In 2020, Disney made a documentary series called Into the Unknown about the making of Frozen 2 and near the end of one of the early episodes, the directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck go into the orchestral recording sessions for documentary’s namesake. If I remember correctly, the process was really chugging at that point and there were many questions and problems stacking up and this was one of the last things they had to do that day. The composers are there marking up scores and chatting with the engineers, Elsa’s voice actor Idina Menzel arrives, then the directors sit down and the orchestra begins to play. There’s this moment (at about the 2:00 mark in the video below) that I think about a lot. Check it out first:
The look of elation, joy, and relief on Lee’s face is something I’ve felt over and over again, but never so much as with Arcadia: “Oh my goodness, this is going to work.”
There is another moment at precisely 2:27 where Lee’s face lights up that I vividly remember during the premiere: “This is actually good!” We’ll get to the premiere, but something strange happens after every performance of this I’ve experienced and that’s hooting, cheering, calling, and whistling… for a band piece. This piece connects with some folks in a very visceral way and, truth be told, I am one of those folks.
Arcadia is a work for wind ensemble, backing track, and interactive media; but to put it another way, it’s for band, retro video game consoles and an actual, literal, playable video game. Here’s the premiere, then we’re going to talk about it:
The piece started it’s life as a work for solo trombone, backing track, and video game called Arcadia Trombonica, and I’ve written about that extensively, so we’ll focus on that the band one. Long story short: the low brass professor and my dear friend, Dr. Nora Wilson, commissioned the piece, my friend and programmer at Complex Games, Adrian Cheater, programmed the game, and I did a zillion hours or pixel art and design, then we premiered it at the International Trombone Festival in Fort Worth, Texas in 2024.
The band version really enabled us to dig into colour, range, register, and opening up the instrumentation and layers. It’s a solid Grade 4.5-5 and it’s remarkably fun. The backing track is tied to the game, so even if the ensemble braves a live run of the game for the performance, everything will still sync up perfectly.
And let’s be clear, it took a crazy amount of collaboration, work, and planning, but like Jennifer Lee’s reaction to the Frozen orchestra, “this is going to work and it’s actually really good.” I always feel great hearing my music live for the first time, but the artistic joy that I heard at the Arizona State University Wind Orchestra premiere is unlike anything I had ever experienced.
Retro video games have been a part of my life for the better part of three (almost four) decades and I know this music inside and out. The music NES and Super NES is what I cut my teeth on, listening to hours or MIDI rips from my favourite games and anime in the 90s as I was writing stories, making pixel art, or writing my own music. There’s so much of Arcadia that is in me and I finally got to share it with the world. It’s going to print in 2026 (and I’m not sure what I can say about that yet), but I hope you’ll get a chance to get it in front of your band.
The other reason for that is because so much of the game’s story is about identity and that, so often, the answer that we’re looking for isn’t outside of us, it’s inside of us. When kids see this and play it, they will have their own stories about that too, and getting them to think about that and connect with media and literature in that way is absolutely crucial.
I have more to write, but I’ll put a pin in it here.
Kenley