SMRPG Orchestral Arrangement: Sad Song

An orchestral arrangement of the Sad Song theme from Super Mario RPG originally written by Yoko Shimomura, made in Sibelius 6. This song first plays in Tadpole Pond during your first visit. Read on if you want a small look into the creation process of this arrangement.

The hardest part of arranging this piece was trying to keep the feeling of the song from veering too far from sadness. The original is very short and features only two parts, with a natural feeling of sadness. But when extending the piece and adding more instruments and parts, it is very easy to create other emotions unintentionally. While this arrangement has much more action than the original (due to volume, tempo, and instrument changes throughout), I feel that I was mostly successful in keeping the sad feel without adding too much anger to it.

When I started arranging this piece, I was already certain that it needed another part added to it, not just variations on the original theme. Making a part that fit in but still created some interest and contrast was challenging, but overall I think it worked out.

This was made by ear. I did not read sheet music to get the chord progression or melodies. I basically just guessed and improvised with what sounded best to me compared to the original piece. This piece was a lot more challenging to arrange by ear than Seeing Dreams through the Windows of Stars (though it didn't take as long), mostly due to the modulations and tricky progressions.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mario
• mallow
• super mario
• Yoko Shimomura
• geno
• orchestral
• arrangement
• orchestra
• remix
• remake
• rpg
• music
• rpg music
• video game
• video game music
• soundtrack
• nintendo
• legend of the seven stars
• OST
• theme

[Siberianhusky89]

There are some points where there was too much dissonance during the second phrase of the song. Mostly dealing with the clashing between the chords and melody. The melody is good, however, the chords feel as if they may be a little off during the second phrasings.

[meganinja456]

@Siberianhusky89 Yes, the chords on the seconds phrases are not exactly the same as the original (a little more dissonant). This is partly due to me writing this by ear and not using any references other than the song itself. Although this is an arrangement, which gives me a bit of artistic leeway, In this case I think it would have sounded better If I had kept the normal chords. Thank you for the comment; I hadn't really noticed the chords were not right until you mentioned it.

[SELG88]

too good. godlike O.o

[meganinja456]

@SELG88 Not godlike... I'm still learning and improving my ability to write/arrange. In particular I'm starting to feel like 1:20 onward might be a little too angry to fit Mallow's situation in the game... something I was trying to avoid. But I still love the way it all sounds so I probably won't change it now. And thank you for listening, enjoying, and commenting!