Composer's Comment

Through the music school I went to on Wednesday afternoon, I sometimes played keyboard concerts around town. During one such occurrence, the event I played at (a conference of some sort) gave me a present: A CD of Leif Ove Andsnes called Ballad for Edvard Grieg. Me being the uneducated boy I was didn't particularly care; classical music was in my eyes just boring. Now, whoever bought the CD also made sure to make it so I could return it at the store and pick another one, in case I had the CD from before, but it just stayed in my bookshelf for a long time.

As I was sorting through all the stuff I had in my bookshelf, I came across the CD, still not opened even after a couple years, and realized that it probably would be too late to return it now. Not to mention, I didn't know what I would trade it for either. So I broke the seal and tried listening to it. And, well, my prejudice towards classical music was utterly destroyed. The piano concert is great, the lyrical pieces are great, the melodies are great, the harmonies are right up my alley and the creativity is top notch. I highly recommend you check out that album yourself if you haven't heard much of Grieg before, it's available on Spotify.

A couple of the lyric pieces there stroke me as something you could put in a Pokémon game, particularly the pieces Homeward, At the Cradle and Evening in the Mountain (I guess I and Grieg share a fascination for mountains!). So for this piece, I decided to bring in the main part of Homeward and adapt it to a Pokémon route theme, adding more accompaniment and also an original bit into the mix. And best of all, Grieg's music is public domain so I'm free to use his compositions without worrying about copyright. Don't be surprised if you see me use some of his other pieces in the future!