One Summer’s Day is a beautiful instrumental piece for the animated movie Spirited Away that was released in 2001. This piece has no single meaning, so the listener has the ability to interpret the music in their own way. From my own listening experience, it sounds like two people meeting and embracing on a breezy spring day after spending an extensive amount of time apart from each other, spending the entire day having fun and catching up, and then parting once more. It is filled with emotion from start to finish, and gives an intense feeling of nostalgia, to me at least.

The piano gives this piece a very tender, human quality. It’s as though the song is coming from within someone, trying to tell you their story without using words, only emotion. The piece starts off soft and simple, slowly building up more and more after each group of notes. It gets to a point where it feels like your feelings have built up so much that you’re beginning to let everything out. Then, the most memorable part comes in, being the gentle, beautiful melody.

There is not much information out there about how Mr. Hisaishi produced this piece, nor any hint of what inspired him, but based on the live performance that he did, I think this music is just something that came directly from his soul. This piece has the potential to hold many meanings for myself, though I need to find and experience them first.

I HIGHLY recommend this piece to anyone I meet. It is simply beautiful, and it’s something that I feel many people need to hear and experience for themselves with good headphones. This is most definitely not a one time wonder, and I think this will always be well known among the more “nerdy” people in the population. This piece will begin to lose its touch if you listen to it over and over on repeat, but listening to it every once in a while, it will always give you a warm feeling on the inside. It’s a great piece to listen to if you are in the mood to cry as well.

Works Cited:

Hisaishi, Joe. One Summer’s Day. Milan Entertainment, 2001. CD.

Live Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ni1sVCgEk