Good evening, listeners! While Manitoba may be hit with a torrent of snow, thaw (and subsequent flooding), the March episode of “Into the Score” is finally up, focusing on Takeharu Ishimoto’s dynamic score to the 2008 release of Square Enix’s “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.” In this episode, we focus on the music from the game, the legacy of Final Fantasy VII and it’s compilation titles, with Crisis Core receiving particular focus. Musically, we’re going to to work on thematic material from the game, remixing, the string quartet and Ishimoto’s departure from traditional “Final Fantasy” orchestration while still staying to musically true to the series.
We ALSO have two sets of guests for this episode! Our first set are two of the higher-ups from VGM remixing community, OverClocked ReMix! To speak about remixing and OCR’s place in the VGM environment, we have founder and head of submissions, David W. Lloyd (”djpretzel”) and Larry Oji (”liontamer”), respectively.
For a roundtable to discussion to cap off this month’s show, we have Kyle Wynen and Laren McFadden from the FXN Final Fantasy XIII podcast. This discussion is insightful, exciting and musical, to say the least!
We have a great show this month, make sure not to miss it!
Kenley
shownotes
ps: shownotes will be up April 4th, 2009! Sorry!
Hey Kenley Nice podcast!! Half way there
I am excited in hearing Kyle and Lauren too!! Once again nice podcast so far..
YESS!!!!!! (Barbaric yelll!) Ive waited forever for this show. Can’t wait to listen!
I wish you did these bimonthly - ohhh so good. I’m usually more interested in the music then the interview in most shows, but the one with the OCR people was very enjoyable. Keep it up, KK.
Absolutely loved it. Its always great to hear the OCR guys on the podcast. Its a testiment to how good your show is that you score these interviews.
I giggled when you said its time to turn your brains off before the FXN section lol. I loved the episodes of the fxn podcast you were a part of btw.
Extremely interesting stuff
AWESOME podcast! Bring guests onto the show more often, you guys seem to have a lot of fun discussing music together and it’s so much fun to listen to.
Keep up the great work on the podcast!!
Thanks for all the comments and nice words, everyone! I feel like this episode really turned out well - solid interviews, a great score, good piece for analysis… life could be much worse!
Stay tuned and thanks for posting! Definitely makes me a happy researcher
Kenley
You really couldn’t think of any other piano solos in previous Final Fantasy titles? Right off the top of my head: Zanarkand from FFX, easily the most popular and recognizable theme from FFX, heard straight from the beginning of the game (The Travel Agency, Via Purifico, from the same game also uses heavy piano).
Final Fantasy IX: Game Over, Unforgettable has heavy piano use, Kuja’s Theme, Dark City Treno
Final Fantasy VIII: You already said Julia, Ami has heavy piano use as well, The Successor definitely
Final Fantasy V: The Day Will Come sounds like it may be piano (16bit synths, y’know?)
I say this only because you make it sound like Uematsu rarely ever used the piano. If anything, I think Takeharu captures Uematsu’s feel and style in Successor/Importance of Truth in terms of the left hand’s harmonic figures. They’re very reminiscent of the left hand part in Zanarkand.
Though, obviously CRISIS CORE has much more piano than other FF titles, I just thought it was worth mentioning that Uematsu HAS used the piano, and several times. It’s just whenever you I hear you say, “I can only think of one tune [that's solo piano]“, I’m likely to suggest you should go back through the soundtracks again.
Anyway, this ended up being longer than I thought.
*also,
string quartet + piano is a PIANO Quintet,
string quintet is, well, 5 string players
Good show Kenley, one of my favorite games and most memorable scores.
In the show you were wondering where “A Moment of Courtesy” plays. It plays in the scene where Zack meets Cloud for the first time.
Thanks for the further comments!
FinalFanatic - definitely a fair point, “To Zanarkand” shouldn’t have been ignored and I feel quite embarrassed that I didn’t mention it (actually, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t mention it specifically… man, I have to play that game again) and “Via Purifico” (which is also quite stunning).
To be fair, though, you’re talking about 7 pieces in a volume of hundreds and hundreds of musical works. While Uematsu does use piano, I still think it’s fair to say that he rarely uses piano, simply be the sheer volume of works where there are many more instruments. Comparison to the solo piano in CC, well… I don’t really think there’s a comparison. Your points are definitely valid, I just don’t agree.
(And yes, it is a piano quintet, my bad).
And while we’re being nitpicky, Masashi Hamauzu wrote “Travelling Company/Travel Agency…”
James - THANK YOU for finding that spot, you rule! I appreciate your attention to detail
I thought I should clarify: I don’t disagree with your comment on CRISIS CORE’s use of piano in comparison to the other titles, it is just there is a clear difference between 7/100s+ and “only one”. I felt that both representations paint distinctively different pictures that I felt was worth mentioning. I do have a larger comment on the comparison of Final Fantasy music pre-Playstation and post, but that’s simply a separate essay in-and-of itself!
Really, this is all a matter of peer review. To be frank, and speaking as a composer and (reluctant) member of the musical academic community: it is really easy to pass off this podcast as an “academic study of music” when it does not face any sort of verification or peer review.
There is no mistaking what is meant behind the “academic study of music” label, and though I’m sure a large portion of your audience is made up of people who have little to no academic or classical background or training in music, that doesn’t change that fact. Simply put, my gut reaction was to “correct” your assertion, and looking back at the language used in my previous post, I’m sure I could have been less off-putting.
And, if you will allow me to be even more frank, I personally do not think the content in this podcast meets musically academic standards. Again, I have seen the comments left by visitors here and on iTunes and see you have garnered an audience, but my assumption is that the majority of your audience — fans of video game music they may be — do not necessarily qualify as a peer review board within musical academia.
