[DELETED] [GBA] Fire Emblem - "Fire Emblem Theme" by Echo

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Fire Emblem
Game: Fire Emblem
Console: Game Boy Advance
Title: Fire Emblem Theme
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Echo

[Echo]

This game still has the best rendition of the FE theme to me.

I recommend listening to the first track listed here if you need a reference, due to the recording's quality.
https://serenesforest.net/music/fe-6-7-premium-soundtrack/

Otherwise, if you still want Youtube
Intro part

Main theme

[Latios212]

Yay, Fire Emblem Theme! This song never gets old.

This game still has the best rendition of the FE theme to me.

no the best one is clearly the Heroes version

[Echo]

no the best one is clearly the Heroes version

the best vocal version will always be this one

[Latios212]

lol what did I just watch

[InsigTurtle]

Just a quick glance:
- m.3 sounds like you could add the triplet into the bass on beat 3
- I notice you simplified the rhythm somewhat, for playability reasons I suppose. At the given tempo, I wouldn't say it's too difficult to play, though.
- Also noticed how you neglect the bass in favour of playability, but incorporating a bit of the bass notes would help make the accompaniment more interesting
- Just to clarify, the sparse texture in m.45 is you adding a sort of "ending" by adding contrast to the beginning, right?
- I'd suggest adding the harp part to m.26-29 so you can contrast more with m.30

[Echo]

So a couple of questions about some changes I was going to do, just enharmonic spelling stuff.
- measure 30/42, I have B natural for the left hand, but I think it would look better as a Cb?
- measure 37, I have an Ab for the left hand, but should it actually be a G#?

And a change I'm more certain on doing is raising the last couple of 8th notes for the left hand in measure 31, for a smoother transition with the next measure.

Just a quick glance:
- m.3 sounds like you could add the triplet into the bass on beat 3
- I notice you simplified the rhythm somewhat, for playability reasons I suppose. At the given tempo, I wouldn't say it's too difficult to play, though.
- Also noticed how you neglect the bass in favour of playability, but incorporating a bit of the bass notes would help make the accompaniment more interesting
- Just to clarify, the sparse texture in m.45 is you adding a sort of "ending" by adding contrast to the beginning, right?
- I'd suggest adding the harp part to m.26-29 so you can contrast more with m.30

Thanks for the feedback!

- Will add change to measure 3 when I have access to my computer. I have a feeling I missed that due to copy/pasting the previous measure, haha.

- I'm assuming you're talking about the left hand rhythms around measures 6-16, in which case, I changed the 16th notes to 8th notes not because of it being "difficult," so much as it sounding and feeling awful to play repeated notes like that on piano. Same reason that I alternate octaves for the left hand triplets in the first few measures.

- So it is actually possible to include the bass and keep the left hand part for the section around measure 10, you would just have to use the right hand to play the top notes that are currently in the left hand's section. However, I felt like for the average user that uses this site, it would be better to just present that section more simply with "main melody with the right hand" and "accompaniment with the left" instead of splitting layers for more voices. Also, not having the bass early on makes for a better contrast with measures 18 and 45.

- Yup, nailed it! The piece has to end with one more round of the main melody, but it would be monotonous to play it exactly the same way a third time, so for the left hand I decided to have the phrase at measure 10 be based on the horn accompaniment, while for measure 45 the left hand derives from the bass parts. This was my compromise instead of putting the bass notes at measure 10; I would just save the bass notes until the end so that the performer would have something new to learn for the last section.

- Similar to what I did above, I held off the harp part at measure 26 because the same part is in measure 36, so the "contrast" is just displayed in different sections than what you had in mind. How someone decides to play it is up to preference, but the advantage of having it this way is that if they do want to play the harp part for measure 26, they can just look down to measure 36 as a reference, but if I overwrote it myself, they would lose the chords that are currently in measure 26 if they wanted to play the chords instead.

So, most of the suggestions are more about a difference in arranging style. If you or others feel that those kinds of changes would make the sheet more comfortable to play or make it sound significantly better, I'll implement them, but for now I don't see a reason to change it up.

[InsigTurtle]

Aight, that's cool. I just had to double check that you were consciously making those decisions, just in case

[Brassman388]

A couple more things.

Margins are all out of whack. I prefer at least 0.5 in. all around, then move the systems around to accommodate.

You need a double bar line at the end of m. 5, and possibly at the end of m. 44 with the transition going to A again, or if this is counting as a coda.

M. 30 - 39 is looking a little squished since each system before and after is less than 5 measures per system. Play around with it and see if you can reduce it some cause it's not looking good.

For how it sounds, it's pretty accurate in terms of tones.

However, in m. 6 - 8, the bass is sustained as a G pedal. Now, I understand that you have it move because you needed to incorporate the upper harmonies and that's what you came up with. I think you can do better, tho without changing the bass note. Give it a try.

For the rest of m. 10 to the end, I agree with Insig.

There are plenty of opportunities to either incorporate countermelodies, or traditional 4-part harmonies. That shouldn't increase the difficulty, but rather give the piece a nice facelift to a fuller sound.

Those are just aesthetics, tho. It's not a rock song with empty 5ths, or a folk song relying on pedal changes, but almost a march where the harmony plays a crucial role as to how this piece sounds.

If you need help figuring out solutions, don't be afraid to reach out to me or someone to get you going in more traditional techniques. That's what we're literally here for.

Hope this helps.

[LeviR.star]

Bump for Echo.

[Maelstrom]

Deleted for inactivity. Feel free to submit it with the edits when you come back.