when Dola explains to
her sons the origins of her wisdom, serving as a psychological function
of underscore, being “mushy and sensitive”, which is the literal
dialogue of Dola as the theme is playing in the background. This theme
in the harp arrangement really illustrates the similarities in personality
between Sheeta and Dola.

7.) As a transitional bridge, the main theme motif occurs here, being
played by the Quena, which you also hear being played for the Gondoa
theme. (See Gondoa chapter for more specific details)
8.) When Sheeta and Pazu become members of the pirate’s mother ship:
Tiger moth, and set sail to intercept Muska’s ship, the Goliath, the
theme is rearranged in a unique blend: the melodic pitches of the main
theme representing Pazu and Sheeta and the rhythmic elements
representing the pirates. The first half of the main theme is rearranged

rhythmically by dividing everything in half. Instead of one phrase being
two bars, it now completes the phrase in 1 bar. The 2nd half of the main
title movement shows up when Dola shows Sheeta the galley, not as
drastically different than the original orchestration. It has less legato
and a bit more detaché, driven mainly by cellos, almost sounding
march-like in order to capture the “hard-working & semi-militant, pirate
tavern-ish” environment. This cue is included on both versions of the
score and virtually no different from each other, aside from recording
with a full orchestra. This is also another example of where Dola and
Sheeta are represented in this mash-up cue, describing just how
similar they are in regards of their intelligence and sensitivity.
9.) When Sheeta joins up with Pazu while he’s on night watch for the Tiger
moth, Sheeta confides into Pazu about hows she truly feels about what
might happen when they reach Laputa. The rescore of the main theme
is played on the piano with accompaniment strings, as it develops,
woodwinds start to creep in a little bit, eventually playing the melody
replacing the piano until the next episode of the cue develops. The
intro of the main theme is included to, but used as a developmental
episode in the cue. The cue ends with the reprise of the chords from
the Laputa theme. Tremolo strings crescendo into a negative accent
where the downbeat cuts directly to a full-scale shot of the Goliath
directly underneath the bow of the Tiger moth. The original score
contains the psychological functions of this cue in terms of narration,

but not so much in terms of physical function where accuracy of sync
points seem to be low in priority.
10.)

At the Destruction of Laputa scene, this entire cue is a

rearrangement of the Main Title in a chorale, sung by the Tokyo
Broadcasting Children’s Chorus Group for the rescore. The chorale
version applies to both versions of the score, though they’re both in
different keys (Eb harmonic minor in the original and E harmonic minor
in the rescore to be exact). Being one of the crucial moments in the
film, both versions of the score are sharing the same narration.
However, in the original version, the cue simply stops in the middle of
the destruction and the cue only consists of the chorus. The rescore in
turn develops onward as accompaniment orchestra slowly unfolds till
it’s full, and then thins out as last piece of the floating island falls into
the ocean. The thickening of the orchestra is a dramatic improvement.
As the castle begins to really fall apart, till it becomes more of an
“earthquake” the orchestra reflects that with increasing amount of lower
frequencies. The one and most important part that the two versions
both have in common is the somber atmosphere the chorus creates, a
dark and eerie atmosphere, matching the reflection of the throne
room/tomb of all the royal Laputan ancestors. The chorus starts with
“oou” vowels and develops into “aah” or “la” until the castle is
completely destroyed. As the remainder of the castle floats into space,

the reprise of the Levitation Crystal theme appears, being that the
same kind of Crystal Sheeta has is keeping Laputa floating in the sky.

11.)

A very common thing Hayao Miyazaki besides to write the script

and storyboards for his animations, but is also inspired to write lyrics
about his films and include them in the movie, often for the ending
credits. For the ending credits, the main title is rearranged in new-age
pop and the melody is carried by the vocals with the lyrics in tact that
Miyazaki has written. This cue has remained unchanged for the rerelease.

