I would like to do as tribute to one of my new-found favourite composers of all time (though she’s been around for quite some time, I’m embarassed to say that I only got to fully appreciate her music when following up on Kingdom Hearts. I did not know she did Legend of Mana! I hate myself). The very moment I finish my “O” levels, I am going to ransack the whole of the Esplanade Library. But they don’t usually have Japanese composers along the line of less classical but more orchestral soundtrack for movies and games, except for probably Joe Hisaishi, another of those I worship – that is because he works for Studio Ghibli, which produces epic animation movies like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc, which are internationally renowned.
The moment I started listening to her playlist, I was captivated by her very poignantly expressive compositions, which stirs up my emotions almost instantly. This conductor is more of those who writes music according to feelings, ie, more of an emotional composer than a descriptive composer. She captures the essence of the games very well. I have to confess that, even as a guy, I was tearing non-stop by the 4th track on the playlist.
Her style, though along with the other composers of Square Enix (formerly Square Soft), appear a tad different. Whilst Nobuo Uematsu is a more precise conductor, whereby he practices alot of control and restrain in his music, Yoko Shimomura is more dramatic and less restrictive of her expressions. Both make extremely beautiful music which impact the hearts of gamers almost eternally. 7 years have already past and I can still vividly remember the tunes of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, how they made me feel, and how it captured a moment for eternity. Which is one of the factors why FFVII, even up till now, still have so much coverage – remakes, movies, merchandise – it never dies. The soundtrack has been reorchestrated and redone many times, simply because it was such amazing work. Play any track from it’s soundtrack and gamers and almost instantly tell you where the track was played or who’s theme was it. Aerith’s theme remained one of the most emotional themes in the history of Square’s music. Up till now, we can still remember her innocence, and her death, and how she was such a wonderful woman. All these, is how Nobuo Uematsu has impacted the world of role-playing games and blessed us with emotional memories. This, is what Yoko Shimomura is doing now, she is leading a whole new list of games into defying time and freezing epic moments, whilst setting emotions frenzy.
Right now, listening to the The Other Promise (reprise of Roxas’ theme) from her album, Drammatica, I am almost sobbing uncontrollably, simply because it expressed so emotionally the confusion, dilemma, loss and loneliness that Roxas (Kingdom Hearts II) felt in the game. Him being a Nobody (not the literal English word nobody, but a term in the game, in which a Nobody is a manifested body of the soul of a person who’s lost his heart to the darkness – meaning, half a person. Blargh, I’m not good at explaining this, it is very complicated, you need to play the game or read about the game to understand it), and him not knowing his real identity, who he truly is, only to find out in the end he is actually “half a person” (he is the protagonist, Sora’s Nobody), that he has to reattach back to Sora’s body and complete him – that everything that he’s gone through, are fake, and based on Sora’s memories as well a an illusion created by another power. Which literally, makes him a nobody. He had to come to terms with the fact that the friends he had does not exist, and that he is face with the issue of being gone forever, just to serve his purpose. But he realizes in the end that he doesn’t really “die” when he completes Sora, he lives on, though not humanly, but in the heart of Sora – a heart of humanity, which more aptly defines the humankind than humans themselves, who’s lost their hearts. All the wretchedness that are swirling in dear Roxas “heart” (he isn’t supposed to have a heart, but he doesn’t understand why he could feel if he doesn’t have a heart – it is due to something special about the protagonist), I can feel it churning in my spirit.
Joe Hisaishi, Yoko Shimomura, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kazuhiko Toyama etc. These people, they are humans who restore the human in humans. What makes us humans who we are, and seperate from the animals, is the spirit of humanity. Humans have now lost their humanities to selfishness and pursuits of other things superficially more important than their hearts. Music has the power to thaw these frozen humanity shunned away from selfishness. In this age and day, especially in the Asian society, we are made to follow many things, and be who we don’t want to be. We’re made to conform to other factors, and people, and the society. We are not allowed to express ourselves quite adequately, and we’ve in a sense become robots and numbed souls that live just to flow along with the flow. And music let’s us know that our hearts still do exist, our identity, the humanity within us. Not fad music, not “popular” music, but simply music that makes us feel, regardless of the genre. Music speaks of things we do not speak, music touches on personal issues we do not share, and this is how powerful is, it is the blood of humanity.
