Piano kyousoukyoku dai 1 ban "Sasoribi"

ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"

Song Information

ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"'s pop'n music banner.

ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"'s jacket.

Artist: virkato
Composition/Arrangement: Virkato Wakhmaninov
BPM: 165-188
Length: 2:07
Genre: DIRGE (ダージュ)
VJ: VJ GYO and F-FLY
pop'n music Character: silent room [17-1P]
First Music Game Appearance: beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED
Other Music Game Appearances:

• pop'n music 20 fantasia
• ノスタルジア
• ポップンリズミン wacパック2

Lyrics

None.

Song Connections / Remixes

• The LIGHT chart version of ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" sounds different from the HYPER/ANOTHER versions of ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火".
• An eight minute version of the full concerto in three movements of ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火", titled ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" (Pf Concerto No.1 "Anti-Ares"), can be found on the beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED Original Soundtrack album.
• A remix of ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" by Osamu Kubota, titled もうひとつの蠍火 ~象牙と羊腸と肉声のための変奏曲, appears on the V-RARE SOUND TRACK 14 CD.
• Another long version of ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" appears on wac's album, 音楽. This one features orchestra work by Osamu Kubota.
• ワルツ第17番 ト短調"大犬のワルツ" from beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS is related to ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火".

Trivia

• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is the regular ONE MORE EXTRA STAGE of beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED.
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"'s BPM changes are as follows: 185→165→177→184→180→168→173→174→177→178→179→184→186→188→179→182→188→180.
• When ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is played on beatmania IIDX, the arcade LED ticker displays "PF CONCERTO ANTI-ARES".
  • Antares is the red star in the middle of the constellation Scorpio; its name means "anti-Ares". Ares is the Greek god of war, called Mars by the Romans. Antares and Mars' red flames stood in stark contrast in the night sky, thus "scorpion fire" (a direct translation of 蠍火) refers to Antares, the red flame burning in Scorpio's body. Therefore, the title fits wac's pattern of piano pieces named after stars.
  • The in-game cut of this song is titled on the beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED Original Soundtrack as ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"(大きな鍵盤と円盤のための), or Piano Concerto #1 "ANTI-ARES" (arrangement for a great keyboard and disc).
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is thought to be inspired from Sergei Rachmaninov's "Piano Concerto No.2 in C-minor" first movement, which has a very similar style. This would also explain the resemblance in author names (Sergei Rachmaninov / Virkato Wakhmaninov).
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is unlockable in pop'n music 20 fantasia from February 15th, 2012, to celebrate the release of the 音楽 album. To unlock ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火", play certain wac songs a number of times.
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" marked the first time when a BEMANI crossover to pop'n music received an EX chart rated Level 43 (on the 1 to 43 scale).
  • After pop'n music Sunny Park, ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is the only BEMANI crossover in pop'n music with its EX chart rated Level 50 out of 50.
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" received an EASY chart in pop'n music Sunny Park, replacing its old 5-Buttons chart.
• On the American iTunes page for the 音楽 album, ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" was renamed to Pf Concerto No.1 "Anti-Ares".
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"'s EASY chart was re-rated in pop'n music éclale on March 22nd, 2016.
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" is unlockable in beatmania IIDX INFINITAS from November 9th, 2016, after obtaining 5000, 10500, and 12000 BITs for its NORMAL, HYPER, and ANOTHER charts respectively.
• ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" was one of the few songs present in the first ノスタルジア location test at JAEPO 2016.
  • It received a new set of charts on the following location test.
  • ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" was added to the final release of ノスタルジア on March 15th, 2017 as part of the NOSTALGIA launch memorial song crossover campaign (ノスタルジア稼働記念 楽曲交換キャンペーン).
    • It received another set of charts on the final release of the game.
• In ノスタルジア, ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火"'s artist is shown as Virkato Wakhmaninov.
• Due to technical problems with its Expert chart, ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火" was not available in ノスタルジア on April 4th and 5th, 2017 [1].

Music Comment

pop'n music

Beautiful, fragile diffusing.

ノスタルジア

From "beatmania IIDX".

Song Production Information

virkato

Virkato Wakhmaninov (1873-1974) was born to an average working family making matryoshka in the Caucausus mountains. His father wanted him to grow up to become a splendid man, so he gave him the name virkato (which means tomcat) and raised him to become a wrestling pro. He also took piano lessons from his mother, and his talent began to blossom.

