Today, on the last day for this week's GameOn, I am going to be talking about the master, the legend, Nobuo Uematsu.
Even if the name Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫) might be unfamiliar, it is near impossible that anyone hasn't heard of the game Final Fantasy. Uematsu was working at Square as a side-job composing simple tunes for games like 3D World Runner and Rad Racer. Square was at a time where it couldn't keep up in the game industry and soon had to file for bankruptcy. When director Hironobu Sakaguchi was asked what kind of game he wanted to make, he replied "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story." (Final Fantasy Retrospective - Gametrailers.com) So artist Yoshitaka Amano and music composer Nobuo Uematsu with director Hironobu Sakaguchi prepared themselves and worked on what the believed to be their "final" game at Square. What seemed like the end for the company was actually the beginning of the industry's most successful RPG series. And so it began:
Source: Youtube Channel Artificialraven
Uematsu's music is more than just background music, it's an experience in itself. His compositions are known throughout the world to those who don't even play videogames. His music captures the audience at an emotional level known to move those through melody itself. If you want a battle theme, he'll make it upbeat and exciting. Is there a need for a touching piece for a dramatic scene? He'll do that too with the most simplest structure. Even if there are those of you who may not think he's the best or even like his music, it is undeniable that he is one of the most influential men in the videogame industry and in music.
Source: Youtube Channel Akumarujr
The first piece of music I ever heard of Uematsu is 3D Runner (though I didn't know it was him until much much later) but didn't hear any of his compositions for Final Fantasy until Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy 2 in America). I listened through the music from FFIV (FF2 in US) and FFVI (FF3 in US) as a child by watching my father play through the games and always remembered how beautiful the music was. When I was a freshman in high school, I messed around on the keyboard my grandmother bought for me a lot and always tried to play the Overworld theme from Final Fantasy VI. Believe it or not, but that's how I first began taking piano a bit more seriously and learned how to play:
Source: Youtube Channel SupraDarky
This single song alone has been one of the most influential piece of music in my life, no lie. I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano since I was four years of age from hearing my father play it whenever we went to my grandmother's house. Because of complicated issues and such, I was never given lessons. My grandmother always encouraged my curiosity towards the piano and bought me a small Casio and then in Jr. High a Yamaha PSR-240 (which I still have and play with almost daily). The music from Final Fantasy VI were always the songs I aimed at playing along with whenever I had free time. Back then, it was just for fun. Now, it's still just for fun, I've gotten better, and it has a possibility of directing me towards a career in music composition. It's just amazing that I was able to do all of that on my own without someone teaching me. This is probably one of the reasons why I respect Nobuo Uematsu so much. I did research on him years after I started playing the piano and found out that he was self-taught in piano and music as well.
Source: Youtube Channel itsuki31
Although most of Uematsu's compositions sound Classical, he is known to be diverse in various genres of music such as Orchestral, New Age, electronic, rock, symphonic rock, and neo-classical metal (Wikipedia). His music is tied to classical music so much because of how popular his piano pieces are.
Source: Youtube Channel VideoGameMusicCenter
The music has a way of capturing the experience within the game and suck the players into it that keeps them interested and enthralled. My parents have told me (and they still do) that music is an incredibly important aspect in visual entertainment that should never be overlooked (television, movies, videogames, etc.) and that it sets up everything the audience will get out of the experience from watching/playing. Whenever I mention videogame music, my father would always point out that Final Fantasy VI had the best videogame music he ever heard from all the games he's played and that the composer was a genius (he doesn't know his name, just that he's a genius). It was always this piece that he loved the most other than the overworld theme:
Source: Youtube Channel contrafool
Other than composing music for Final Fantasy games, Uematsu has composed for animés, made an album not game related, and toured around with the Black Mages playing rock-ish renditions of his Final Fantasy music with him on keyboard.
Source: Youtube Channel anthemis
Truth to be told, I'm actually working on a Final Fantasy music project and planned it out 3-4 years ago. Right now, I'm still debating whether to do it all at once or wait for my skills in music to get better first. Anyways, there is no need for me to ramble on about this great man, because most of you (if not all) should know who he is already and probably have listened to his music before. I'm hoping to have the opportunity to meet Nobuo Uematsu and maybe even get to know him. I feel like I could learn a lot just from talking to him. He is definitely one of the biggest influence in my work in music. I leave now with a few more of his music. But before I do, I highly recommend watching the Retrospective of Final Fantasy on Game Trailers.com. It talks about the history of the company and games of Final Fantasy and has some insights about Nobuo Uematsu.
Source: Youtube Channel Phason9
Source: Youtube Channel FFMusicStation
Source: Youtube Channel Merhawk102
Haha, I still remember the first time I watched the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Trailer and said to myself "WOW, this sounds like something Nobuo Uematsu would write". I look at the caption below the video and it said "music by Nobuo Uematsu".
No comments:
Post a Comment