All Reprises in “The March” by The Dear Hunter, and their significance to the story

[@lakenolia.]

that drum pattern in 2:36 is i think first seen in Smiling Swine at 0:46, and it is reprised in Is There Anybody There?, which makes more sense because it's Hunter's and TPP's first encounter after Hunter met Ms. Leading, whom TPP killed just before The March Also, yeah that's the Oracle's theme at 1:57, not TPP's theme, but to be fair i believe the Oracle's is just a sped up version of TPP's i love to nerd out about this band sorry if it came out as annoying

[@donovansmith1071]

Nice video! Never noticed some of those, and the story significance is even more in depth than I thought it was analyzing it myself! A couple things I noticed myself in the song that weren’t mentioned here: The very beginning with the orchestra going crazy, before the first reprise of Smiling Swine, seems to mirror the opening of Ouroboros with the orchestral chaos, calling back to the moment when the Pimp / Priest’s plan was revealed as now it is being executed to the fullest force The part you marked as a heavily modified reprise of The Pimp And The Priest actually much more resembles the Oracles’ melody, which can be heard throughout the Acts starting with of course The Oracles Of Delphi Express. I always interpreted it as a callback to the Oracles’ warning to Hunter, since now the danger has been fully unleashed (just as the melody is re-used in Blood when the prophecy is then entirely fulfilled). I haven’t analyzed the TPATP melody versus the Oracles’ melody note for note, I’d never heard any similarity between them but there might be that I just hadn’t noticed, but imo that melody fits much more closely (exactly even) to Oracles Also, the very end that’s marked as Original Music as far as I can tell is actually taken from The Most Cursed Of Hands. It’s the same chord progression and rhythm as the “damned across fated paths, the hand he played would be his last” section of that song, and the flute melody seems to be a slightly embellished harmony of that vocal melody.

[@nuggie2993]

thankyou so much for this! great catch on some of that stuff. i never really identified what the oracles theme sounded like. but my p/tp theme connecting to to that one section of the song seemed kinda like a stretch. as for ouroboros, i actually considered that, but decided the beginning of ouroboros was more orchestral than the beginning of the march so it wasn’t a reference. i appreciate this comment a ton

[@Ecphonesis115]

@@nuggie2993 reprise #3 is the oracles, which is also at 3:10 in Blood. And the March intro is also a reprise of the Ouroboros intro. Ouroboros is a bit more orchestral but it’s the same pattern! And the ending of the song reprises the “damned across fates paths” melody that the original commenter mentioned! Check out the 50 minute Acts reprise video here on KZbin if you haven’t!! Breaks down the reprises throughout the whole story and has an attached document in the description that talks about their meaning 😊 this was a great video though!

[@jaydenjbryant8665]

@@nuggie2993 it would be cool if you could do this for every song on every Act and explain the significance of each part. I know it would take a long ass time but that would be sick lol

[@quinnstraught9636]

I think the orchestral chaos in the beginning also mirrors at least 2 other songs, namely 'The River North' and 'The River and the Lake', though in these tracks it takes place at the END; however, it is also continued/elaborated in the beginning of the following songs, 'The Death and the Berth' and 'The Oracles on the Delphi Express' respectively. The same also goes for 'A Night on the Town' and 'Is There Anybody Here?', the second of which is also referenced in 'The March' elsewhere, but I don't see the immediate significance (I generally just don't know much about Act 4's story, I don't know why). I feel like it represents some sort of tumultuous or powerful event, the first being Ms. Terri's death, and the second being the Boy leaving the river and the lake, which kicks off the "main" parts of his story, which are heavily tied together. Given one of the events is the death of a main character, I think the connection is clear, and 'A Beginning' later makes a much clearer callback to 'The Lake South', which I've seen people interpret as meaning The Boy barely escapes to/dies in the River North and later arrives in the Lake South (was this ever confirmed?) much like Ms. Terri did, so a reference/motif that originates in the song titled "The River North" seems likely. Idk tbh I don't know much of the specifics or anything about musical analysis just wanted to share (sorry for necroposting).

[@arealhuman2409]

I might be wrong but I hear some of "Wait" in the part of reprisal #2. Great video though it makes me appreciate this band even more.

[@froggonabudget]

no idea what any of this means but its sick af

[@taylorlehotan2068]

@3:10 it’s Writing On A Wall

[@gmoburrito6090]

Smiling swine can’t be patp’s first encounter with hunter cause he told hunter to get a job as a pimp in the bitter suite II

[@RomasKalash]

Could be. I am not convinced that it’s m anything more than an allusion to what’s to come.