REVIEW · Songs & Albums
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Que Sera Sera,” a fanfare across Sunday night
Karaoke song numbers
On Sunday night, thoughts of the coming week can arrive early. The break has not ended, yet Monday already has weight. Written as the theme for the drama Nichiyō no Yoru Gurai wa…, “Que Sera Sera” occupies that interval. Mrs. GREEN APPLE makes room for more than people who finished the week well. The short title also welcomes someone carrying a day they would rather have lived differently.
Motoki Ohmori explained that he wrote the song believing things would take their course, without assuming that course must be good or bad. That leaves no prophecy that everything will improve. It offers a small opening in which someone unable to control tomorrow need not pronounce today’s self a failure. Hearing the title only as easy optimism misses that distinction.
An ordinary day, beginning in a script
Ohmori said the first episode’s script moved him through its characters’ affection, pride, and difficulties. That starting point gives the encouragement an everyday scale. This is a song for someone handling relationships and their portion of a day, with no requirement to have achieved a magnificent dream. Receiving its support does not depend on transforming tomorrow.
The programme’s place on Sunday, before a new working week, also establishes an apt distance. Once the story ends, viewers return to their own Monday. Music can accompany that short crossing. The characters’ problems need not match the listener’s for the feeling at the end of a break to become a specific place to meet the song.
A sound that changes expression
The arrangement changes its scale rather than sustaining one kind of brightness throughout. Harpsichord and pizzicato-like timbres at the opening lead into acoustic guitar and percussion, with an orchestral ensemble opening the space further. Set those intimate textures beside the larger gathering of sound, and the title’s brief phrase need not return with an identical expression.
The changes can be heard without treating them as a mechanism for forcing a weary person towards a climax. A day’s feelings rarely move in a straight line. A moment of composure can give way to fatigue; something small can still provoke a laugh. Following the different textures at that pace makes the bright refrain a temporary meeting place for changing feelings.
A celebration that reaches the present self
Ohmori described the song as a fanfare for people doing their best to live now. Its recipients differ from the winners that word usually suggests. Celebration is sent towards someone without a result to display, perhaps someone who finds self-affection difficult. The song attends to the time spent enduring, before the assessment or reward has arrived.
Monday will still come when the music ends. The listener can nevertheless try the short title in their own voice. There is no need to formulate a grand resolution or rename today a beautiful day. After a few minutes with the changing arrangement, the person who must meet the next week remains the same person. The fanfare returns to them.
References
Music and production information
ABC TV: Sunday Night theme song and composer comments ↗ · Universal Music: official 10 liner notes ↗
