Coldplay and Liszt melodies have been synchronised in this beautiful music doodle
2 October 2019, 09:00 | Updated: 2 October 2019, 16:40
The Piano Guys perform Coldplay’s ‘Something Just Like This’ and Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’ in the imaginative kinetic artwork.
A new ‘line rider’ video has just been released, which combines melodies from a beautiful Liszt masterpiece and a hit pop song from Coldplay.
Line Rider, an online drawing game, allows players to create a path for the ‘rider’ to slide along, with different lines added in for acceleration and a checkpoint.
After finding out about the game, American ensemble The Piano Guys, decided to merge the arrangements for Coldplay’s ‘Something Just Like This’ and Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’ – and portray the new track in moving doodle form.
The group, who found their fame on YouTube and currently have more than 6.2 million subscribers, say the creative mash-up (watch above) is one of their “most intricate arrangements yet”.
They describe the thought process behind the video: “When Liszt wrote music, especially for his 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies, it’s like he was piling material from several “hit songs” into a compilation of dazzling, finger-flying feats of melody and harmony.
“We picked our favorite themes from his staggering Second Rhapsody and wrote them right on top of the sticky melodies and chord progressions from “Something Just Like This.”
“The idea was inspired by our recent tour, which included a concert in the incomparable city of Budapest, where the model for this match-up was molded. We present, “Something Just Like Liszt!”
The kinetic art itself was created by Mark Robbins, also known as DoodleChaos on YouTube, who previously created a line rider video with Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ as the soundtrack.
Speaking about this latest project, Robbins said: “One rule I follow when I make Line Rider videos is that I have to love the music I’m using. If I don’t, I’m in for a rough time because I have to replay the chosen song thousands of times while creating the track. Thankfully, I loved ‘Something Just like Liszt’ just as much the last time I listened to it as I did the first time.
“The entire track consists of nearly seven thousand synchronised lines which I drew all by hand in the game Line Rider. I lost track of how much time it took me to create the whole video over multiple months, but I do know it took 135 work sessions because that’s how many save files I have.
He continued: “My favourite part is when all four riders come together to the same path and travel through the starry night. This section was inspired by the original album art for the piece, and represents how the Piano Guys harmonise together as a team.
“Thank you to Craig Knudsen for reaching out to me, and thanks to the Piano Guys for collaborating with me. And special thanks to David Lu for his work on the custom character design and implementation.”
Excellent work, all! Watch the full video below:
Line Rider - Something Just Like This / Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - The Piano Guys
