Tackling Fontaine's Masterpiece 'Le Souvenir avec le crepuscule' on Acoustic Guitar
Table of Contents
If you haven’t finished the Fontaine chapter of Genshin Impact yet, you risk getting hit with fatal story spoilers!!! While this article itself doesn’t contain any major spoilers, I strongly advise against searching for the track titles or browsing the comment sections of the featured videos.
Introduction
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve recently gotten really hooked on practicing the acoustic guitar.
A 10-Year Challenge: I Can Finally Kind of Play the Acoustic Guitar
While looking for high-quality TABs of Genshin Impact music, I found a fantastic arrangement.
It’s an arrangement by the same creator who did “Les murmures des flots” from my previous post, and while preserving all the charm of that Fontaine track, it offers a truly wonderful interpretation for guitar.
However, the difficulty level skyrockets. If you can’t play barre chords, don’t even bother, and it’s a non-stop parade of extended techniques. On top of that, unless you mute properly to control note durations, the waltz feel is completely ruined. It is blatantly not for beginners.
It’s a pretty brutal piece, but these elements happen to be the exact areas I don’t fully understand yet and have been neglecting, so I steeled myself and decided to take on the challenge. After all, this is a path you just can’t avoid if you want to bring out the full potential of guitar tone, and learning it through Genshin music ought to be a great way to soften the blow. Besides, every time I visit the Court of Fontaine, it’ll probably make me feel like I need to go practice.
Fortunately, this video actually has a multi-part tutorial series! The explanations are incredibly attentive and thorough, which is an absolute lifesaver.
With this, maybe I can actually pull it off…
Notes on the Track Title
The following contains minor spoilers for the Genshin Impact storyline. Please be careful if you haven’t finished the Fontaine chapter yet.
The video is titled “Sinner’s Waltz: Focalors’ Finale” (Sinner’s Finale), which strikes me as a bit odd.
This is because the title seems to suggest “Tout est bien qui finit bien” (Japanese title unknown; literally “All’s Well That Ends Well”), the iconic track that plays in Archon Quest Chapter IV: Act V, “Masquerade of the Guilty” (titled “Sinner’s Waltz” in Japanese).
However, listening to it, it seems more accurate to say that this score is an arrangement of “Le Souvenir avec le crepuscule” (“Memories with the Twilight”—the track that plays at dusk in the Court of Fontaine).
Either way, the melody—or rather, the motif—is the same, so it’s not like it’s a huge error, but just to note it. In my own mind, I think of it as the Hydro Archon’s theme.
An Interesting Fact Uncovered During My Research
Archon Quest Chapter IV: Act V, titled “Sinner’s Waltz” in Japanese, is apparently titled Masquerade of the Guilty in English. In other words, not a waltz, but a masquerade (a masked ball).
When you think of a waltz, you think of Khachaturian’s Masquerade, and when you think of Khachaturian’s Masquerade, you think of its famous Waltz, so I almost dismissed it as just a subtle quirk of translation. But on second thought, a waltz and a masquerade have fundamentally different meanings, making this distinction quite a fascinating point.
Personally, I feel that “Masquerade” is a title that much better reflects the overarching storyline of the Fontaine chapter.
Resources for My Own Reference
Sheet Music I Transcribed Myself
Somehow managed to fit it all onto a single page…
The density is about three times that of any piece I’ve tackled before, which is already terrifying.
Tutorials
Extremely kind walkthroughs. Truly grateful.
More articles
- A 10-Year Challenge: I Can Finally Kind of Play the Acoustic Guitar• #MusicMy journey of taking on the acoustic guitar: practice methods, tips, and recommended Genshin Impact tabs.
- Recent Earworms (from Genshin Impact)• #MusicOn the music that won't stop playing in my head.
- Impressions of Genshin Impact Ver. 7.1 Snezhnaya, Up Through Act IV "A Rekviem for the Underworld"• #Genshin ImpactAfter two years, I've finally caught up with the current release.
- Thoughts on Genshin Impact's Nod-Krai Storyline• #Genshin ImpactI finished Nod-Krai.
Notes on games, radio and technology, translated from the Japanese blog.