ReMix:MapleStory "Guns, Glory, Sad Ending" 3:30

Hey, you've got your K-MMO mixed in with my K-soap! TSori found inspiration from a Korean drama and paired it up with the ending theme from MapleStory for a thoughtful & intimate septet, co-arranged with Janne Sala in collaboration with five more talented performers:

• Arrangement, Flugelhorn: TSori
• Arrangement: Janne Sala
• Guitar: GuitarSVD
• Violin I: KestrelGirl
• Violin II: ViolinGamer
• Cello I, II: Chromatic Apparatus
• Double Bass: Andy-Ru

Thankfully, TSori remembered to send it on by, after originally concepting this for an r/gamemusic compo:

"I was going through some files and came across this ReMix again, and realized I forgot to submit it! It's been gathering dust on my hard drive for a little over a year now, but better late than never, right?

Back in September 2021, the theme of the monthly Pixel Mixers contest was MMORPG music. I don't really know MMORPGs well at all, but at the time, I was really wanting to do a lyrical flugelhorn solo with orchestral accompaniment. I thought MapleStory might be an unconventional choice for the contest, so I started listening through the soundtrack and, when I found "Promise of Heaven", I was floored by how beautiful it was. It had a wonderful vocal melody that I was sure would translate over to flugelhorn well... but it also already had this incredible orchestral accompaniment that I knew I was not going to top, even in my wildest dreams. So, I decided to go in a different direction.

I am a big fan of Camille Saint-Saëns' famed "Septet", so I thought it'd be fun to try an arrangement with the same instrumentation. Since the original tune uses piano very heavily though, I decided to make classical guitar the seventh instrument instead. I started writing out a series of ideas, but got stuck with some being incomplete and most of them being pretty disconnected. Thankfully, Janne Sala answered my call for help. They kept almost everything I had written intact, and did a great job filling in gaps in the arrangement, smoothing out my compositional shortcomings, reworking some of the transitions, and writing new ideas of their own. Janne helped out immensely on this track. Thanks so much for co-arranging! The end result is much nicer than anything I'd have put together on my own!

With the arrangement sorted, it came time to recruit some performers. GuitarSVD and Chromatic Apparatus are frequent collaborators, and, in fact, had just finished recording a track I wrote for my wedding a month earlier. As usual, they delivered stellar performances! ViolinGamer and KestrelGirl are also both exceptional musicians as well. We had tried to collaborate before, but our schedules never seemed to line up. It was well worth the wait to have them on this track though, as they both did a fantastic job. Andy has also been a great and recurring collaborator. There is something about having a good double bass that really brings a track to life. Performances make or break arrangements like this one, and I have been incredibly fortunate to have such talented musicians to work with. Special thanks to everyone who collaborated on this piece. You all did a fantastic job in a very short time!

"Promise of Heaven" really reminded me a lot Korean drama OSTs, so it was only natural that the title of this ReMix would come from a drama my wife and I had just watched. The female lead of Mr. Sunshine shows up to her first English lesson only knowing the words "guns, glory, sad ending", setting the theme for the rest of the show. Given the context of "Promise of Heaven" in the MapleStory "Black Heaven" storyline, it seemed an all too appropriate title for this ReMix. Hopefully we did it justice! Enjoy!"

We're always happy to have back catalog tracks submitted. If you're a musician sitting on something from the past, submit it, we wanna feature 'em all! It certainly didn't bother judge MindWanderer, who was two thumbs up on the richness of the live performances:

"I'm not normally the biggest fan of brass leads, but the playing here is beautifully done. Very expressive, and good production that really shows off the rich timbre of the instrument. The rest of the performances are all excellent [...], and really show the value of having live performers. It's hard for instrumentalists to capture emotion as well as a vocalist, but I think you've succeeded here. Everything just works. Nice job!"

Loved the shift into the guitar as lead at 1:24, with serene violin backing. When the flugelhorn came back in at 1:55, I'm glad Logan went for more melodic interpretation; it could have easily just retread the same performance dynamics as before and came off disinteresting, so it was nice to hear the arrangement continue to develop rather than rest on its laurels. Awesome ornamentation provided by the string plucks toward at 3:10 the finish. This was a presentation that had no trouble earning judge Emunator's seal of approval:

"This is a super easy vote. It's absolutely stunning in terms of performance, harmonies, and instrumentation, and the mixing is fantastic as well. [...] I fully agree with the accolades and think this is one of your most successful arrangements to date, Logan! Bravo!"

My wife loves K-soaps (we're in the middle of Destined with You right now!), so I can say without hesitation that MapleStory's ending theme indeed sounds like a song for the romantic moments of a Korean drama. You wouldn't necessarily expect a tender mood to be set with brass, yet -- complimented by amazing string work by GuitarSVD, KestrelGirl, ViolinGamer, Chromatic Apparatus, Andy-Ru -- here we are. :-) Lovely performances, y'all! If you're ready to fall in love again, this is the one for you.