ReMix:Final Fantasy VII "The First Playing" 4:01

We continue a well-deserved double-up of mixposts from France's Guillaume Saumande, as Bluelighter joins forces with three performance specialists to class up Final Fantasy VII's "Debut" with inspiration from another French musician, Gérard Calvi! Our lineup and some insights were offered by our arranger:

"Bluelighter: arranger
Bowlerhat: flute
Dewey Newt: trombone
TSori: trumpet

Here is an orchestral arrangement of "Debut" from FF7, with collaboration of Bowlerhat (flute), Dewey Newt (trombone), and TSori (trumpet). Thanks to them! These three instruments reinforce what I want for this mix, alternating delicate and heroic mood!

I really enjoy the original track, simple but effective; like a lot of jewels of the OST. In the game, it matches with a play acted by two important characters. Distinct parts of this arrangement can represent different acts of this play.

The beginning is close to the original and announces the main melody. At part 1b (cf. breakdown), the march band instrumentation starts. It continues at part 2 with some madcap harmonies, notably with trumpet. For these, I've taken my inspiration notably of the French composer Gérard Calvi who made The Twelve Tasks of Astérix.

Part 3 makes a contrast with the precedent. It's played by flute in a sad mood, with arpeggios of harp. I've played with the time signature to accentuate the hesitating mood of this part, with breaks more of less long after each phrase. The harmony is also different of the original, contributing to the sad mood.

Return to march band rhythm at parts 4 and 5. Part 5 gives variations of melodic line 2 (ML2), with some heroic harmonies.

The arrangement concludes by the flute playing ML1 in a peaceful mood. Enjoy! :)"

Get Blue's complete arrangement breakdown in the MP3's comments so you can fully appreciate this one's dynamics. Emunator was dead on that the additions by Bowlerhat, Dewey Newt, and TSori added notable depth to the presentation, helping Bluelighter up his already strong arrangement game with a cohesion that only real instruments could introduce:

"This is an easy rubber stamp from me - you picked a quirky source tune and ramped up that quality even further. The live performances really breathe life into this in a way that sampled instruments might have fallen short with, and definitely puts this over the edge for me."

prophetik music hailed Bluelighter's successful invoking of Calvi's fun writing style. Even when the mood makes you go :-P, he managed to keep his commentary extremely informative:

"stylistic influences are immediately recognizable. what a fun idea.

interesting time signature choice initially - sounds like 9+10. adding in extra eighths to make it feel like a wobbly dance. the subsequent bigger orchestrated section uses this regularly to keep the listener off-balance - very fitting considering the context (the Gold Saucer).

after the larger orchestrated section, there's a much more patient and quiet setion from 1:29 onward. the flute notably has a lot of air tone - consider a high-freq filter to remove the air noise, like 6-8k. 2:50 features a bit of a shift where the orchestration is a little more goofy than before and feature some fun side-by-side harmonies and intentional dissonances. 3:37 is essentially an outro and it's done.

this is an intentionally silly version of a neat track on the ost. it's well-performed and well-orchestrated. nice work."

"Nice work" is right! "Debut" has a relatively thin texture and festive feel that was creatively and authentically expanded by Bluelighter's decision to incorporate Gérard Calvi's style. Things don't clown around TOO, too much with the treatment; this is still the lighthearted theme we know and love, but beefed up nicely with grin-inducing moments of levity. We're goofy, yet elegant; folks do it ALL around here! :-)