# Music v3 pilot

2026-06-16 — base + all ladder levels, 3 independent takes per concept. Read each take's notes, then audition calm → activity → danger.

## caves-vaulted

### take c2 — Caves Vaulted (The Patient Dark) — take C2, warm piano + encounter (v3)

Re-spin of the winner caves-vaulted-v3c — same identity (A dorian, the VAULT motif, the slow swaying-vault LILT the owner chose). PIANO: the lead is now struckPiano with tone WARM (a real struck-hammer upright, patient/spacious-dark — the brief's lean), replacing the old plucked feltPiano; caveCelesta stays demoted to the answering glint so take C's lead/echo timbre swap is kept. The bed is unchanged: hollow-fifth pads over a darkDrone foundation with a long GONG bloom at pattern boundaries and the dorian sixth (F#) as the once-per-phrase open door; the VAULT core is stated on a stretched 5-rows/beat grid so its reaches breathe with long rests. ACTIVITY now layers cleanly with the real piano: L1 = the warm-piano VAULT statement + ONE near celesta glint; L2 ADDS the second wider/later celesta echo trail AND a soft MOVING counter-voice (warm pad) that walks a third/sixth below each reach — new material, not the lead turned up. DANGER is re-built as abstract ENCOUNTER music (corrections 2 & 3): the old literal flood/rockfall foley (drips 'quickening,' a 'water gong swell') is gone. danger1 = real unease — a slow insistent low war-pulse (deepBoom on a steady grid) over a brooding low drone that moves A→G→E to darken the bed; something is here. danger2 = a true intensity JUMP — a driving stoneTom + snareDrum backbeat groove under an URGENT, compressed VAULT ostinato on the celesta (the long look turned anxious), denser and faster, with the D1 wrap packed tighter so the loop lands hot. It is combat/chase energy, not danger1 louder, and depicts no literal threat. Fully diatonic A dorian throughout — no chromaticism; dread by proximity, intensity, and drive.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## ocean-sailing

### take b2 — Ocean Sailing — Beneath Sail v3 Take B2 (de-waved brass-band shanty, G mixolydian)

De-waved brass-band shanty (Take B's winner) with a REWORKED danger to the OCEAN DANGER spec. KEEPS everything else exactly: the becalmed-deck bed (pitched swellPad cresting like the hull, a warm color pad, the sub on the chord roots, a deep soft-pad keel — NO waves, waterLap is gone from calm AND danger as SFX); the full brass-band ACTIVITY (a confident muted-brass cornet on the HORIZON lead + a soft-pluck echo for L1; L2 adds NEW material — a struckPiano counterline a fourth below PLUS a shaker-and-piano accompaniment, so layering assembles the band, not the lead louder); G mixolydian (the b7 F natural keeps each crest hungry); and the wardroom upright as struckPiano tone "bright" (a shanty wants articulation, not the old plucked feltPiano). THE DANGER (the rework): the dread is the band's OWN panic, abstract — never literal storm/wave foley. The whole danger section runs at ONE faster, urgent tempo (132 BPM vs the 100 BPM sail); the speed-up lands the instant danger begins. danger1 is an apprehensive MIRROR of activity1: the SAME muted-brass cornet trying to play its sailing tune while sensing something is off — the HORIZON contour SHADOWED into G aeolian (the b3=Bb and b6=Eb cast the bright crest into minor, the 'wrong-note' unease) and hesitantly phrased (the crest arrives a beat late, the resolution sags and the tail is a dropped fragment), threaded by a kick heartbeat in the tune's gaps over a held low dread drone. That aeolian shadow is the ONLY non- mixolydian color — a deliberate, NAMED clean modal turn (same tonic G), the grounded way to voice 'the tune gone tense,' not accidental chromaticism. danger2 is the REST of the band crashing in at full frantic: a double-time low-brass counterline/ostinato pumping the chord root on every eighth PLUS the full rhythm-section kit (driving kick on every beat, a snare backbeat, a busy shaker scurry) — a real density and energy JUMP that compels immediate action. The frantic comes from the fixed fast tempo plus the double-time rhythm (the engine holds one tempo per section), NOT from danger1 with the volume up — these are NEW voices doing a NEW job. No gong, no waves-on-the-bow booms, no spray.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take e — Ocean Sailing — Beneath Sail: The Rolling Watch (6/8 barcarolle brass-band shanty, G mixolydian)

