ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Jenova for Classical Piano'

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The ReMixer writes:

"This is a piano arrangement of the Jenova battle music, done in a late romantic classical style (with some impressionist overtones). This was transcribed not from the original game music, but from Uematsu's Black Mages album... This was recorded in the Oberlin music conservatory TIMARA studios. Unfortunately, it's just a Yamaha grand, which I hate recording, but it's what I have to work with. I used 4 mikes: two Shure SM81s in a spaced pair, and two Audio Technica 4033s in a close miking arrangement over treble holes and bass strings. It was mixed down on a Pro Tools TDM system using the Waves: Renaissance plugin set for EQ, Compression, and digital Reverb."

At first we were a bit concerned as this was transcribed from a version of the original that was already arranged to begin with, but Noir aka Eric Barker has done things right, providing a solo piano arrangement that is uniquely his own and, as mentioned above, clearly has roots in Romanticism and Impressionism (especially with the good deal of rather flamboyant but difficult runs) - as the stark title suggests. Nothing is stark about the arrangement itself, which oscillates between technical ruminations and more emotional, dramatic eruptions of forte ascensions and descensions. Mr. Baranowsky, as the mix's stongest advocate, wrote:

"I am humbled by the choice to remain tastefully concise and compact in the scope of the arrangement (a restraint I many times beg the good Lordy I had), while still creating a truly epic conclusion. This one accomplishes its goal through attention to technique and refined musicianship, a pairing of qualifications that is too often eclipsed by mastery of programming, overproduction and beatboxing."

Others were impressed as well, and while the merits of the arrangement should become clear almost immediately as you listen, the ending in particular takes a very creative direction and effects the type of conclusion Dan refers to above. The fact that we've had a lot of great solo piano arrangements in recent months should not in any way lessen the percieved difficulty of creating them; it's not an easy form, but Noir's latest makes excellent use of it.

― djpretzel