Joe Hisaishi is renowned for his work scoring the music for Studio Ghibli films with director Hayao Miyazaki. Their long-standing relationship has produced some of the most poignant pieces of modern art, making memories that last a lifetime. (Read how “Merry-Go-Round of Life” from “Howl’s Moving Castle” has stayed relevant for over 21 years.)
However, there was a fresh addition to the latest Ghibli film’s sonic repertoire.
Released in 2023, “The Boy and the Heron” is an animated film that follows a boy named Mahito Maki, who relocates to the countryside after his mother passes away. He soon discovers an abandoned tower and meets a talking grey heron that guides him through a fantasy world.
While Hisaishi scored the entire film, audiences were drawn in by the film’s theme song, “Spinning Globe,” which was written by Japanese singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu. The heartfelt ballad sums up the film’s complex emotions and sense of wonder. Yonezu was personally tapped by Miyazaki to write the song for “The Boy and the Heron” after he heard his hit song “Paprika.”
Yonezu worked on the song for four years, often feeling the pressure of living up to Miyazaki’s reputation. Part of that was internal, as the songwriter had been an enormous fan of Studio Ghibli’s films for his entire life.
“Ever since childhood, his movies have saved my life,” he told Billboard. “And into adolescence, I just started considering him my mentor without asking. Personally speaking, he is probably my all-time number one master. And now I get to work with The Man.”
However, it’s also difficult to summarize a whole film into one song. After trying to recreate a “Paprika” type of pop song, Yonezu went deeper into the emotions. Miyazaki told him to be ambitious, and recreating something he’d already done was decidedly unambitious to Yonezu.
“As a music maker, I have always sought for something that was not there at that time. With each and every song, I have made it by taking in new elements, no matter how many. Personally speaking, that is what I call ambition,” he explains. “This time, I made the song extremely simple and earthy. In a sense, it may make the song less pop, but I believe there are things and words that can only be depicted that way. Therefore, to me, this song – ‘Spinning Globe’ – is a very ambitious piece of music.”
Yonezu focused on the intimacy of just piano and voice for the first verse, slowly adding backing vocals for the second verse. The chorus adds a thicker texture with a simple drum pattern to drive the rhythm, while a bagpipe adds a high-frequency texture.
The song employs a clever technique to imbue the verses with a pensive quality. At the end of each phrase, Yonezu adds two extra beats, forcing the listener to sit in the silence and reflect on the lyrics he just sang.
Watch the music video and follow along with the sheet music for “Spinning Globe” from “The Boy and the Heron”:
