[GBA] Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - "Demon Castle Study" (Replacement) by Atcero

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Castlevania
Game: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Console: Game Boy Advance
Title: Demon Castle Study
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Atcero


Replacement Information:
Links to Existing Sheet: MUS | MIDI | PDF
Replacement Type: Challenge (new arranger)

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Atcero]

Oh boy third CV arrangement in this sub period.
A few notes:
m44 in the left hand third beat has this weird pitch bend that sounds like it goes to a half tone, so I instead left it as Bn rather than having it go to Bb.
I took some liberties with the octaves but it should be fully playable unlike the original.
I also left the middle voice in the second layer for the whole song for clarification.

[Bloop]

love me some baroque stuff

-m1-4: Maybe you can add staccato's to the L.H. and the 8th notes in the R.H.?
-m2: I think you can add the D on beat 4 in the second layer as well on the same note as the first layer, like this: You cannot view this attachment.
-m4: The song slows down mildly on beat 3-4, maybe you can add "poco rit" here? (and don't forget the "a tempo" in m5 then of course)
-m9-11: You can write the quarter-tied to-quarter notes on beats 2-3 just as half notes, it's pretty clear how the rhythm goes. This also appears in other voices m20, 21, 23, 25, 33, 34, 35 and 44. Also, it's impossible to play the R.H. as is without pedal, but I wouldn't advise using a pedal because of the 8th notes in the L.H. It might just be better to move the second voice up an octave from the original in its entirety. This also causes the second voice to switch octaves less.
You cannot view this attachment.
-m12: Maybe it'd make sense to write the Bb's on beats 1 and 2 in the R.H. as A#'s? At this point in the bar the song is pretending to be A#dim chord as a secondary dominant to B major, but at beat 3 it's like PSYCH D MAJOR. It's mostly so you don't have a Bn in the L.H. and a Bb in the R.H. on beat 1. Also, was there a specific reason you didn't add a double barline at the end of this measure for the key signature change?
-m13: I hear a Bb on beat 2 in the lower R.H. voice.
-m18: This A# in the L.H. should just be Bb.
-m21-26: I see you chose to keep the second voice in its original octave, but imo it may be better to actually keep all of the first voice in its original octave and switch octaves in the second voice. The second voice is just pretty much only providing some harmonic information with the root and 5th of the chord, but the first voice has his own melodic line that's kinda discombobulated when one note is in another octave.
-m20: D on beat 2 in the L.H. should be C#.
-m23: C on beat 1.5 in the L.H. should be Bn.
-m29 and 31: The Cn on beat 4 should be B# (leading tone to C#)
-m32: Another Cn that should be B# in the R.H. on beat 3.
-m33: The Fn's in the R.H. and L.H. should be E# (third in C# major)
-m35: D on beat 2 in the L.H. should be C#, and D on beat 4 should be D#.
-m36: Kinda the same thing happening here as in m12, though unfortunately, this time it will be the case that Ab should be G# and Gn should be Fx (it's literally an Fxdim chord as a secondary dominant to a G# major chord, except on beat 3 the song is like PSYCH B MAJOR). The Eb on beat 3 in the R.H. should be D#, and again the same question about the key signature change double barline ^^
-m37: I hear a G in the second voice on beat 2 instead of a B.
-m39: There's a D# missing on beat 4 in the L.H.
-m40: The L.H. notes on beats 1 to 3 should have staccatos (you put them there on earlier iterations as well)
-m44: B on beat 2 in the L.H. should be A#.
-m45-50: None of these R.H. second voice notes are correct, except for the E in m47 :p Also, for the R.H. rests in this part, you can hide one of them and put the other one in it's standard position in the bar.
-m49-50: The staccatos on the lower E's in the L.H. are touching the noteheads.

[Atcero]

I got this updated finally after uhh, a while cause school. Sorry about that!

So I did decide to keep m21-26 lower as it did sound better for me, but I'll also hear what the next updater has to say about it jic it should be moved.
For the double barlines, its the export with musescore and I think I went through this sheet but just missed those two this time so thanks for catching those!
I cleaned up the m45-50 as best as possible with your direction in le discord so hopefully it is more accurate (or even better, fully accurate :kekdog:)
I also cleaned up some of the accidentals but if you see more that are bad, I will clean them up at the very end because finale hates me

Thanks so much for all your help!

[Bloop]

Also sorry about my late response to this :p
Looks a lot better, awesome! There's a few things you missed or implemented incorrectly, but it's mostly small things ^^

-m4: Maybe you missed this one:

-m4: The song slows down mildly on beat 3-4, maybe you can add "poco rit" here? (and don't forget the "a tempo" in m5 then of course)

-m12: I only meant changing the Bb's in beats 1-2, the A# on beat 4 should be a Bb (because here it is part of the Gm tonality, not the A#dim secondary dominant to Bm thing)
-m33: The Fn in the L.H. is still there, should be E#
-m36: To keep this bar symmetric to m12, the Gn on beat 1 should be an Fx as well (not the one on beat 4! :p)
-m44: The C# on beat 2 should be A# (this would be A# if it was a treble clef ^^)
-m45-50: This looks a lot better now! There's just a few notes that are incorrect, but I'll just point those out for you:
--m47: A# on beat 4 should be G
--m49-50: The D's should be G's, and the C# should be F#. In the original they are below the D's and C# you have now, but I'd put them above, since the intervals of a 10th would be a pain to play :p

[Atcero]

No worries! considering i took how long to reply back :jaja: It should be all updated! Thanks so much

[Bloop]

there's some tiny mistakes that still slipped in:
-With the poco rit, I meant placing it on beat 3-4 of m4, not m3-4 completely. It just stays in tempo during m3.
-m36: You currently have Gx in the R.H., should be Fx
-On the last page, the staccatos in the L.H. in m40 and 49-50 are touching the noteheads again.

I think that should be all though!

[Atcero]

Got that all! thanks so much!

[Bloop]

Alrighty, approved!
You cannot view this attachment.

[Latios212]

Replacement

Overall this looks good, a bit funny to see the lower RH layer jump up and down but there's not much to be done there, and the pitches are right. My feedback:
- Staccatos on the quarter notes (in both layers) m. 5? Similarly for beats 1-3 in m. 13. Maybe the quarter notes in beats 1-3 of m. 29-30 as well? Measure 37 too... although on beat 3 it sounds like only the top note is staccato
- Two tied quarters in m. 20 can be a half (like in other places where the half note falls on beat 2)
- Lower layer beat 4 quarter note in m. 19 should be C instead of A
- Is there a reason the top note is moved down an octave instead of the bottom note moved up an octave in places in m. 21-26? Is it that you want to instead prioritize the lower melody here as opposed to in other sections?
- m. 27 beat 4 - should be E in lower layer instead of G#
- m. 36 beat 3 lower layer should be F# instead of B
- The D.S. is a bit low

[Atcero]

Updated, thanks so much!

Also for this point:

- Is there a reason the top note is moved down an octave instead of the bottom note moved up an octave in places in m. 21-26? Is it that you want to instead prioritize the lower melody here as opposed to in other sections?

I felt that this song emphasizes that middle section more than the top part so thats why I have it jump down. for those few notes

[Latios212]

You're welcome!

Also for this point:I felt that this song emphasizes that middle section more than the top part so thats why I have it jump down. for those few notes

Yep sounds good.

Also chatted a bit over Discord to get the staccatos straightened out, and Atcero decided to forego them in m. 37. I'll accept now!

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Latios212.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot