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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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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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

Hey there!

Well, I’m back from Japan and the trip was a blinding success! Much to see and much to do, but now that I’m back… there is still much to see and much to do!

Thanks so much to everyone who stayed subscribed through the show’s hiatus, but now it’s back! Woot!

Up next, we have Episode 22, on Sony and Team ICO’s release of “Shadow of the Colossus,” which came out in 2005. It’s for the PS2 and the score was written by composer Ko Otani! If you want to hear more about this month’s episode, check out the podcast

Cheers as always,
Kenley

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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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

So… something happened with the last audio file and post… not really sure what, but the ending was cut off for some reason, so I’m just going to re-post the show and I really hope this works!”

Thanks,
Kenley

“Good evening, listeners of video game music! I hope that you really enjoy this episode, as it’s on my favourite VGM score of all-time, Square’s 1994 release of “Final Fantasy VI” with an epic, evocative and memorable score by Nobuo Uematsu! In this episode, we study character themes, also called “leitmotifs” and how influential they are in the score. We also see how Uematsu has taken these themes and changed their meaning according to how he’s arranged them… quite interesting stuff!

Also, lots of arrangements as well as a guest who is a phenom of a vocalist! Her name is Jillian Goldin and she is a judge at OverClocked ReMix, a ReMixer herself and also has a new album coming out on Earth Day of 2008! That’s next week! Also, she used to host VGDJ, which is the podcast that got me podcasting… quite important stuff! She’s great!

Go check her out here: http://www.jilliangoldin.com! Please buy her album, it’s wonderful.

Also, forgive the overwhelming number of “Terra”s in this episode… it’s a bit extreme and I didn’t realize it until it was done. Also, the editing isn’t as good as it usually is, heavy time constraints and even now as I’m posting this, I’m in Banff, AB, Canada with my Senior Band and Choirs… quite busy!

Enjoy and leave comments!
Kenley

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Good evening, listeners of video game music! I hope that you really enjoy this episode, as it’s on my favourite VGM score of all-time, Square’s 1994 release of “Final Fantasy VI” with an epic, evocative and memorable score by Nobuo Uematsu! In this episode, we study character themes, also called “leitmotifs” and how influential they are in the score. We also see how Uematsu has taken these themes and changed their meaning according to how he’s arranged them… quite interesting stuff!

Also, lots of arrangements as well as a guest who is a phenom of a vocalist! Her name is Jillian Goldin and she is a judge at OverClocked ReMix, a ReMixer herself and also has a new album coming out on Earth Day of 2008! That’s next week! Also, she used to host VGDJ, which is the podcast that got me podcasting… quite important stuff! She’s great!

Go check her out here: http://www.jilliangoldin.com! Please buy her album, it’s wonderful.

Also, forgive the overwhelming number of “Terra”s in this episode… it’s a bit extreme and I didn’t realize it until it was done. Also, the editing isn’t as good as it usually is, heavy time constraints and even now as I’m posting this, I’m in Banff, AB, Canada with my Senior Band and Choirs… quite busy!

Enjoy and leave comments!
Kenley

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Recorded on March 20th, 2008, this interview between “Into the Score” and “The Megas” chronicles the journey from the first track of the VGM rock band’s epic and monumental album “Get Equipped” to its release and crowd response! The album covers nearly every track from Capcom’s late-80s release, “Mega Man 2″ and is performed with cutting musical accuracy and polished with clean production in the band’s own “Dr. Light Studios.”

In this discussion, we talk about the band’s creative process, their performances, styles of writing and the eases and trials of the album, from start to finish! We also hear some of the tracks from start to finish, which is really nice!

Thankfully, it’s done. Sorry for the lateness, but after being plagued with technical difficulties (both before and during the interview), it really came together well. Thanks to the band for being on the show!

Sometimes, musicians aren’t the sharpest of folk. This is the REAL show switcheroo episode… yargh!

Hey all! This post is just a heads-up that the next show will not be with Glenn Stafford and Russell Brower, but it will actually be with “The Megas” and we’ll discuss the release of their new album, “Get Equipped.” There were a few scheduling conflicts between Blizzard and myself, so the wait is still on…

… but this is cool too.

The interview with “The Megas” has been on the backburner for a while. “Get Equipped” came out in mid-January and has been subject to an incredible amount of press and success. While there are a few reviews and interviews that highlight the album’s greatness, the interview with ITS is really about the nuts-and-bolts of the album and most importantly, the journey of making the album.

This interview was supposed to be Episode 19, but because our schedules miraculously worked out, it’s going to be this Episode 18 instead. This is just an update to let the audience know that… but you also get a sample of “Get Equipped” too… which is awesome

Game on and enjoy!
Kenley

The results are in from the “Nobuo Uematsu Arranging Competition” put on by Squaresound.com and I got 2nd place! Pretty excited about it! To hear the arrangement, click here:

http://www.squaresound.com/arrangements/competitions/uematsu/submissions/23.mp3

The first place winner was Andrew Aversa, of OCReMix and of Soundtempest.net, as well as zirconstudios.com -and for the record, he was also the project coordinator for “Voices of the Lifestream” AND has been on ITS… quite awesome. Congrats to Andrew and I hope that he has an awesome time meeting Nobuo (and will tell me all about it!)

