i got into the habit of layering sounds on top of sounds on top of sounds in Musagi and, lately, Bitwig Studio. kicks on top of leads on top of a bass on top of snares on top of a hi-hat etc. but . . . then i started playing the Great Fairy's Fountain theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id0kbyKCG8c) from memory (read: poorly) and it was beautifully simple.
when i think about my favourite music, it's often the work of Kashiwa Daisuke that comes to mind, but i think my real answer would be Geothermal from Cave Story - but played on piano, which is a total impossibility according to the sheet music i tried using. it needed three hands. but there was a beautiful, resonant depth to the parts that i could play.
(here is a bad version of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrYfdlOsD7U) - bad as in missing some of the lower notes, an unforgivable redaction)
i thought about the iconic 'Zelda's Secret Sound (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWw-m1ww2So)', and how that could be played and recognized with one instrument.
why was i adding a drum beat?
~ linked from The Nature of Order Book 2, on SIMPLICITY and PERFECTION (http://newforum.droqen.com/index.php?topic=391.msg2004#msg2004)
one can make a perfectly lovely tune with one instrument that plays exactly one note at a time... shouldn't that be enough? long silences, single notes, smooth transitions - or sharp, hard ones. who even needs chords in order to express something powerful?