The SECOND sailing shanty, and the 6/8 one: a WHOLE FRESH brass-band shanty composed FOR the rolling compound sway (the barcarolle lilt the owner liked in take C), not take B's straight material laid over a gait. Here the compound roll IS the heart — the melody breathes in dotted beats, the comping rocks the inner triplet pulses, and HORIZON is recomposed NATIVELY onto the lilt grid (rises swing up the off-pulses to a crest on a dotted downbeat, the open 2 spilling into the next bar). It is deliberately distinct from Job 3 (ocean-sailing-v3b2), the BROAD 4/4 shanty that strides square on the quarter: this one rocks. Each 16-row bar is two dotted beats (rows 0 and 8), each a rolling 'ONE-and-a' on rows {0,3,5}, and every onset — sub, comp, lead, counter — lives on that grid. Fully diatonic G mixolydian (no chromaticism); the b7 (F natural) is the mode's own colour and keeps each crest hungry, not triumphant. Correction 1 — the piano is struckPiano (a real STRUCK felt piano, not the old plucked feltPiano), tone BRIGHT: a shanty wants articulation, so the wardroom upright stays present and crisp; one bright struckPiano serves the calm deck rock, the L2 counter + off-pulse comp, and the danger2 busy accompaniment.Correction 3 — WAVE-FREE: no waterLap and no continuous water/wind material anywhere (the ambient sea is the game's SFX, not the score). The calm bed stands as becalmed-deck ambience on pitched material alone — swellPad cresting once per bar like the hull, a warm color pad, the rolling gait sub, and a sparse struckPiano chord rock on the dotted beats. Activity L1 (ch4-5) is the brass HORIZON cornet recomposed onto the lilt with a soft-pluck echo. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS the wardroom piano as ONE clean accompaniment under the cornet, not volume: a counterline on the dotted beats (ch6) plus a low chord-dyad comp (3rd/5th, ~B-3..E-4) rocking the off-pulses (ch7) — voiced well below the melody so it complements rather than competes (the earlier version rocked all six pulses up in the lead's own register, which read as chaotic). Correction 2 — the OCEAN DANGER design. The danger SECTION runs at ONE fixed faster tempo (116 BPM vs the 100 of calm/activity), so the speed-up lands the instant danger begins. danger1 (ch8-9) is an apprehensive MIRROR of activity1: a KEPT foundation (a low darkDrone pedal + a kick heartbeat with a deepBoom ground-pulse) carries the activity1 cornet tune, but UNSETTLED — the crest is withheld (it reaches for the 5 and falls to the 4), phrases hesitate with gaps where the tune should sing, so the band's sailing song sounds like it has lost its nerve (diatonic; unease by hesitation and a pulled-back crest, not chromaticism). danger2 (ch10-11) is the REST of the band crashing in at full frantic — a genuine density/energy JUMP, not danger1 louder: a double-time frame-drum + kick kit raking every inner lilt pulse, a low mutedBrass counter-stab on the dotted beats, AND a busy struckPiano accompaniment filling the gaps the danger1 tune left. The frantic comes from the fixed fast tempo plus the double-time busy rhythm; the dread is the band's own panic, abstract — no literal storm or wave foley.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## overworld

