Piano kyousoukyoku dai 1 ban "Sasoribi"

This song also appears in SEGA's rhythm games. For information on this, see the SilentBlue page on this song.

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)
Movie: 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
• SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR
• ノスタルジア
• ポップンリズミン wacパック2

Lyrics

None.

Song Connections / Remixes

• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is part of wac's Zodiac series of songs, representing Scorpius.
• A simplified version of ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is used in the BEGINNER and NORMAL difficulties in beatmania IIDX, as well as the 5-BUTTON/EASY and NORMAL difficulties in pop'n music.
• 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.
  • Another long version, featuring orchestra work by Osamu Kubota, appears in wac's album, 音楽.
• 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 in the V-RARE SOUND TRACK 14 CD.
• A slightly rearranged version of ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is used in the ノスタルジア series.
• A remix of ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” by BlackY, titled ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” (BlackY Remix), appears in the beatmania IIDX 20th Anniversary Tribute BEST album.
  • A short version of ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” (BlackY Remix) appears in beatmania IIDX 27 HEROIC VERSE.
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is sampled in X-DEN, from beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage.
• A symphonic arrangement of ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” was performed at the BEMANI SYMPHONY Concert 2022 event.

Trivia

This song has different backgrounds, banners, jackets, or other related images. For more information, please see this page.

• 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 one of the unlocks of pop'n music 20 fantasia's Dormir & wac 1stAlbum hatsubai kinen (Dormir & wac 1stAlbum発売記念) event. It could be unlocked from February 15th, 2012 by playing wac songs in NET TAISEN MODE, and filling the 音楽 gauge.
  • As of July 4th, 2012, it is available by default.
• With 1515 notes, ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火”'s EX chart holds the record with the lowest notecount for a Level 50 chart in pop'n music.
• 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 purchasing its charts with BITs.
• 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].
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” appears as one of the background music selectable to play during Accel Rave Time (アクセルレイブタイム) in SEVEN'S BEAT (セブンスビート), a KONAMI medal redemption game.
  • ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is also one of the BEMANI cassette tape songs hidden in METAL GEAR SURVIVE, where its title was changed to PF CONCERTO ANTI-ARES.
  • It also appears as selectable background music in CHASE CHASE JOKERS (チェイスチェイスジョーカーズ).
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” appears in SEGA's CHUNITHM music game series.
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” can be unlocked in SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR from January 27th, 2022 through May 8th, 2022 only on Valkyrie model cabinets as part of the X-record dai ni dan (X-record 第二弾) event.
  • It can be unlocked again from February 2nd, 2023 through April 9th, 2023 as part of the X-record dai san dan (X-record 第三弾) event.
  • From February 15th, 2024, it can be unlocked with PCB in the SDVX Station.
• The effector credit for ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火”'s NOVICE/ADVANCED/EXHAUST charts, "赫", is a reference to the slogan of beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED, "赫に、染まりな。".
  • The MAXIMUM chart does not have any knob paths, LONG BT or LONG FX notes. As such, it does not have an effector credit, a first in the SOUND VOLTEX series.
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火”'s MAXIMUM chart has the lowest MAX CHAIN of any Level 19 chart, at 1323.
• ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” is available in SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR コナステ from December 21st, 2022, by purchasing the Konasute SOUND VOLTEX beatmania IIDX Selection Music Pack vol.1 (コナステ版 SOUND VOLTEX beatmania IIDX セレクション 楽曲パック vol.1).

Music Comment

pop'n music

Beautiful, fragile diffusing.

ノスタルジア

From "beatmania IIDX".

Song Production Information

beatmania IIDX

virkato

Virkato Wakhmaninov (1873-1974) was born in the Caucasus region to an average matryoshka maker couple.
Virkato, who was named "male cat" after his father's wish "you're a male, you're surely male", grew up to be a brave sambo master as his name suggested, while learning piano from his mother, who was a music teacher, and his true femininity blossomed. However, the family's business collapsed due to the matryoshka market decline. His beloved Steinway was seized, so he practiced on the back cover of music textbooks.