(Hopefully the translation is accurate, but this is the best that I could find)
Kimi o nosete (Carrying you)
"Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa" ending theme (1986)
ano chiheisen kagayaku no wa
The reason the horizon shines
dokoka ni kimi o kakushite iru kara is that somewhere it's hiding you.
takusan no hi ga natsukashii no wa The reason I long for the many lights
ano doreka hitotsu ni kimi ga iru kara
is that you are there in one of them.
saa dekake you hitokire no PAN So, I set out, with a slice of bread,
NAIFU RAMPU kaban ni tsumekonde
a knife, a lamp, stuffed in a bag.
* tou-san ga nokoshita atsui omoi Father left me his burning desire.
kaa-san ga kureta ano manazashi
Mother gave me her eyes.
chikyuu wa mawaru kimi o kakushite
The earth turns, hiding you.
kagayaku hitomi kirameku tomoshibi
Shining eyes, twinkling lights.
chikyuu wa mawaru kimi o nosete The earth turns, carrying you,
itsuka kitto deau bokura o nosete
carrying us both who'll surely meet.

* Repeat
Singer: Inoue Azumi
Lyricist: Miyazaki Hayao
Composer/Arranger: Hisaishi Jou
Translation: Theresa Martin (revised April 23, 1993)

The Levitation Crystal & Additional Cues
This cue here is fairly short in the re-release, even shorter in the original
version. The original only contains an arpeggiated crystal synthesizer, to
highlight the moment where Pazu sees Sheeta for the first time, floating down
from the sky with the crystal. The synth slowly dissipates once the light from the
crystal fades away, ending the cue.
As for the re-score, it sounds like a completely different cue, still
containing the original crystal synth but combined with full orchestra. The synth is
playing fifth and ninth chord arpeggios, whereas the horns and strings play
supporting harmony and low strings hold the bass. The orchestration widens and
thickens as the scene goes from a close to up Pazu to a full-scale shot of the top
of the mine. The cue develops in a crescendo as he finally catches her,
highlighting that this is a unique moment for Pazu and Sheeta. A sync point is hit
with brass, strings and glockenspiel when Pazu nearly drops Sheeta as he
catches her. The lightness of the orchestration at that sync point serves as a
perfect balance of being taken by surprise in a panicky and playful mood, a close
call. What shortly follows is a playful movement of pizzicato strings. The main
theme melody is borrowed briefly within the pizzicato strings creating another

audial connection between the audience and the movie. It can also be argued
that this particular rearrangement was borrowed from the waltz variant of the
main title, which was included in the original score, moving everything from 3/4 to
4/4 and tying off all the loose ends. The cue then tails to an end as one of the
steam pipes begins to burst.
There are a couple more cues after this in the re-release where they are
nonexistent in the original scores: the elevator scene, and the pirates reprise,
which most definitely contain the Hollywood approach of composing, narrating
the audience all the way through.
When Pazu runs the elevator pulley, this cue is mostly woodwinds
glockenspiel and harp, serving as a working and playful mood during the
situation. As the elevator reaches nearly dangerous speed, where his boss is
yelling at him to hit the elevator brake, the brass and timpani sections thicken the
orchestration in a crescendo to intensify the danger of the situation. At the climax
of the crescendo, the orchestration then slows back down to the woodwinds and
harp once the elevator has come to a full stop. The reprise of the pirate theme in
the next cue is also nonexistent in the original release. The pirate reprise also
transitions into the next “morning cue” which I will discuss in the next chapter.
The pirate reprise is in place; followed by a brief interlude as Pazu closes up
shop, directly in segue to the next cue. Only in the rescore, brass is added into
the cue to serve as additional foundation harmonically with the high strings. The
reprises of the pirate theme occur often in the rescore with little to no changes in

the orchestration and only occur pretty much whenever they are all in flight on
their flaptors (small dragonfly-winged, vehicles).

Morning in the Mining Village
Both the original and re-score of this cue are virtually the same in
arrangement, with brief changes in the re-score. It is my guess that these are one
of the cues kept for the re-release in order to preserve the integrity of the original
score. The same narration is being told here by both versions, but the new
version of course shows finer detail in terms of orchestration as well as the
quality of the recording.
The cellos contain the melody, tremolo violins hold steady harmonic
chords in piano dynamics, the oboes and flutes mimic the sounds of birds by
punctuated trills, and both crescendo into full orchestra and modulate from A
major to C major as Pazu opens his bird cage and his birds fly out and about, as
well as having the trilling flutes and harp painting the back with glissandos.

