Ghostbusters Theme

What you're hearing, in order

The whole post-hit section is now phrased. The 6/8 territory has 62 phrasing keypoints from the hit through the closing comma, with stretch factors and velocity multipliers at every chord boundary. The default tempo is 1.65×, which is now the canonical speed — the phrasing model is calibrated for it. The tempo slider still works (try 1.4× for a gentler reading, or 1.8× for full chase-scene), and the phrasing scales proportionally.

Bars 1–17, the Moninoff opening, phrased: the haunted piano speaks. Now with rubato (slowing into climaxes, broadening at cadences), velocity scaling that follows the dynamic curve of how a real pianist would shape this music, and breath inserts at phrase boundaries. The same 73-keypoint phrasing model that lived in the phrased version, now folded into the canonical arrangement. The Moninoff section gains about 2.6 seconds overall, almost all of it in strategic silences rather than rubato.

The unhook (bars 18–20): sparse rising figures gather, accelerate, push toward the hit.

Bar 21, the hit: the tempo bumps (default 1.4× of original) into 6/8 in 2. The MIDI's existing F1/F2 ostinato kicks the rhythmic floor in.

Bars 21–24, the tether in the wind: for these four measures, the rotating eighth-note arpeggios establish themselves alone in the mid register. No bass line. No thick low-end. A bit quicker (a local 1.15× bump on top of the global speedup). The arpeggios are the only new texture, light, suggesting the rhythm engine that's coming without overcommitting. This is the "tether moving in the wind before everything anchors" moment.

Bar 25 onward, the chorale: everything crashes back in. The bass line enters underneath your sustained melody (E♭m–B♭m–G♭–D♭–A♭–E♭m–B♭m), thick and rhythmic, with octave doubling on the dotted-quarter pulse. The arpeggios continue but now they have weight beneath them.

The reharmonization (bars 36–39): here is where Justin heard something the original chord chart wasn't doing yet. The four bars that originally read A♭ → A♭ → A♭ → E (a delayed cadence into the chromatic-mediant hidden door) now read Emaj7 → E♭m → F7/C → B♭7/F. The hidden-door E arrives immediately with the major-7 color, then collapses home to E♭m, then a secondary-dominant line (F7/C → B♭7/F) walks the cycle-of-fifths into the next chorale's E♭m. The melody overhead barely moves (G♯ → F♯ → F → F) but each note means something different beneath the new chords. Justin's substitution; voiced and arranged here.

The bass treatment splits the four reharmonization bars into two phases. Bars 1 and 2 (Emaj7 and E♭m) have contoured bass: a sustained root on beat 1, the chord's actual third (not a generic fifth) on beat 2 — so the bass voice articulates each chord's quality (major-7's G♯, minor's G♭). Bars 3 and 4 (F7/C and B♭7/F) have stationary bass: C held as a dotted half through the whole bar, F held as a dotted half through the whole bar. C_ F_, exactly the way you wrote it. The motion in those bars comes from the upper voice — the cycle-of-fifths drives via the chord above the held pedal — while the bottom anchors. This is what makes the rush in those two bars feel like motion over a held tension rather than parallel motion at every level.

The phrasing arc here: bars 3 and 4 RUSH (stretch 0.88 and 0.85, well below the global 1.65× — effectively 1.87× and 1.94× of original tempo). The rush carries forward into the return chorale (E♭m and E♭m at stretch 0.95 and 0.93, then F/C at 0.95). Then on the B♭7 bars at 1:22–1:23, molto rall — stretch climbs to 1.10 then 1.40 with a 0.3-second breath insert before the slash-pedal entry. Then at 1:24 the slash-pedal section enters bravely back into the wind — velocity bumps to 1.20× and stretch sits at 0.97 for the early bars, slightly faster than baseline, the music finding its conviction again after the held breath.

The slash-chord pedal section (bars 47–62): for the slash chords (F/C, F♯dim7, F7/A, B♭7/A♭, E♭m/G♭, B♭7/F), the bass note from the slash is held longer and emphasized — the slash is the whole point. The arpeggios honor the slash bass by including its pitch class in the upper voice too, connecting bass to melody across the registers.

The sus zone (bars 63–71): approaching the end. Bass plays only on beat 1, sustained, letting the suspended chord tones breathe. The arpeggio pattern shifts to highlight the suspension (the 2nd or 4th) rather than the standard root-third-fifth shape. We're getting quieter as we approach the moto perpetuo.

Bars 72+, the moto perpetuo coda: the MIDI's own rolling figuration carries the energy. The bass drops to a low pedal tone every other bar, the arpeggios go to a softer pulse layer underneath. We let the original do its work.

The last four bars, a creator's contribution: since your entr'acte was unfinished at the end, here is what I added. A sustained tenor-register voice in dialog with the bass, voice-leading through the final chords (A♭m → Esus2 → D♭/A♭ → Esus2) on a tight half-step path: F♯ – F♯ – F – F♯. Each step is the smallest possible, the line barely moves. In the very last bar, two notes appear in the far upper octave — an open fifth on the Esus2 — that hang in the air after everything else has stopped. The piece ends on a sus chord, deliberately. A comma, not a period. The audience is going back to the show after this; the entr'acte should leave them leaning forward, not settled. The Esus2 is also the chord at the hidden door from bar 36, returning at the end as if to say: the door is still open.

The phrasing arc throughout moves through several distinct moments. Slight speedup at 1:12-1:13 (the Absus lead-in to reharmonization, leaning forward into what is coming). Poco rall at 1:16-1:17 across F7/C and B♭7/F (the cycle-of-fifths broadening rather than rushing — the held bass pedal under expanding harmony). Rall (not molto) at 1:23-1:24 on the B♭7 bars before the slash-pedal entry. Slight tempo rise at 1:30 in the middle of the slash-pedal section. Then at 1:38, instead of slowing into the sus zone, the F♯dim7 propels forward at faster tempo, and the sus zone enters at stretch 0.97 — propulsive, not settling. Only the final closing bars (1:53 onward) bring the larger broadening, with stretch climbing to 1.15 and the closing voice-leading taking its time.

The whole-note bridge voice. Threading through the entire post-hit section is a soprano counter-melody in the G5–B5 register that does not appear in the original score — a creator's contribution that links the harmony across history. The voice anchors on G♯5 / A♭5 (which is the major-3rd of the hidden-door E major chord), returning to that pitch class twelve separate times through the post-hit section. It dips to G5 during the F7/B♭7 cycle, descends through A5 and G♯5 in the slash-pedal section middle, rises to B5 only at the two Emaj7/Esus2 hidden-door illuminations (the hidden door chord-5th), and resolves through F♯5–F5–E♭5 toward the closing. The line reason: G♯ is the unifying tone of the post-hit section. By having the same pitch class recur across non-adjacent chord events, the listener experiences the post-hit territory as one connected musical thought rather than four separate sections. When you hear B5 land at 1:47 (the third time the hidden-door E chord appears in the piece), you are hearing a melodic memory completing itself.

Toggle off any layer to compare. Push the tempo slider to taste — 1.4× is my recommendation for the Pirates / Elfman feel; 1.2× is gentler; 1.6× pushes into proper chase-scene. The Moninoff phrasing toggle is independent: it can be on or off regardless of the post-hit arrangement settings.