A head-and-shoulders illustration of Victor. He is smiling and has medium-toned skin, dark brown hair down to the nape of his neck, and an orange shirt.

an arrangement i worked on for video game orchestra! by Victor D. '27

I used to play a lot of Pokemon on my DS back when I was a kid. When I got to MIT and found out there’s a whole (Video Game) Orchestra for not only playing but also arranging video game music I was rapt: I had to join, especially since I needed an outlet to continue playing music (I was in band and orchestra in high school).

This past summer, I worked on a chamber group arrangement I wrote for Video Game Orchestra! Video Game Orchestra is a completely student-run ensemble of around 60 members. All music we play in VGO is arranged by members of the ensemble! We’re a bit of an eclectic group (in many ways) but especially in our instrumentation: we have a drum set (not typical of traditional orchestras but common enough in video game music), saxophones, euphonium, and guitarists. I really enjoy this though, and for my full group arrangements, I try to leverage all these instruments for unique orchestral textures.

For now though, I’ll focus on one of the small groups we’ll be performing at our fall semester concert in December, an octet featuring oboe, celesta, piano, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. Specifically, it’s an arrangement of Floaroma town from Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum, one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. Considering I’ve been drowning in a wave of nostalgia lately, with my recent move back to MIT after spending a summer in home state of California (and also coming to terms that this will be my last year as an undergrad…), this song is very fitting.

How does one go about arranging something like this? Well, for me I first listen to the song obsessively then transcribe it. Even before I have a more-or-less faithful transcription though, I already have a decent idea of how I want to reshape the piece, usually starting with instrumentation extensions or substitutions (I substituted the main melody instrument for an oboe from what I interpret as a clarinet in the original, celesta, cello/bass, or piano variously for harp, and oboe for pizzicato violin for instance).

I also have my stylistic influences… Been in a rather romantic, sentimental mood. And way too obsessed with Czech Romantic music (Janacek and Dvorak beloveds). So for this arrangement, I was inspired by Dvorak, particularly the 8 Humoresques and Ohlas pisni (Echo of Songs)—the latter determined my choice to feature viola prominently and have it introduce the main melody. Dvorak’s Nocturne was also the primary inspiration for the muted string texture at the beginning and end of the piece: slow, somber sailing punctuated by the double bass’ pizzicato an octave below the bowed cello. Finally, I was thinking of Janacek’s Idyll when developing the ostinatto patterns when the main theme reoccurs the second time.

You can listen to a mock-up of the arrangement here [I’ll replace this with a link to the performance which will be in December :3]:

It should be ready to play! question mark? Though considering the key though… it may benefit from being transposed a half step up or down. We will see at our first rehearsal (which i will go schedule expeditiously rn 😹)