### take d — Overworld v3d — Hybrid Port (B's hymn-activity + C's 6/8 danger)

Take D is a hybrid PORT of two takes the owner liked, over one coherent D-dorian house-voice bed: calm + activity are Take B's felt-piano 'morning hymn' in its straighter 4/4 groove (the inner-voice-rock bed that breathes on its own), and danger is Take C's compound 6/8 wandering-gait, rebuilt as real encounter music. The bed keeps one harmonic identity (D dorian, the same chord changes) in every section; only the GROOVE changes per section — straight for calm/activity, the long-short dotted-quarter sub gait for danger. The hymn lead is the struckPiano (re-spin's piano fix), tone WARM — intimate, mellow, folk-singable in the house register (the old feltPiano was a plucked-string bug; warm fits this morning-hymn mood over bright). Activity L1 (ch4-5) is the piano hymn-line (rises 1-2-3 to a crest on the fifth, brushes the dorian 6 as an open door, comes home open) plus a soft-pluck echo. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS new material, not volume: a sustained warm-pad counter-voice a third/sixth below AND a rolling pluck arpeggio — the hymn harmonized and filled out. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is unease/the approach: a slow kick heartbeat on the compound dotted pulse under a darkening D/A drone with sparse far booms — real material, not near-silence. Danger L2 (ch10-11) is a GENUINE intensity jump for active fight/flee: the drum KIT arrives — a driving snare backbeat on the gait's urgent 'two' and a galloping doubled kick (ch10), plus an urgent shaker on the 3-row compound subdivision and hat-tick motion (ch11). It is new rhythmic material and higher density, NOT danger1 with the fader up. Dread is abstract — register, density, the gait turning into a run — never chromatic darkening and never a literal storm/flood/collapse foley (that belongs to the game's SFX + ambient soundscape). Fully diatonic D dorian throughout.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## pillars-cloister

### take a2 — Pillars Cloister — Stone Quiet (v3 take A2, re-piano: struck, bright)

Take A2 — a RE-PIANO of pillars-cloister-v3a, not a rewrite: the only change is that the felt-piano (a Karplus-Strong plucked string that read as a plucked guitar) is replaced by struckPiano with tone BRIGHT, and EVERYTHING else the loved take did is kept intact. Tone choice: the brief leans the E♭-lydian light-shafts mood bright (the shimmer), and standing in a sun-shaft is awe rather than intimacy, so a present, articulate struck piano lets each single plainchant note speak across the silence before the canon answers it; the struck partials still decay bright→warm, so it rings BotW-quiet, not like a hard upright. Quiet BotW-esque piano ambiance in E♭ lydian at 58 BPM, melody-forward but very spacious: the bed is an open-voiced choir chord changing once per pattern over a soft sub, with a gong touched at each pattern boundary, and the lydian #4 (A♮) glints once per phrase in the upper choir voice rather than as a hook. Activity L1 (ch4–5) is the VAULT motif (root, fifth, octave, then a 6–5 settle) as a plainchant struck-piano line plus one sympathetic low piano ring per phrase: a clear, standing-on-its-own statement. Activity L2 (ch6–7) adds genuinely NEW material — a caveCelesta canon answering the line a fifth above (transposeDegrees +4, entered a bar late) with a faint echo trail, plus a slow choir swell blooming underneath; the cathedral fills gently rather than getting louder. Danger is encounter music, abstract not literal: danger1 (ch8–9) is real unease — the gong migrates here struck harder and lower, beating against a low boom (a resonant tremor, the monument stirring), not near-silence. Danger2 (ch10–11) is a genuine intensity jump — NEW material at higher density and register: rockfall pebble-ticks scattering across the bar plus a doubling boom on the off-beats between danger1's strikes, the floor coming alive under the player. It evokes dread by proximity/density (stony one-shots, never a continuous storm/cave-in bed) and stays awe-adjacent and fully diatonic: rockfall, not wrath. No chromaticism; no ambient-soundscape depiction.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b2 — Pillars Cloister (Stone Quiet) — Take B re-piano, Eb-lydian struck-piano cathedral

