Japanese Anime

First off, I know nothing about Japanese anime other than it is a film genre. Why would I even bring it up? Well...

I received a research request from my daughter today. She has been listening to "Sad Piano" music on YouTube. There are a number of pieces that are posted by a person who puts the music to mood pictures. Anyway, she wanted me to find the sheet music to some of these pieces so she could play them. Sure, I'm up for a challenge.

I had no idea these pieces were from Japanese anime movies or games until I started my search. There is a whole world of anime fans out there! To find these pieces, I went to the YouTube pieces she was wanting to get a little more information. Fortunately the person posting the pieces gave the name of the piece and the movie or game from which it came. The difficulty for the first piece I looked for was that the title was in Japanese (written with English characters, thankfully). Truthfully, the way I found the first piece was by just reading the comments posted by other people who like the piece and wanted the sheet music as well. Sometimes someone will post where you can download the sheet music.

I found three really good websites that either have anime sheet music or links to external sites that also have it. They are Ichigo's Sheet Music, Josh's Anime Sheet Music and The Midi Shrine. I know there are many other sites if you just Google "Japanese anime sheet music". Some of the sites I linked above have linked to other anime music sites as well.

Enjoy this piece that Sarah will learn. It is called "Kiseki" from Gundam SEED Destiny.



This is one of the reasons why I love being a librarian. You can be researching philosophy or theology one day and Japanese anime music the next!

Music Anyone?

In 1984, I took a music appreciation class at UCLA. I don't remember the composer I studied for that class. I'd have to look it up. But the important part of this story is that I could get extra credit if I went to see a little movie called "Amadeus" and turned in my movie stub to the professor. Seeing a movie was not hard to do, living in Westwood. So, I went to see it. It was one of the most profound musical experiences of my life. I immediately bought the soundtrack. It is now on my iPod. Twenty-five years later, I never tire of it.

The most memorable scene in the movie for me is when Salieri, who is in an insane asylum, describes a particular piece of Mozart's music. He describes it so beautifully and in such vivid language. I figured it wouldn't be hard to find that part of the movie on YouTube, and I was right.




I eventually found the score for this part of the work, having worked at the UCLA Music Library. But over the years, the copy of those pages of the score have disappeared. Could I find the score again? Online, for free?

First, I had to get the title and number. Specifically, it is Serenade for Winds in B-flat, K. 361 3rd movement (Adagio). I found the name of the piece on Amazon by searching for the soundtrack. I got the specific movement from Classical Archives.com.

I wanted to find the score for free. I looked at the free sheet music sites I know, but no luck. I finally Googled it and found Sheetmusicfox.com. I found the piece and downloaded it for free. The movement I was looking for starts on page 21.

Well, now, I have the score, but only a portion of the music. YouTube to the rescue. Follow along on the sheet music if you like.



All this for free. And a little Secret Agent knowledge.