Liontamer Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Hey there, OCReMix, Awesome to finally submit something - your site has long been a part of my musical development and has definitely played a part in me completing final year of Music Education at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada - really great job! Without cluttering up the email too terribly much, here is the good stuff! ============== Contact Info: Remix Name: siven7 Real Name: Kenley Kristofferson Email address: kenleykristofferson@hotmail.com or siven7@gmail.com Website: (none at the moment) UserID: (not sure how to find my number) Remix Info: Name of Game Remixed: Final Fantasy Name of Original Song: Matoya's Cave, Overworld Theme, Gurgu Volcano, Chaos's Temple, Temple of Chaos, Final Fantasy Theme, Victory Fanfare. Comments: Though the pieces are very heavily remix, this remix brings a sound, colour and ensemble that is rarely heard in video game repertoire, classical repertoire or even everyday life: The Euphonium Quartet. There exist trombone quartets, tuba quartets, tuba ensembles... but alas, the euphonium quartet is a beast that wakes in areas few and far between...! I study music at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, Canada and, though studying to be a music teacher and composer, majored on Euphonium for my major practical study (i.e. playing lessons). In my fourth year at school, two first years and a Master's student and I put together a euphonium quartet and played two recitals. As there are very few pieces written for the euphonium quartet, there would be no better time to arrange something for us! Final Fantasy I was chosen because the music is fun, written mostly in four parts and easily lends itself to classical medium (as well as the fact that it is really, REALLY well done!). The piece begins with a solo euphonium over a drone playing Matoya's Cave; the other two join in and begin a chorale-like feel. Though the range is slightly screaming near the end (up to a high C!), the lower voices start an accelerando into the Overworld Theme. The Overworld Theme is traded between euph duets until everyone comes in with an ostinato and a thicker texture of low brass. There is a quick transition into the Gurgu Volcano (which is equally quick!) and we get to have some fun with the dynamics: Starting loud, quieting for a crescendo, then repeating at piano and growing into the transition, which takes us into the Chaos Temple theme. As polyphonic melody (the melodic figure) is tough to do on a brass instrument, we did octave shots in the first run of the melody and then elaborated the harmony underneath with trading figures (always fun in a chamber group) and this helped have the full sound of four horns. There is some fun with rhythms before slowing down with triplet figures into the Final Fantasy Theme, which is a glorious sound when scored for a low brass quartet. At the final transition, we end with a quote from the victory fanfare and an eerily out-of-tune last note (hahaha!), stand and bow! This was performed on March 17, 2005 at Eva Clare Hall at the U of M campus. The performers consisted of Nathan Beeler, Michelle Funk, Kim Lutz and myself, Kenley Kristofferson. I really hope you enjoy it, I hope to have more coming sooner! Kenley Kristofferson Composer Dragonfly Games "Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened" ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Tracks 10 (:03), 4 (1:14), 9 (2:25), 12 (3:23), 2 (4:14) & 19 (5:27) I don't wanna sound like a hater, Kenley, because you've got the music major and the premise of this arrangement is pretty cool. I wish more people out there were doing stuff like this. But IMO the performance isn't strong enough. The recording quality is lacking, but if the performance was really that good, the recording quality wouldn't be enough of a negative to hold this back. Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the euphonium, but the performance seemed pretty bland. Though comparable to a tuba, it's still an expressive enough instrument, and I wasn't getting that here, especially with the backing parts. What was supposed to sound moody and reserved just ended up sounding flat. I'm not expecting Steven Mead quality, but oftentimes, the harmonies weren't that tight, and the individual parts lacked in spots as well. Nothing's dismal here, but it's not as tightly performed or expressive as it should be. Even during the best parts where the four of you were clicking (e.g. 4:14-5:11), I felt like there was a lot of unrealized potential. On the arrangement side, things were pretty conservative, but it takes skill and practice to learn the various parts. With a relatively conservative take on the various themes though, you really need a tight performance to make up for that. A shame to reject this, because it's not like you guys can just rerecord this, but it's a NO. I'd like to hear another track of yours in the future though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Orichalcon Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 we have standards to uphold, and while this would be a good remix for nostalgic purposes, the quality and execution of the arrangement leaves a lot to be desired. This is one of those remixes where I'd recommend submitting to a different remix site that focuses more on the factors that this remix represents (ie: RTS or VGMix if it ever gets on its feet again) NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Well, while I won't be passing this, I'll definitely be keeping the file for future listens--pretty enjoyable. I agree; I wish more people would do stuff like this. I suppose the "live performance" trend snowball is a-rollin'. I predict that within a year or two's time, I bet we'll see a lot more subs like this, and a lot more of those subs will probably be passable. The arrangement is pretty decent, and the performance as well, but that being said, the performance was far from it's potential. Being a former brass player (trumpet), it seems like you guys were trying to practice next to a sunday school worship session or something, and you didn't want to be too loud as to not disrupt the reverence next door, and therefore, the dynamics seemed to cause a little bit of mischief for your track, here. Need to tell your guys to push from the *die-a-frag-um*, especially during the quieter parts, thus countering the tendency to play flat. I would have like to hear more forte-love in this one. Yeah, definitely cool, but a weaker performance than I would prefer. Not to say you did a BAD job, I just didn't feel the emotion. The ending is a prime example. You guys could have really belted that fanfare out with more heart, ya know? Anyway, I definitely enjoyed and respect this highly for what it is. Best of luck in future endeavors, my man. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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