Ian's Musings

Alice Margatroid's theme, the lonely dollmaker of Gensokyo. A nocturne is pretty much the ideal musical vehicle for Alice's theme, and this is probably my favorite rendition of it. Nocturnes are simply music pieces that evoke feelings of the night, though many are also written as character pieces, like the above.

Using a standard piano trio instrumentation of a piano, violin and cello, it follows the typical treatment of having the piano carry the piece, with the violin doubling up on the melody at times and both strings providing chord depth. It's just a very tranquil song and the gorgeous melody in The Doll Maker of Bucuresti really comes through and shines in a piece with as few instruments as this. I've always loved the constant back and forth between major and minor chord progressions around a minute and a half into the piece, as the melody rises and falls. It just provides such a pure yet conflicting sound that evokes feelings of desolation for me, but plays with that emotion by moving through those majors and immediately dropping back into minor chords. Just a wonderful piece all around.