Secret of Mana Orchestrated - Fear of the Heavens (Patreon)

First I would like to say the original track is already perfect. Hiroki Kikuta composed such a beautiful theme filled with wonder and awe, making the most of the SNES sound chip. The orchestration is is my desire to hear the tune with upgraded instruments. The intent was for the track (and the video) to sound like how you've always remembered it, not how it actually was.

My interpretation of the song is that it is the great Calling that the mana tree gives to the boy. The melody is the desperate plea for the boy to save the earth from ruin. The melody is the message spoken first as a soft whisper. Hiroki uses the piano way better than Yoko Shimomura does in her subsequent Mana series soundtracks. For the record, I admire and enjoy a lot of Shimomura's music, but seriously she uses the piano in everything, so much so that all her music sounds like they could be from the same game. As a pianist, I've realized that the piano is a cheap and easy way to get a good enough sound, either playing in the upper registers to sound mystical and delicate, or with loud chords to quickly get an epic and emotional response. Using it uniquely takes skill, and Hiroki is a master at work here. I kept my arrangement straightforward and faithful as best as I could..

The second half of the music is that great rising swell, seemingly as if all life in the forest gathered around the mana tree to add their voices into the Calling. These four bars, which I doubled in my orchestration, took me the most time to figure out. I probably spent about 70-80% of my time working on this portion. I wanted to have many different groups of instruments playing harmonies and melodies independent of each other, illustrating all manner of life that the forest is filled with. In addition to what was used in the original track, I added fast strings, vocals, and even brass instruments to really flesh out the swell and build up to a thunderous climax.

Even with all the remake craze for FFVII, hopefully Square Enix would also consider remaking this game. It is a testament how special this title is, when even after having so much content cut out due to time constraints, this is still remembered so fondly.