Tabi no Tochuu（狼與辛香料 OP）-清浦夏實

I am in the middle of re-watching all my favorite Anime from the last two decades to see which Anime songs is picking up my interest, since I am not actively following the current Anime season. After re-watching Spice and Wolf Season 1, I remembered how unforgettable the opening song is. Therefore, I've decided to make a piano cover of Tabi no Tochuu for this week's upload.

My favorite part of this opening song is the bridge part (from 2:33 to 2:58), because you would usually expect the chorus melody to appear again, but instead, an alternative melody is playing. No matter how often I listen to it, I still get goosebumps every time, especially the key change before the final chorus. I replicated that special moment on the piano by slowing down for a short moment, and then restarting the melody again from "somewhere far away", and gradually building it up until the final chorus.

For the final chorus of this piano arrangement, the tension in the music was reduced with each repeat by playing the melody in a lower pitch and slowing down the rhythm on the left hand - until it comes to a complete standstill at 3:57. Only to rise again with the instrumental outro part as a special finale.

As mentioned earlier in my tweets, my piano covers in 2020 will be done in a more gradual, flowing arrangement style, and will include a focus on the best techniques from my earlier arrangements from 2015-2018. I am still experimenting with different "melody voicing" on the piano, because there is still a lot of potential to discover.

With that said, I think I will do more of these "nostalgia" piano covers in the following weeks, since I have very fond memories of these old anime songs and the power of nostalgia can be very inspiring whenever I am arranging on the piano.

See you next time then!

Animenz

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Piano arrangement by Animenz

Original Song: Tabi no Tochuu / 旅の途中

Anime: Spice and Wolf / 狼と香辛料

Published by: flying DOG (2008)

Composed by: Tomohiko Kira / 吉良知彦

Performed by: Natsumi Kiyoura / 清浦夏実