First 6-hand, 2-piano arrangement!
by Scott
A few months ago, we were asked by a friend and fellow YouTuber, HayashiPiano, if we’d be willing to do a collaboration video. Since Hayashi is a pianist and arranger who specializes in music from the hit video game Genshin Impact, we suggested arranging something from it, even though we had zero experience playing the game! Our friends, local concert organizers Bing and Eric from Music Friends also recommended that we arrange music this game a while back, and pointed out to us that it is played by live musicians and has a very sophisticated sound.
Since Hayashi lives in the US, our only choice for collaborating was to do a virtual collaboration, where we would combine our recordings together. This is something only possible in the modern world, and creates a new set of challenges, but the end result can be very satisfying to watch!
So I was happy to accept the proposal, and after listening through Hayashi’s suggested pieces from the game soundtrack, a few of them stood out as being suitable for 6-hands. Inazuma: Realm of Tranquil Eternity is played by the Tokyo Philharmonic (original video) really caught my attention because of its lush sound and interesting combination of Japanese instruments and western orchestra. The number of simultaneous voices also makes this impossible to recreate on solo piano or even 1 piano, 4-hands.
In arranging, within a musical phrase, I usually tried to keep one instrument’s line in one of our parts throughout the phrase, to keep the integrity of the individual orchestral sounds. I did the arranging all by ear, listening over and over with headphones and then trying to play it at the computer. Quite difficult, but very good training for future arranging!
Near the end of the arranging process, a friend showed me a full-score of the piece that he ordered, but I didn’t end up using it, because after doing so much by ear, it would be too much work to redo it seeing the actual notes! Also, the full score was much more complex than I imagined, so I didn’t want to overwhelm myself too much!
Clare and I thought that recording our part first would be easier, and then Hayashi would be able to play over top of our recording, since it’s easier for one person to two people, than for two people playing simultaneously to match one person’s recording. It still provided challenges to Hayashi, but in the end it worked out! Hayashi took care of all the video editing, and made a spectacular cinematic work of art!
Many simultaneous instruments here, but with 6 hands, many things are possible!
Notice the attempt to avoid doubling pitches between the solo piano bass (second line) and the bass of the secondo (bottom line)
To make the taiko (Japanese drum) sound, I originally thought of hitting the side or bottom of the piano to get a percussive sound, but then opted for hitting a cluster of low bass notes instead. This section combines three Japanese traditional instruments: the taiko, koto (zither) and shakuhachi (flute)