Re-spin of pillars-cloister-v3b: a RE-PIANO (not a rewrite) plus a danger sanity-pass. Every piano voice swaps the old feltPiano (Karplus-Strong = a plucked string, the bug) for struckPiano with tone BRIGHT — E♭ lydian is the light-shaft key and Take B is the shimmer reading where the piano is meant to ring and fill the nave with overtones, so the articulate/present bright voice fits better than intimate warm. The calm bed (choir + soft pad + sub + gong, one open modal chord per pattern through Eb–F–Bb–Cm) and the full activity arrangement are kept whole: activity L1 is the VAULT plainchant (root→fifth→octave, 6–5 settle) answered a fifth above in a true bell-canon, and activity L2 ADDS genuinely new material — a slow ringing arpeggio (overtones filling the cathedral) and a choir bloom on each chord's third (the only thirds in the piece) — not the line louder. Fully diatonic E♭ lydian; the lydian #4 (A♮) is only a passing glint at the top of the F chord and in the free chant, never a chord that hangs on it (no chromatic intent). DANGER is re-cast as encounter music, abstract not literal: the source's hard-gong/boom/rockfall-crack-tick painting of a cave-in (the ceiling shedding) is removed because it foleys the threat and steps on the game's SFX/ambient soundscape. danger L1 is unease/approach — a slow wary low struck-piano toll (an open fifth left to ring) with the gong soft and low and one low pulse on the bar. danger L2 is a genuine intensity JUMP for active fight/flee — a driving urgent low piano ostinato (a steady eighth pulse, the urgency engine) under a descending diatonic dread line, with hard gong accents and the low pulse doubled: denser and higher-energy, not danger1 with the volume up. Danger slows to 54 BPM and stays fully diatonic; dread by register/density, no wrath.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take c2 — Pillars Cloister (Stone Quiet) — Take C, the processional descent, re-pianoed (v3)

Re-piano of pillars-cloister-v3c (re-spin job 9): same bones, real STRUCK piano instead of the plucked-string feltPiano. Tone = bright — E♭ lydian is light-shafts (the shimmer, the answering bell at the fifth, the #4 glint), so the brief's bright lean fits; both pianos use it, the chant kept low (E♭-4 descent) so bright never turns glassy and the wide-panned shadow reads as the same instrument answering itself. Everything the take did is kept: the processional triple sway, the inverted-VAULT descent on L1, the upright-VAULT celesta answer a fifth above + choir bloom on L2 (L2 adds new voices, not volume), the plagal E♭→Cm→A♭→B♭ descent, the lydian #4 as a passing glint only. Danger as ENCOUNTER music: danger1 is the approach — the low tremor gong + a far boom under the moving bed, real unease, never near-silence. danger2 is a genuine intensity jump (not danger1 louder): a DRIVING low boom pulse subdividing the bar into an insistent heartbeat under harder, repeated gong strikes, a tight high tension tick riding the off-beats — urgency by rhythm + density. The source's literal rockfall/dislodged-grit scatter is removed (no cave-in foley); no wind/water/air is rendered. Fully diatonic E♭ lydian.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