Pazu’s Fanfare Theme
This is also another cue where the original is kept in the rescore to
preserve the original score’s integrity. Also, here is where in both versions Pazu
is given his musical identity. However, a few different things are happening in this
particular cue in terms of composition and orchestration. Whereas both versions
are driven by solo trumpet, the original version is only portrayed as source music.
The rescore on the other hand, becomes a hybrid cue of source music and

underscore, also containing lute for accompanying chords. It also modulates a
semitone higher as Pazu finishes playing his fanfare.
Now, I have mixed feelings about this approach. The pros of turning the
cue into a hybrid source/underscore, it gives the audience a second perspective
to listen from and offers new phrases and further developments to occupy their
ears. As for the original, the scene in my opinion does kind of lag a bit. It’s
already been established that it’s source music and everyone can definitely hear
him play and it just goes on and on and on. The underscore perspective with the
lute, as well as the modulation really helps fill the empty void and makes the cue
feel more fluid and lively. Although a part me feels like: “hey, where’s the invisible
lute player?” it work very well in this particular context. The original score
contains two reprises. The first one occurs when Pazu allies himself with the
Pirates in order to join up the raid against Muska’s fortress so that he can get a
2nd chance to rescue Sheeta. The first two bars of the melody are played at a
slightly faster tempo, sample trumpets on the original, trumpet and horn with full
orchestra in the rescore.

Laputa Theme
Throughout the entire movie, one of the semi-global themes of the film is
going back into the past, whether by subject in conversation, pondering thoughts,
or expedition. For the most part, when the kingdom of Laputa is being spoken
about, it is almost always being talked about in the past tense. It was an older
ancient civilization that was much more technologically advanced than the

present time frame. Also, whenever characters are talking about Laputa, this
theme occurs most of the time. This theme passes as both a geographical
location as well as a time period, but more so of the time period/general past
theme.
The melody in the rescore is played on the piano, supported with full
orchestra. For the quieter parts of the theme, the violins would support the piano
with triadic chords, dynamics form envelopes p<mf>p as if the cue breathes, or
blowing gusts of wind. Then the orchestration would thicken with brass, low
strings and percussion, matching the intensity on the screen when Pazu talks
about the time his father saw Laputa during one of his flights.
For every reprise of this theme, the orchestration hasn’t drastically
changed and the melody is always played on the piano.

Gondoa Theme
This theme is interesting. It is first heard in the original score while Pazu
and Sheeta talk about Sheeta’s hometown of Gondoa. This theme can be also be
classified along with the Laputa theme where they both are in the global category
of “the past”. For both, the mine tunnel scene, and the daydream scene, the
melody is played on the flute, accompanied by harp and string section.
Now, for the rescore, the initial arrangement hasn’t changed, but the
melody is played with the quena instead of a flute. You first hear the first half of
this in the very beginning of the movie. Never exactly understood why it was
placed there, but then everything started to fall into place once I heard it in the

mine tunnel scene. The quena is a South American flute commonly used by
Andean musicians. This in my opinion is a significant improvement. Since
Gondoa is a small village up in the mountains, an instrument such as the quena
would be a very ideal and appropriate instrument to use for the identity of
Gondoa. A reprise of the Gondoa theme with the same orchestration (in both
versions), appears when Sheeta dreams about the time that her grandmother
taught her a spell that would get her out of trouble. That, and hearing it in the
beginning of the movie as well as the instrument used for a variant of the main
title, I now understand because of it being a part of the geographical location
category, located in the mountains, you can also associate that with being at high
altitude. Therefore, having the quena play while high in the sky also come in
hand and hand.

