Okay let’s talk about Jerusalem’s music. For those not aware, I did an analysis of planetarian’s entire OST on the Planetarian - General Discussion, and while the majority of it doesn’t feed into Jerusalem, I still thought I should leave a link to it.
Just like many other aspects of the audio drama, Jerusalem significantly contrasts how music is used within the original VN as well as the side stories. For one, this side story doesn’t use any of the tracks from the VN, with the exception of Human Warrior, which while was in the VN’s audio test, it was never used in the novel. Another thing to note is that (spoilers for all the other side stories) this is the only side story with no Yumemi. Now in my other music posts I talked a lot of how the majority of the soundtrack can be associated with Yumemi and the Junker and concepts they present, so in that regard, it makes sense that the majority of the OST isn’t used. However, what is interesting is how there are still several music tracks (besides Human Warrior) used, none of which has been officially released by Key, which honestly makes this analysis a bit of a pain since I can only listen to the tracks through the audio drama, and I can’t use track names to infer anything, so this analysis is going to be a bit weaker than the others in some regard, but there’s still quite a bit I want to talk about.
First, let me discuss one thing that is really apparent in Jerusalem – the majority of the audio drama lacks music, however, despite the lack of background music, there are still constant atmosphere sounds produced to help fill the silence. Examples of these background sounds are the wind and church bells while outside the church, and the sounds of a fire and an electrical humming (which I assume is a radiator) when inside the church. This is actually quite similar to how in the original planetarian, there was no music playing during the battle against the Fiddler Crab – the only sound that could be heard was the rain and gunfire. In the VN, for the most part, there was always a lack of music when Yumemi wasn’t present. This story is meant to be taken seriously. This isn’t a happy story, and it wants to convey that, which wouldn’t be possible given the fact that much of the soundtrack in the VN is quite playful and or hopeful. In real life, there isn’t a constant background track that plays to suit the mood, so the lack of music combined with the sounds created by the environment help the listener to be immersed into the audio drama. The lack of music also emphasises how this story is a contrast to the VN.
The first piece of music that plays is during the beginning of ‘Mission Complete’, when some of Murdock’s troops are being shot at by the robot in the church. It’s a very heavy, rock styled piece, with the electric guitar driving the melody, and a heavy drum beat driving the pulse. It’s a piece written for action scenes - it’s meant to help raise the intensity of fighting. This type of piece comes up a notable amount during Jerusalem. One interesting thing to note about this piece is how it stops as soon as the audio drama turns to Murdock’s perspective during this scene. It emphasises a disjoint between how the fighting is being perceived and what’s actually happening. This is also emphasised when Murdock says that it looks like everything is going fine, while in fact on the battlefield, one of the troops got shot at, despite it seeming like it was impossible.
The next track that plays is during ‘Sister’. It’s an eerie piano track that plays when one of the robots first speaks to Murdock, and Murdock realises that Salinger is involved with the robots. The track comes back when Murdock finds the trees in the underground shelter, and Salinger’s footprints. This track is used to emphasise mystery - before Murdock entered the church, the focus of the audio drama was fighting, but now several new elements have been introduced into the plot, and that causes the direction of the audio drama to shift, and this track emphasises that to the listener.
The next track that plays is ‘Human Warrior’, which plays during ‘Sister’, where Murdock fights one of the robots. This track comes back later in ‘Kingdom of God’, when Murdock is fighting against several of the robots. Similarly to how it’s used in the planetarian anime, this piece is used during the battle between man and machine. It is an electronically composed piece – there are no conventional instruments that could be substituted for the sounds produced, which emphasises the cold and emotionless nature of the robots that Murdock is fighting. One could argue that this isn’t the case because the first piece used in Jerusalem used an electric guitar, which is a very conventional instrument, but during that scene, no-one except Salinger knew that they were fighting a robot – they thought they were fighting a person, so the use of conventional instrumentation during that scene helps to maintain that façade.
A new track plays when Murdock finds Salinger. It begins with a constant ticking in the background, keeping the pulse of the piece, which could represent the constant beating of both the characters hearts. It’s a fast and tense standoff. More parts are slowly introduced as Murdock explains his logic. The piece does the same thing when Salinger explains more details about the robots. This is used to emphasise the reveal of the mystery. As more information is presented by each character, more parts are exposed to help to emphasise that which one was not previously aware of. The constant ticking also starts to become less noticeable as the number of parts increase. This shows how the characters are getting more relaxed to the situation since they understand more about each other. The music fades out upon the mention of ‘The Kingdom of God.’ This is a really interesting choice placement for the music to stop. For one, it emphasises the importance of this point – the audio drama wants you to pay attention to it so it makes it more notable by stopping the music. Second, it’s an interesting place to stop because of the connotations it has about the Kingdom of God. During the scene, both the characters are revealing the truth of the situation to each other, so since the music stops when the Kingdom of God is mentioned, that would suggest that the Kingdom of God is a lie, which it is in many regards.
Another track is played during the start of Hellfire. This piece consists of a synth and an electric guitar among other parts. A small thing to note about this piece is that it’s in 5/4 time signature – not much significance there but I thought it was something I should point out. There are two sections to this piece to consider. The first section consists of several notes which are repeated over and over. This plays when Murdock is considering his options on how to manage the situation. This could represent how Murdock is repeatedly going over every possibility in his head – redoing many different scenarios. The second section is a more free flowing and expressive section, with constantly changing melody and harmony lines. This plays when the robots start talking. This most is to most likely give the scene a bit more of a heroic feel to it – it makes Murdock seem like a hero, fighting the villains, which contrasts how most of the other battle music is written. This piece stops when he kills the perusing robots.
Next we have the use of the track ‘And did those feet in ancient time’, which is also called ‘Jerusalem’. This piece is an English Hymn, and many consider it as England’s unofficial national anthem, however the audio drama changes some of the lyrics and removes the mention of England, but many aspects of the original piece remain the same. During the scene this is used, Murdock is talking about how he has nothing left. To me, this song represents his faith, and it holds everything dear to him. The original hymn talks about how one shall not stop until they have built Jerusalem on England. This idea of building a paradise is what’s driving him to keep going despite the loss of everything in his life. The music even stops when Murdock says ‘until Jerusalem is built upon my country’, which only emphasises his dream even more. Another thing to note about the piece is the instrumentation – it’s using sounds that replicate very conventional, classical instrumentation, which contrasts the rest of the music in this audio drama. This makes the music more like the music in the VN – it’s meant to convey feelings of faith, and given the piece’s background as a hymn, it makes sense to use traditional instruments. Also, similarly to the VN, this piece is based of a hymn, just like how Hoshi No Sekai is also a hymn. So the title of ‘Jerusalem’ is used because of this piece – it is the one time the concept of faith is properly presented to the listener, which is significant because faith is one of the main themes of all the planetarian stories.
Finally, there’s the ending song, ‘Brave New World’. This is the only unique ending song in the sides stories, and the way it’s written has a lot of significance, so I’m going to go through this piece, line by line, and talk about how the lyrics are relevant to the world of planetarian. I’m going to make this a separate post just for ease of formatting and reading.
