Topic: My Castlevania Musical Arrangement in-Concert! (will be streamed)

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

ANNOUNCEMENT!


The orchestra that I belong to, the "Montclair Gamer Symphony Orchestra" will be performing a number of Video Game Arrangements created by fans, for fans, performed by fans.
The concert begins Sunday Night (November 6th, 2016) at 7pm, and will also be STREAMED!


So you don't have to actually go anywhere, just tune in to the MGSO Twitch channel and check it out live in-concert, on Sunday Night!


A number of videogame tunes will be performed:


-Brass Quintet Arrangements of music from Undertale, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy.


-Mass Effect
-Frog's Theme
-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Symphony-
-Kid Icarus Medley-The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - Dragonborn
INTERMISSION
-Pollyanna (EarthBound)
-Metal Gear Solid
-Banjo Kazooie
-Sam and Max Hit the Road
-Animal Crossing (Kapp'n's Sea Shanty)

...and it all culminates with my Castlevania Orchestral Medley (the one I've been working on behind the scenes this whole time), in its complete version.


Link to Twitch TV Channel
MGSO Website


I hope you guys tune in on Sunday Night to listen to us jam!

[Shiroi Koumori]

Excellent!
Will you be in costume? 

I won't be able to catch it live since I'm on the other side of the world and I'll be working by then, but I'll watch it later.

[Chernabogue]

Congrats! Be sure to record it for replay/VOD!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Shiroi, no costume, though our last dress rehearsal last Sunday was all in costume, and we had a party afterwards and everything.

[MooMilk]

I hope you get Cynthia Harrell to do the vocals.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Shiroi, no costume, though our last dress rehearsal last Sunday was all in costume, and we had a party afterwards and everything.

'cuz it's a Halloween party! ~♪♫

[theANdROId]

7PM...eastern?

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Yes, 7pm EST!
So, in several hours.

[Eric Roman]

I'm there, dude. 

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Thank you to everyone who tuned. The stream is saved so you can enjoy it anytime, once it is uploaded.

[Eric Roman]

YOOOOOOOOOOOO, Jorge fucking CRUSHED IT with his arrangement!!! 

First we went marching along with the Belmontface Swagwalk of a very forceful Vampire Killer which dared me to to fish out the NES for some CV1 action.  But then I would've missed the warp to 1997, with some of SotN's Castle Entrance; swatting the hell out of everything with the Alucard Sword to collect LEVEL UPs during the only time you'll hear the dying Fish Man squeaks.  Speaking of fishmen, there were plenty of them in THE AQUARIUS LEVEL which came up afterward!!!  Poison Mind roused me from a momentary distraction* amid the fishies and we warped back to 1997 for a furious finish at Dance of Illusions.  NO.  THIS CANNOT BEEE!!!  UWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAU AAUU AUUU  ::burning photograph::

Katakuri Yakata/Trick Manor/Clockwork Mansion in the future, I'm sayin'! 

*(The Great Touhou Debate of 2016: At some point around AQUARIUS it was revealed in the chat that an MSGO organizer qualifies Touhou Project as an Anime, rather than the 20-years-running shmup that began gathering a cult following in the last decade, so why would a gaming orchestra cover "anime" music?  I'm not a fan of the games proper, but it was heartbreaking to witness the forfeiture of an opportunity to tap an apparent following that would happily tune in.  Granted, Touhou may not be as mainstream as even CastleVania {and I think in the current gaming climate outside our fandom even declaring mainstream status is a stretch}, but just disqualifying it at the value of, say, a Google Image Search...Feels Bad Man.)

[Lelygax]

Damn, I'm late! Well... I can atleast watch the archived version... Suddenly it fills me with determination. 

[aensland]

I consider you a patron saint for the vgm fan artists and this concert proved it again.

However, I'll dare to give feedback about it.

(click to show/hide)

-The string arrangement felt really lackluster in most of the pieces, not sure if it was due the broadcasting quality but I barely heard something outside Bloody Tears, Poison Mind and Dance of Illusions. The last two had a really good string work, specially the cello in Dance of Illusions.

-Transitions are hard, really noticeable from Dracula's Castle to Aquarius, but the way that Aquarius turned into Bloody Tears was great and the build up to Poison Mind was really smothered and boosted by the voice ensemble.

-The drumming felt a bit off during Dracula's Castle and Aquarius, maybe trying to write it as a way to boost passages rather than accompaniment for the whole piece can make them work better, like how the brass/keyboard/woods were during the second section of Aquarius.

