Happy November, listeners! I hope that it was stellar and the beautiful fall is drifting into a clear and ivory winter 
For this month’s episode, we jump into a 1995 score that made a huge impact in the VGM community, if not as a breakout hit, then as a cult classic. The game is EarthBound and its score was composed by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu (”Hip”) Tanaka! So excited, can’t wait to talk with you all about it!
We also have guests on the show! The Canadian VGM jazz combo, “The Runaway Five” is on the show to talk with us about their group, their connection with EarthBound and we get to hear some of their music! To boost this concept up, our big idea is the jazz combo!
Definitely leave your comments on the post - always love hearing from you!
Have a fantastic December, see you at the end of the month
Kenley
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24 - Live at the Chaos Theatre... The Runaway Five!:
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Happy October! Episode 23 of “Into the Score” tackles an incredible score by composers Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto… it’s called “Final Fantasy Tactics.” It was released for the Sony PlayStation by Squaresoft in 1997 and it is a story of complexity, drama, love and the strive for goodness in the world - not one that you want to miss!
In this episode, we continue the second part of our study of the symphony orchestra, as well as concepts of tone colour, musical texture and thematic pairing!
The two documents that I discussed in the show are below and free for you to download!
Final Fantasy Tactics - Thematic Study
Final Fantasy Tactics - Sound Test Listing
Thanks for listening! Enjoy!
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23 - Symphonia Ivalice:
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Good evening, listeners!
After a month of traveling and then a month of research and recording, Episode 22 of “Into the Score” has finally arrived! This month, we chronicle Ko Otani’s moving and emotional score to Sony’s “Shadow of the Colossus” for the PlayStation 2. In the episode, we look at it’s quasi-sequel “Ico” as well as the origins of the symphony, with the Baroque Era in particular!
Emotionally, this episode tries to unravel how the music fits into the game; but also, how the absence of music fits in as well. We look at the sparseness of the environment and the grandeur of each colossus - this is not an episode that you’ll want to miss!
For the dictation of which music plays for which cutscene and colossus, the file is down below!
MusicColossus.txt
For the shownotes, just click on shownotes!
Stay tuned for next month’s episode, studying Square’s 1997 PlayStation release of “Final Fantasy Tactics,” with a thrilling, epic and unbelievably skillful score by Hitoshi Sakimoto!
Cheers!
Kenley
22 - Symphony of the Colossus:
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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
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21 - Professor Layton and the Musical Podcast:
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Good evening, everyone! I hope that everyone is excited for Episode 20 of “Into the Score!” It’s been a while coming, but for some crazy reason, this episode took me a long time to write, even though it’s 1/4 of the length of the last episode! In which case, it’s here and I hope that everyone is pumped!
In tonight’s episode, we engage the 1996 collaboration of Nintendo and Square for their SNES release of “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars” with a terrific score by Yoko Shimomura! While the game has a ton of terrific original music, we largely study the quotation of the older musical themes in this new game… linking the old with the new!
This release is also correlated with the SM:RPG tribute album “Heavy Troopa is Ready to Launch” put on by GameMusic4All.com and it’s definitely worth checking out! For tonight’s arrangement portion, we hear from Jeremy Robson and his 3-piece medley for orchestra called “Three Mushroom Dances.”
Enjoy, it’s a good’er!
Kenley
Enjoy and always remember to leave comments!
Until next time!
PS: Information on Yoko Shimomura’s bio was taken from the wiki on her, found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Shimomura
20 - The Music of the Mushroom Kingdom:
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