Muska/Military Theme
Muska is the main antagonist in the film. Now, he doesn’t exactly have a
strict melodic motif to identify with, but can be identified with specific
orchestration, instrumentation and dark tonal colors. Because of Muska’s
association with the military, the orchestration often includes horns, snare lines,
and low strings with minor chord harmonies and semi-tonal phrasing. Some
phrases in the rescore kind of include a “dun dun duunnnn” sort of phrase, but
not all too often, just unsettling enough to let us know that they’re the bad guys.
The original version relies more on the tonal harmonies and dissonances of the

chords to get that point across and not so much on rhythmic movement. The
depiction becomes clearer aesthetically with the higher quality of the rescore.

Robot Theme
To describe what a “robot” for the film, it is quite literally a robot. Assuming
that the present time is would we would consider to be late 19th early 20th
centuries, a robot would be completely foreign to the people and the government.
This is pretty much the last theme that is introduced before the film moves on
with recycled thematic materials and one-timer themes. Appearing at the first
introduction of Sheeta and the Robot at the fortress, the melody is blatantly in the
front played by synths in the original version, whereas in the rescore, it is semihidden in the low strings of the orchestration. In both versions alike, the theme
contains multiple reprises in full orchestra. One reprise appears as the robot
comes back to life after Sheeta utters the spell and appear once more when
Muska unleashes a mob of robots as he unlocks the power to Laputa. But, the
arrangements are slightly different in terms of technical function. The
arrangement of phrasings are moderately different from each other but speak the
same narration and equally strong in emotional impact. It also carries a similar
“dun dun duuunnn” phrase in parallel octaves, the higher octave for presence
and the lower octave for foundation. The robots are nearly 10 times the size of an

average sized human, setting the tone for low frequencies, and the theme would
occur when the robots are engaging in combat.

In conclusion to this film score analysis, the 53 more minutes of
additional music, as well as improved sound design and additional dialogue
(including translations to match the overall context between English and
Japanese), really brings the movie to life in comparison to the original score.
Despite the fact that the score was written with two distinctively different
approaches, the original approach feels incomplete and unfinished. Not just
because of the sparseness between cues, but the cues themselves, being quite
short. Primarily at the Destruction of Laputa scene really shows. The original cue
feels like it just simply stops dead in the middle of the scene whereas the rescore
continues to develop all the way through. Clearly, different priorities were taken
into consideration as each score was composed, those priorities shifting in favor
of nearly writing music for almost everything you see. Again, as an American
used to seeing American cinema, films and animations alike, I guess I am really
used to expecting to hear a lot of music in a film, and have it’s emotional
momentum carry me though the entire movie and having the score reflect directly
what is going on in a physical and psychological sense, and at times in a
technical sense. The majority of the additional music served in technical function,
written as segue pieces into larger cues and to create larger impact in segue to
the following scene. I am used to the score taking the active role as narrator and

not as supporter. I mean of course the score is there to support the movie
generally, but not in taking a secondary role in the narration process.

Castle in the Sky
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Websites & Sources used for this document:
"Laputa: Castle in the Sky." Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Studio Ghibli Wika, Day
<http://studioghibli.wikia.com/wiki/Laputa:_Castle_in_the_Sky>.
Osmond, Andrew. "Will The Real Joe Hisaishi Please Stand Up?" Will The Real Joe
Hisaishi Please Stand Up? Anime World Network, 2000. <
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.01/5.01pages/osmondhisaishi5.php3>.
Also see - Keyboard Magazine, Japan, August 1999
"Quena." Quena – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia,<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quena >.
"Castle in the Sky." Castle in the Sky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia,
modified 14.06.2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_in_the_Sky>.
"Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Rescoring Interview)." Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Rescoring
Interview). GhibliWiki. 05.03.07.
<http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Laputa:_Castle_in_the_Sky_(Rescoring_Interview)>
Other sources used (data regarding publishing names and dates not available)
-http://joehisaishi.com/works.php
-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092067/?ref_=nv_sr_1
- http://www.nausicaa.net/w/images/e/e2/Lyrics_nosete_utf8.txt - Lyrics Kimi o
Nosete (Lyrics by: Hayao Miyazaki)
- http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Laputa:_Castle_in_the_Sky_(scripts_and_lyrics)
-http://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/ghibli-month-castle-in-the-sky/
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