EDIT 1/19/22: Finally licensable and now on all streaming/download services!!!! 😀 Pick it up to listen in your car, add your your playlists, whatever lol: smarturl.it/1s1fpr
Okay you guys finally--this four month long project has come to fruition!!! I fell in love with this theme while playing the last map in the Blue Lions route and it had been a while since I'd done a huge multi-instrument Fire Emblem arrangement, so this harebrained idea was born haha.
This time I also really wanted to include my friends and colleagues in the Fire Emblem fandom who had done FE3H covers and were passionate about the game! Moreover, to make it extra special, Joe Zieja, the voice of Claude von Riegan, was enormously kind enough to offer his time and talents to this as well, so I ended up scoring this for piano, two violins, viola, cello, voice, harp, and soprano saxophone hahaha. I took a huge gamble on the sax, as I don't normally write for winds and mixing it into a strings-heavy arrangement like this was a risk i wasn't 100% sure would work hahaha but I am nothing if not stubborn and swore I would make it work...somehow hahaha. I enlisted the help of several saxophonist friends for advice in the writing and feedback from Joe himself to optimize the part as best as I could. The harp was also a wild card, as I have literally no experience writing harp and I'm happy with how that part turned out, as I basically treated it like another piano except with epic glissandos hahahaha.
Reducing the rest of this huge theme was another challenge. I made the piano function as rhythm section covering the bass and drums, plus some of the high synth runs, harp the piano ostinato and general filler, and the strings and vocals were straightforward transcribed as best I could from the original. As a result, this was one of the hardest piano parts I have ever written for myself OTL and the strings had some really heinous 8th note passages that went on for years lmao. I needed a third lead instrument besides voice, as the original uses trumpet, but I REALLY wanted Joe on this so I was like ok...sax is close enough hahahaha. I played around with having him on clarinet instead, but ultimately the part hit some very high notes and soprano sax sounded somewhat like an oboe so i was hoping it would blend well. The sax part doubled with the vocal a lot since I was hoping she would bridge the gap in the blending, so to speak.
Since the arrangement was so unorthodox and involved so many people, plus a saxophone mixed with strings lol, I didn't trust my own lack of expertise to mix this mess. I enlisted the help of my friend Fredrik Hathen, who is not only a fantastic arranger/mixer/composer himself, but a sax player as well and so I knew this thing would be in good hands. I cannot thank him enough for making us sound amazing!!!!!!
Some easter eggs:
-We all tried to work in the colors of our favorite house in our videos
-Israfelcello grew out a chinstrap beard and is wearing a clip on earring
-Samantha is wearing an Edelgard shirt and Edelgard hair
-Reven is wearing an antler necklace
-Patti's curtains are actually purple lmao
-The ending is a tribute to the late Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist of Rush, one of my favorite bands ever, who died in January around the time I was finishing writing this. The opening riff from Dreamline is played in the cello and harp parts and the last seven notes in the piano are the last seven notes of Limelight. RIP Professor.
Once again I cannot thank my super talented collaborators enough for their time and talents on pulling this together! It was a true labor of love and we hope you enjoy it too!
Violin 1 plus making the AMAZING VIDEO: Patti Rudisill ( / viopatti )
Violin 2/Vocals: TeraCMusic ( / teracmusic )
Viola: Animevivi ( / animevivi )
Cello: Israfelcello ( / israfelcello )
Harp: Samantha Ballard ( / samiaantha )
Vocals: Reven ( / @revenmusic )
Soprano Saxophone: Joe Zieja ( / @joezieja )
Mixing: Fredrik Hathen ( / @fredrikhathenmusic )