BRIAN LAGUARDIA
Composer, Orchestrator, Arranger
Undertale at Indie Symphony
Arranging for professional musicians is truly intoxicating. Add to that a phenomonal lineup of video game music that delves far deeper than most game music concerts, and source material that is beautifully constructed, and you end up with a very happy arranger boi. This is precisely what occrued this past July in Australia, when the Orchestra Victoria performed their Indie Symphony II and recruited me to arrange a 15 minute sute from Undertale!
I had a blast with this assignment. Knowing they were pros that could handle pretty much anything I could throw at them, I went out of my way to feature every section of the ensmeble at one point or another. My favorite moment was when the Bassoon, off on its own lyrical, rubato little solo, morphs into the familiar Megalovania ostinato. I was so sure that would provoke a reaction, and I was right!
Another favorite moment was the horn solo in the very beginning. In this day and age, it’s easy to get a little too proud of how good I can get something like this to sound with samples. But there’s nothing like a true artist imbuing it with SUCH elegance and phrasing…the kind that a sample, no matter how well-programmed or advanced, can never capture. Nothing will ever beat a live professional…a body in a chair with an instrument and a soul.
But really, the star of the show was Megalovania. I knew this was probably the most beloved track of the game, for reasons that are extremely spoiler-y. Sufficed to say, I tried my best to make it the most spectacular bit!
They absolutely nailed this chart to the wall, but I highly encourage you to listen to the whole concert. There were things on it I hadn’t even heard of, and for me the stand-out stuff was the Untitled Goose Game Concerto for HONK! and some incredible choral stuff from Hades 2 and Abzu. A link to the full concert is below. Hurry up and listen, because I think it’s only up for a few weeks!