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!

Symphonic Fantasy... is there a way to add "final" to that somehow? Or would that be cheesy lol

Wow, I love this so much. It really felt like a story was being told. Not necessarily the story of the game, but one you wrote with all it's themes. There just seemed to be great care in when and how variations were played out.

I'm no orchestrator, but your orchestration seemed spot on and colorful, full of craftsmanship and creativity. I really liked the section of just winds, or the moments of trem strings. 

Even though you have cadences and breaks in the music, it never felt like it was dragging or boring. Your writing really had a sense of blurriness with collage-type textures when you wanted it too, and then was bold and clear during other times. I just love the diversity with instrumentation, dynamics, range, color, you name it (maybe techniques too?). 

The bass guitar and synth were really cool additions, and helps set your music apart in it's style and persona. 

I'm not sure about all the themes, but one thing I thought about was that the themes weren't always introduced in a stately way. Wasn't a big deal, but for instance with as much motivic exploration you did with Terra's theme, I kept waiting for it to be played with the 3rd 16th note in that motif to be played on beat 1. You had such a good lead up for it, but maybe that's just a style-choice-difference we have. Your path gave it more of a fantasy vibe, which I guess is fitting for a Final Fantasy piece, eh? 😛 

I didn't see it, but it would be cool if you referenced all the rehearsal marks to we could see what you were going for too! I'm to know how you organized 8 themes into a cohesive quagmire woven so well. 

Awesome music! I loved the build up to the Kefka moment at the end. I think it's always wise to save one of the coolest moments for the end; it makes me want to listen to the whole piece with a relisten just to get to that part again. 

Well done Peter, this was great! Are there more movements for the future? I think it stands alone, but you probably have so many options with variations you could keep going haha

9 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I'm not sure about all the themes, but one thing I thought about was that the themes weren't always introduced in a stately way. Wasn't a big deal, but for instance with as much motivic exploration you did with Terra's theme, I kept waiting for it to be played with the 3rd 16th note in that motif to be played on beat 1.

Hey Vince.  Thanks for your review!  I actually do have Terra's Theme stated that way in the solo string quartet section of the piece here:

 The 1st Violin and Cello have Terra's Theme in a form that's closest to its original form here.

13 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Symphonic Fantasy... is there a way to add "final" to that somehow? Or would that be cheesy lol

Yeah LoL .. well, it would be a misnomer no?  If I persist with this project then this won't be "final" at all!  Haha

14 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I didn't see it, but it would be cool if you referenced all the rehearsal marks to we could see what you were going for too! I'm to know how you organized 8 themes into a cohesive quagmire woven so well.

LoL I never thought somebody would call it a "quagmire".  The rehearsal marks are a headache even for me.  I have a Google sheet with a catalogue of all the variations and their meter, tempo, themes used, and page number in my notebooks (as you've seen I think).  Those technical details aren't really useful for anyone except me if I ever plan on continuing other movements or in case I still want to use unused or unrealized variations in the piece.

17 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Awesome music! I loved the build up to the Kefka moment at the end. I think it's always wise to save one of the coolest moments for the end; it makes me want to listen to the whole piece with a relisten just to get to that part again.

Thanks!  Saving Kefka's theme for the end was a happy accident actually, and it's a modified version of a 4/4 variation that didn't work quite as well and was going to get cut anyway.

19 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Well done Peter, this was great! Are there more movements for the future? I think it stands alone, but you probably have so many options with variations you could keep going haha

I hope so!  As I said, there are so many unused and unrealized variations still in my notebooks - it would be a shame if I didn't utilize them in another movement.  Thanks for your kind words!

Man the woodwinds writing on this is insane, heck I think the woodwinds are the spotlight of this movement (and the horns too). You've managed to really use all of the family's characteristics to their fullest. Love the canon woodwinds-only section on b.42 for contrast, followed immediately by another color contrast on b.58 by the string quartet and the horn for pedal tones.

It's really dense with the variety of themes playing counter-points with each other. The harmonies are so colorful, also really like the transitions between the variations.

Random things I've noticed: brass fanfare interruptions on b.228 are from the beginning (b.17), the upward fourths figure from the cellos on b.72 gets a lot of variations after this as foreground (starting b.89), middleground (tremolo strings from b.101), background (b.97), and cadence (b.86 violins, b.126-127 clarinets and oboes, b.135 strings, b.142-145 strings), figure from b.81 by string and oboes gets variated on b.166 (love this section) and b.258, the arpeggiated power chord figure on the harp gets used a lot until the end.  

Overall, I really like it. Thanks for recommending me your piece! This really motivates and inspires me to continue my own symphonic variation.