Argh, I cannot control my tear ducts, the delirium, the way Shimomura’s music lead me to escapades away from reality. I aspire, whole-heartedly, to do this to people. I want to restore humanity, I want the world to know that what’s important isn’t what everyone can gain, but what everyone can feel. Also, giving and receiving tangible possessions isn’t the most important, but the intangible gifts you give along, that is most significant. More importantly, giving is simply receiving, and receiving is giving – it is a pair of siamese twins that basically is the foundation of love, humanity. Like how Pastor Kong will always say, “you can give without loving, but you cannot love without loving”.
Forgive me for the incessant word vomit going on and on about music. But sometimes, once in a while, you need to seriously rekindle the human within yourself, and ask yourself, have you been living a life, or have you been living a routine? Are you being human, or just a robot who’s constantly trying to accompish task after task? Most importantly, when you’re in a crowd of people, do you still feel alone? People always struggling to fit in, they do not understand how significant they are themselves, music asks you, are happy not being yourself?
I don’t just want to be a musician, I want to change lives.
Here is one of my favourites from Yoko Shimomura, it is called Fantasia Alla Marcia :
Fantasia alla marcia for piano, chorus and orchestra – Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Feel inspired, and see visions.
2 Comments
October 25, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Though not sobbing uncontrollably, i feel like, i don’t know. I can almost remember the days when i left Legend of Mana on, just to hear the Domina theme. Yes, very silly i know, but that is how these music have impacted us(?) gamers. As a once passionate RPG player, i have quite thoroughly played through most RPGs available on the playstation platform. My friend, Vernon once asked me “Aiyo, why you like RPG so much? Dota rocks man, and cs too.” But of course, i couldn’t give him a satisfying reply. Though, i can say that one of the factors that kept me immersed in the games was the music. You readers might now know, but games can have fabulous music, i tell you. These music amplifies what the game is trying to express, and expressify(got this word meh?) the storyline. Then again, some of you might say “Aiya, all the composers have to do is just to produce a tracklist mah. Then the game producers will see fit to how the music is used in the game. It’s all about coincidence that the music fit so well into the game lah.” That is another wrong misconception. These people, the composers ; they love the games, the story, as much as they love their music. Coincidence might play a small part in fitting the storyline, but it is actually the composers themselves, who first loves the story, then meticulously design the music for the game. Just look at Nobuo, conducting his own piece by an orchestra, at the end of the Tour de Japon concert. You will be able to tell how much the man loves what he does. Okay, enough about games. Joe Hisaishi is another amazing man who produces himself, for animated films, and for singers. His works have a style and soul of his own. You will usually be able to recognise a piece by him just by hearing the intro or a small portion of the music if you are familiar with Joe Hisaishi. The music are of course, marvelous. Then there is Yasunori Mitsuda, who have produced music for games like Chrono Cross, or the more popular Xenosaga trilogy. Not lefting out Yoko Shimomura, who have produced music for games like Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Mana(!!one1!).
I could go on and on, but if a picture embodies a thousand words(which according to Sae, is quite technically incorrect), and music illustrates a million pictures, then a video with music could repsent a thousand pieces of music. Whatever, i don’t know what am i saying anymore. Here is one of the composition from Joe Hisaishi, titled Mononoke Hime. Let the video itself do the talking.
October 25, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Sorry. I left out a couple of words in the line “Joe Hisaishi is another amazing man who produces “MUSIC FOR” himself, for animated films, and for singers.” Hah.