America – The Last Unicorn | Sheet Music of my Piano Arrangement online
American composer Jimmy Webb penned one of the most beautiful songs ever written for an animated film. The very first line of the song will evoke the childhood memories of past Christmas holidays to which this beautiful film is linked. “The Last Unicorn” is a beautiful and magical childhood moment for many of us. The complexity of the plot, the development of the individual characters and their relationship to one another, the incorporation of motifs from different mythologies and the sublime symbolism clearly go beyond the scope of the “animation” genre, but not at the expense of magic and imagination. As profound as the artistic layers of the film might be, the elegance of the music is in no way inferior to the complexity of the plot and the graphic implementation.
In the 1970s, American writer Peter S. Beagle published his fantasy novel The Last Unicorn. Success was not long in coming. The film adaptation was released in cinemas in 1982 and had an all-star musical cast. The band “America” not only interpreted the title song, but also all other songs by Jimmy Webb. A mixture of soundtracks and songs underscores the impressive scenery in such an inspiring way that makes the film so unique to this day. Fun fact: The production studio was called “Topcraft”, better known today as “Studio Ghibli”.
About seven years ago I saw the film for the 1000th time and – as many of you probably feel – the song grabbed me again. I started listening to the chords and wrote down the chord progression. I enjoyed improvising a lot and quickly realized that you could make a very nice piano version out of it. After a few attempts and further improvisations, I had a vague “idea” of how I would like to record the piece. I put on a fresh shirt, turned by laptop on, checked the microphone, camera was running, let’s go: First Take! It would be nice if it always worked so effortlessly. Luckily, that’s exactly what happened tonight.
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I was waiting impatiently for the first response and the feedback was just great. Many of you asked me for the sheet music, which unfortunately I didn’t write down at the time. Due to the great demand and the supportive comments from my YouTube subscribers, I finally decided to write down the sheet music of my arrangement. It was an exciting yet challenging assignment that allowed me to reconnect with my passion for music and film.
At this point I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my loyal subscribers on YouTube. You have patiently awaited the sheet music and encouraged me to finally release the arrangement. Your support and enthusiasm motivated me and showed how important it is to share our passions. It fills me with joy knowing that my music can touch other people and that I can do a small part in reviving the magical memories of The Last Unicorn.
