19 January 2009 / 1:10 am / Posted in Art, Creative, Music
Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル)’s debut album First Love was released in 1999. This means that she composed and performed the single that topped Japan’s charts when she was just 16. I’m not much of a J-pop person, but I knew I liked her songs. Come to think of it, I got introduced to the artist by some of my high school students.
Being a fan of the orchestra, I tried looking in YouTube for an orchestra version of First Love. The only one I could find was an audio-only version by the Warsaw Philharmonic. There’s also a strings mix version. What I find interesting is that there’s actually a version by a Malaysian Chinese orchestra from Penang, and another by an Indonesian choir. Wow!
What I did see is Hikari, the theme of Kingdom Hearts, which is also very good. It was performed in as part of Video Games Live.
Inspired, I thought I’d give my hand a try at arranging a song for the orchestra. It has been roughly 2 decades since I last played the organ seriously, and perhaps 15 years since I attempted to re-study. So. With virtually no musical training under my belt, I gave it a try. The following is what I came up with. I hope you’d enjoy it, and leave some comments for further improvement.
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The composition uses strings (cello, violin), percussions (timpani, chimes, etc), brass, woodwinds, among others. The idea of splitting the strings came from Paj (thank you!). All others mine.
While it may take some time before I could whip up something good for this group, am glad that this kicks in a good start. Having this kind of a production remains a dream … for now.
Tags: arrangement, first, hikaru, love, orchestra, score, utada
January 19th, 2009 at 7:47 am
neat!!
January 19th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Awesome.
I love Utada. Not so familiar with all her songs but the few I know are wonderful. Prisoner of Love, Can You Keep A Secret, Automatic, Flavor of Life, and of course First Love. <3
January 19th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Note to self: Admire Pinoy talent. Hmm.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Utada Hikaru is awesome! Me and my sister love her music~
March 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Great!! proud to be a part of the team which has talented people like YOU !!!
March 12th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Great !!! I am proud to be a part of team with such talented people like YOU