The concept of his memorable debut piano concerto "Sasoribi", was born from such despair and hopelessness. It was an ambitious work which tried new things at that time, including the fusion of a newly released mellotron with an orchestra. Originally, the composition was planned to be a standard piano concerto with three movements, but since its first performance was suddenly held using a large keyboard and disc, it was performed as a single movement of around two minutes. Therefore, the light and dark undulations of silence and motion are intense within a short time period, which was also influenced from the picture book "Yokatta ne Ned-kun".
Following the premiere, Virkato was satisfied with the result and excitedly said "those who bought the soundtrack will hear something more horrifying". Well, he should've stopped there.
After that, Virkato seldom talked about this variation with "a large keyboard and disc", but his last words during his final years were "it might be unreasonable to play this on a 7-key keyboard". It's too late to realize this now.

(Commentary: Kenji Kobayashi)

pop'n music

"Piano kyousoukyoku dai 1 ban "Sasoribi" (for the nine round and colorful buttons)" is a variation of Piano kyousoukyoku dai 1 ban "Sasoribi" (for the large keyboard and disc)", a concerto composed by Virkato Wakhmaninov (1873-1974), for the nine round and colorful buttons game.

Virkato was ahead of his time when his song "Ongaku", which was based on "Piano kyousoukyoku dai 2 ban "Jinsei iroiro"", could be played using the nine round and colorful buttons, but believing the rumors that advanced players considered the difficulty level of nine buttons songs to be far easier since "Ongaku", it's said he was determined to perform a variation of "Sasoribi" for the nine buttons game. Rumors are scary.

When asked about the increasing difficulty level in comparison to playing it with the original seven keys and disc, Virkato frowned and replied "it's nothing special in comparison to playing it with 14 keys".
Furthermore, when Virkato was asked "who wants charts like this? Who are these charts for?", he replied "... It's for you in the future, I guess...", freezing everyone there.

With increasing momentum for the re-evaluation (and re-criticism) of Virkato's works in the 21st century, a reconstructed version of "Sasoribi" from Virkato's original music sheets by Osamu Kubota, a famous musician and Virkato researcher, is included in a CD. As of 2012, it's the closest thing to Virkato's envisioned song, and is a must listen, must buy, so anyways, please buy it. Commentators nowadays can't even do one stealth marketing strategy, damn it.

Commentary: Kenji Kobayashi (who returned to his parent's home)

Video Production Information

VJ GYO

I thought about creating a video with "lit candles forming the shape of Scorpio" from its song title "Sasoribi" and genre "DIRGE".
When I approached the composer Virkato Wakhmaninov,
Born in 1873 and died in 1974!? Huh, was he a ghost?... Oh well...
He immediately consented.
There weren't many places where it was possible to film with ignition materials, so I prepared a spray extinguisher and water buckets and filmed at my home, but at the end of the song, the mount where the candle fell was burnt, and the tatami mats underneath turned slightly black. Boo-hoo...

F-FLY

I processed this video filmed by VJ GYO.
It's hard and heavy to process live-action footage, but I heavily layered them to try to make it feel more eerie and match this magnificent song. It's heavy (too heavy), which made me cry, but I enjoyed making this video.

Character Information

None.

Staff Comments

PON

This song is included in wac's album "Ongaku"! It's also a crossover from IIDX.
This was a big mess!
Firstly, its length was too long, and the Chaku uta staff told me "the album version is too long, so we can't include it in Chaku uta!".
Since it's in Chaku uta, we couldn't just cut the song off in the middle!

It's also messy for gamers, since it has a Level 43 EX chart before the pop'n quest starts.
If something like this appears, isn't your stomach already full?!
Without saying these things, please enjoy the subsequent quest songs.

masaru

What song from wac's album would I be happy to unlock? I chose this song while thinking about this. I never thought the day would come where I can play this song in pop'n!! I'd be happy if you think about this.
I can't believe this is the highest difficulty song in pop'n!? I'd be happy if you were surprised by this.

