Gotta Catch ‘Em All (Pokemon Theme)

General Ifno

Composer: John Siegler & John Loeffler
Arranger: Yentl Doggen

Instrumentation

Player 1: Xylophone 1
Player 2: Xylophone 2
Player 3: Marimba 1
Player 4: Marimba 2
Player 5: Vibraphone 1
Player 6: Vibraphone 2
Player 7: Glockenspiel
Player 8: Conga
Player 9: Piano
Player 10: Bass Marimba
Player 11: Drum set
Player 12: Tambourine
Player 13: Bongos

Description

The Pokémon series and their well-known music theme don’t need much introduction. The song, Gotta Catch ‘Em All, was written by John Siegler and John Loeffler for the first season of the English Pokémon version. However, over the years, the performance by Jason Paige became synonymous with the entire Pokémon franchise. In the end, they used the fast-paced pop-rock song as the intro song for all the seasons. The song’s tempo is pretty fast, making it not the most accessible song to play. Moreover, it is one of those song people do not expect from a percussion ensemble. Once studied, the players and the audience will enjoy the performance of the Pokémon theme song.

I don’t know what triggered the idea to play Gotta Catch ‘Em All with a percussion ensemble. Although, while going out in my student city, Leuven, I remember that they regularly played the song in the late evenings. I might have just woken up one morning and started writing the Pokémon theme for the percussion ensemble. The first performance of this arrangement was by the Drum- & Percussionband Paal, and afterwards, the Meerhout Percussion Orchestra. I re-wrote some parts of the arrangement to make it more suitable for commercial use.

Notes from Arranger

Xylophone and Glockenspiel: A recurring phenomenon in my arrangements for Percussion Ensemble is that the xylophone parts get the melody lines. It is because of its dominant sound and character and because my strongest mallet players were usually positioned behind the xylophone. In Pokémon, that isn’t any different. To ensure that the melody has more character than the sharp wooden sound, they get the support of the Glockenspiel.

Vibraphone: The vibraphone part in the Pokémon theme for the percussion ensemble is most likely the hardest to play. The part is dominated by sixteenth notes on a fast-forward tempo and gets all the critical transitions in between. I recommend bringing a 12th person to double this part and add extra mid-tones to the music. The players should write chords above their lines to help them memorize the part instead of reading.

Marimba: Apart from the piano, these two marimba parts are responsible for the harmonics in Gotta Catch ‘Em All for the percussion ensemble. Marimba 1 is closely related to the piano part, where Marimba 2 mainly plays secondary melodies. It is recommended to double at least one of the marimba parts to create that extra harmonic support.