Desert Breezes
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Desert Breezes is a composition written by Grant Kirkhope for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. It plays in the Dessert Desert at night. It was officially released on Viva Piñata Original Soundtrack (2009), Viva Piñata (2018), then rerecorded for Rare Treats: Viva Piñata Revisited (2026).
Composition
Instruments
Desert Breezes features lead melodies played on the concert flute, cor anglais, bass flute, bassoon, oboe, celesta and harp. It is the only composition in the main Viva Piñata soundtrack to feature a cor anglais or bass flute.
| Instruments | Lead | Supporting |
|---|---|---|
| Concert Flute | ✔ | ✗ |
| Bass Flute | ✔ | ✗ |
| Oboe | ✔ | ✗ |
| Cor Anglais | ✔ | ✗ |
| Bassoon | ✔ | ✗ |
| Violin | ✗ | ✔ |
| Viola | ✗ | ✔ |
| Cello | ✗ | ✔ |
| Contrabass | ✗ | ✔ |
| French Horn | ✗ | ✔ |
| Tenor Trombone | ✗ | ✔ |
| Harp | ✔* | ✔ |
| Celesta | ✔ | ✔ |
| Vibraphone | ✗ | ✔ |
* Instrument plays a harmonic part in isolation.
Harmony
Scales
There are 4 different scales used in Desert Breezes. All of them have ♮3, ♮5 and ♭7 scale degrees, with most making use of ♭2, ♮4 and ♭6 scale degrees.
C Phrygian Dominant (bars 1–15)
Phrygian Dominant (1 ♭2 3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7) is used for roughly half of the song. This is the most common scale used in the Dessert Desert compositions. The lead melodies for this section aren't entirely diatonic to Phrygian Dominant.
| Notes | Bars |
|---|---|
| ♮2 | |
| ♯4 | |
| ♮6 |
C Hungarian Major (bars 16–19)
Hungarian Major (1 ♯2 3 ♯4 5 6 ♭7)
F Spanish Phrygian (bars 20–27)
Spanish Phrygian (1 ♭2 ♭3 3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7)
F Ancient (bars 28–33)
The Ancient Scale (1 ♭2 2 3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 7)