Pokémon DPPt: The Underground / Captured a Flag! Jazz Arrangement
9,393Something pinged in the wall!
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This was one of the most interesting side modes in any game I played as a kid! Seriously, the Sinnoh Underground deserves so much praise. Digging up treasures in a strategy mini-game, decorating secret bases, and growing spheres underground made for such a fun singleplayer side mode to the main game. Capturing flags and setting traps for other people gave the side mode an even more enjoyable multiplayer functionality! I have this distinct memory of going to a shopping mall with my mom when I was a kid, and playing Pokémon Diamond on my DS. I saw some kids on their DS playing in the Sinnoh Underground... so I turned on mine, went to the Underground, and stole their flags without having the other kids know I was near them in person! So many great memories of this place haha, it is by far my favorite side mode / feature in any Pokémon game (beats Pokémon Amie and Pokémon camps by a landslide!)
Such a fun, unique area also has fun, unique music to fit it! This track is a fun adventurous march, sort of like a Route theme you might hear in Hoenn, and it does in fact directly reference Hoenn music! If you listen to the flute / clarinet part at 1:03 in this arrangement, the riff they're playing is directly lifted from Route 111 in Hoenn, which is a desert route! I find this link so fascinating, especially since Go Ichinose composed both the Route 111 music in Hoenn, and the Sinnoh Underground theme! The reference ties the who places together thematically as dusty / rocky places for the player to explore. It's super cool.
This particular arrangement was originally done for a big band concert I put on back in March, but was unfortunately not recorded with the live band due to the pandemic! I decided to take the arrangement and re-score it for an extended woodwind section: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 5 saxes, and rhythm section. It turned out super well, sort of a hybrid between a big band and a wind ensemble arrangement. Fun fact, I actually wanted to be a wind ensemble composer in middle school, and even wrote a piece for my middle school's wind ensemble... then I got into jazz in high school and veered from that path, haha. I was really into composers like Steven Reineke and Robert W. Smith at the time, since I liked the pieces by them that our band played. These days I listen to a little bit of wind band music - big John Mackey fan! Having the clarinet really helps bridge the saxes and flute section together into a more cohesive "wind ensemble"-ish sound. Was also fun to use bass clarinet and bari sax together in the same arrangement :) Oh, and this is my first clarinet solo on the channel! Learning clarinet has been so great. It was my first woodwind - I played it in middle school and elementary school, but switched to sax at some point during middle school. Took a bit of getting used to the proper clarinet embouchure, but I'm very happy to have this sound in my repertoire now!
Since the Underground is such a fun place, I knew I had to have some fun with my arrangement, moreso than usual, and that's exactly what I did with the section starting at around 3:06! I thought it would be fun to do something musically that represented the various traps you can encounter in the Underground... so I did. It turned out SO WELL. I don't think I really need to explain what I did to get the effects, haha, just watch the video, you'll get it. It was a lot of fun to incorporate sprites from the game into the video to hopefully make the weird sections a bit more clear with some context :) Lastly, the Capture the Flag section.... oh gosh this is one of the fastest and most fun things I've written for myself yet, haha. Lots of chromaticism in the saxes because that's always fun, and a sqwacky two part melody on the clarinets worked out nicely! Throw in an obligatory shave and a haircut ending, and you've got yourself a piece of jazz slapstick comedy! Hope you guys enjoy this one!
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