Theme From Adept (Son of Archon)
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Theme From Adept (Son of Archon) is the title song of Archon II: Adept.
We do not know yet whether the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum ports have music.
Contents
Title
The manual spells Theme from Adept, Dunbar's sheet spells Theme From Adept (Son of Archon).
Composition
Dunbar composed the song on guitar. Next, he recorded a medley of the already-released Title - Archon and the new song using the guitar and a drum machine, an Oberheim DX he thinks. Then, he wrote the new song on paper. Finally, he sent an audio cassette and a copy of the paper to the arrangers.
Since the game is about dark and light, the song alternates between minor and major. In fact, the key signature on Dunbar's sheet is c minor, and in bars 2 and 4, the last note is an eighth E natural tied to a dotted half E natural in bars 3 and 5, modulating those two bars to C major. However, all arrangers left these two ties out and changed the dotted half E naturals to E flats, leaving the bars in minor. Dunbar did not know until January 2014. The arrangers kept all other ties, though, so they may just have thought that these two naturals sounded wrong.
Games
Archon II: Adept (A8)
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Archon II: Adept (C64)
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As written on Dunbar's sheet, the melody is doubled in two octaves.
The music is synchronized to the screen refresh and was never adjusted to PAL C64s, so Europeans and Australians will remember the song slower and in b minor.
Archon II: Adept (A2)
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Archon II: Adept (AMI)
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Sheet Music
Dunbar sent a scan of an old sheet to Spelpappan.
Links
- deepsid.com/?file=/MUSICIANS/D/Dunbar_Tommy/Archon_II_Adept.sid&tab=visuals&sundry=osc - Visualization of C64 arrangement.
- spelpappan.se/2014/01/ever-heard-the-original-recording-of-the-archon-theme/ - Interview.
