Back at it again with chill interpretations of some of my favorite revue songs. This one takes the first and second tracks from Ćclair Brillant (Beniās solo intro and the theme) and aims for theĀ ābeats to relax/study toā vibe. With the original as hype as it is however, I do go a little overboard in the middle and near the end.Ā
As this revue theme especially repeats itself over and over and uses the cast and staging to introduce variation as opposed to the orchestration, I ended up with somewhat of a genre sampler, trying to flavor each section with a vibe likeĀ āvaguely Latinā,Ā āspooky ghost shipā,Ā ā60s spy thrillerā orĀ ākinda technoā.Ā
This one took a bit more time than I would have liked, but I wrote it chronologically and my favorite sections are near the end, so I think thatās a sign of growth lol.Ā
The takarazuka youtube page posted Daimon and Coto singing some beautiful old school zuka songs but they sounded a little under-accompanied, so I went overboard. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbH5VqlYIaQ&t=302s)
Get your best bass-boosting headphones and enjoy XDĀ
I moved to Tokyo in December and this was the heaviest snow Iāve seen so far! Combine that with constant listening to the new animal crossing soundtrack and you get this. Stay safe yāall!
Hey guys, so Iāve been thinking that I kind of want to send Hime and Kyabii a goodbye-message before they leave, as I am going to miss them a lot. Then I thought, Iām sure there are more of us who feel that way, so why not do it together!
Iāve made a google form where you can fill in a message for either of them, which I will collect with a card for each of them and make sure to send in time. If you want to send them a picture or a drawing, or anything like that please indicate it on the form and Iāll be in touch. Since I need time to put everything together and send it, the deadline to fill in the form will be February 1st 2020.
Hello everyone! Please respond to/boost this poll Iāve made to discover peopleās favorite Takarazuka stars/shows/revues, etc. of the 2010s :D Iām taking submissions until January 1st and then making a tribute video with the results!
Iāve been wanting to get back into transcribing / arranging for a bit, and the CD they released for yukiās 2018 Phantom (not the actual soundtrack) was the perfect opportunity. It has a couple voiced songs, a couple karaoke tracks, and some short piano arrangements. I did not see it on iTunes so I will be including a filtered cut of the track I transcribed, called āMy True Loveā in the English version. (Itās the song Christine sings to Erik to have him to remove the mask.)
It sounds like itās one player, but based on some short sections that are impossible to play simultaneously they might have recorded it twice and added some flavor, or had two players at one piano. As you will see/hear however, itās more like one piano three hands as opposed to four, but it allows for every note I could hear. While itās very possible I was hearing additional notes due to overtones or overlistening, I liked the flexibility and greater range. In addition to the two players one piano I also squished it into a more complex solo player version. Please note that piano is not my primary instrument, so if there is something thatās impossible or reads strangely on the page please me know.
If you (and/or a friend) play piano, or you want an accompaniment to your singing, here is some sheet music for you, enjoy!
Original Song (Note: Itās like 116.5bpm, sliiiightly faster than the transcriptions)
Impressions: Spreading Golden Wings / Music Revolution! (yukigumi 2019 tour)
This has been a long time coming, apologies! As I didnāt write any notes at intermission this will be a shorter, more generalized opinion of the Monday, Oct. 14th performance in Kawasaki. It was two days after theĀ āworst storm in Japan in 60 yearsā according English news, and āviolent typhoon no. 19ā² in Japanese, which, they werenāt wrong. It was terrifying and exhausting, and I cannot imagine having to put on a brave face and perform like everything is totally fine just a day later. Both sections of Snow Troupe did however, and I will be forever impressed. It does not however, make me inclined to enjoy Spreading Golden Wings any more than I am able to, though this may be the first time I buy a blu-ray for the revue. More thoughts below the cut!Ā
Iāll be popping back into my bullet point format from here.Ā
This is the Revueās first performance inĀ ć«ć«ćććććć (Culttz Kawasaki, honestly love the name). Itās beautiful, and reminds me of many new performance spaces - bright woods, streamlined design, open lobby and a ton of stairs. The seat I had is still considered S seki, and was pretty nice, though Iām glad I had my opera glasses.
The program is a nice light blue with just Nozomi Fuuto (Daimon) posing in her primary Music Revolution costume (black & silver w/ huge white gems and metal circles). I wish they had a Maaya Kiho (Kiho) variant or a cover with them together, but thatās totally fine.
