ReMix:Undertale "Once Upon a Piano Sonata No. 0 in F major" 5:44

Newcomer Jer Roque brings us a mellow (mostly!), classical solo piano arrangement of "Once Upon a Time" from Undertale:

"I was bored one day and decided to try playing "Once Upon a Time" in a minor key. It eventually evolved into this Beethoven-inspired classical piece in sonata form. It's pretty fun, I guess. It took a lot of practice over four months to get it to sound remotely like how it sounds in my head. I submitted this to the Pixel Mixers' album The Great Tale of the Little Ones: An Indie Game Album."

I say mostly because there's a pickup at 2'13" where things get a little frisky - classical, but there's also a certain jazziness to this transition & other aspects of execution. Gario spent a lot of time with his analysis:

"Great concept, solid performances and just the right amount of production shine, this is a solid piano arrangement for the opening of Undertale. It does a lot to expand what is a shorter arrangement, yet it's very easy to connect it to the source throughout, so it'd be easy to pass this without any further comment (it's pretty good, is what I'm saying).

...Sometimes compositional tricks and techniques go unrecognized by the listeners, so I figure why not point out something really cool that the arranger did and give credit where it's due? He used the Sonata form properly, and it helps shape his piece in a way that evokes late Romanticism, and that's really, really cool. Props to that, and full props for giving us a kickass Undertale piano arrangement. One doesn't need to go into this depth to appreciate a track like this, but it can certainly be interesting!"

MindWanderer adds:

"Not much for me to add except a rubber stamp. I thought the piano sound and performance were perfectly adequate, and the arrangement is beautifully emotive. Started off quite conservative but expanded the source in some lovely and engaging ways. Well worth a post."

I think the chosen form gave the artist a nice structure, with uptempo sections contrasting effectively & an overall narrative structure emerging, and the performance delivers on the concept. There are interesting, unexpected turns & voicings here, and I found myself very engaged when following the flow of the piece - Jer says a lot, and really *works* with the source material, over nearly six minutes. Very substantive & satisfying arrangement, realized fluidly & with emotion!