ReMix: Chrono Trigger 'Song of the Mountain'

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Normally you wouldn't hear this kind of variety in a mix under three minutes, and depending on your attitude towards the full expression of musical ideas, you might think there's good reason for that. In his first ReMix, newcomer Urza takes on the Singing Mountain theme from several different angles in a well-produced piece. I for one am fine by the length of the component sections, though many of the judges - who were positive in most other regards - indicated they would have liked more development of each and a longer overall piece. Perhaps because I'm a fan of punk and more concise rock like The Strokes and Sleater-Kinney, I'm used to an economy of time being allotted in which to get musical ideas across. I also think it's much easier to stray to the other extreme, resulting in the musical equivalent of run-on sentences or "Grapes of Wrath"-size descriptive passages, than to be too brief. Introing with a cinematic flare, a solo pipe (sounds like alto flute), string stabs, and harpsichord all give the feeling of some baroque tragedy being played out before the listener's eyes. At 0'50" the groove changes as the introduction of a very melodic and unboring bassline, along with some drums and a harp arpeggio, breaks things up and out, into a less formal and more groovy state. There's then a segue into an ensemble string bit, and the piece concludes with forte piano and the reintroduction of the harpsichord. In some instances, so many musical changeups in such short intervals could be considered compensation, i.e. "I don' think any of this stuff is really that interesting, but maybe if I switch between it real quick no one will notice", but in this instance each of the thematic iterations is mature enough to be taken out of context and developed further, but also works well with its siblings and creates a brief but rich arrangement that runs zero risk of being repetitious or gratuitous. Like the judges, you might like it or love it and concur with the all-too-common "should have been longer" refrain, but I personally respect decisions to curtail length and refrain from the temptation of over-development, at least when it results in works like this. Good stuff.

― djpretzel