Hello, listeners!
After a long break from ITS, it’s back with Episode 21, studying the 2008 release of “Professor Layton and the Curious Village!” It’s developed by the folks at Level 5 and scored by Tomohito Nishiura!
In this episode, we study concepts like the waltz, variations on the beat as well as the historical style of “bal-musette,” which took place in turn-of-the-century France (turn of the 19th-century, not the one that just passed!).
The trailer is below:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29896.html
Also, two examples used in the episode aren’t cited, so I’ll cite them here:
“Tiger Track” from “Eureka SeVeN OST” and it’s performed by KAGAMI.
“Variations on a Rollicking Tune” by Jack Sirulnikoff
Alright, enjoy the show!
Kenley
shownotes
Yo Kenley!!!
Good podcast man!!! One of my favorite games on the DS!!
hey there, keyofmasterblade!
Thanks for listening and yes, “Professor Layton” is one of my fave DS games too… put it down within a week… couldn’t put it down… unless I got stuck
Thanks for the comment!
Please… you are a doing a huge service to the music community. Keep it up!
I still think if you want to make your site “definitive” you need to cover “Ys: Book 1 and 2″ for the Turbo-CD. It’s interesting not because of any musical quality (although there is plenty to be had) but because it is one of the first games to use true cd quality sound on a home console. The really nifty animated opening is also a plus: check this game out if you have any desire to know more about the history of music in games and rpgs!
Were you saying your game of the year is “Crisis Core” btw?
Since you mentioned 20th century contemporary classical in the show, I just wanted to recommend a really fantastic book called “The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” by Alex Ross. Its a beautifully written narrative of the last century expressed by the composers who lived through it, combining biography, history and musicology with masterful prose and a deep love of the subject.
If you’re interested, there’s a segment of Authors@Google where Ross gives a rather nice speech about the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOSZ4BqQ4Og
I highly recommend it.
Hey everyone - thanks so much for listening and your comments on the show!
@Jisho - Thank you for such kind words, the music community deserves an academic and down-and-dirty study of what these composers do and the medium to which the music serves. I wrote a very short work called “About ‘Into the Score’ - Thoughts on Video Game Music” at the top of the page (on the tab) and I think that it really speaks to that notion… speaking of that notion…
@secret bass - wow, long-time listener, thanks for sticking around
AWESOME find with the Alex Ross commentary. I love that he talks about “Classical music isn’t what music is, it’s what composers do” and I think that concept really speaks to music from video games. It’s about applying ideas and mixing with them through time and style to create this incredible cutting-edge product, which he (Alex) is talking about in his narrative! I think that I’m going to pick up this book… thanks for the heads-up!
back @Jisho - yeah, all about the FFVII:CC… totally loved that game, really enjoyed the story, graphics, gameplay and engine and of course, the score. When it was first announced, I was really interested to see how the composer would mix the old with the new, but Ishimoto did a really nice job. I think that I’m going to do a show on it near the end of the year…
With regards to the Books of Ys, I juuuuuuust discovered them a little while ago, but haven’t played them yet. The music is wonderful, but I’ll have to play through it first!
Hi again Kenley;
Another good show - I really enjoyed Professor Layton, and some nice accordions make it even better.
I wanted to share a thought that came to me recently in the car - there hasn’t been a show on Hitoshi Sakamoto yet, there? The obvious choice for a score to delve into would be FFXII, though he’s also done great work on the FFT series, Vagrant Story, Odin Sphere, and a bunch of other games… and I’ve just noticed he did the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles which I’m really looking forward to. As for musical concepts to tie in, one thing that’s always stood out about his work is how very orchestral it is compared to most video game music; less melody-driven, and more about swapping themes around through various instruments and creating appropriate moods. Anyway, just an idea for consideration.
Also, in a reply to an earlier comment of mine, you talked about picking up the piano scores for the Chrono games - they are indeed awesome. I’ve managed to collect sheet music books for most of the major Square games but haven’t seen much else out there. Have you come across any other piano books for game music?
Kenley,
I am an avid listener to your podcast, but there’s a lesser-known video game that I think you should tackle and has an AMAZING score. That video game is called Legend of Legaia, and like Final Fantasy VI for you, LoL sparked my interest in video game music. Michiru Oshima, I think, is the composer. Amazing. Anyone who loves Final Fantasy music should look this up. I’ll keep listening, though, because I love your podcast, and your insights into video game music help in my pursuit of that career. Keep it up!
