Flutes on Screen

When I was little, there were a number of movies I liked, and at the time I had no idea they were from Japan. Such as Totoro and Kiki. Unico in the Island of Magic was another. Made by the same person that did Astro Boy, which is more familiar to American audiences (Tezuka is wildly popular among manga fans - he's considered a classic mangaka).

Unico in the Island of Magic is a sappy movie about a little unicorn who brings joy. I loved it as a kid - my dad had recorded it from TV for me. And as I grew older, I kept the nostalgia for it. And one day, to my surprise, I found that movie was actually a sequel. I watched the first one, but I guess the second one is just mine.

Anyway, that sappy nostalgic cartoon sequel has a really cool, haunting flute song in it, played by someone who is a villain for a while. 

I gave myself one of those ridiculously crazy massive projects that I occasionally come up with. This one is to find cool flute songs from movies, and get sheet music for them. 

Easier said than done. For many of these flute songs, I can't find sheet music. Either I don't know where to look, or it's just not there. And for some of these songs, I doubt anyone would have gone through the effort to write them out.

Toby's flute songs are in this latter category. So I took it upon myself to write out the sheet music. By hand, because I don't have a computer program for it (I had one once, but it was a nightmare to use. Maybe there's something better now, but it seems easier to just write it). Transcribing it was crazy. Especially since I had to go into the movie to get some of it, and try to listen to the music through dialogue. But it made me appreciate the songs all the more. The first song is slow and haunting, and the second variation is much faster-paced. And to my immense relief, the third one was exactly the same as the second one.

I've written out a few more flute songs from other movies, but Toby's were the trickiest. Even trickier than Cardinal Knowledge, because it's less repetitive (Cardinal Knowledge is played in the end credits of Secret of Kells - I've almost finished that one, but not quite). 

So, I'm playing my hard-won sheet music. It will be cool when I get these tricky ones under my fingers.