I did write some notes on the train ride back to Tokyo, so Iāll be using those as a jumping off point. Note that the day before I had seen Star Troupeās GOD OF STARS, so many of the notes are phrased comparatively. Spoiler-free until the [s]
Spreading Golden Wings
ālimited setāĀ
Itās a touring show, and frankly Iām glad they donāt have to take a lot with them, as they may run into damaged roads on their tour south, but I was still surprised at the sparseness. It didnāt help that the aesthetic was medieval European, which made it look a bit like a televised Shakespeare production. However! This allowed you to focus on the scene without worrying about missing something. Unlike Grand Theater / Tokyo runs where people see a show several times, I would hope tours are designed to be seen once. Thus Iām glad I didnāt leave thinking,Ā āoh next time Iāll look at opposite side of the stage, I missed xyzā.Ā
āsingle scenes, no additional side scenesā
This is something that made GOD OF STARS simultaneously amazing and terrible, as there were always 45 people on stage doing something elaborate. Spreading Golden Wings was the complete opposite. It felt old-school, to be sure, but I cannot recall a single scene where something was happening outside of the range of what my opera glasses could see. People could be spaced out across the stage of course, but they were all participating in the same moment. It really highlighted acting choices, especially considering a surprising lack of underscoring allowing you to hear every footstep and breath. The recording of this will flawlessly capture what yukigumi was aiming to project, which will be great to see again.
āDaimon cackles into and out of a sceneā
I will briefly break down the plot and characters in a bit, but there is an early scene where the villainous Vittorio, played by Daimon, enters the room where he is holding Clarice, played by Kiho, captive, and her laugh as she enters was identical to the laugh she gave as she left two minutes later. I thought it was fantastically over the top and well within the aesthetic of the work.
āKiho is ... befuddled / confused / flabbergasted -> meta for her character?ā
I had a hard time with Clarice in this show, letās be real. Kiho used her huge eyes to her advantage, looking woefully overwhelmed for the first 80% of the show, and confidently winging it (and therefore vaguely panicked) the last 20%. I would love to hear Kihoās thoughts on the character, which may be in a Kageki somewhere if someone has the most recent issue.
āAsami Jun just obsessed w/ Daimonā
I canāt speak for Asami but her character, Falco, gets one of the few solos to solely sing about how everything he does is for Vittorio. If you want to memorize theĀ āććć«ā grammar pattern do I have the song for you. It felt very St-Just 2.0 but it was still super engaging and later provided some shock value.Ā
āfew interstitial chorus scenesā
I completely forgot this half of yukigumi had ~40 people in it until they would do a dance to establish the scene. The show starts with quite a long prologue, but I still forgot them completely until they would all pop up again to either establish a new location, tone, or event. It is very reminiscent of hoshigumiās Elbe from earlier this year. This showĀ does not require more than a dozen people for the plot, so when everyone shows up in roles clearly not meant to directly impact the story it was quite a surprise.Ā
āpurposefully better sword workā
There are a few fight scenes / sword training scenes in the show, and the choreography for them becomes increasingly complicated as the show progresses, which was a nice touch.Ā
[s] Kiho especially makes a dramatic improvement as the show progresses, which makes sense thematically, but by the end sheās legitimately holding her own against otokoyaku who have generally had more fight training (unless she did for Mibugishiden, which I have not seen)
[s]Ā āclearly a repro of the 85 showā /Ā ātbh canāt tell what has changedā
Alrighty so itās time to dive into the core of the interest around this production - the fact that it was originally a taidan / tour back in 1985, and that when this show was announced it was immediately followed up with,Ā āweāre rewriting some things to make it fresh for modern audiencesā. It was not relabeled in the same way as Elbe was with āOnce Upon a Time in Takarazukaā, but there was a significant amount of notice paid to the fact that some things would be different. My question though as we went into intermission was, what changed? Reading through the plot on takawiki, the beats are the same. Full disclosure, I am not fluent in Japanese. There is a great chance that it is simply a nuance of language that perhaps makes the motivations behind actions more gray, but it does not change the fact that the scenes still play out with the same result. I believe there is an additional love song at the end between Daimon and Kiho because they sound ~amazing~ and can emote ~so well~ but that was perhaps the only thing that felt fresh to me. Everyone that betrays someone still betrays that person, questionable scenes of consent still look quite questionable, the interesting shift from lady to page boy was still fun to see. But I believe they were the same as before, and I donāt consider acting choices within scenes to allow for ambiguity to be rewrites. Thatās just the benefit of restaging a production. Perhaps the chorus scenes were fleshed out, but I was expecting shifts in plot, character arcs, or concrete visual differences in motivation. I would love for a full breakdown of this show once the recording is released at the end of January.Ā
Hereās a brief breakdown of the core plot after me talking around it for 10 minutesĀ
Daimon plays Vittorio, the lord of an Italian city state of Lago that is always feuding with the nearby city state of Bolzano. He kills the lord of Bolzano, and takes his daughter, Clarice (played by Kiho) prisoner. She of course is not on board with this. When she meets him, however, she is shaken up by his attractiveness, and he declares that she belongs to him now, no questions please. He attempts to force his point, she clumsily whips out a dagger that she loses immediately (sigh), and he is now charmed and attracted, and decides to teach her the basics of sword-fighting which will definitely not be needed later. Meanwhile Vittorioās old bff/prime minister/secret admirer Falco (Asami Jun) is Not Having It. After clearly demonstrating to the audience his, honestly no other way to phrase it, love of Vittorio, we see that he will do whatever it takes to ensure Vittorio does not become weak in his love for Clarice.Ā
Various plot things happen that put Clarice in danger and Vittorio saving her / demonstrating his passion for her, and eventually the prime minister of Bolzano (Clariceās fatherās old city state) Guillermo (Kujou Asu), catches on. This results in Vittorio and Clarice being captured, with Vittorio chained, whipped (by Falco!) and leaving without an eye.Ā
Sometime later, Clarice, now dressed in disguise as a page boy and seemingly willingly with Vittorio, delivers a message to Guillermo from Vittorio, challenging him to a duel.
