SQEX-10432: PIANO OPERA FINAL FANTASY VII/VIII/IX

[Zanasea]

There's a tracklisting on the website:

FFVII
Opening - Bombing Mission -
Fight On!
Words Drowned by Fireworks
Cosmo Canyon

FFVIII
Ami
Force Your Way
Liberi Fatali
The Man with the Machine Gun

FFIX
Festival of the Hunt (Hunter Chance)
Not Alone
melodies of Life
Rose of May

[Muzza]

Seems like 6 of the tracks to be arranged already have official piano arrangements - much the same case as the IV/V/VI set. It's particularly irksome to see "Rose of May" being arranged again, but I'm excited to hear what Nakayama does with "Opening - Bombing Mission -" and "Force Your Way".

I know why they do it, but damn, I wish they chose to arrange a couple of FF tracks which never get any official arrangement attention. You know, stuff like "Theme of the Tantalus", which would likely sound fantastic with some ragtime treatment.

[Ramza]

Originally Posted by Muzza

Seems like 6 of the tracks to be arranged already have official piano arrangements - much the same case as the IV/V/VI set.

This also makes me quite angry. Nakayama should be choosing previously un-arranged tracks.

Like you said about Opening~Bombing, I am very excited to see if Nakayama can do justice to the orchestral/choral wonder that is "Liberi Fatali" on one piano. That's gotta be tough.

[LiquidAcid]

I also agree that they should've chosen to only arrange previously un-arranged material. E.g. I can't imagine Cosmo Canyon to surpass Shiro Hamaguchi's version of the piano collections. This track is very much perfect IMO. Maybe Nakayama can surprise me, but I seriously but doubt it.

A nice choice is Words Drowned by Fireworks. I think this piece has a lot of potential, especially after having heard the orchestral arrangement from Final Symphony.

[_if]

With my voice, we can make four-part harmony on this! Yeah, I thought the choice of "Cosmo Canyon" in particular was pretty lame after it having already been done by Hamaguchi. I know we'd all moan if "Aerith's Theme" was chosen instead, but hell, I could see Nakayama doing something bigger with that than "Cosmo Canyon". Too many things left without arrangements to be repeating this many Piano Collections pieces. Come on, three of the four FFIX arrangements were done on its Piano Collections!

You'd think "Liberi Fatali" would be hard to capture on piano, but I heard someone do what I think was basically a straightforward transcription, perhaps even out of the official piano sheet music book, and it sounded surprisingly good. Good enough to stand on its own. "Force Your Way" and "The Man with the Machine Gun" are bold choices that I hope he pulls off. I take it "Fight On!" is "Those Who Fight Further", which is already pretty keyboard-heavy. He could just make some kind of strongly rhythmic but more basic substitution for the guitar part on the left hand and play the organ part from the original on the right and, voila, there's your arrangement. It's such an awesome composition I'm sure it'd still sound really good though.

[Zanasea]

The cover has changed, now it has gold letters. But the rest is still as ugly. I don't know what went wrong but this is one of the worst covers I've seen for a FF album in a while.

Should we keep the original cover for archive?

[_if]

Oh wow, that looks like it'd be the cover of a doujin album. Although, many doujin covers look better.

[CrackerG]

Yikes. That cover is awful. Not sure why they didn't keep it parallel with the I-III and IV-VI covers.

[Don]

Originally Posted by CrackerG

Yikes. That cover is awful. Not sure why they didn't keep it parallel with the I-III and IV-VI covers.

Maybe it's a homage to their first forage into 3D? It certainly looks blocky like FF7. Either way, it's an ugly cover.

[CrackerG]

It's possible. I would have thought a green or yellow vertical crystal would have fit in with the other two covers, but that bleak black definitely fits the PSX-era vibe. I just hate how it doesn't match with the other covers. I can't imagine an FFX-XII Piano Opera coming out, so it'll just look incongruous next to the other two records.

[dancey]

I don't understand the disdain for this cover, or that it's "doujin" in quality -- it's just not ornate. Looks fine to me. How many people actually care about a cover anyway?

[Phonograph]

speaking of the cover, what's that thing?
I don't remember that in any of those ff

[James O]

it's a sort of piano crystal. I don't see what's so bad about it.

[Ramza]

heads-up -- normally there's a lag from Yamaha between the publication of the CD and the sheet music. But they're on point this time around.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%94%E3...82%A2%E3%83%8E

Estimated release date is April 27th for those of you who want sheet music.

[Ramza]

Received today.

Re: the gold lettering. On the booklet it does indeed look ... weak. But the paper slipcase that goes over the jewel case has the lettering in an embossed gold that does look pretty good.

I'll be getting scans done in the next day or two.

[CrackerG]

Finally got a chance to buy the record and I think it's pretty easily my least favorite of the three. A lot of the previously not rearranged tracks like Man with the Machine Gun and Words Drowned by Fireworks sound great, but the FFIX repeats feel like total missteps. I feel "Cosmo Canyon" and "Ami" are good enough that they warrant their new arrangements but even then, I've never really liked CC so I can't help but wish it were something different.

[Phonograph]

Originally Posted by James O

it's a sort of piano crystal. I don't see what's so bad about it.

if I shoulda made covers for those piano opera albums
I'd have decided to make some drawn artworks of stuff you find in ff, for example:

in ff i/ii/iii -> no idea (for the moment)
in ff iv/v/vi -> you take a view of the opera house scene with orchestra (and why not with celes as maria)
in ff vii/viii/ix -> you use the prima vista with its orchestra somewhere in the background (and why not with the bomb battle as background)

like that, it could look less cheap than that crystal thing

[LiquidAcid]

I really don't know. I very much like the arrangements and the performance on the first piano opera album, but recently Nakayama has started to lose his edge. That's doesn't just apply to the piano operas, but also to the arrangements on memória!. While I can't exactly pinpoint it, something is missing lately.

To make a short comment on Cosmo Canyon. I was indeed surprised here, but not in a good way. I think the arrangement is way too "aggressive". I associate gentleness with Cosmo Canyon, feeling at ease, feelings like that. Hamaguchi's version perfectly encompasses this. While this version is certainly interesting, I can't open my heart to it.

[Ramza]

i still need to do scans. will try soon!

[Ramza]

Okay. That was THE LONGEST delay from "I'll scan these" to "okay here are the scans" I've ever done. Lots of IRL stuff blocked this one from happening in a timely manner.

Question -- anyone know if the good folks at vgmonline plan on (or have already?) translated the liner notes on this? One page from the booklet has Uematsu, and another is a track-by-track from Nakayama. Would love to know what they say.

In response to LiquidAcid -- I've found Nakayama to be hit-or-miss since he started. I don't necessarily see growth or stagnation, just ... sometimes his style works, other times not. My biggest frustration w/ this album was the repetition from the prior Piano Collections. Ami was nearly identical, and Cosmo Canyon, while quite different, was (as you say) too aggressive.

In contrast, he had the balls to do a piano solo version of Liberi Fatali that IMO is excellent, and he was the first person to touch "Hunter Chance" in pretty much forever, and his version is FANTASTIC!

So ... a few great tracks, some repeat material, and some filler. Not the greatest album, but it's rare that I would say "no" to more piano.