On March 30, a small crowd gathered at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville. At 3:00 pm, the lights dimmed and the sound of a string quartet could be heard warming up from behind a black curtain. Then the President of the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, Michael Hood, came out and announced the theme of the concert: Mystic World, a collection of string quartet arrangements of music from video games such as: Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, and Legend of Zelda. The quartet emerged to applause and began to play their pieces, announcing each set of pieces from the stage as they played them. The quartet included Francesca Bass on Violin 1, Hannah Sorrells-Tyler on Violin 2, Tony Parce on Viola, and Andrew Dunn on Cello. Dunn was also the arranger for most of the pieces.

The concert started with an arrangement of the main theme from Chrono Trigger, perfectly setting the mood for the rest of the concert, a heroic and majestic arrangement that captures the feeling of a full orchestra. Following that was a performance of “Still of the Night” from Secret of Mana. It was a piece driven by a lyrical violin solo with the rest of the instruments accompanying it with a slow pulse.

The group then played a few pieces from the game Final Fantasy “To Zanarkand” and a medley of several character themes from Final Fantasy 7. The piece started with a graceful melody in the violin before transitioning to a menacing cello ostinato with dissonant harmonies and building to a faced paced climax before transitioning back to a mournful theme over a droning cello and ending with a beautiful chorale texture. These were some of the pieces the crowd was most receptive to as Final Fantasy seemed to have the biggest fan base in the audience. Following that, they played an arrangement of the Intro and Main Title to Pokemon Red and Blue which managed to invoke the feeling of a baroque dance. After returning from a break, the group returned and played an arrangement of the Main Theme to Octopath Traveler 2, a piece the cellist Andrew Dunn had originally played on for the game’s original soundtrack. Following this, a medley of several themes from Fire Emblem was performed. It featured pizzicato strings juxtaposed against sonorous melodies in the violins and fast paced repetitive melodies that built to a huge, grandiose sound before giving way to violin melodies floating over a cello drone.

Finally, a suite of pieces from the Legend of Zelda was performed. Before they started the suite, the violist, Tony Parce, stood up and complemented Andrew Dunn on his arranging skills and commented on how he managed to transform much of the music in the last suite into something that sounds like Debussy. The first piece they played in the suite was the main theme to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The next piece was a standout of the concert. It was an arrangement of the “Gerudo Valley” theme from Ocarina of Time. The strings imitated textures of the guitar and used the creaks and groans of the violins to emulate sounds of various percussion. After that was an arrangement of “Zelda’s Lullaby” by Patti Rudicill. The final piece performed was a medley of themes from Tears of the Kingdom. The piece had quick scale runs and tremolo emulating wind, juxtaposed against staccato accompaniment with quick stabs.

My bias towards the final Zelda pieces denotes a difficulty with the concert: they are the only ones I had a lot of familiarity with before I came to the concert. I could hear the emulations of different instruments in the arrangements because I had heard the original pieces before. Without knowing what to expect, and the context of the other pieces and what they were referring to, I could not fully appreciate the wonderful arrangements of Andrew Dunn. The lack of information before the concert, coupled with the absence of a list of works on the program itself, is problematic for anyone interested in either preparing for the concert or hearing them again after.

Overall, I enjoyed the performances and felt that they were well performed. The ensemble features two more events (different pieces/performers) at First Presbyterian Church and Grace Lutheran Church on April 13th and 27th respectively. Even if you can’t make it out to the other concerts you should still make it out to the Customs House Museum. There you can currently see the 55th National Juried Exhibition of the Women Artists of the West featuring paintings and pastels of women artists.

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Nathan Malone

Nathan Malone is working towards a degree in Music Composition studying with Michael Linton, and has minors in Art and Computer Science. Because he was born and raised in Tennessee, he had an early interest in guitar leading to him specializing in classical guitar in college. He spends most of his free time going to see concerts and films.

• The Gateway Chamber Orchestra Proves themselves to be Gamers at the Customs House Museum!