Final Fantasy VII on Piano - One-Winged Angel
EDIT: Much better quality rerecording at • One-Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII on Piano . There is also now sheet music!
Nobuo Uematsu's One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, arranged for piano by me. This arrangement is based on the orchestral version of One-Winged Angel that appears on the Advent Children soundtrack. It was learned by ear, so there are some harmonic discrepancies. Also, I apologize for the horrible video quality. I'm working on getting a better camera.
Musician's Analysis: One-Winged Angel, appearing as the final boss' theme in Final Fantasy VII, is much-loved among video game music, and it's not hard to see why. It's exciting, bombastic, and dissonant, not to mention it has a full, four-part choral melody.
The piece is distinctly bipolar in structure: it's introduction has a heavy, plodding 2-beat which is supplemented by various dissonant motifs in all different registers. When the choral melody appears (a minute and a half later!) the tempo picks up and is felt in 4, and the harmonies become much less dissonant. The style of the introduction (which the piece is perhaps most known for) never reappears. This split might be seen as an example of disjointed composition, but it certainly adds interest for the performer. Is it shoddy writing or musical genius? You decide for yourself.