Unfortunately, a fall in the market value of matryoshka led to his parents' financial downfall. In the end, even their beloved Steinway was seized, and Virkato took to practicing straight out of textbooks, using the backs as mock pianos. The memorial piano concerto no. 1 "ANTI-ARES" was born from these feelings of loss and despair.

As this is a piece in three movements, it is fairly typical of the structure of most piano concertos. However, since the first performance was on a great keyboard and disc, it was necessary to halve the length of the piece, and so most of it takes on the character of the first movement. For that reason, the differences between contrasting passages (light vs. dark, high and low polyphony) are more pronounced, like something out of the children's series "Yokatta ne Ned-kun".

Satisfied with the results of this first performance, Virkato, caught up in the elation of the moment, cried, "Won't the people who buy the soundtrack listen to something even more repulsive!?" It's probably well that he stopped there.

After that, Virkato himself spoke fairly often about this "arrangement for a great keyboard and disc", but in his last years he left behind these words: "An arrangement for a keyboard of seven keys may be possible". It is only now that this dream has been realized.

Video Production Information

VJ GYO

Since this song is written in the genre of dirge, we thought, "Why don't we light candles in the shape of Scorpio?" We were able to get the okay for this from the composer, Virkato Wakhmaninov. (Wait, 1873 to 1974!? That means we must have been talking to a ghost ... oh well.)

Since there weren't any real good locations for filming something with fire, I ended up filming it at my own house using spray digestive and water break buckets ... right around where the candle falls over at the end of the song, it ended up falling over and burning my tatami a bit ... ehehe.

F-FLY

I did post-production for VJ GYO's film this time. It was a pretty tough job, but to match up a good video for such a dignified song I was willing to put a frightening amount of effort into it. It's kind of a creepy feeling. It was actually pretty fun to put something together that's heavy enough to move you to tears.

Character Information

None.

Difficulty & Notecounts

beatmania IIDX difficulty rated from 1 to 12.
pop'n music difficulty rated from 1 to 43 through pop'n music 20 fantasia, and 1 to 50 from Sunny Park onwards.
ノスタルジア difficulty rated from 1 to 12.
ポップンリズミン difficulty rated from 1 to 10. (Ratings and notecounts obtained from BEMANIWiki 2nd.)

beatmania IIDX

Game	SP Difficulty					DP Difficulty
	BEGINNER	NORMAL	HYPER	ANOTHER	LEGGENDARIA	NORMAL	HYPER	ANOTHER	LEGGENDARIA
Notecounts	270	422	1111	1414	473	1031	1730	{{{8}}}	{{{9}}}
beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED	-	5	8+	N/A	5	8+	N/A	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}
beatmania IIDX 12 HAPPY SKY→Present	-	5	↑11	12	5	↑10	12	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}
beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED CS	3	5	8+	8+	5	8+	8+	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}
beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD CS	3	5	11	12	5	10	12	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}
beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST	3	5	11	12	5	10	12	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}
beatmania IIDX INFINITAS	-	5	11	12	5	10	12	{{{9}}}	{{{10}}}

pop'n music

Game	Normal Mode				Battle Mode
	EASY	NORMAL	HYPER	EX	NORMAL	HYPER
Notecounts	290	402	1020	1515	380	824
pop'n music 20 fantasia	19	24	38	43	21	37
pop'n music Sunny Park→ラピストリア	※14	30	44	↑50	21	37
pop'n music éclale→Present	↑※20	30	44	50	21	37

※ The notecount of this chart is different from the old 5-Buttons chart (total notes: 217).

ノスタルジア

Game	Level
	Normal	Hard	Expert	Real
Notecounts	594	970	1477	-
ノスタルジア (JAEPO 2016)	※10	-	-	-
ノスタルジア location test	※8	※9	-	-
ノスタルジア→Present	6	9	12	-

※ Denotes chart was different from later location tests and final release:

• JAEPO 2016 chart: total notes: unknown.
• Location test Normal: total notes: 613.
• Location test Hard: total notes: 1006.
• 04/04/2017 version Expert: total notes: 1390.

ポップンリズミン

Game	Difficulties
	Normal	Hyper	EX
Notecounts	214	376	757
ポップンリズミン	4	8	10