When he was a sophomore, my son spent several months creating a 13-part (as in, a minimum of 13 singers are required) choir arrangement of a popular video game song. I know that sounds weird, but that's mostly because we're all old. In fact, today's video games are serious affairs. They can cost tens of millions to make, and they can earn hundreds of millions. (Halo, for instance, sold 5 million copies at $40/copy, bringing in about $200 million. And that was 15 years ago!)
So, there's some serious money to be made in video games, and the game producers spend some serious money making the games high quality. In many cases, the games wind up with outstanding soundtracks that become very popular with the kids who hear the songs over and over and over.
But I digress. In 2014, my son wrote a very complex arrangement of a song most of the high schoolers know, then proposed it to his peers as a song for the end-of-year concert, and they voted it DOWN. Bear in mind that they'd never heard the piece since it's new. They opted instead to do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-HX7TsZOc . What they did was funny and memorable. Joey's piece is somber and serious and difficult to the point of intimidation. I can understand why they decided as they did, but not being able to have it performed was quite a blow.
This year, though, as Joey's reputation has grown, his salesmanship skills have apparently improved. In April, the choir kids voted YES. He went to his teacher and she actually put him in charge of teaching it. He's been working with them on it daily (actually every other day, since classes at his school are staggered) ever since and it was finally performed last night.
I figured it could have been a hit or a disaster. Parts, including my son's solo, are in Japanese, and none of it is easy. As I said, thirteen separate parts . . . being sung simultaneously.
That said, it was a hit. Beyond a hit. Thunderous applause. Believe it or not, one girl approached me to say that a guy backstage, a graduating senior, actually teared up listening to it. She was blown away by that since he's regarded as one of the "cool kids." But he's a musician who obviously appreciated what he was hearing.
Nor was he alone. Others told me that they found it overwhelming too. It was BEAUTIFUL.
When the 3.5 hour concert was over, when kids were still on stage hugging and, in too many cases, saying goodbye, Joey was approached by a professional musician who told him that he was extremely impressed and that he has contacts at Alfred Music in Los Angeles who may be interested in helping him to get it published. He gave us instructions for how to submit the piece and how to protect it in the interim.
Joey was just about floating on air on the drive home. Alfred Music is very well known, a subdivision of Warner Music. The thought of being published by Alfred Music at his age is pretty exciting.
But, unsurprisingly, there's a gotcha. We learned when we got home that the rights to the English version of this song belong to Disney. The rights to the Japanese version are owned by Sony. Joey creatively integrated both the English and Japanese versions, so permission will probably be needed from both in order to copyright and publish his arrangement. Neither company is exactly a teddy bear when it comes to intellectual properties.
Joey's work was extremely creative, noticeably different from what anyone else has done with the song to date. Maybe Disney and Sony will be nice. But they're Disney and Sony, so maybe they won't.
Regardless, oh, if you could have heard it. It was REALLY good. I don't mind saying that I was one of those who found it surprisingly emotional - and I'd never even heard the song before.
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