# Ruins Oldmusic — after-hours jazz ballad in Ab (take C)

`ruins-oldmusic-v3c` — levels: `calm.mp3` · `activity1.mp3` · `activity2.mp3` · `danger1.mp3` · `danger2.mp3`

Take C — a structurally different angle on the Old Music: an after-hours jazz BALLAD rather than the obvious swinging courtly-dance combo. Same Ab major / 88 BPM / 3/4 as the brief, but the bones differ three ways. (1) Lead-instrument flip: the melody is the felt PIANO right hand (the v3 jazz showcase patch), not a brass/reed/celesta lead; mutedBrass is demoted to a counter-line and celesta is a sparse echo/ornament. (2) Melodic shape: the spine is a DESCENDING ii-V-driven line of falling thirds, not a rocking round; HEARTH is stated recognizably but as a quiet closing TAG (its 3-2-1 settle in A3), the pianist remembering the old tune, not the subject. (3) Groove/density: a spacious ballad in 3 (calm is sparse) with a gong tolling each phrase top like a clock in the empty hall. Layering per branch: activity L1 (ch4-5) is the piano line plus a soft celesta echo over the bed; L2 (ch6-7) ADDS the combo as new material — a walking upright bass, brushed-snare+ride swing comping, and the muted-brass counter-line a tenth below — never just louder. Danger L1 (ch8-9) is the limp's first signs: beat 3 doubled by a low boom over a darkening reverb-tail drone; L2 (ch10-11) adds the ceiling joining in — stone-crack ticks across the barline and a second boom. Chromatic intent (named, per concept 3 / guardrail 2): the harmony is functional jazz ii-V-I in Ab with secondary dominants, a D7 tritone-sub leaning into Eb, an Eb7b9, and a D dim7 passing chord in the danger turn; the piano line colors with the b9 (Fb=E) over the V and the natural maj7. Every chromatic tone is a ii-V / passing / tritone-sub event resolving by step — warm period-salon color, not accidental spookiness.
