151Music

Another Way To Die

2008-11-16 00:38:38

The opening theme from the new James Bond (007) movie: Quantum of Solace. The entire thing is about 1:15 and would make a good stands tune or addition to a secret agent themed show.

Again this is not the normal 007 theme. The theme from this movie was written by Jack White and performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys.

Green Light

2008-10-25 16:38:29

This is probably my favorite hip-hop song out right now. It's in the key of G and usually the key would've been changed to something that's more "marching band friendly" since marching band players love flats. But for this arrangement the key was left as it was. This means a lot of Gb which can be a tricky note for tuning, but it's a trade off for maintaining the association to the original song.

The playback s the long arrangement that has the first two verses a short bridge and closes with the chorus. There is a shorter version that only has the 2nd verse and the chorus. All in all it sounds fun, and up beat like the original song. But it's fast and certain instruments (mellos) have high parts that can make it a little hard on the chops.

**P.S.**
Ok, so after writing all of that I did go back and transpose the piece into the key of F and decided that the difference was pretty negligible. So now, I have both versions readily available. The playback from the "Download MP3" link is in the key of F, if you want to compare you can listen to the one in the key of G here

Monsters

2008-10-05 10:02:19

This is the Fourth installment in my series of Guitar Hero arrangements.

"Monsters" is a bonus track on Guitar Hero three so you may not immediately associate it with the game, but I assure you it's there. Originally, I didn't even think about doing an arrangement of this song, but after listening to it a few times it started to grow on me and I started to hear ways that I could "fit" it for a marching band piece.

There are lots of things in the music that don't get picked up in the MP3 playback. The most notable is the trombone progression after the initial melody. The idea is for all those slurred notes to actually glissando into each other, but Finale just couldn't handle that in the playback. You'll be able to see everything in the score.

Even so, I really like the way this one came out. And I should warn you, it gets louder at the end.

Miss Murder

2008-09-24 02:59:34

This is the third installment in my series of Guitar Hero arrangements. A.F.I.'s "Miss Murder" was a pretty popular song a few years ago, just long enough to be forgotten until I picked up the Guitar Hero game. Energy and dynamics make a big difference in this piece. I don't usually notice if I record the playback using the dynamics but in this case it made a big difference in how the piece comes across. If it's not played with the same aggressiveness of the original it almost sounds like a groove type of song.

Celestial Evening

2008-08-27 14:38:10

I wrote this piece in response to a request for an original woodwind work. The original intention was for it to be played by a group of varying woodwind instruments, listed above as the alternative instrumentation. However, the original scoring was for a clarinet ensemble, since that is a more common group. "Celestial Evening" is based on the story of an Anime (Japanese Animation) called "Trigun". Here is a brief synopsis of Trigun from Wikipedia:

The story, known for its Science fiction Western theme, follows the life of "The Humanoid Typhoon" and two insurance company employees who are ordered to follow him to minimize the damage caused by his activities. Much of the damage attributed to "Vash" is caused by the activities of bounty hunters who are after the "60,000,000,000$$" (sixty billion "double dollars") reward on Vash's head for the destruction of a city called July. Vash does not clearly remember the destruction of July, and only wants "love and peace", as he puts it; though he is a gunfighter of inhuman skill, he uses his weapons only to save lives wherever he can.

As the series progresses, more is gradually learned about Vash's mysterious history and the history of the human civilization on Gunsmoke, the desert planet the series is set on. The series is often humorous in tone, but at the same time it involves very serious character development and especially in later episodes it becomes quite emotionally intense. Vash is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who is almost as good a gunfighter as Vash himself, and later is targeted by a band of assassins known as the Gung-Ho Guns for reasons which are mysterious at first.

Trigun evolves into a very serious discussion of the nature of morality, posing questions such as: What is the nature of morality? Can we judge different moral codes? If a person is forced to betray their moral code, does that betrayal invalidate that moral code, and can the person still try to live up to that moral code? Can the person find redemption from their wrongs, and if so, how?

