I didn’t care much for the concert before I went in, I love Joe Hisaishi's music, but thought the concert would just be a recap of his film music. Nothing exciting. Plus, HKPO’s only rehearsed with him for two days.The Princess Mononoke piece came up, and never before have I realized how amazing the percussion parts were. Xylophones (I think they were xylophones :p) can be used that way? Xylophones can inspire fear like that?
Sitting there with all my attention focused only on the music gave it a second life outside of the film.
That’s the thing with music made for films (or animes in this case). When the film is good, the two build on each other, the film often overshadowing the music. When the film is forgettable (like that crap film A Chinese Tall Story Hisaishi composed for), the music will need to be on err… say Stravinsky’s level to give it a life of its own.
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It’s his last piece. Just two notes into the piece, people all around me visibly stirred. There was a lot of commotions before they suppressed themselves again, there were whispers, ‘This is so beautiful.’
The piece is My neighbour Totoro.
When the piece ended, people showered Hisaishi with screams and applause and gave him a standing ovation.
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Is it the film that gives the music its power, or the music that lends its power to the film?It really doesn’t matter anymore, when just one song (/piece) has the power to evoke a whole generation’s collective memory.