## ruins-oldmusic

### take a2 — Ruins / The Old Music — take A2: the reconstructed salon combo, re-spun (A♭ jazz, HEARTH)

Take A2 — the RE-SPIN of take A's faithful jazz reading of The Old Music: a diegetic salon combo reconstructing the dead city's courtly 3/4 evenings, keeping the pleasant gently-melancholy nostalgia the owner loved. A♭ major, 88 BPM, 3/4. PIANO: the comping piano is now `struckPiano` tone WARM (the old feltPiano was a Karplus-Strong plucked string) — warm is the low-light ballroom voice: a mellow strike blooming into a warm sustain, intimate not bright. Calm is the ballroom at low light — struck-piano comping on each bar downbeat with a left-hand oom-pah, warm pad, sub on beat one — bed alone. Activity L1 brings the courtly MELODY: a muted-brass lead (two free strains, then HEARTH stated as the dance's second strain with ornamental celesta turns on the 6–5) over the calm sway. Activity L2 adds the SALON BAND as genuinely new material — a walking upright bass in steady quarter-steps plus brushed-snare/ride swing comping — the rhythm section arriving, not the lead louder. DANGER is now ENCOUNTER music, abstract not literal: danger1 is the WARY FIRST SIGNS — the dance stiffens, an uneasy low pulse marks beats 1 and 3 with the odd wary tick (real tension on its own, not near-silence). danger2 is a genuine INTENSITY JUMP — the fight/flee encounter: new material on two fronts, a DRIVING doubled pulse (a boom on every beat plus a relentless offbeat tick — the chase gait) AND an URGENT anxious LEAD on muted brass that drives and never resolves. That makes L2 a higher-energy escalation, not danger1 turned up, and it evokes dread without any literal collapse/rockfall painting. CHROMATIC INTENT (the jazz exception): the beds run ii–V motion (Bbm7→Eb7→Abmaj7) and a secondary dominant C7→Fm7 whose E-natural is the deliberate leading tone into vi, the activity lead brushes 7th/9th color, and the danger2 lead is an altered/diminished figure (an Adim7 lean over Ab, an Eb7b9 with its b9 and #5, a tritone bite over C7) — the harmony itself dreads. Every chromatic tone is a functional jazz color, never accidental atmosphere.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2

### take b2 — Ruins Oldmusic — salon jazz combo, Ab 3/4 (take B re-spin, struck-piano, encounter danger)

Re-spin of ruins-oldmusic-v3b — the nostalgic-AND-upbeat salon, kept whole: the live jazz combo (struck-piano comping, walking upright bass, brushed-snare + ride swing, a muted-brass reed lead) playing the courtly Ab-major 3/4 dance, a real band rather than a pad with a tune on top. PIANO: now struckPiano (the real STRUCK piano) instead of the old feltPiano (which was Karplus-Strong and read as a plucked guitar/harp); tone lean BRIGHT — present and articulate, which keeps this take's upbeat lift and reads cleanly against the muted brass and the dark danger register (its sibling v3a2 takes warm for the melancholy reading). Chromaticism is the deliberate, named jazz color the concept invites: ii–V motion (Bbm7→Eb7→Abmaj7), a chromatic passing diminished (Adim7) wedged between I and ii, 7th/9th comping tones, and a diminished/whole-tone climb in the danger chase. Calm is the band at rest (bed only — piano at quarter-light, upright on beat one, warm pad holding a I–vi–ii–V turnaround). ACTIVITY: L1 is the melody and its first voice (muted-brass courtly lead + celesta HEARTH second strain, each shadowed by a soft struck-piano echo); L2 adds ENTIRELY NEW material — a WALKING upright bass (quarter-note steps with chromatic approach tones, distinct from the bed's beat-one bass) plus brushed-snare + ride swing — the rhythm section arriving, not the lead louder. DANGER is now ENCOUNTER music (re-spin correction 2), abstract not literal — the threat is NOT painted. danger1 (L1) is real unease/the approach: a steady low pulse (the heart quickening) under a wary struck-piano tremor leaning on the chromatic Adim7 — present, not near-silence. danger2 (L2) is a genuine intensity jump, NOT danger1 louder: the salon's swing becomes a RUN — an urgent muted-brass chase figure climbing the diminished/whole-tone color over a hard-driving kit (snare backbeat on beats 2 and 3, a ride push on the off-beats, a deep downbeat accent). Dread by urgency and density; the accent is a musical downbeat, never depicted rubble. No continuous ambient soundscape is rendered anywhere (correction 3): all percussion is musical one-shots on the beat.
calm
activity1
activity2
danger1
danger2