Symphonic Fantasy on 8 Themes from Final Fantasy VI - Scherzo

I finally present to you a movement from my big variations project that I've had brewing since early 2024!  Emboldened by the success of my "Deck the Halls" Variations I sought out more popular themes that I could write variations on.  Originally I only intended to write variations on the Returner's March, but it soon grew out of all proportion when I started noticing all the little motivic relations between different themes so I had to include more.  This is meant as a hybrid variations fantasy, medley, and mash-up of the themes that you can listen to here:

The original themes were written by the great Nobuo Uematsu so my variations retain a certain Japanese flavor.  In fact the first half of this Scherzo is subtitled "Asiatic".  The Scherzo proper doesn't start until 6:01.  I welcome any of your suggestions, critiques, comments or just observations.  Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy!

P.S.:  I'd like to thank my friends @chopin, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Thatguy v2.0 and @gaspard for their time, advice, and support throughout the composition process!

I loved every bit of this! And you know, I couldn't place it before but the first half of this piece I get A Link To The Past vibes. Not so much the intro (which is awesome), but once we get to 1:18 or so. Then the second half of the piece sounds more like FF territory. Overall I like how you keep this pretty much in key, but at the same time are able to keep it harmonically interesting. You also seamlessly merged these variations into one big movement, despite their different mood changes. The biggest mood changes to my ears seemed to happen towards the later sections (and of course when you change it up to the Scherzo).

But another notable change was around 10:30, which sounds like a waltz to me. This is a very cool section! I also feel like you ended with a romantic flair, which to me, is another big mood shift!