-Poison Mind was by far my favourite part of the medley, the winds gave such an eerie and funeral touch to the music, felt fresh yet familiar.

-I can say the same about Dance of Illusions, the slow tempo was perfect for it and the brass felt so powerful, more after that string response that gave a regal feeling to it.

[Chernabogue]

Watched the replay, great medley. It must feel so good to have an orchestra play your music.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

YOOOOOOOOOOOO, Jorge fucking CRUSHED IT with his arrangement!!! 

Thank you! Our conductor felt the piece should go at the very end since it was a great cap to the entire project.  I'm proud all over.

Katakuri Yakata/Trick Manor/Clockwork Mansion in the future, I'm sayin'! 

Perhaps I can make a Small Ensemble version (not unlike the Brass Ensemble pieces heard at the beginning of the concert) and play it at MAGFest in the hallways, but I doubt there's enough time to get one done AND have the musicians that are going to MAGFest to practice it, what with the holiday.  Maybe next year?  I also don't want to overwhelm the repertoire with nothing but Castlevania music (one can dream, though).

*(The Great Touhou Debate of 2016: At some point around AQUARIUS it was revealed in the chat that an MSGO organizer qualifies Touhou Project as an Anime, rather than the 20-years-running shmup that began gathering a cult following in the last decade, so why would a gaming orchestra cover "anime" music?  I'm not a fan of the games proper, but it was heartbreaking to witness the forfeiture of an opportunity to tap an apparent following that would happily tune in.  Granted, Touhou may not be as mainstream as even CastleVania {and I think in the current gaming climate outside our fandom even declaring mainstream status is a stretch}, but just disqualifying it at the value of, say, a Google Image Search...Feels Bad Man.)

Actually we have Touhou fans IN the orchestra, who are itching for some Touhou music representation.  The thing is, since everything you heard in the concert is Fan-Arranged, they would have to take the time to arrange their tunes.  I've got my hands full (I'm working on some Final Fantasy stuff for an FF-themed gathering in January in New Jersey, as well as some pieces for MAGFest 2017, and I'm definitely running out of time to get everything out so that the musicians can practice it).

I only know of Touhouvania, hahaha.

I consider you a patron saint for the vgm fan artists and this concert proved it again.

However, I'll dare to give feedback about it.

(click to show/hide)

-The string arrangement felt really lackluster in most of the pieces, not sure if it was due the broadcasting quality but I barely heard something outside Bloody Tears, Poison Mind and Dance of Illusions. The last two had a really good string work, specially the cello in Dance of Illusions.

-Transitions are hard, really noticeable from Dracula's Castle to Aquarius, but the way that Aquarius turned into Bloody Tears was great and the build up to Poison Mind was really smothered and boosted by the voice ensemble.

-The drumming felt a bit off during Dracula's Castle and Aquarius, maybe trying to write it as a way to boost passages rather than accompaniment for the whole piece can make them work better, like how the brass/keyboard/woods were during the second section of Aquarius.

-Poison Mind was by far my favourite part of the medley, the winds gave such an eerie and funeral touch to the music, felt fresh yet familiar.

-I can say the same about Dance of Illusions, the slow tempo was perfect for it and the brass felt so powerful, more after that string response that gave a regal feeling to it.

Hey! Constructive Feedback and Critiquing, good stuff.

Most unfortunately, since our Orchestra is a small fledgling group of videogame fans and musicians, we plain just don't have a full string section.  We have two violins, a viola, a viola/cello player, and one full cello player. Although the parts accomodate for strings, we just did not have enough strings in comparison to a full orchestra (where you have an entire ensemble with a dozen or two strings) to really bring the piece out.

At least we HAVE strings, haha. Last year, we didn't have any so we had to cut the arrangement in half and play it with just winds and horns.  It was still nice, though.

Thank you for the critique! I will definitely see what I can do once I get a good comparison between the live musicians and what is in the arrangement score and see if tweaks can happen.  I chose the percussion to play throughout the piece because we only have ONE percussionist!  I hope we get a team of three or four, then we can have more nuanced passages.  Thankfully, the Castlevania series usually has pumping percussion so a drumset still works out well, even if the pieces end up sounding more like a band and less like an orchestra (also, unlike an orchestra, we have Saxes! Wh00t!).

BTW, if you guys know anyone in the NJ area who would be interested in joining, please let them know of us.
We're also on meetup.com (The link is here **Clicky**).


EDIT: Here's Castlevania (Skip to 1:10)