I think you should strive to go even further in depth behind the musical aspects of the score; you do a fair job discussing the score in a general Layman’s sense, but there is so much more you could discuss, for the sake of your mantra and label for this podcast — and this is coming from someone who has studied the score to CRISIS CORE.
(Here I go again rambling!)
I hope you take this more as constructive criticism from a fellow musician and member of “musical academia” (I also hope I was more clear in my language). Good luck with the show!
Hey man, no worries, I am all about the constructive criticism! I mean, before all study and publishing, the material and analysis has to be right for the medium to be taken seriously, so I thank you for your review and corrections! (being totally serious and, not at all, sarcastic).
I agree with your point of “7/100+ and ‘only one’” - that’s fair. After listening to the show again, it does kind of come off that way. I’d love to hear your “pre/post-PlayStation FF music,” commentary… I have ideas on it too, it’d be fun to swap notes
Commenting on your comment (lol), you can be as frank as you want because it’s an open discussion, which I think is part of the fun of the podcast/Web 2.0 medium. The show doesn’t pass a “peer review” board and there is WAY more that I could do, but I think that it would have negative repercussions by being to exclusive to JUST the music academy. This isn’t to say that I don’t do independent research that doesn’t make it onto the show (say… key relationships between thematic work in FF6, or something, just an example), but the podcast does study a lot of the wheels and cogs within a game’s musical score. Albeit, some more than others, but I try to keep it thoughtful and authentic while still making it accessible for people to listen and learn from (my training as a music teacher has a hand in that).
If you ever want to contribute to making the show more in-depth and authentic, then definitely send me a note and let’s talk… really. I’d also love to see some of your notes from Crisis Core as well!
Thanks for your criticism and listenership!
Kenley
Hey, I realized it’s been a while since I commented here. This was another great episode! I haven’t played CC since I don’t own a PSP, but I have to say, I think I might prefer the new version of Aerith’s theme to the original. There’s some good stuff in there.
I also wanted to share a show idea I had while listening to my iPod this morning: Rei Kondoh’s score for Okami. In addition to being a really awesome soundtrack, there’s all sorts of potential topics lurking in there. There’s the use of tons of traditional Asian instruments mixed with more modern stuff, and then there’s the intriguing use of thematically appropriate sound effects as instruments, including things like scissors, bird chirps, and clockwork.
Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention - the link to the shownotes for this ep. currently seems to be broken. It redirects to a long URL and gives me a completely blank page.
- Ben
Hey Kenley!
Love the show, and getting antsy about when the next one will come out. I also have a suggestion for a show topic. You’ve been delving into the fantasy genre for a while now, so I thought a little science fiction music might add a little crease into the podcast. If you haven’t played Mass Effect or heard its soundtrack, it is vastly underrated and deserves at least a look at.
Hey Kenley, I’m still half way in the podcast series but I’m enjoying every single note. If I may make a suggestion…
How About Looking at Star Ocean Series? The diamond from the series was “Star Ocean: The Second Story” it was one of Enix’s Greatest RPG creation that I know. The music is absolutely phenomenal with some of my favourite battle themes, it’s also necessary to use music in the game in order to improve characters skills like listening, composition, and sense of rhythm with actual instruments. The composer Motoi Sakuraba has great experience with video game music with, The “Tales of _____” Games, The Valkyrie Profile Series [that should be another good suggestion], Mario Tennis/Golf, Golden Sun Series and of Course the “Star Ocean” Series.
I hope you can take this opinion and maybe make it into a podcast cause that would be… quite Awesome! Hope your doing great and have a Belated Canada Day!
Hey Kenley,
Are you dead? I love this podcast more than any other and I was wondering when your going to make the next episode.
Holy hell, I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes when I stumbled across this podcast, and to have it made by someone who really knows their stuff (I was initially fearful that I was going to be disappointed by the host, half expecting an enthusiatic but largely clueless sub 18 year old fanboy). But… I got this, this wonder. Not only do I get to hear the selectest bits of a field of music I love but I get a knowledgeable and insightful host that knows a good deal more than I do about the subject and isn’t afraid to pass the knoweledge on.
It still marvels me that this podcast exists.
Right, then, now that I’ve got that - probably the sycophantic thing I’ve written in a good many years - all that remains is for me to thank you and and to say that I can’t wait for the next one.
Taz
oh how I wish you did these more often! I know, it probably takes a fairly significant amount of time to put one together, but still… I long for more shows, more often! I’m not really criticizing - getting them for free as a hobby of yours is a good excuse for infrequent updates. :]
Still, anxiously awaiting the next installment!
Please can you do another Castlevania podcast mate, i liked the last one but there was’nt much to it, just a few songs.
When is the next one? its been over 3 months.
Hey Kenley, I’m not sure if you’ve done it already, but if you haven’t then i was suggesting that you might be interested in the Zelda music series…by the way the podcasts rock and i can’t wait for the next installment….Oh and about the first time the song called “A moment of courtesy” occurs is at Modeohem you are correct.
Cheers
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the comments! Lots to get back to!
G@bz - Zelda is on the horizon, no worries!
Raymond - I’m going to do another Castlevania podcast, HOPEFULLY in the near future. I’m thinking about devoting a whole episode to “Symphony of the Night,” which I think has a lot of cool stuff in it!
matt - thanks for your patience, sorry man! It’s a big effort, but I’m working on it!
Taz - thanks for your kind words! I’m glad that you’ve found something that you really enjoy, I enjoy it too! I hope that the show continues to broaden your musical mind!
windragon122 - not dead, but thanks for asking
Alexander - I’ve thought about the “Tales of” series, actually… I haven’t played them enough to really be any sort of authority on it, but hopefully soon. “Star Ocean” would be really fun too, I just need to get on it! So much to play!