Gapra Whitewood (theme)

"The Gapra Whitewood" (ガプラ樹林) is a background theme from Final Fantasy XIII. It is an ambient theme, with female vocals and a relaxed piano and percussion background.

While the vocalist Mina and composer Masashi Hamauzu were preparing the demo track for "The Gapra Whitewood" Mina sang in English, as she had done for previous demo tracks recorded for the game, such as "Sulyya Springs" and "Will to Fight," but after receiving the final draft of the lyrics she was so preoccupied with getting the pronunciation and intonation right that she lost track of the flow of the melody. The lyrics were dropped and a fictitious language was employed to regain the feel of the previous songs.

Final Fantasy XIII
"Gapra Whitewood" is the background music for the treetop areas of its eponymous location. The lower sections of the Gapra Whitewood use "Tension in the Air". This change is fitting due to the serenity and beauty of the treetop areas in contrast to the caged monstrous wildlife of at the ground areas of the Gapra Whitewood.

An instrumental version of the song was released on the Original Soundtrack PLUS album. The liner notes to the album contain composer Masashi Hamauzu's comments on the track:

Final Fantasy XIII-2
"Gapra Whitewood" was re-used in XIII-2 as the background theme for the Archylte Steppe -??? AF- during rainy weather.

Piano Collections: Final Fantasy XIII
A solo piano version of the song is included on the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy XIII album.