P.S. I loved the Metroid and Final Fantasy VII episodes!!
I just _have_ to jump on that comment of Ben’s about an episode on Final Fantasy XII. I always feel it has a most unique, modern sound, owing some to John William’s Star Wars, even to outright sounding like A New Hope once in a while- which is interesting as the opening video as shown on youtube (don’t have a PS2) aesthetically reminds me of SW as well. But it is also composed harmonically out-of-the-vgm-box (excluding things like Shadow Hearts et al from the imaginary ‘box’), which would be a worthwhile topic to talk about. Same goes for the subtle allusions to the game’s theme.
By the way, I have noticed that quite a few of the comments deal not with the respective present episode but with the podcast in general- …
Hey there, team - awesome discussion in the comments going on, I hope that we keep this discussion going!
Ben - if you want a Sakimoto episode, you may have a little bit of a wait, but it’s coming up. It won’t be the one coming out soon, but the one after that. Ben/Onto, sadly, it is not for FFXII - though, I do love the score to the game. It is quite “outside the VGM box” in just being more cinematically-scored rather than the formula of video game music (which I love, it’s just that FFXII is different). One thing that I love about Sakimoto is that he really knows how to work with orchestral tone colour… for example, the Imperial Theme and the theme of Archades… same melodic content, but totally different colour, you know?
Re: Piano books… I think that Squaresound.com has a pretty solid collection of music books. Most are Square, though… I’ll keep my eyes peeled
Josh - good call on the “Legend of Legaia”, I haven’t played too much of it, but I definitely remember it… PS1, right? I should get my hands on that… good find!
Keep it up, guys! Love to hear your thoughts!
I suppose another game franchise worth noting is the Fire Emblem franchise. Especially Sacred Stones for the GBA or Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn for the Gamecube/Wii respectively. Those are good scores too.
But Legend of Legaia (PS1) is still my favorite. Hope to hear one on it soon! 
Good show. I was hoping you would talk a little about Nishiura’s other works; though he was definitely aiming for the French style with Layton’s soundtrack, it’s clear that the guy’s got a thing for that sound in general. Witness things like Palm Brinks from Dark Cloud 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q4QXxtQmlc
And not quite the same, but still accordion-centric Queens from the first Dark Cloud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEi8wPBx2SA
I’ve been a fan of his since the first Dark Cloud. And the games were good too.
Late, but I’ve been doing some catch up with your podcasts.
Definitely Tomohito Nishiura. I own Dark Cloud 2 (Major fan of the OST) and some of tracks have a great resemblance to Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I myself haven’t purchased the game, but I will now because knowing that PL&TCV had Tomohito Nishiura as its composer.
Really enjoyed this podcast!
hey, yet another very good podcast. One thing I wonder: you say that all pieces of the games fit: artwork, design, music, making it a work of art. From the composer’s perspective, it is still interesting to notice how the concept allows to shape the music. Originally, composing puzzle music is an unspecific task, and just like the generic ambient music surrounding tetris-style games, or that of those like picross, the composer is likely hard to come up with something interesting. The scenario of St Mystere allows the music to “dock” at the epoch and give a coherent, natural surrounding to embed the puzzles into, even though it is quite unlikely that a whole village could be made up of puzzlemakers.
What I aim at with this is the following: the sheer coherence of the setting makes it a legitimate surrounding to the puzzles. Quite the trick to remember.
Do you know if it is possible to find sheet music of the song played in the trailer for the Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel game?
Hey Alec,
Thanks for writing - to be honest, I doubt it. However, I’m sure that somebody has painstakingly transcribed a MIDI version of it. From that, you could boost it into a notation program like Finale/Sibelius and print off the parts. I can’t promise you that they’d be right, but you never know!
Let me know how it goes!
Cheers,
Kenley
Hey, It’s nice to stumble upon a good blog like this one. Do you mind if I used some of the information here, as long as I give you a link back?
Hey man, you can totally link back, as long as you aren’t spam
PLEASE PUT THE MUSIC OF PROFESSOR LAYTON FOR VIOLA! Thank you. PROFESSOR LAYTON RULES!!!!!
I love your podcast!
But uh… where are the shownotes?
Please tell me. Thank you!