Vittorio (+1 sexy eyepatch) and Gulliermo (-1 for losing his cool and planning to use poison to win) duel. It is sanctioned by the Pope, who should be busy doing holy things but here we are. Several people jump into the fray after the attempted poison, Clarice shows off her sword skills like a boss, the Golden Wings of Vittorioās city state arrive, and all is well. Thereās a brief bit at the end where Vittorio and Clarice declare their love for each other, and curtain.Ā
I definitely left out some side plots and characters because I wanted to get to my thoughts on a few main scenes I saw and wish I saw.Ā
bed scene - early on in the show Vittorio forces himself onto Clarice. Daimon being Daimon leaves a bit of space as she looms over Kiho, but Kiho squeaked, there is no other way to describe it, and I wanted to gasp with surprise. Everyone and their mother had stopped breathing and stared through their opera glasses, collectively releasing it when Kiho went for the knife (after quite a hold - it was clear she had the release point on the scene and leaned into it)Ā
whip scene - I was like,Ā āoh this is scandy whatās going to happenā. Itās not as dramatic/musicalized as 1789, but I was still surprised. The only thing that pulled me out of it was the lack of cuffs on the wall XD. Daimon just held her arms up, shout out to that arm strength. Anytime someone gets whipped itās pretty intense, and Daimon is great at pulling out strong emotions from pain. The yells, ooooof.
the scenes between the escape and the duel challenge - I really want to chalk this up to my lack of language, but I wanted more scenes between Vittorio and Clarice after their escape and before the duel, as itās quite clear Clarice isnāt going anywhere. (Even back to her own home city state that she must not be welcome in anymore) I think that would have been a great place to add some softer moments, not just grand displays of affection due to a traumatic circumstance or misdirected force. Doesnāt have to be a coffee shop scene or even a wound-tending scene, but perhaps Clarice working with Vitorrio to account for his new lack of depth perception? Or another sword-fight training scene? I just wanted more Daimon and Kiho but not at the dramatic extremes of this Shakespearean-esque drama.Ā
All in all, looking back on Spreading Golden Wings I had a better time than I originally thought. I never doubted for a second that yukigumi: top star edition wouldnāt put itās all into this smaller scale production. Every scene oozed with intention, strong acting choices, and when it allowed for it, beautiful songs and choreography. I only wish the source material was a bit more... nuanced? Though there is charm in itās clear presentation and design. As I type I waffle back and forth, so I will simply move on to Music Revolution. Once the recording comes out however, Iād love to hear other folkās thoughts.Ā
Music Revolution
I f*king loved this revue, and I did not see it coming. I had assumed a scaled down GT/TT revue would feel sparse but I was shut right the hell up immediately. First things first my journalās incredibly vague bullet points.
āgot more and more funā
This is so basic yet so true. Usually thereās a slump in a revue for me somewhere, a slower ballad or dance section, but I only got more hype as the revue went on. Spreading Golden Wings felt short due to the generally straightforward plot, but if you told me Music Revolution was 2 hours I would say sure, and I loved every minute.
āāMusic is My Lifeā is so damn funā
Thanks for the detail, past me. But truly, hearing crisp English, incredibly strong and beautiful yukigumi voices, sharp choreography... it was a dream. I was charmed to no end by how clearly Daimon loved that song. This feels like it could be a main theme for her moving forward, or one that comes back quite a bit for yukigumi or zuka as a whole. One of my favorite moments.
