November 28, 2009

“Palace” Sheet Music, from Zelda: Adventure of Link

I’ve received a few requests to transcribe the sheet music for my Zelda Palace arrangement, so hopefully those of you who’ve been waiting for it will enjoy.



Palace
Format: PDF
Difficulty: Intermediate
Info: This arrangement was mostly inspired by the “Hyrule Temple” theme from Super Smash Brothers Melee. I threw in the notes for the Zelda “secret sound” at the end, too. (Watch me play it or hear the original from the Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link.)

November 25, 2009

Masashi Hamauzu: “Defiers of Fate” from Final Fantasy XIII

(4/13/10: A higher quality audio sample of the theme is out there now, as well as its proper title, so I’ve updated this post to reflect my new finds.)

This piece is so cool! Even though I’ve only played one and a half Final Fantasy games, I’m excited for this soundtrack. I’m a fan of FFX’s music, which Masashi Hamauzu co-composed with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano. Apparently Masashi Hamauzu is working on the FFXIII soundtrack without Nobuo Uematsu.

“Defiers of Fate,” FFXIII’s trailer theme, composed by Masashi Hamauzu.

I love the blend of electronic and orchestral elements here. Both genres involve a very different palette of sounds and thought process for piecing those sounds together, but they fit together seamlessly in this piece and the composer clearly is fluent in them both. It sets up such a colorful sound world. (The bass accents kind of remind me of Nobuo Uematsu’s music, particularly the Menu Theme from Super Smash Brothers Brawl.)

Since I seem to like Final Fantasy music when Masashi Hamauzu is involved, I started looking into his other works, like the SaGa Frontier 2 soundtrack. I’m finding that I like just about everything I hear of his; at a glance, his music seems to be piano-oriented and mixes a lot of light electronic textures with heavy ambient chords and orchestral sounds. (Did I mention before that I’m a fan of light, “sparkly” sounds?) I think I’ve found a new favorite composer!

November 20, 2009

Covers in Progress: “Assault” and “Gusty Garden Galaxy”

It’s been slow around here again, hasn’t it? I’ve been working on a few small projects, both as a personal hobby and for clients.

On the YouTube end, I’m trying to decide what song to cover next. At the moment, “Assault” from the FFX Piano Collections is the farthest along, though I still have a long way to go before I can perform it.

“Assault” from the FFX Piano Collections, a beautiful piano arrangement of the original, composed/arranged by Masashi Hamauzu and performed by Aki Kuroda.


The other piece I’m working on is “Gusty Garden Galaxy” (by popular demand) though truth be told, I’m stuck! I’ve worked out an introduction that I like, but it’s tough recreating the sweeping emotions of the piece without an orchestra to back me up. I also want it to stand as a good piano arrangement rather than a simple imitation of the original, so we’ll see how this goes.

“Gusty Garden Galaxy” from Super Mario Galaxy, also considered the main theme of Mario Galaxy. I believe it was composed by Koji Kondo, but I’ve been known to credit everything to him and should probably check on that.*

*Thanks for correcting me, guys! I had a feeling I was giving Koji Kondo too much credit again! Mahito Yokota composed the Gusty Garden theme.