Selections from "Kiki's Delivery Service"

Famous musicologist Yuji Numano identified an interesting relationship between classical and film music. Film music is like a second child of 19th century classical music (the first child being 20th century modern music). Although they have a parent-child relationship, there are still major differences.

"The basic 'form'is different. In the history of classical music art forms, there is a continuing dispute on how to convey a story only through music. On the other hand, as a part of motion pictures, film music at times has difficulty being an autonomous art form separate from the visual media. Indeed, film scores alone can lack musical substance. In the sense of acoustical effectiveness, film scoring has absorbed the total aspect of modern and classical music. Yet, there is still a huge distinction from classical music regarding recognizing film music as a standard art form."

This Selections from "KIKI'S Delivery Service" is my seventh arrangement of Joe Hisaishi's works. They are either in medley or suite styles. It might be an exaggeration, however, to cite back to Mr. Numano, I have attempted to compensate for the lack of substance in film music by creating an art form more like classical music. Medley should not be about cherry-picking the best bits. I prefer that performers consider the significance of the work's overall structure.

It has been 20 years since the premier of the feature animation film "KIKI'S Delivery Service" based on Eiko Kadono's literature for children. Numerous romantic melodies by Joe Hisaishi are used for many occasions and are still very popular. In this arrangement, I have made a medley from the following scenes:
1. A Town with an Ocean View
2. Starting the Job
3. Heartbroken Kiki
4. A Gust
5. Departure
Please note that the 4th scene A Gust comes from the "image album" prior to the soundtrack production and is not used in the actual movie.
(Kazuhiro Morita, 2008)