This pick was requested by Axel, one of our readers who has just celebrated his birthday yesterday. This is for you, Axel!
Freedom (自由) 12 Girls Band (女子十二楽坊)| Version |  |  |  |  / |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (175) | x5 (210) | x5 (360) | x9 (483) |
Taiko 6, Taiko PS2 4
130
none
jiyuuToday's featured song takes us a long way back, not just to the old arcades but also to the blog's beginnings as well! In fact, some of you might remember spotting this song before in our Beginner's Guide.
Anyway, what we have today is one of the first songs by 12 Girls Band (女子十二楽坊), an all-female Chinese musical group which performs both traditional Chinese and Western music using traditional Chinese instruments. As the name of the band suggests, this group started with 12 girls trained in classical Chinese music in the People's Republic of China (PRC), including the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra, and the Central Conservatory of Music. A 13th member was added to the band later, and some of the original members were replaced.
Twelve Girls Band was formed in June 2001 as the result of an audition that had more than 4000 female contestants, which ultimately selected the 12 members. Wang Xiao-Jing, the group's manager, firmly insisted on the number as a symbolism of Chinese tradition, with each member representing one of the twelve jinchai (12 hairpins) representing womanhood. As mentioned before, stringed Chinese musical instruments are used for their covers, original creations and live performances, such as the Erhu (二胡; a two-string fiddle), the Pipa (琵琶; a pear-shaped lute with 4 strings) and the Zhongruan (中阮; a plucked string instrument, also known as "Moon guitar"). With albums and tours around the world, Twelve Girls Band gained a good share of popularity overseas, especially in Japan and North America.
Freedom was includied in the group's first studio album Meili Yinyuehui (魅力音乐会), one of the few which features tracks from the band's original member selection. Its distribution was very limited (only a few thousand copies were printed at first), but still managed to be Japan's best-seller for nearly 30 weeks in a row, and ironically pirated copies played a role in spreading the group's music worldwide too. Freedom later reappeared in the 2004 USA album Eastern Energy, which featured several modernized Chinese renditions of both classical and popular music, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Enya and Coldplay! Freedom is no exception, as it's actually a remake of Şehnaz Longa, an Ottoman Turkish song which was composed in 1885 by Santuri Ethem Efendi.
The song was ported into Taiko during the first GUI transition period. Freedom's Donderful/Oni chart may seem like it has too many stars for its low BPM, when compared to other licensed 9* songs like Sakuranbo and BON VOYAGE! at the time. Still, Freedom makes up for its lack of speed with long streams that were considered difficult back then, which easily reminds players of similar chart-patterns used in Mekadesu and Taiko Samurai.
Next week's SotW feature is on Christmas day. Until then, take care!
