Rain Dance by Ross Edwards, Played on Melodica

Rain Dance, composed by Ross Edwards in 1978, originally for two recorders. This short piece features Hemiolic rhythm—juxtaposition of 3/4 and 6/8, and uses pitch materials similar to a Japanese scale called Miyako-Bushi Onkai. For more information regarding the composer & the piece, please click here.

Ayumi Toyama & Ryusuke Koarashi: Melodica

Carrying You, for Three Melodicas

Carrying You, theme song from a popular animation film ‘Castle in the Sky’, arranged for 3 Melodicas.

Composed by Joe Hisaishi
Arranged by Ryusuke Koarashi
Melodica perfomed by Ayumi Toyama

Score: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, for 2 Melodicas & Guitar

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, arranged for 2 melodicas and guitar, became purchasable from here (English) or here (Japanese). For those who are looking for a novel repertoire of Christmas, this may be what you want. The arrangement was originally requested by our student, so technical difficulties were mostly avoided. The point for arranging was an interplay between instruments (especially two melodicas) with changing textures, avoiding just to repeat same material many times. So the theme is played differently each time. Melodica parts can be played alternatively by violin. The sample movie is available on youtube.

Joe Hisaishi – The Merry Go Round of Life, for Three Melodicas

We have been running a club called ‘Melodica Club’ since January. The club is dedicated to enjoy melodica ensemble in multiple parts, and to find different capability of the instrument.

We have been working a lot on arranging and searching for new repertoire for this club, and gained considerable numbers ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. ‘Merry-Go-Round of Life’ is one of those repertoire of us, a theme from an animation film called ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, included by a member’s request in the club. Ryusuke arranged it for three parts, and Ayumi performed all the parts for this recording. We hope you will enjoy it.