āLots of dancing, Daimonās voice almost too strong?!ā
This no doubt was bolstered by seeing hoshigumi right before (sorry not sorry) but it felt like yukigumi was dancing so hard all the time. Clearly the folks not in Spreading Golden Wings just went twice as hard for the revue as a result. And Daimon was in the thick of it, matching beat for beat to only then belt some amazing notes. After spending the previous week in hoshi taidan sadness / cheer it was so refreshingly perfect. Her couple of solo moments were mesmerizing, and Iām so glad I can sink back into my yuki love while waiting for hoshi to ramp back up.Ā
āamazing music, classical remixes so fun, trumpet and sax go homeā
does the orchestra travel with them?? because if so, the f*king brass section went berserk during the jazz dance section and I nearly had a heart attack. It was so off the walls that they have to had recorded it in advance - it was way too hardcore to repeat every show. I wanted to applaud for the solo like you would in a standard jazz concert but alas.Ā
similarly, this revue has the highest proportion of my favorite thing in revues - classical music remixes. Idk if they are popular but I love hearing the orchestration choices and genres they throw at classical melodies, and what bonkers choreo they toss in there as well.Ā
āadlib sections were stronger, lots of spaceā
While there were not extended sections to adlib an entire scene, there were some spots where the troupe or Daimon run into the audience. As itās a tour, there is a bit of space in the song for the folks to navigate different sized halls. For this performance, Kiho was singing for Daimon as she jogged through the first floor, and as she made it back up to the stage she went to regard the folks in the first row before realizing she didnāt have time.Ā āAh shoot I have to be back up there the songās almost doneā she remarked with a laugh as she hopped back on stage to regard a smirking Kiho. It was pretty fun, and it was nice to see her not panicked about it. Kiho had the song covered, there was still underscoring for her to make it back, and she had a charming way of commenting on it. Yay adlib improvement! There are some other places during full troupe dances where they can shout out the city / prefecture they are in, which Daimon and co. were quite inclined to do as she is from Yokohama, the capital of the Kanagawa prefecture where the show was happening.Ā
I wish I had more concrete notes for this, like I do GOD OF STARS, but I hope this provides a bit of context when you get a chance to see it for youself. Itās not my favorite yuki show by any stretch, itās honestly probably near the bottom, but itās not from lack of effort or enthusiasm. It serves a unique role and no doubt checks off some square on Daimonās āhow to conquer Takarazukaā bingo card so for that Iām glad. The revue on the other hand, is one of my favorites. Iāve never had such a stark contrast in my opinion on two āactsā before, which in and of itself is fun to reflect on. I really like where yuki is at right now, and cannot wait to see Once Upon a Time in America.Ā
Stay tuned for the most overlong and overdue look at GOD OF STARS this side of the Pacific.Ā
Lot of things have been going on in my life recently, so in order to find some balance I went back into making music. I found an old electronic/dance remix of Classical Bijoux that originally was meant to be the intro to my previous version (found here).Ā
ThisĀ āintroā was going in a much different direction however, so I shelved it.Ā
The new addition can be foundĀ here! Please keep reading if youāre curious about the process.
When I came back to this track I took a different approach to it than I did the previous version and my ambient rehash of Killer Rouge (found here).Ā
For the first Classical Remix, I asked Ableton (the software I use) to tell me what notes it thought were playing, which is quite difficult with all of the chords, singing, clapping, and reverb that is involved in a live recording. I then used it to make a marimba-y, slowed down version. For Chiller Rouge, I tried to make it as spacey and abstract as I could while maintaining a baseline relation to the original.Ā
With this however, I tried my hand at actual dance electronic music, sort of. Every time I pushed for an intense drum line or wild sound effects it sounded silly as heck but it made me laugh (especially the random hi-hat in the middle segment trying to contribute but like not finding the beat properly), so I hope you get a kick out of it too.
The end result is in three short parts: a dramatic intro (0:00-1:21), an obnoxious re-orchestration/interlude (1:21-2:06), which is then gladly interrupted for what I felt most comfortable with (2:06-4:22). I incorporated some new tricks, mainly audio samples, and pulled the majority of the musical lines from the main theme.Ā
Ex:Ā āClassical Bijoux!ā
Apologies if the photo is blurry - itās just G-G-F-E (Classical) A-G (Bijoux)
And then, āęć«ęŗ¢ććč¼ćā (shining full of love)
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā F-E-D-C-C-B-C-D
G-A-A
For the bells starting at 2:06, I played the sequence of notes above repeatedly, taking out notes and switching the rhythm until I found something that worked.Ā
G-F-E-C-AĀ
Here it is second line in the theme (āęćåćåć¶ā) inverted (in the bass guitar that comes in shortly after 2:06)
I also took the secondary theme, where all of the gems are sung in upward intervals, though I did not do nearly as much with it, just added some harmonies and more colorful bells.Ā
As the original tracks are recorded live and I am not a master sound engineer, adding in audio samples required a lot of finagling and orchestral assistance (primarily the high pitched space sounds to fill your ear and distract from the muffled audience sounds). It was a fun experiment, and Iām glad for once they recorded the top star intro lol.Ā
If you get a chance to listen, thank you! I also do normal arrangements if you want a piano/ensemble reduction of your favorite zuka song, key changes, etc. (Iāll post an example soon-ish) Send a message if youāre curious!Ā
