ReMix:Final Fantasy IV "Empress Waltz" 7:52

To celebrate International Women's Day, we've got the largest all-female collaboration in site history. Now, anything from Rebecca Tripp is a treat, but there's no better way to commemorate her 70th contribution to OCR than this all-star team up between her and 10 live performers!

• 0:00 - "Rosalina's Obseravtory" (Super Mario Galaxy)
• 1:17 - "Troian Beauty" (FF4)
• 3:23 - "Flowers Blooming in the Church" (FF7)
• 4:10 - "Princess Zelda's Lullaby" (LoZ series)
• 4:58 - "Garnet's Theme" (FF9)
• 6:46 - "Wedding Waltz" (FF6)

RebeccaETripp writes:

"This one is 100% live! I know this one would be a little weird to categorize if you decide to post it, so I'll understand if you don't want to use it. Technically, the longest tracks in it are the Mario Galaxy and FF4 ones, so it makes sense to file it under one of those games if it does make the cut.

This is a giant medley of several themes from various video games, including Super Mario Galaxy, Final Fantasy 4, FF6, FF7 and FF9, and The Legend of Zelda (series). The original songs used in this arrangement are "Rosalina's Observatory," "Troian Beauty," "Flowers Blooming in the Church," "Princess Zelda's Theme," "Garnet's Theme," and "The Wedding Waltz." It is a collaborative suite featuring live instrumental and vocal performances from 11 different very talented female musicians. The medley, which I've named "Empress Waltz" (an indirect homage to Strauss II's Emperor Waltz!), is meant to be a celebration of female virtuosity. I chose to include a variety of graceful, Venusian, "queenly", feminine VGM tracks.

This medley represents just over a year's worth of work between the 11 of us; there was a lot of love and care (and countless hours) put into this. For this reason, if you're reading this, I want to encourage you to explore everyone else's work, if you haven't already. Each person in this medley is an incredibly talented, dedicated musician, many of whom have themselves composed and arranged massive bodies of live VGM covers, in addition to various other interesting projects they've each worked on."

Credits:

• Harp 1 - Samantha Ballard
• Harp 2 - May Claire La Plante
• Flute 1 - Medllix
• Flute 2 - P2 Sue
• Oboe - Medllix
• English Horn - Kristin Naigus
• Violins - PitTan
• Violas - Michelle Eng
• Vocals 1 - Tiggs
• Vocals 2 - Julia Henderson
• Vocals 3 - MatcHey
• Vocals 4 - PitTan
• Vocals 5 - May Claire La Plante
• Composition/Mastering - RebeccaETripp

MatcHey (Anna Matchett):

"Thank you for having me! This is stunning!! Everyone here are STUNNERS!"

PitTan (Hana Tan):

"Man, this is sounding so dope! Thank you for having me!! Xx"

Tiggs (Victoria Rose Maxfield):

"Thanks so much for having me sing on this! It was so fun! <3"

Julia Henderson:

"Thank you so much for having me! This turned out so nicely!"

For the record, I agree with Hana; it's dope. Truly amazing work from everyone involved, and a landmark achievement for Rebecca as an arranger, to collaborate with & integrate the performances of so many talented artists. It's an honor and a privilege to feature this work, on this particular day, and to experience so much brilliance across the board from all the ladies who continue to make this scene shine. Chimpazilla says it well:

"This is glorious! And so seamless. I love it, nice work, ladies!!!"

Legit goosebumps, and more than once, in this nearly eight-minute tour de force of creative, interpretive, interwoven arrangement and emotive, soulful performance. A play-by-play is almost impossible, but the judges were unanimous, and Emunator's comments resonated with me:

"I'm grateful for this submission and the talent that it represents, both in Rebecca's arrangement and the quality performances put forth by every artist involved. This must have been a monumental undertaking, but the effort was undoubtedly well worth it. It's hard to pick highlights, but if I had to name a few, the harp duet and the choir of voices are some of the standouts to me. Truly though, there are no weak links in terms of performances. The trove of live instruments featured here mitigates any of the sample quality issues that may have been present in Rebecca's past submissions, and even the production and mastering quality feels like a step up from previous submissions as well! The transitions between each source are solidly executed, which keeps this from ever feeling like a patchwork of different musical ideas that were stuck together at random. Overall, a stellar effort from everyone involved. Bravo!!"

Well said. I'm thrilled to feature this mix on OCR, and I can't think of a better day for it; thanks to Larry Oji for realizing the calendar synergy & queueing everything up. Rebecca's oeuvre is vast & replete with musical gold, but this is a special, once-in-a-lifetime collaboration that elevates her talents & blends them with the musical personality of ten other fantastic artists. As she says, be sure to explore all of their respective work, there's always more to the story. Epic, inspired, & a new high-water mark for Rebecca - congratulations to all eleven artists, highly recommended, & happy Women's Day!