In the story Vash, who is a skilled gunslinger, also values life greatly and has vowed never to take another life. During the course of the story Vash is placed in a situation where he is literally forced to choose to either kill a man or to allow that man to kill two women. After killing Vash retreats into himself, changing his identity and effectively going into hiding. He is found later by the two women that he saved and is in state of great depression and emotional turmoil. He is not able to forgive himself for violating his own convictions, believing that there had to be another way. At the apex of Vash's emotional struggle, he begins to sadly sing a song which was sung to by a woman named Rem Saverem when he was younger. She is the influence that led Vash to have the beliefs that he does. This song is referred to as Celestial Evening, Rem's Song, or most accurately, "Sound Life". This is the English translation of the song:

So... On the first night,
a pebble falls to the earth from somewhere.

So... On the second night,
The pebble's children hold hands and sketch a waltz.
Sound life

So... On the third night,
The children of the waltz cause ripples on the
face of the world

So... On the fourth night,
the children of the wave spray the shore.
Sound life

So... On the fifth night,
those shards strike the face of the earth over and over.

So... On the sixth night,
those signals bring travellers together.
Sound life

So... On the seventh night,
a weightless ship races to the sky.

So... On the eighth morning,
a song from somewhere reaches my ears.
Sound life

Well then... A song that has recorded everything
echoes to the new sky.
Sound life
Sound life

The phrase night is sometimes translated as "Celestial Evening" which gives this piece it's name. The main theme of the piece is the same melody from "Sound Life". This piece draws from several elements of the story. The pulsing polyrhthyms and almost dance-like syncopation in the introduction are inspired by the futuristic old western style of the show and it's music. As the piece progresses it moves into a more somber feel, which reflects a period where Vash is struggling to come to terms with his own ethics, commitments, and transgressions. This struggle leads into dissonance that culminates with the triumphant restating of the main theme, representing Vash's conviction to carry on with his idealistic ways, despite his mistakes.

Get Money

2008-08-27 14:30:30

Another hip hop chart. This one had been bouncing around in my head for a little while and I finally remembered to put it down on paper after seeing the music video. If you are going to play this and haven't heard the song, I suggest you listen to it so you can get a feel for the sound of it. Also don't play it to straight, get loose with it.

NOTE: The Alto Sax, Horn and Trombone are the only instruments with first and second parts. I only did this to make certain sections easier to read. Other instruments have split parts for chords even though there is only one part in the score.

Knights of Cydonia

2008-08-27 13:28:51

One thing that has irked me over the past couple of years is these "Guitar Hero" themed half time shows that several bands have done. It's not that I have a problem with the show itself. What I have a problem with is the fact that these aren't really Guitar Hero shows, they're re-hashed classic rock shows. I keep thinking, "If you're going to do a Guitar Hero show you should do the songs that make the game worth playing, not just worth listening to." I know that it's a little impractical but I think doing some of the fringe titles from the game franchise would be great. It would give the performers something new to play that's at a higher difficulty; and the audience gets to hear something new as well, but also something they'll recognize (maybe).

To this end I've done the first of what will probably be a series of "Guitar Hero" arrangements. "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse.

Guitar Hero Sheet Music

2008-08-27 13:28:51

One thing that has irked me over the past couple of years is these "Guitar Hero" themed half time shows that several bands have done. It's not that I have a problem with the show itself. What I have a problem with is the fact that these aren't really Guitar Hero shows, they're re-hashed classic rock shows. I understand that band directors have a lot of things to do, so if you can serve something familiar in a new package, it's not a bad idea. Still, there's a part of me that keeps thinking, "If you're going to do a Guitar Hero show you should do the songs that make the game worth playing, not just worth listening to."

I know that it's a little impractical but I think doing some of the fringe titles from the game franchise (as well as songs that aren't normally played by a marching band) would be great. It would give the performers something new to play that's at a higher difficulty; and the audience gets to hear something new as well, but also something they'll recognize (maybe).

To this end I've started a series of "Guitar Hero" arrangements. I'm starting with songs from the most recent release "Guitar Hero III." If time and interest permits, I will start to go through the older versions of the game. So far I've already done "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse, "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine, and I'm thinking of starting on "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce.

-Brice Olion
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