Heartbeat Clocktower

"Just before he died, a lonely man created a small, small theatre in the middle of the forest..."

- Gear

Heartbeat Clocktower is a song released by Akuno-P originally on piapro on October 1, 2009 and later became part of Prelude to Forest on February 7, 2010. It is the fifth song in the Clockwork Lullaby Series, describing the experiences of Gear in Evil's Theater.

Plot
The song concerns the guardian of the titular clocktower, whose role it is to keep the gears going to keep the Clockworker's Doll alive; he muses about the tower's previous master, the embodiment of Greed, had brought himself to ruin and left only the doll behind with burn marks. After the text describes the "Collector" who created a theater for his the "collectibles", Gear watches the Master of the Graveyard and the pretentious servant girl going about their daily activities; the PV notes how the tower seemed to come alive singing one day.

The bloodstained scissors and the purple sword remain dormant among the vessels of sin, Utopia still unable to be created. Realizing that the clock has broken down and that the Doll's time is running short, Gear takes out his heart and sacrifices himself to power the clocktower in fulfillment of his role. At the end of the PV, the text describes how the one who built the theater loved the most the Clockwork Doll, and that now someone else had the leading part.

Composition
KAITO's original VOCALOID voicebank is utilized, along with backing from Kagamine Rin and Len's VOCALOID2 voicebanks. Notable instruments used are piano, violin, bass guitar, electric guitar, french horn, and flute.

The song opens up with an instrumental, with the first verse beginning at 0.41. At 1.15, a brief instrumental plays, and cuts back to a second verse by 1.26. The first chorus begins at 1.50, and a variation of the opening instrumental plays at 2.11. The shortened third verse begins at 2.23, followed by the second chorus at 2.45. At 3.07, the bridge begins, followed by an extended instrumental at 3.19, accompanied by the "lu li la" melody. The final chorus begins at 3.42, followed by a variation of the opening instrumental at 4.10. The song ends abruptly at 4.32.

Lyrics
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Handbeat Clocktower
Handbeat Clocktower shares a similar melody and arrangement with Heartbeat Clocktower, as well as containing similar imagery.

Miniature Garden Girl
Miniature Garden Girl details the events that occurred prior to Heartbeat Clocktower, describing the life and near-death of the Clockworker's Doll and the event that led to her gaining severe burns.

Master of the Court
Master of the Court recounts the goals of the Clockworker's Doll after the events of Heartbeat Clocktower, as well as her interactions with other members of the theater.

Master of the Graveyard
Master of the Graveyard details the life and interactions of the Master of the Graveyard as alluded to by Gear in Heartbeat Clocktower.

Capriccio Farce
Capriccio Farce recounts the later exchanges of the theater inhabitants after the happenings of Heartbeat Clocktower, as it details their later attempts to convene and locate Grim the End.

Appearances
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Conceptualization and Origin

 * The song's title alludes to Gear's sacrifice of connecting his heart to the clocktower, letting his heartbeat power it and keep the Clockworker's Doll alive.

Curiosities

 * During the song PV, the Seven Deadly Sins are represented by gears colored with the respective sin's color, with each of the awakened vessels of sins' appearance being complemented with their gear turning in a corner of the PV.
 * During the opening sequence, the six gears representing the collected vessels of sin come together to form the songs logo, a gray gear; towards the end, a green gear representing the vessel of Wrath is seen falling on the edge of the screen, alluding to how it is the last vessel to be collected.
 * While Gear sings about the doll's inevitable death with the clocktower broken, the teal gear representing the vessel of Sloth is seen spinning at a much slower pace than the gears for Pride and Gluttony.
 * The song was rearranged by mothy to promote the The Daughter of Evil: Praefacio of Blue, titled "Handbeat Clocktower", a track sung by Kyle Marlon and included in Four Melodies of Evil ~The Daughter of Evil Novel Music Collection~ as part of Story of Evil.
 * Interestingly, both songs maintain a gray gear in their song PV with Heartbeat Clocktower's gear turning blue, representing Gear, and the final silhouette seen with the gear in Handbeat Clocktower being Kyle.
 * During the song's "Lu Li La" chorus, the images of the vessel owners followed by the Latin name for their respective sin appear translucent over Hänsel and Gretel; at the end of the sequence, the names of the four Masters' domains from Four Ends appear in the four corners of the song PV.
 * The seven vessel owners' order of appearance in the PV follows the release order of their respective songs.

Gallery
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