Game Arrangements Available for Band & Orchestra

March 17, 2006, 11:35 pm EST
Total comments: 15

Now school musical departments can buy and perform game music.

Award-Winning Video Game Music Now Available for Concert Band, Marching Band and Orchestra

Los Angeles, CA – March 17, 2006

Alfred, the leader in educational music publishing, and Video Games Live™, the first major U.S. video game concert tour, have teamed up to bring the music from award-winning video games to music education programs all over the world. Now band and orchestra educators will be able to purchase concert band, marching band, and orchestra arrangements of the soundtracks to top video games, some of which are also performed by live orchestras during the Video Game Live concert tour.

“Alfred is always looking for new ways to inspire kids to experience the joy of making music, and the music coming out of the video game industry is amazing," said Andrew Surmani, Vice President of Marketing and Managing Director, School & Church Publishing. “We look for music that is not only beautifully written, but will appeal to students and music educators alike."

Alfred teamed up with the creators of Video Game Live, famed composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, to secure licensing agreements from major game publishers. “This is a great step forward in our goal to bring the popular music from games to our young fans. Video Games Live is a concert experience for the entire family and for video game fans everywhere. We want to give kids the opportunity to play their favorite music from our show for their friends and family," said Wall.

The 2006 Video Games Live concert season debuts at the Civic Auditorium in San Jose on Friday, March 24th as the closing event of the Game Developer’s Conference where all the top game designers and composers will be in attendance. For tickets, please visit www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information about Alfred’s release of game music for music education programs, visit alfred.com.

For more information about the Video Game Live concerts and tour schedule, visit videogameslive.com.

Talkback

TMWMarch 17, 2006

Man, this would have rocked so hard back when I was in the High School Band.

As it was, we just did experimental artsy pieces and rock anthems from the 60's.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorMarch 17, 2006

Yeah, same here.

Guitar SmasherMarch 17, 2006

Had I taken music in grade 12, I would've totally transposed some video game music for the band.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorMarch 17, 2006

...you mean transcribe? I doubt you mean change the key of the music.

Infernal MonkeyMarch 18, 2006

I'd transport it!

RobageejamminMarch 18, 2006

This is so great, I would have totally pushed my school chorus to do this in Highschool. There are so many opportunities for gamers nowadays. Now theres saturday classes for kids in middle/highschool that teach them to make games. I teach one, its nuts. By the time they get out of school theyll be so frickin advanced, its scary.

DarkheartMarch 18, 2006

My lil brother ended up doin Mario Bros for marching band, the school we went to is kind of lame so it sucked but still the fact that they played it was cool. Some music programs are getting with the times, I know we did Star Wars Episode I and Harry Potter one year. Getting music that the people in the band and orchestra want to play and music the audience WANTS to hear is a good step in improving your music program, but I know you still gotta learn the classics.

StrellMarch 18, 2006

Dada dada dada ....

Dada dada dada ....

Duda duda duda...

Duda duda duda...

And then the horns come in!

BA-DADALA DA DA da da DA da DA da DADA da da!

Karl Castaneda #2March 18, 2006

Heh, it's been a few years since I've rocked my sax, but if I were still in band, I totally would've brought in some gaming tunes. I can only hope some brave orchestra teacher out there sees Chrono Cross...

IceColdMarch 18, 2006

Hockey Night in Canada

StebenMarch 18, 2006

This is cool. Coincidentally, I've actually almost completed my arrangement of Katamari on the Rocks for my university's marching band.

Where can people purchase these arrangements, though? I can't find anything about it on their site.

RennyMarch 18, 2006

It's about damn time... Katamari got the marching love. You get mad props for that. The hell with Tommy Talli-suck-o. I'd rather play swing music (and did we ever in high school--lamest band music fad if there ever was one).

Karl Castaneda #2March 18, 2006

Heh, swing music. I remember my solo evaluation one time was this Level-4 swing song. The pianist was always a little bit above tempo, and it really threw me off. Safe to say I didn't get a Superior that year.

MysticGohanMarch 18, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: ViewtifulGamer
Heh, it's been a few years since I've rocked my sax, but if I were still in band, I totally would've brought in some gaming tunes. I can only hope some brave orchestra teacher out there sees Chrono Cross...

Pfft Forget Chrono Cross, It's Chrono Trigger baby! yeah!

EasyCureMarch 19, 2006

this news rocks, too bad where im from almost every schools music program is cut. that never stopped me from jamming out to those oldey NES tunes. actually my favorite song to play on acoustic is the Gerudo Theme from OoT. gotta love that latin sound on nylon strings ;-)

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