The Winterlands - Octopath Traveler 2 | Harp Cover

Harp version of The Winterlands from the Octopath Traveler II original soundtrack by Yasunori Nishiki.
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I'm finishing off this batch of Octopath Traveler II videos with The Winterlands! Just in time for Christmas :)
I had already co-written an arrangement of The Winterlands for harp and piano with Purpleschala, but I still wanted to include it on my album so that all the main areas of the game were covered. So while some of it ended up being similar to that arrangement, I set out to explore what kinds of colours I could bring out with this piece and really capture that cold, snowy feeling.
It's always a lot of fun when I get to have such a rich melody in the mid range, but of course the harp has such a fantastic and sparkly high range that's perfect for this kind of wintery piece.
I also wanted to include harmonics as much as possible, and it ended up that layering them on top on a separate track was the best option.
I also really love that last big scale leading up to the powerful octaves in both hands - I had read in one of Yasunori Nishiki's blog posts that The Winterlands is meant to represent the harshness of the landscape: the howling wind, the bitter ice. Especially in comparison to The Frostlands from Octopath 1, which was moreso watching the snow fall from inside a cozy cabin with a hot chocolate.
So it was a lot of fun to translate that to the harp and then to play it.
I hope you enjoy!

#harp #octopathtraveler #relaxingmusic

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