Cheers,

Kenley

After an unbelievably long wait, Episode 17 is finally here. I can’t believe it took this long! Sorry, listeners!

However, it’s here, and that’s all that matters… right? Well! This episode covers the 1991 release of “Street Fighter II” with its score by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Yoko Shimamura, Tatsuya Nishimura and Isao Abe! Also within this episode, we look at folk music as well as ethnomusicology and we tackle a basic rock drum beat! It’s an eclectic sort of craziness so be SURE to check it out!

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After a wait that is far too long for any human being to handle, I have finally uploaded a photo stream of my excursion to “Video Games Live” in Calgary! I got a Flickr account and allowed access to everyone, so everyone can go to set and look at it. There are comments on each photo, so feel free to read them, make comments on them - it’s all good!

I have the whole adventure in many separate video clips, but iMovie does not really like my camera’s video encoding, so I have to find a way for them to get along. The audio gets cut out whenever I import a video from my camera into iMovie… if anyone has ever had this problem and can find an answer, I’d be thrilled to hear it!

Without further adieu, this is the photostream! Stay tuned for Episode 17 which should be up by next week!

Kenley

www.flickr.com intothescore’s Video Games Live - Calgary 2007 photoset

Hey there, listeners! It’s been an epic two weeks since last we spoke and there are some big announcements in the VGM community to exclaim to the world!

Online VGM arrangement community, “OverClocked ReMix” has released their most recent album project! It’s a “Radical Dreamers” arrangement album called “Thieves of Fate!” and it can be downloaded FOR FREE at http://rd.ocremix.org!

Also, the Chrono Compendium has released is first ROM Hack (editing material of a game to, essentially, create an entirely new game from old material) called “Chrono Trigger: Prophet’s Guile.” The game follows the sorcerer, Magus, as he attempts to foil Lavos, but fails and gets sent to 12,000 BC… and to the Kingdom of Zeal. It can be downloaded at the Compendium website, http://www.chronocompendium.com.

Also, SquareSound.com has a contest… one arrangement… one recording… one winner. Any piece by Nobuo Uematsu and the winner gets to fly to Chicago for a show at the concert hall, “Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds” and gets TO MEET NOBUO! Needless to say, I entered the contest, and we’ll just see what happens! Stay tuned!

The interview segment of SC is coming up, but there’s still some paperwork to be completed, Blizzard is now a big company… Anyways! The next ep of “Into the Score” follows Capcom’s release of “Street Fighter II” and we study up on ethnomusicology! Lookin’ forward to it, right on!

Kenley

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year… and Happy Birthday? I hope that everyone had a tremendous holiday season celebrating your holiday of choice, the coming of a new year and the first birthday of “Into the Score!”

On December 29th, “ITS” turned one year old, celebrating its first episode “From Silence to the Symphony” and now its 16th episode on Blizzard’s “Starcraft” aptly titled “Masters of the Craft.”

There are a lot of quotes and tidbits from this show, so here are some links to check out!

GameSpy Interview with Blizzard’s Sound Team - “Masters of the Craft”
http://archive.gamespy.com/legacy/interviews/blizzard_composers_a.shtm

Gamer Revolution: StarCraft portion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut2pxYlXK-w

Next episode, we have one of the composers on the show, Mr. Glenn Stafford! Very exciting times, so look forward to that and enjoy episode 16!

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Everything is a crystalline purity around the city of Winnipeg, with freshly fallen snow and a blanket of white that sits on the pine trees in front of the houses. Life is good!

In our next episode, we tackle “Starcraft” and celebrate the 1st birthday of “Into the Score!” On December 29th, ITS turns one! Listen along and celebrate! As well, the following episode will carry an interview with the lead composer of the “Starcraft” franchise, Glenn Stafford! To celebrate both Starcraft and the holidays, our musical selection of this very short episode will be “The 12 Days of Starcraft!” It’s only a snippet, but there are links to it all over the internet (I’ve put one below!)

If you celebrated Hanukkah between the episodes, I hope that it was wonderful and full of family and friends! Also, if you celebrated the winter solstice, I hope that the yule was good to you and full of rejoicing! If you are celebrating Christmas in the coming days, happiest of holidays and enjoy the company of those around you! If you are rejoicing in the pan-African Kwanzaa, enjoy many great celebrations!

Happiest of holidays and I will see you on the 29th! Enjoy the “12 Days of Starcraft!”

Kenley

12 Days of Starcraft 

After a brief (though unplanned) hiatus from podcasting, “Into the Score” returns with Episode 15, studying musical themes and practices that span the 19-year run of Konami’s “Castlevania” series.

Also in this episode, we study the influence the influence of Gothic and Romantic music and culture on the games as well as their ongoing prevalance in subculture today. We look at the importance of folklore, mysticism and the supernatural in the ongoing feud between the Belmont Clan and the Dark Lord himself, Count Dracula.

