arrangers:
- link: artist/11912
  names:
    en: Bradsmith
catalog: N/A
categories:
- Game-adjacent
category: Game-adjacent
classification: Arrangement
composers:
- link: artist/15792
  names:
    en: Alexander Scriabin
- link: artist/3070
  names:
    en: Claude Debussy
- link: artist/7460
  names:
    en: Johannes Brahms
- link: artist/1718
  names:
    en: Johann Sebastian Bach
- link: artist/28286
  names:
    en: Arnold Schönberg
covers: []
discs:
- disc_length: '72:02'
  name: Disc 1
  tracks:
  - names:
      English: Sonata No. 5
    track_length: '9:00'
  - names:
      English: Prélude
    track_length: '3:03'
  - names:
      English: Menuet
    track_length: '3:08'
  - names:
      English: Clair de Lune
    track_length: '3:26'
  - names:
      English: Passepied
    track_length: '3:33'
  - names:
      English: Intermezzo (A minor) Op. 76 No. 7
    track_length: '2:50'
  - names:
      English: Prelude XVI (G minor) WTC-I
    track_length: '1:09'
  - names:
      English: Fugue XVI (G minor) WTC-I
    track_length: '2:55'
  - names:
      English: Intermezzo (E minor) Op. 119 No. 2
    track_length: '5:10'
  - names:
      English: String Quartet No. 1 (1/2)
    track_length: '22:47'
  - names:
      English: String Quartet No. 1 (2/2)
    track_length: '15:01'
link: album/30058
lyricists: []
media_format: Digital
meta:
  added_date: 2011-11-17T11:24
  edited_date: 2011-11-17T11:29
  fetched_date: 2026-01-05T10:44
  ttl: 86400
  visitors: 2639
name: Classic Chips
names:
  en: Classic Chips
  ja: Classic Chips
  ja-latn: Classic Chips
notes: 'Classic Chips is a collection of some of my favourite classical music, performed
  on a Nintendo Entertainment System and related chipsets. I am attracted to chiptunes
  because of the limitations involved, trying to fit the expression needed into a
  very small number of simple sounds. This challenge is fun and exciting to me, and
  I find it can lead to very unique and interesting solutions. There are already many
  wonderful recordings of these pieces played on their intended instruments, and I
  relish the opportunity to present them in a different way.

  My selection includes mostly music of the very late Romantic period. The Bach pieces
  are a huge outlier in that respect, though I hope they will not feel too out of
  place here. Most of this was originally written for piano, as well; this bias is
  partly because I thought it was of a complexity well suited to reorchestration on
  the very limited NES sound palette, but also because a lot of my own experience
  lies with the piano.

  This album would not have been possible without the wonderful program FamiTracker,
  written by jsr. It is the primary tool which I used to build these arrangements.

  Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

  Piano Sonata No. 5 Op. 53 (1907)

  "I summon you to life, secret longings! You, drowning in the dark depths of the
  creative spirit, you trembling embryos of life, it is to you that I bring courage."

  Scriabin placed this excerpt from his Poem of Ecstasy as an epigraph at the beginning
  of the score for his fifth piano sonata.

  The writing of this work actually seems to have begun in 1903 with his Sonata No.
  4, to which it is strongly linked by many shared musical ideas. In the fifth sonata
  these ideas have returned expanded and much enriched, but most importantly he has
  unshackled them from traditional tonal harmony. In the years that followed, Scriabin''s
  system of harmony would become more focused and refined toward a very unique "mystical"
  sonority, but this sonata marks the tipping point where the romantic harmony he''d
  worked to its limit finally spills over into a new cast, and unlike his later work
  it still retains characteristics from both sides in a rich mixture. That this development
  would prompt a return to the material of the fourth sonata I think indicates that
  he felt confined by tonality when writing it. Perhaps these ideas were the drowning
  embryos which he had to set free, and with a new courage they grew into this wild
  and vibrant fifth sonata.

  This piece has for a long time been my favourite work for piano. However, it was
  written by a true master pianist, and the breakneck pace required of its presto
  sections has been beyond my technical ability as a pianist so far. By sidestepping
  this requirement with computer control I''ve finally been able to create my own
  performance of it.

  Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

  Suite Bergamesque (1905)

  - Prélude

  - Menuet

  - Clair de Lune

  - Passepied

  The Suite Bergamesque, and especially Clair de Lune, is among the most well loved
  in the piano repertoire. Debussy wrote much of it in 1890, but it underwent significant
  revisions before it was published in 1905. Clair de Lune takes its name from a Paul
  Verlaine poem of the same name. The name Bergamesque also comes from this poem,
  referring to a clumsy dance associated with Bergamo.

