In honor of this weekend’s finale of HBO’s The Last of Us, I wrote a piano reharmonization of The Last of Us Theme, and in this post, I’ll walk you through my reharmonization process using quartal voicings.
Escapism
During the pandemic, like many, I purchased a Playstation, resorting to pure escapism. One of the games that helped me get through it was The Last of Us, set in a world where a fungal infection has wiped out most of humanity, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves in a world overrun by infected humans and hostile survivors. In the game you play Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting Ellie, a young girl who may hold the key to a cure for the infection, across the country. I hadn’t played video games since I was a teenager, and I was amazed by how much they seemed to have advanced: there was a level of emotional depth, storytelling, character development, and visuals that were unparalleled to any previous game that I had encountered.
When HBO announced they would turn the game into a TV show, I was terrified. I deeply loved this game, and felt a strange sense of protectiveness of it, as I’m sure many fans of the game did. Could they really do justice to the game’s emotional storyline and characters?
Today, the show has had nine episodes released, and, like many, I was more than pleasantly surprised. They turned out to not only capture the essence of the world and the characters but also dared to make creative choices that elevate the show to a great work in its own right. A highlight is episode 3, which I think you could even watch as a standalone episode without knowing much about the game or the show.
The Last of Us Theme
The original theme for the video game was written by Gustavo Santaolalla and then adapted for the TV show. I think it captures the feeling of the game extremely well. It’s dark and brooding, simple yet refined, and immediately draws you into the world. Have a listen:
Piano Reharmonization
Writing a piano arrangement was kind of challenging because so much of the composition is about the atmosphere. Its simple melody says exactly what it has to say, and nothing more. But I didn’t just want to copy the guitar part on the piano (enough people have already done that).
Quartal Harmony
I realized the bluesy character of the melody might lend itself to a different harmonic approach: using quartal voicings. I’ll do a longer post on what these are exactly, but the basic principle is the following.
Traditional harmony is based on stacking intervals of a third on top of each other:
In contrast, quartal harmony is based on stacking intervals of a fourth:
This creates a more harmonically ambiguous sound. A famous quartal voicing is the chord that Bill Evans plays on Miles Davis’s “So What”, commonly called the “So What Voicing”, consisting of three perfect fourth intervals and a major third:
These quartal voicings have a dark quality, they are more dissonant than traditional harmony, and they obscure the tonality a bit. All of these elements lend themselves well to the brooding atmosphere of this theme, so I decided to make them central in my piano arrangement.
This is what it looks like when I applied these quartal voicings to the guitar arpeggios of the original theme:
Next, I used quartal voicings for every melodic note in the theme. There are many different types of quartal voicings, and I’m using a wide variety to harmonize the melody (I’ve written them out without arpeggios, as I find it easier to read):
And here’s the result! Listen below to The Last Of Us Theme — Piano Reharmonization with Quartal Voicings:
Let me know in the comment section below what you think of this theme, the game, and the TV show (no spoilers!). If you like more tips on how to reharmonize any song, download my free Reharmonization Quick Guide here.
2 Responses
this is amazing❤️
Thanks, Lauren!