There is particular focus on the first two “Castlevanias” as well as “Symphony of the Night,” which was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. The composers of choice for the show are Kukeiha Club and Michiru Yamane - how did they approach the scores of the series? How are they same? How are they different?

Only one way to find out…

There is also a supplementary image regarding the focus on style and structure versus emotion and evocation in Western Music. That image can be found right here.

Enjoy the episode and always feel free to leave a comment!

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Ahoy, listeners! With only three days left until Video Games Live, I’m really excited to put out a “mini-episode” before I leave! Because I’m really interested in the personal lives of the hosts of shows that I like (and am, perhaps, a big narcissist, ha!), I’m releasing an interview that I did on the University of Manitoba radio station’s show called “F*SMAK.” It’s a program that highlights the U of M’s Faculty of Music, as well as big works from Renaissance/Baroque/Classical/Romantic/20th-Century/etc. and Jazz Repertoire! It’s hosted by Steph Davis (tuba) and Vanessa Nowastowski (French horn) and it’s on at 3:30 CST on UMFM - 101.5 on the radio and http://www.umfm.ca for some online listening!

It doesn’t really show me as a podcast host or music teacher as much, but more of a composer and a member of the Winnipeg Game Development Community (which is starting to grow, yeah!). You get to hear some of my original work for a game that’s in development and that game’s team gave the green-light for some of the pieces to be played on the podcast! Sorry that it’s in mono and 64kbps, but you’ll get to hear it!

Right on! Episode 15 is coming within the next two weeks! It’s on Konami’s late-80s release, “Castlevania” and we study Gothic art and music! It’s going to be a… howl? mwa ha ha ha ha…

… okay, not funny. Enjoy!

Good evening and a Happy Halloween to all! “Into the Score” returns with Episode 14, chronicling an independent game out of the University of South California! This diamond in the rough… is called “Cloud.”

Also in this episode, we study the practice of orchestration, we stumble upon the practice of “demoscening” and we have a guest on the show! For the first time in the history of “Into the Score,” we study a game and then interview the composer of that very game! Tonight, we interview Vincent Diamante, an adjunct professor at USC and the composer for the “Cloud” project.

We study the score then discuss it with Vincent - what it was like writing it, his thoughts on the work and what is next on the horizon! This episode is one that you do not want to miss!

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I have made the decision to switch servers for the time-being, bringing back “Into the Score” and returning to the release of episodes every two weeks. I am still part of the Betamodradio network (which has an awesome selection of VGM-related podcasts, including the VGM Megacast and the Gamewave Podcast), but I really wanted to get the show back on their air. Even though you can’t hear the two podcasts listed above, I highly recommend you subscribe to them, because they are fantastic!

Files that are supplementary materials for episodes are still down - i.e. the Shadow Man form and the Graphics for Shivers, as soon as betamod is back up, they’re all yours!

I only have 250 mbs of uploading per month, which I have exhausted except for 60 mbs, which will be for the next two episodes of the show. With that said, only Episodes 7-12 are available now, except the videos (because of the space). Episodes 1-6 + videos should be uploaded mid-November and Episodes 14, 15 and Mini03 should be released in the next 30 days! Hopefully sooner than later - Episode 14 is one for the record books!

We have an “Into the Score” premiere event - something is happening on that show that has never happened on it before… get ready!

Kenley

Good evening! After some technical difficulties on the back end of things, ITS13 is finally up! While betamodradio.com is still down, I’m borrowing some webspace from a good friend of mine at our sister site (http://www.blueandbrownbooks.com, moderated by Aaron), so many thanks for that!

This episode… (#13… not #14 as stated in the show)… is different than most others. This show is framed in the form of an interview with the project coordinator of a monolithic arrangement project of music from Final Fantasy VII called “Voices of the Lifestream.” His name is Andrew Aversa (aka “zircon”) and he is a judge from a VGM arrangement community online called “OverClocked ReMix.

This interview with Andrew Aversa was conducted in the first week of October, 2007. Together, we explore the highs, lows and everything-in -between on Day 1 of the project to its eventual release on September 14, 2007.

The entire “Voices of the Lifestream” project can be downloaded at http://ff7.ocremix.org.

For more info on zircon/Andrew Aversa, check out his website at http://www.zirconstudios.com.

For more information on OverClocked ReMix, please visit http://www.ocremix.org

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/history/index.html

Kenley

(hope the server gets online soon!)

It appears that the site is down… many sorries.  I don’t know what the problem is, but I’m talking to betamodradio (my webspace provider) and we’re going to fix it…!

 Thanks,
Kenley

 ps: as soon as it comes back up, brace yourself for Episode 14!

While I’ve scored another game since the time that I did this, I still hold a lot of the same ideals towards writing. It’s a bit of a big video, but it’s a more visual way to interact with the ideals of Thematicism and Adaptivity, which I think are kind of important!

Anyways! Enjoy!
Kenley

PS: Shivers was really released in 1996, not ‘94… which I said in the video… that’s not correct