Trivia that matter
I made videos of a couple of my arrangements using art scrounged from the internet and posted them on YouTube. There will be more. I started a page for them here.
It turns out that I’m not the first person to write a Touhou rag. Here’s a bouncy rendition of Chen’s theme from Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Something for your eyes while I work on stuff to hurt your ears.
Inside Typhoon Soudelar a couple of days ago. There are a couple more plots here.
Think carefully about how you name your children, even if you’re fictional characters. This goes double when you’re royalty.
One of the novelties of this week’s episode of GATE is that next week’s preview was in the middle of the show. I’m curious to see if there will be any Wagner.
Update: Yep, there was a little Wagner, with helicopters.
Here’s “Bad Apple” arranged as a strathspey/reel combination. I made two recordings, the first solo piano, the second strings, ((Solo fiddle would have been better, but none of my virtual violins sounded right.)) piano and bass. The score is here.
Two Bad Apples (piano) (Right-click the titles to download the mp3s.)
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Memo to the Brickmuppet: Non-existent tornadoes are rarely dangerous. Lost sleep because of faulty sirens is a greater concern. Also, what the hell is a “vibrant and rewarding social life”? The words don’t go together.
From The Wind Rises.
… there was Naoko Soga.
(Via Dr. Boli.)
I just discovered that I wasn’t the first person to try to turn “U.N. Owen Was Her?” into something bright and cheerful.
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I’ve started a new music page for my Touhou arrangements.
So it seems they kicked this thing off with a production meeting where they asked: How can we update Ushio and Tora to make it relevant to the 21st century?
And then fired everyone who offered suggestions.
That makes two shows that might be worth my time this summer. (The other is GATE.)
(The art is from here.)
While there are plenty of Vocaloid cover versions of popular songs, examples of live human vocalists covering songs originally “performed” by software singers are less common. They do exist, though, and Wagakki Band‘s first album consists entirely of Vocaloid songs. Even without the novelty repertoire, the group is noteworthy for their lively combination of traditional Japanese instruments and hard rock. I’m curious to hear their second album, which features their own material.
I think this is the original, with Hatsune Miku.
If you’d like to play along, there are plenty of arrangements here.
(Via Vocaloidism.)
Touhou melodies generally are in minor modes. However, if you invert them — e.g., where the original goes up a major second, the transformed melody goes down a major second — you frequently get bright, cheerful major key tunes. I combined several inverted themes and made a piano rag out of them. Here is the “Gensokyo Rag.”
Touhou music aficionados might find it interesting to identify the original tunes. The excerpts from “U.N. Owen” should be easy to spot, but the others may be more challenging. Standing on your head might help.
You can download it here.
Update: The sources of the tunes I used are identified below the fold.
The score is up at my MuseScore page.
I sampled a few of the summer offerings on Crunchyroll. Classroom Crisis‘ chief distinction is that every single one of its characters is annoying. It also make unreasonable demands on one’s willing suspension of disbelief. Pass.
GATE, on the other hand, might be very good if it doesn’t overplay the otaku card. See Steven for comments and screencaps. Update: There’s a more detailed discussion of the first episode here, with lots of screencaps.
I eventually dropped every spring series, though I might yet finish Rin-ne and Etotama. Mostly when I watch anything, it’s either an old movie — Airplane! and This Is Spinal Tap are still very funny — or neglected anime — Shounen Onmyouji deserves a license rescue, and Un-Go, though partly spoiled by too many novelties, provides something to think about and warms my cold, cynical heart.
I recently discovered that Hulu has The Avengers from the 1960s, with Diana Rigg and the late Patrick Macnee in glorious black-and-white. I’m pleased to note that Steed and Mrs. Peel remain excellent company. Checking just now, I see that Patrick McGoohan’s Secret Agent is also available. I’ll have to see how well it corresponds to my memories.
… and now back to the inverted world.
I’m in the middle of a complicated project, and I’ll probably remain scarce for a while. The picture above is a sort of preview.
Here are the first two measures of “Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom — Nuclear Fusion,” from the Touhou Game Subterranean Animism, as arranged by Dorian Bluet. The notes in the treble clef include C, G, G-flat, D, A, A-flat, E, F, D-flat and B. In the bass clef there are E-flat and B-flat. ZUN might not be a rigorous old-fashioned avant-garde dodecaphonist, but there are surprises in his music.
Most versions of “U.N. Owen Was Her?,” whether they be rock, techno, frenetic piano, accordion or whatever, tend to be frenzied, heavy and ominous. I took a different approach with ZUN’s tune.
It’s my computer playing, as usual, though I think this arrangement is simple enough that even I could manage it. I’m not entirely happy with it and I may revisit it someday.
The connection between Ulick and Una Owen and Flandre Scarlet is rather tenuous.
Update (July 16): I revised the arrangement and uploaded a new recording. I’m still not satisfied with it, but I’ve tinkered with it long enough.
You can see and download the score here. The mp3 is here.
I discovered this morning that as of last January, the translation of Marie & Gali 2.0 has reached episode three. That leaves just 27 more to go. I wonder if I’ll live long enough to see the rest.
One of the characteristics of Touhou music is that you almost never find a “V” chord or a “V-i” cadence. I.e., if a passage is in D# minor, there probably won’t be a A# chord. Chord roots move by seconds or thirds, rather than fourths or fifths. This gives the music an unmoored, floating sound. Tunes often don’t actually seem to go anywhere, no matter how fast and furious they are or how often they modulate. This works well for game music, where a tune might be endlessly repeated, but it can get tiresome to those who like their music to progress to destinations. In other words, ZUN is not much like Mozart or Beethoven. ((The only discussion of Touhou harmony I could find with a quick search is here. Should you be a musicologist with excess spare time, there’s a project for you.))
I was curious how a Touhou piece would sound reharmonized in a more western manner. Here is an arrangement of “The Centennial Festival for Magical Girls.”
Update: I’ve uploaded the score to MuseScore.
Compare that with the version that was my starting point, DMBN’s “easy” arrangement of the tune.
You can download DMBN’s score here if you want to follow along.
As usual, the performer is my computer. I’m not entirely happy with my arrangement, and I might revisit it sometime.
Update: Uploaded better-sounding recording.