Ga~su~

I can finally play this song in pop'n!
This song makes me remember my intense IIDX training.
I can't clear the EX chart.

tokky

Huh, I can't believe this song is here! I tried to say something like this, but as a casual person, I didn't know that Wakhmaninov was the child of matryoshka makers.

Otsu

When I asked "what's Sasoribi? Is it a coined word?", the reply was "it's not!", but even when I Google it, everything that came up was this song....
Is it a real word wa... virkato?

TAMA

I'm extremely delighted that Wakhmaninov appeared in fantasia with his passport, but I asked for them to not make this the pop'n 20 boss song.

Chihi

It seems Wakhmaninov was born into a family of matryoshka makers, and my house also~ had many matryoshka.
I'm running out of things to say now, but when I listen to this song while holding it in my lap, the unseen Caucasus land appears before my eyes... it didn't come to my mind. 43 is amazing!

shio

I wondered which song would come~, and I was a bit surprised by this selection.
I pretended to know what Sasoribi meant "oh, isn't it by Kenji Miyazawa~?", but I'd like to commemorate this crossover by confessing that I mistook this song with "The Nighthawk Star" for a long time.

Although the character's background is invisible, I mainly chose silent from his affinity with high EX difficulty levels. The animations look the same, so I wanted to slightly change the atmosphere of the illustrations and design it from scratch. I couldn't see much under the piano, so it felt fresh.

This song is included in a double sided album, which includes an orchestra side with Sasoribi and various music genres. To those who haven't listened to it yet, it's too good! I recommend this album, so by all means, please listen to it.

Mameshiba

This Level 43 song already came out.
About this song, I knew that it was a "very difficult song in IIDX called Sasoribi", but this is a magnificent Virkato-like song.
It's sad that pop'n doesn't have a scorpion character, and I thought about various things, such as Honey perhaps being a Scorpio woman, or OTOKO-MAN in a genre called SCORPION DEATH ROCK... but none of them were here.
It's silent room from the beginning!
SCORPION DEATH ROCK... someday, Des will create a rock REMIX... I don't know if he'll do it.
Well, Sasoribi doesn't have anything to do with scorpions, right?
What day is it today? →Sasoribi!

Difficulty & Notecounts

beatmania IIDX difficulty rated 1 to 8+ in IIDX RED, and from 1 to 12 from HAPPY SKY onwards.
pop'n music difficulty rated from 1 to 43 through pop'n music 20 fantasia, and 1 to 50 from Sunny Park onwards.
SOUND VOLTEX difficulty rated from 1 to 20 from IV HEAVENLY HAVEN 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 and SOUND VOLTEX @ wiki.)

beatmania IIDX

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

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).

SOUND VOLTEX

Game	Level
	NOVICE	ADVANCED	EXHAUST	MAXIMUM	EXCEED
Max Chain (EXCEED GEAR→Present)	586	818	977	1323	-
Effected By	赫	赫	赫	-	-
Jacket Artists	Original Movie : VJ-GYO & F-FLY	Original Movie : VJ-GYO & F-FLY	Original Movie : VJ-GYO & F-FLY	Original Movie : VJ-GYO & F-FLY	-
SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR→Present	7	14	17	19	-
SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR コナステ	7	14	17	19	-

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	-
コナステ ノスタルジア	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

wac's Zodiac song series
ストレイ・マーチ (Aries) - BEEF (Taurus) - murmur twins (Gemini) - moon_child (Cancer) - Regulus (Leo) - Spica (Virgo) - アストライアの双皿 (Libra) ピアノ協奏曲第１番”蠍火” (Scorpius) - 牧神笛吹きて (Capricornus) - Ganymede (Aquarius) - アルレシャ (Pisces)