Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Dark Souls) on two pianos

Update (5/25/2015)
Sheets have been transcribed by VirtualHarmonies and can be downloaded from the infobox of this video:
   • Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Verdegrand arra...  

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This is "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" from Dark Souls. The game was made by From Software, the music composed by Motoi Sakuraba, arranged and performed by myself. In the first half, I try to play the original track while attempting to be as close to the original as possible. In the second half, I then make some changes and additions.

So here is my first ever piano self-duet. I never thought that I would actually do something like this, but when a few people showed me this piece a couple of months back, I was immediately immersed by it. Several things quickly made it one of my favorite VGM compositions. The original track that you hear in the game is a piano duet to begin with, and it's a real recording. Its sound is breathtaking and it took me a while to realize just what made it so special: It must have been performed on a grand that has an expanded range. I realized that only when I tried to actually arrange and play this piece, as I couldn't play some notes because the normal pianos I was playing on were missing those keys -- playing the nearest, different notes just didn't create the same sound, and the only alternative would have been to insert them via midi manipulation into a digital recording, but I wanted to avoid that if possible. As far as I know, only a handful of piano models exist that have additional keys below the normal ones. So I asked around and was ultimately given the opportunity to record on a Boesendorfer grand piano which has the expanded range that I needed. I am very grateful for this and I sincerely thank the people who made this possible.

Another thing that intrigued me is that this piece is actually a final boss battle music. I was very surprised when I found that out. Rarely have I heard a track like this being used in such a way, the atmosphere it creates is unique. This is a great example of music being used to convey a message that couldn't have been put into words or conveyed in any other way, and it makes for a very special moment for the player when he reaches the end of the game.

Rarely has a piece moved me like this, and rarely have I spent as much time arranging and trying to do recording attempts for a single video. I also had to make a lot of changes to my first arrangements after I thought that I was finished, as soon as I realized the two parts didn't work together as I had hoped. Having to design two parts that work together was a new experience for me, and in the end, I feel that it was really worth it and that it gave me a lot.

Fan artwork of "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" by Anderson, thanks for allowing me to use it:
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