Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Still trying to work a little on the piano. I found this to be a really fun song to play, and I've been working on it for a few weeks. It's from Final Fantasy IV, of course (I feel a little sacrilegious posting it on a Phantasy Star forum, ha ha). I was going to draw Rydia in the Land of Summons for the video, but I realized I have much more experience drawing monsters, so I went with Leviathan.

I know very little about Final Fantasy, so you'll get no complaints from me.

This is also a pretty interesting piece - I really like the accompaniment in the A sections. There's some dissonance* going on there, but you didn't shy away from it (as some people with sensitive ears tend to do!), so it really works. There's even some dissonance in the resolution; while I don't know the context of this piece, it adds some tension. The arpeggios were also played really evenly and cleanly, and I know how it can be difficult to keep that steady. Good job on another cool piece!

*I occasionally ran into some trouble in my college ear training classes because major 7ths - which is what's used here in the accompaniment, I believe - sound like the most dissonant interval to my ears. For a lot of other people, it's the tritone, aka the augmented fourth/diminished fifth. If I wasn't paying attention in an exercise, I could mix up the two.

Thank you very much! You have a very good ear; I wish I was able to pick out intervals like that. I'm really drawn to eerie or haunting pieces like this, and I love all the crazy intervals and strange tonality. The more something sounds like Stravinsky or Ligeti the more likely I am to like it. Crazy time signatures, bizarre dissonances, anything like that. I never had the best ear for harmony, which might account for some of my tastes, but I like the sheer impact of dissonance.

I just realized, rereading your post, that the tritone is also called the augmented fourth, and I'm laughing at myself. Now I'm wondering if that's one of your favorite intervals. It always sounded very distinctive to me, kind of symmetrical or something. I actually prefer the "closer" dissonances like the major seventh and minor second, but I'm weird like that.

I think the tritone is King Crimson's favorite interval, and they're my favorite band.

SUPERB ! I love so much Final Fantasy IV, who was the first I've ever played ! (and finished !) and this theme (like quasi all the others !) is so great ! Ah the theme of Love or Rosa's Theme...so beautiful !
(And no that is not sacregeous ! )
Great piano piece Bragatyr : keep up the good work.

Thank you so much, man. I agree with you, Final Fantasy IV is easily one of my top three favorite games of all time. I played the first Final Fantasy before IV, and it's always going to be my favorite, but IV has a very special place in my heart. Just one of the best soundtracks of all time, too. My favorites are Within the Giant, The Dreadful Battle, Golbez, Clad in Dark, and, well, I could go on. But yeah, man, I remember being really happy about beating this one, too!

Yes, for me also FFIV is in my TOP 5 of best games I've ever played
And the OST is really great : all the tracks that you've listed are great but for me my favourite is the battle theme : mythical ! I love it so much !
For me the best of all the FF battle's themes.

I used to think I hated Stravinsky, and then I realized that I just hate The Rite of Spring. (And even then, I found it more tolerable when watching the full ballet so I could get the big picture, instead of just listening to the music.) He'll never be one of my favorite composers, but I've mellowed a bit in some of my opinions in my old age. Ligeti's pretty cool, too.

I picked the username more for its devilish connotations, I must admit. It is very symmetrical (and some people love it for its symmetry), I'll give you that! My favorite intervals are the major third and the minor seventh. While Leonard Bernstein's known for reviving the tritone with West Side Story, I also love his use of the minor seventh in both West Side Story (the "Somewhere" theme) and Candide (Cunegonde's theme). Because of those works, the minor seventh is really easy for me to pick out.

The nerdy qualities of this conversation are AWESOME.

Nothing wrong with posting non-PS work here, especially since FFIV has some very good pieces.

Ironically, among all possible choices in FFIV, you probably picked the song with the worst reputation since it is played in the game two most annoying dungeons (unless my memory is currently being the suck).

Yet, here it is, gorgeous piano rendition. Very, very nicely played. I admire piano players a lot; the idea of separating my hands into two independent entities is beyond me. As soon as I start thinking "my left hand needs to play this key", my right hands starts freaking out.

Keep at it, your work is extremely pleasant.

Thank you very much, man. Yeah, I definitely think this song is kind of buried among all the other great tracks from FF IV, as far as Top 10 lists and that sort of thing, but I've recently taken a fancy to it. The Celtic Moon rendition of it really caught my eye (or ear). Those dungeons were really weird, but this song sure fit the atmosphere there. Very ethereal.

You know, about the ambidexterity of piano playing, I can tell you, my brain is not made for it. I've been trying to work on it, but so far I've been picking songs that are fairly manageable with the two parts. I agree that serious pianists are just amazing with their ability to divide their playing in that way. I think drummers are pretty equally amazing on that level, at times.

We need to have like a big music discussion topic, with all our favorite bands and singers and composers and stuff like that. And favorite intervals. I love the minutiae of music theory, I won't lie. But speaking of the augmented fourth, with a screen name like that, how can you not like The Rite of Spring?! Surely a more devilish piece of music has never been conceived, based on the contemporary reaction to it!

I'd be rather useless in such a discussion. I can't read music, and my knowledge of the musical theory is laughable at best. I tried to learn a few times but I tend to be too thick-headed.

The only two things I have are my awesome ears and my capacity to analyze a sound signal using spectral scopes and such tools. This is why I have a much easier time writing electronic, rhythmic music as opposed to complex, well thought melodies.

An artist stuck with the brain of a tech.