The 12 Step Suite Summary - The Shattered Fortress

[Ben_Jamin]

While reading the Reprise thread in the music section of the forums, I came upon a post about The Shattered Fortress and how it's a spot-on ending. This then Made me want to do an analysis (well sort of) of The Shattered Fortress and it's reprises. This should be fun...

Now before we begin, I need you to know How I envision The Shattered Fortress when I listen to the song, and what it represents to me.

The Shattered Fortress is about the person returning from whence they came and seeing The Glass Prison now in shards, scattered across the ground. As they pick up the pieces, they reflect upon the lessons they have learned since they first looked in The Mirror, when they began taking the steps out of The Glass Prison accepting the hand that's offering help to escape the Prison Walls.


The way those shards are represented is through the music reprises from the past songs, and the lessons are the lyric melodies. The last step is represented by the Newish Riff that is introduced and ends the suite, it reflects a new lesson of being responsible for helping another person and becoming the hand that once guided you out of The Glass Prison.

These are what I got while listening:(Let me know if there is more that you hear, especially the ones that understand music theory)

AA Suite Song Reprises

1:23 - JR Sitar Riff
1:37 - This Dying Soul intro main Riff
1:51 - TGP main intro Riff Begins
2:47 - TGP instrumental ending riff (Look In The Mirror)
3:01 - "Fateful Ascent"(3:56 TGP riff)
3:29 - (Dun-dun Dun-dun rah) Riff
3:42 - TGP Main Intro Riff Again
4:10 - TGP instrumental ending riff(Look in the mirror)
4:22 - "Fateful Ascent"(3:56 TGP Riff)

4:52 - "I once thought it better" Repentance
5:21 - This Dying Soul Intro Riff (Intrumental)
5:52 - This Dying Soul Verse Riff
6:08 - TDS IR again
6:28 - TDS 2nd Verse Riff
6:53 - Repentance Clean Riff
7:37 - TDS "Now you can see" Melody
8:24 - TRoAE "Keep all of me" Melody
9:19 - TRoAE Main Riff
10:28 - New Riff introduced(it sounds like the 4:36 TGP Riff slowed down to me but not entirely sure)
11:40 - TGP intro
12:11 - TGP Bell
12:22 - TDS Drums into TROAE intro

[Northern Lion]

This is a really good thread idea!  I need to re-listen to the song while reading your notes so I can have something intelligent to add.  I'll be back.

[Ben_Jamin]

I'll add my response to the ending going back into The Glass Prison.

[RoeDent]

As the person who made the post about it being a "spot-on" ending, I want to make clarification for those who have not read the previous thread. I mean it works as an ending to the Twelve-Step Suite taken on its own, as if it were a single work. Maybe it's a bit of whiplash taken in the context of BCSL; I am not the judge of that.

Anyway, onto nugget digging!

- The riff from 5:26 is a combination of the following: First part is from 5:53 of TGP (also used in TDS), the second part is from 1:47 of TGP (leading up to the wah-wah). These two parts are repeated before we have the five-note motif that begins TDS.

- Another element worth noting is how, in the previous songs, a lot of these riffs were in odd time signatures. In most cases, they revert to 4/4 or other even time signatures, symbolizing how the protagonist's life has straightened out upon application of the 12 Steps.

10:28 - New Riff introduced(it sounds like the 4:36 TGP Riff slowed down to me but not entirely sure)

If this is the case, that'll be news to me. I've always found it a little bit strange that, right at the end of a song that's comprised otherwise entirely of reprises, they throw in an entirely new riff never heard before. It must be derived from somewhere else in the suite, surely. This is the first time I've seen any suggestion of what that might be.

[Ben_Jamin]

10:28 - New Riff introduced(it sounds like the 4:36 TGP Riff slowed down to me but not entirely sure)

If this is the case, that'll be news to me. I've always found it a little bit strange that, right at the end of a song that's comprised otherwise entirely of reprises, they throw in an entirely new riff never heard before. It must be derived from somewhere else in the suite, surely. This is the first time I've seen any suggestion of what that might be.

Yeah me too. I listened to the ending and then listened to The Glass Prison to get my timestamps and heard the "Crawling through my glass prison" music underneath, and thought...hmm, maybe, just maybe. but I haven't tried messing with it in Audacity just to see...I do not know enough musical theory to actually go deeper and try it out myself on my instruments.

But, hey, that's why I made this thread.

[JiM-Xtreme]

I never made that connection either. I always just accepted that it was a completely new riff/melody to act as the climax of the suite.

It's an interesting suggestion and I can sort of see the similarity but I think it's bit of a stretch to say that it's derived from that section.

[Ben_Jamin]

I never made that connection either. I always just accepted that it was a completely new riff/melody to act as the climax of the suite.

It's an interesting suggestion and I can sort of see the similarity but I think it's bit of a stretch to say that it's derived from that section.

Yeah, it is. I was basing it off of what I heard at that moment. Can't get on audacity to actually slow it down and try, haha..