[MUL] Genshin Impact - "For Riddles, for Wonders" by Latios212

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Genshin Impact
Console: Multiplatform
Title: For Riddles, for Wonders
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Latios212

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[Latios212]

This piece sticks fairly rigidly to a strict 4/4, despite the rubato throughout. That said, the playback still isn't a great indication of how it's supposed to sound due to the loose timing of the notes themselves, so don't rely on it.

Also, it's kind of arbitrary, but for the middle section, the grace notes reflect the bansuri (flute), rather than the piano an octave up, for simplicity.

Just for fun, here's the live performance:

[Libera]

Nice little sheet.  I've not heard any of this OST before, so I was a bit surprised with the direction the second half of the piece went in after the start.

-I hear a bend up to the Db on beat 2 of bar 4 from the C.  It's not in the other instances though.
-Is there any reason for the difference in notation between bar 5 and 13?  With how loose everything is I'm not sure it makes much difference and you might as well homogenise the notation, but maybe there's some reason I'm not seeing for distinguishing them.
-There's a kind of notable An in the second half of bar 30 going into the Bbm in bar 31.  Notable in the sense that that harmony doesn't appear anywhere else in the piece, so it might be nice to include.  But maybe it clashes too much with the Ab on piano so you left it out.
-Thoughts on putting the second melody line in 36-42 below the first one rather than above it?  Compared to the original it sounds a bit off jumping up the register so much, when it actually sounds a little darker than the main melody instrument (to me at least).
-Flip the slur on the grace note on beat 2 of bar 40?
-In bar 40-41 layer 1 I hear it as Eb -> F -> Eb rather than F -> Gb -> F.

[Latios212]

Nice little sheet.  I've not heard any of this OST before, so I was a bit surprised with the direction the second half of the piece went in after the start.

I highly recommend the soundtrack! It's absolutely massive but has loads of beautiful tracks, many stylized to different regional musical styles. Lemme know if you want any recommendations~

-I hear a bend up to the Db on beat 2 of bar 4 from the C.  It's not in the other instances though.

Yep, nice catch!

-Is there any reason for the difference in notation between bar 5 and 13?  With how loose everything is I'm not sure it makes much difference and you might as well homogenise the notation, but maybe there's some reason I'm not seeing for distinguishing them.

Looking again, not really. I also already used an inverted mordent in m. 16, so I put one in m. 5 as well.

-There's a kind of notable An in the second half of bar 30 going into the Bbm in bar 31.  Notable in the sense that that harmony doesn't appear anywhere else in the piece, so it might be nice to include.  But maybe it clashes too much with the Ab on piano so you left it out.

Ah, I hadn't noticed that! It sounds like the An plays on beat 4. But on piano trying to put it in the right hand, it sounds awful underneath the Bb so I think I'll leave it out.

-Thoughts on putting the second melody line in 36-42 below the first one rather than above it?  Compared to the original it sounds a bit off jumping up the register so much, when it actually sounds a little darker than the main melody instrument (to me at least).

Interesting! It is a bit of a jump up but since those voices occupy a similar space I wanted to contrast the two instruments (sitar and bansuri) by putting the flute-like sound above. That feels most natural to me and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

-Flip the slur on the grace note on beat 2 of bar 40?

Sure~

-In bar 40-41 layer 1 I hear it as Eb -> F -> Eb rather than F -> Gb -> F.

Oh dear, I definitely wrote that wrong. Thanks for catching that!

Files updated, thank you for checking

[XiaoMigros]

Libera caught most of what I wanted to say...

• m9 & 13: I hear an F in the LH you could add if you want
• m11 & 15: The LH changes back to the Db chord here
• You might want to restrike the chords in m3 and m7 as well, to match the later section
• m21: There's a few places throughout the track like this, but do you think it's worth adding slurs to the melody to show the start-stop phrasing?

Ah, I hadn't noticed that! It sounds like the An plays on beat 4. But on piano trying to put it in the right hand, it sounds awful underneath the Bb so I think I'll leave it out.

It sounds awful in the original too...

-Thoughts on putting the second melody line in 36-42 below the first one rather than above it?  Compared to the original it sounds a bit off jumping up the register so much, when it actually sounds a little darker than the main melody instrument (to me at least).

FWIW I agree with this point, I think the thicker texture from keeping the two parts at a similar height is more reflective of the original. That said I do understand your reasoning, and I'm fine with this part staying as currently written.

[Latios212]

m9 & 13: I hear an F in the LH you could add if you want

I think it'd sound a bit too muddy making a major seventh, I wanted the left hand to have a rather open sound throughout the section which the open fifths convey well.

• m11 & 15: The LH changes back to the Db chord here
• You might want to restrike the chords in m3 and m7 as well, to match the later section

Oh good catch, I didn't notice that! Fixed m. 11-12 and 15-16. Keeping m. 3 and 7 as they are though, since they don't restrike in the original and it also conversely helps to contrast with the later iterations where there's more development.

m21: There's a few places throughout the track like this, but do you think it's worth adding slurs to the melody to show the start-stop phrasing?

Good question, that does seem good to convey. It is a bit difficult to make it look decent here, though, with the grace notes and beaming and presence of a lower layer. Here's what I mean, via a couple of different ways to play around with it...

slurs forced over beat 1 due to layer 2, slurs forced under beats 2 and 4 due to presence of beams

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beams broken so slurs are consistently above, but the contour coming from the grace note is odd going up when the notes go down

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Best I can come up with right now a bit unconventional, but how about unbeaming each beat so they're more visually distinct, instead of using slurs over each beat, since the slurs seem more troublesome than they're worth? I've updated it to the below picture for now, though let me know if you have any better ideas or just preferred it was it was before.

Spoiler

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-Thoughts on putting the second melody line in 36-42 below the first one rather than above it?  Compared to the original it sounds a bit off jumping up the register so much, when it actually sounds a little darker than the main melody instrument (to me at least).

FWIW I agree with this point, I think the thicker texture from keeping the two parts at a similar height is more reflective of the original. That said I do understand your reasoning, and I'm fine with this part staying as currently written.

Thanks, though I tried it again and I think keeping them in the register makes them less audibly distinct - I prefer the clear distinction the separation they have now provides.

Unrelated, I also added slurs in the lower RH layer in m. 22 and 26.

Thank you for checking! I've updated the tiles~

[XiaoMigros]

Best I can come up with right now a bit unconventional, but how about unbeaming each beat so they're more visually distinct, instead of using slurs over each beat, since the slurs seem more troublesome than they're worth?

I think this method works well, it has a similar effect as the slurs but without their visual clutter! A little unconvenctional but that's okay

I approve

[Libera]

Accepted.

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Libera.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot