ReMix: Final Fantasy VI 'All Who Oppose'
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- Game: Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Vampire Hunter Dan
- Composer(s): Nobuo Uematsu
- Song(s): 'Cayenne', 'Edgar & Sabin's Theme', 'Mt. Koltz', 'The Fierce Battle'
- Posted: 2012-09-25, evaluated by djpretzel
Our FF6: Balance & Ruin kickstarter has been RELAUNCHED!!
...and what better way to celebrate than with an epic orchestral FF6 arrangement from Vampire Hunter Dan? I'm not going to sugarcoat it, having our previous kickstarter cancelled and going through all the work necessary to sort things out & regroup has been soul-draining and has severely delayed other aspects of site progress. However, we were motivated to persevere by the amazing, overflowing show of support you gave us the first time, and we wanted to ensure that misunderstanding & unfortunate circumstances didn't win out over enthusiasm & devotion. It was emotionally draining, and I'm NOT the type to use that phrase lightly, but we're finally back - our t's are crossed, our i's are dotted, and we appreciate any & all support for our relaunched kickstarter!
Any time you try something new, publish something creative, or otherwise dare to contribute to the world, you're putting yourself out there to be shot down by a certain cross-section of the population. While 99% of the responses to our first kickstarter were positive, there's always that 1% that's gonna pick things apart, and there's no doubt in my mind that there were probably even a few people who were actually happy to see our first project cancelled. If you pay too much attention to this sort of attitude, it acquires disproportionate significance in your mind and can be personally depressing or demotivating. I know, I know - welcome to the Internet, right?? At any rate, I love this mix not ONLY because it's an excellent orchestral piece that integrates several notable FF6 themes with energy & grace, but the mix title also speaks to me. It would have been easier to quit pursuing our goal, to not relaunch and to instead throw in the towel... but we've never been about doing what's easiest, or even what's most popular, and we oppose the attitude that either compromise is acceptable. See what I did there?
Apologies to VHD for using his mixpost as a bit of a soapbox, but I needed to get all of that out. The FIRST FEW NOTES here remind me of the opening to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but before Picard can come in and recite the iconic Trek mantra, a harpsichord enters and a minor intonation develops. Dan has gotten ridiculously good at classical orchestration and arrangement - there are a ton of ideas incorporated into this 7+ minute piece, but they're woven together with a formal fabric that displays both passion & careful study. Part-writing, tradeoffs between ensemble and solo sections, tempo fluctuations... these aren't things that just happen, and they can only sound this good when they're fully understood and implemented. It's easier (and probably more fun) to get the anthemic melodic motifs right - which Dan does, of course - but it's ever so much trickier to make the GLUE beautiful. To me, deeper classical & orchestral composition is about just that: making beautiful glue. As a sucker for melody, sure, I still primarily look forward to the bits I know I'll be humming afterwards - that's just who I am. But during the experience, it's hard NOT to appreciate all the detail, the transition, the art that's involved in pivoting from one theme to the next. This arrangement has a daunting amount of craft to it that almost hurts my brain - WHY CAN'T YOU MAKE A NICE 4/4 DANCE BEAT, DAN?? But I'm not going to fault the arranger for the overstated inadequacies of the listener; I like a good challenge, and this is an opus that takes on several highlights of the FF6 score and rewards multiple listens.
Doing a play-by-play, or even just covering the highlights, would involve tomes of additional praise that I hereby propose we bypass - long story short, this is a GINORMOUS JUGGERNAUT of an arrangement that's one of Dan's very best and pretty much an instant classic. Major props to his accomplishment, and here's looking forward to an entire ALBUM full of amazing FF6 mixes like this!
Discussion: Latest 7 comments/reviews; view the - audio fidelity on October 23, 2012
- lavosslayer on October 22, 2012
BardicKnowledge;884205 wrote: Great piece!
Hearing a theme against another in counterpoint might have been interesting; a couple transitions weren't as smooth as they might have been, but such is the nature of putting this many themes together. The orchestration is _phenomenal_ though -- a textbook example of how to do this effectively.
Definitely agree on some of the transitions - it has a medleyitis feel to it. Otherwise, this song is pretty good as a whole.
- Bahamut on September 27, 2012
- Krawlie on September 26, 2012
- avaris on September 26, 2012
Hearing a theme against another in counterpoint might have been interesting; a couple transitions weren't as smooth as they might have been, but such is the nature of putting this many themes together. The orchestration is _phenomenal_ though -- a textbook example of how to do this effectively.
- BardicKnowledge on September 26, 2012