  The Passepied was the first piece I did for this album. Nobuo Uematsu''s Battle
  Scene from Final Fantasy had reminded me of it, and that inspired me to arrange
  it this way. Once that was finished I decided I needed a whole album of it. My version
  of Clair de Lune seems to take place by an 8-bit seaside; perhaps it is not in Bergamo
  after all?

  Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

  Intermezzos

  - Intermezzo (A minor) Op. 76 No. 7 (1878)

  - Intermezzo (E minor) Op. 119 No. 2 (1891)

  Brahms composed a number of pieces with the title "Intermezzo". Usually they would
  appear in a collection of other short pieces for the piano, but for this album I
  have taken the title literally, and am using them as intermissions between other
  tracks on the album. For this purpose I have tried to keep their arrangments simple.

  As a student these two pieces became my favourite of the intermezzos. The A minor
  helped me through a mental block in my own compositional technique. The E minor
  I like for how it carries a single theme through a great range of character, from
  the nervous introduction, to heavy alternating chords, to a lyrical lullaby.

  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

  The Well-Tempered Clavier I (1722)

  - Prelude XVI (G minor) BWV 861

  - Fugue XVI (G minor) BWV 861

  The Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of 24 prelude and fugue pairs, one in
  every major and minor key. This was made possible by recent developments in tuning
  systems (known as well temperament). I use equal temperament here, as it would not
  be very meaningful to apply an uneven tuning system without arranging the entire
  book to show the difference between all the keys. Additionally, the limitations
  of the NES make fine tuning distinctions impossible, especially in the higher registers.
  As well, a tuning system may have been the inspiration for their creation, but it
  is not what has made them memorable. The preludes are known for their variety of
  character and individual charm. The fugues have become the canonical demonstration
  of contrapuntal technique.

  Though commonly played on a piano today, these pieces predate the modern piano and
  were intended for contemporary instruments like the harpsichord or organ. Because
  these instruments do not distinguish how loud or soft you press the keys, the expression
  in this music comes chiefly from its counterpoint. For this reason, and unlike the
  Romantic period music on this album, it is actually quite robust when played on
  very flat-toned instruments like simple synthesizers. I believe this is why Bach''s
  music turns up so frequently in older video games.

  The G minor prelude and fugue have been my favourite from the WTC, since I was first
  introduced to them by my high school music teacher. This arrangement for VRC6 is
  based loosely on an orchestral transcription I wrote several years ago.

  Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)

  String Quartet No. 1 Op. 7 (1905)

  Arnold Schönberg is most widely known for his development of atonal compositional
  techniques, and the controversy surrounding it. Schönberg happens to be my favourite
  composer, and though I appreciate his atonal music very well, the work of his I
  love most is this string quartet, which belongs to an earlier period before he,
  like Scriabin, found a need to escape from tonality.

  This piece begins in a very deep, dark place, opening with a very dramatic theme
  that almost immediately begins to dissolve into extremely dense counterpoint. On
  my first hearing, I found it hard to believe that it was written for only four instruments.
  When Schönberg showed the score to Gustav Mahler, the older composer had to say:

  "I have conducted the most difficult scores of Wagner; I have written complicated
  music myself in scores of up to thirty staves and more; yet here is a score of not
  more than four staves, and I am unable to read them." [1]

  This piece remains dark for quite some time. It is a bubbling froth of themes and
  motives, continually evolving and recycling. It doesn''t really emerge from this
  until about 11:30, where one of the themes that has been trying to rise to the surface
  suddenly comes out in full chorale harmony. This moment of clarity is only fleeting,
  like everything in this work, but for me it is the turning point where I begin to
  find my way. It is easy to get lost in this one, and there is almost nowhere to
  rest. It is written as a single continuous movement, containing only one real pause
  a little past halfway, where I have split it into two tracks.

  This recording is performed with the four square waves of the MMC5 expansion chip,
  which I suppose makes it a "square quartet".'
organizations:
- &id001
  names:
    en: iTunes
  role: publisher
performers: []
picture_full: https://media.vgm.io/albums/85/30058/30058-63d7481a46bf.png
picture_small: https://medium-media.vgm.io/albums/85/30058/30058-63d7481a46bf.png
picture_thumb: https://thumb-media.vgm.io/albums/85/30058/30058-63d7481a46bf.png
publish_format: Doujin/Indie
publisher: *id001
related: []
release_date: '2011-11-12'
release_events: []
release_price:
  currency: USD
  price: 9.99
reprints: []
stores:
- link: http://rainwarrior.bandcamp.com/album/classic-chips
  name: Bandcamp
- link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bradsmith23
  name: CD Baby (OOP)
- link: http://music.apple.com/us/album/480889322
  name: iTunes
vgmdb_link: https://vgmdb.net/album/30058?perpage=99999
votes: 0
websites:
  Official:
  - link: https://rainwarrior.ca/music/classic_chips.html
    name: Classic Chips
