Here is a string quartet arrangement of Joe Hisaishi's "Summer," which serves as the main theme for the movie Kikujiro, a 1999 Japanese film directed by Takeshi Kitano. This arrangement comes with a score and a set of parts for 2 violins, viola, and cello. The original piece really embraced the movie's light-hearted atmosphere, which I really wanted to replicate in this arrangement with lots of pizzicato and syncopated rhythms. I know it says for Advanced Intermediate, but as long as you know how to play up to 4th position (for first violin), and you are comfortable with syncopated rhythms and some 16th-note runs, you should be fine.

Here is my arrangement of Joe Hisaishi's "One Summer's Day" from the 2001 animated film, Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. However, I will note that this arrangement is more based on Joe Hisaishi's concert versions that you will find on most of his albums, and not the movie version, although both are nearly identical. I did add some musical techniques that are not present in the original piece ( ex. the tremolos in the very beginning), but those techniques were mainly used to help translate the piano parts in the original into more idiomatic parts for each instrument, and the overall majority of the arrangement is still very faithful towards its source material. That being said, there are some two-note chords, large interval jumps, various dynamic and tempo changes, and other very subtle details that I would expect an intermediate to advanced-intermediate group to be able to perform successfully. I hope you enjoy this arrangement!

From Joe Hisaishi, "Merry go round of life" is the main theme of "Howl's Moving Castle", from Studio Ghibli.


Arranged for String Quartet. Key of G minor. Intermediate advanced..

Audio file made from midi engine.

Here's "One Summer's Day" from "Spirited Away"

Composed by Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲), the film's soundtrack won many awards, including the Best Music Award at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2001.

"Spirited Away" (千と千尋の神隠し) is a 2001 Japanese film by Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿). It was voted #4 of BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century (the highest-ranking anime film)!

This Arrangement for String Quartet has the intention of taking advantage of the large range of colours that bowed instruments can reproduce, featuring a variety of techniques, nothing else to say but "enjoy playing it!"

Merry Go Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi

An accurate and challenging rendition of the popular waltz from Studio Ghibli's movie "Howl's Moving Castle". Lots of fun for all players, and many tempo changes to coordinate. 5 minutes.

Here's an original arrangement of the lovely waltz from "Howl's moving castle"

Enjoy playing with a nice polished writting for string instruments that makes the piece sound and feel very "danceable".

Every note and articulation is carefully placed to make it feel easy to play inspite the difficulty of the piece (specially for the first violin).

Enjoy playing it as much as i enjoyed writing it!