Music Brings Us Together

             For unknown reasons, I've been listening to a lot of sad instrumental music lately. Mostly I stick to the classics, like Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, but occasionally some surprising artists pop into my queue.

Zanarkand – Nobuo Uematsu

             I don’t know how many times I turned on Final Fantasy X and just let the startup video play through before playing the game. It always surprises me when video game composers can reach out to me in a way typical modern music(read as “shitty pop”) can’t even imagine to aspire to. After playing through the game, this piece became even more heart-wrenching.

Yin no Piano – Yoko Kanno

               This piece also has a strange source. I was watching Darker Than Black(please don’t judge me!) and this song was out of place for the show. It brought depth to an otherwise bland character, which I’m sure was the point, but still unexpected. I was much less taken aback when I realized the composer also did the score for many other shows, including Cowboy Bebop. I don’t think we take time to appreciate movie/TV scores nearly as much as we should.

Lady Grinning Soul – Lucia Micarelli

                It’s hard to imagine glam-rock moving anyone to pieces. Lucia Micarelli somehow manages to give me goosebumps every time I hear her rendition of this David Bowie classic. She borrows cues from new age ambient tones and neatly layers on a cautious violin. I could quite possibly listen to this song on repeat for hours on end.

River Flows in You – Lindsey Stirling

                This is another surprising song to me. The first time I heard of Lindsey Stirling was through Facebook. She did a Zelda Medley and throughout the entire video she was prancing around in a green tunic. She was talented, but I couldn’t possibly take her seriously. Even though she only performed this song by viewer request, it has changed my opinions about her.

Nothing Else Matters – David Garrett

                This song is beautiful in its original form, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it takes a tone of grandeur as an instrumental piece. It stays true to its ballad theme, but adds some lament and maybe a sense of foreboding. At least that’s how it feels to me.