Prelude (NES Ver. Final Fantasy I)
This is the evergreen prelude from Final Fantasy (I the original one for NES). In addition to the peculiar arpeggiation, I had to “double-wrap” the arpeggio to fit it with the guitar. I quite like the result in a compositional sense!
Since this is a cover album, it’s not in Bandcamp, so to preview the track, here’s a “smart link” where you can find Spotify and other streaming services (save for apple music, but you’ll find it there by searching for me):
https://snd.click/a-j-greengrove-250825
Since that might be suspectible to link rot in the future, here’s the youtube video of me playing the piece with guitar:
Many a word has been spilled for this prelude. These fandom pages tend to receive much love, and the behind the scene explains the curious case of Final Fantasy I satisfactorily, although not in an exhausting manner (see specifically the anchor title “#Behind_the_scenes”: (Various, 2025)
I can’t believe Nobuo called Nasir Gebelli’s visionary arpeggiation having “wrong notes”! Apparently they understood Nisar Gebelli’s genious so well they relocated Square’s development team to Sacramento for him to continue to impart his geniosity upon them (see close to bottom of the main text body): https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Nasir_Gebelli
OK, I’ll leave this for here, in anticipation of my first live stream, where I use this technique to twist and turn my arpeggios down and up like in this original NES prelude.
There’s one music theory fact I want to ask though. According to an article analyzing this piece, it utilizes chords “collectively as the ’50s progression” (Sam Dudley, 2018). Now, the wikipedia page of 50’s progression lists (Wikipedia Contributors, 2025):
- Buxtehude’s Psalm 42, Quem admodum desiderat cervus, BuxWV 92 ostinato bass line;
- J. S. Bach’s Cantata BWV140 opening measures;
and under the “See also” heading anchor mentions Pachelbel’s Canon. Did you, like me, notice all of those fit the criteria of a romanesca (as defined by R. Gjerdingen)? To be continued!