(As this is a response to Gideon’s Editorial ‘Context is Everything’, I highly recommend you read (and enjoy) it first. His insights and the personal expressions of the composers are well worth your time.)
Before I begin, I want to make a confession. I have no idea what the name ‘Auld Lang Syne’ means. Worse, I can’t even tell you a single line of the lyrics. Can’t name the composer. Don’t even know what language it’s from. All I know is that it’s a song traditionally (perhaps even compulsively) sung each New Year’s Eve, or at least hummed drunkenly as the balloons fall and the fireworks go off. Until I was at least fifteen years old, it didn’t even have a name as far as I was concerned. It was just ‘The New Year’s Song.’ I still don’t care to learn the lyrics, either. They don’t really matter in the context with which I associate the tune.
What the heck does this have to do with video game music – and you know it does, right? Because the context of this site is video game, anime, chiptune and other nerdly-type music…So where exactly am I going with this?
Gideon’s piece stipulated that: ‘listening to an original score for a game without seeing/playing it is like ignoring the lyrics to a song.’ If we are to take that to heart, then what I’ve just said about ‘Auld Lang Syne’ implies I do not appreciate it all that much. I could look up the information (and did, but only out of curiosity just now), but no amount of background knowledge of the song will change the fact that, to me and so many ‘ignorant’ others, it’s the ‘New Years Song.’ In this very first example, music has been stripped of almost all original context and imbued, through cultural dissemination, with a whole new one. I’ve no idea how or why. Maybe some old Scot sang it on New Year’s once and the idea stuck. Sometimes it’s that simple. But we’ve forgotten the lyrics, most of us. It’s still a very appreciated song. And now you know why I used that image, despite it having nothing to do with video game music. I placed it in my own context and (hopefully) made it work.
I have no idea what these dudes are singing half the time, but Ensiferum seriously rock.
As well as being a game music nerd, I’m a metalhead, particularly the Scandinavian melodic stuff. I also like J-Pop and Russian folk music. The fact that you can find all three in game music is an article for another day. Regarding Gideon’s significance of lyrics, I think you can see where this is heading. Perhaps there’s a difference between ‘ignoring’ and ‘not understanding,’ but the lyrics aren’t exactly a priority when I listen to things in languages I don’t understand. I believe the music is its own language, and I know I’m not the smartest person in the world to have expressed that sentiment. But I can try to put it clearly enough, and I’ll do so using Gideon’s terms (albeit in a new context): you can ignore the lyrics to a song and still enjoy it. By extension, if that’s like ‘listening to an original score for a game without seeing/playing it,’ you can still enjoy that too. You can augment it with your own appreciation, your own ‘take.’ You can, in essence, put it into any context you like and still enjoy it. Or ruin it – if you happen to associate a certain game soundtrack with someone special who just dumped you. Extreme example, but not utterly absurd.
I could continue this piece simply by quoting Gideon and responding (which I’ve already done, obviously) but that would actually be agreeing with his editorial by moulding to its context. Certainly, I would like to quote more of it as I proceed, but I want to make clear: this is not an attempt at falsification. In fact, most of what Gideon’s article stated borders on the obvious, and the opinions of the composers themselves are pillars against which I do not intend to butt my head. After all, I’m a writer, and you’d better believe I think my intentions when I write are important. Possibly even paramount. How can I be ‘wrong’ about my own words? I might have the facts misplaced and my opinion could be logically unsound, but my intention is impossible to refute, even if I’m lying.
But that’s a mess right there. It really doesn’t tell you anything about what I’ve written other than you’re just going to have to trust me. Or don’t. You still read it, still have to make something of it. And I hope you do, because that’s the agreement we made when you started reading what I’ve written. I make it but it’s up to you to interpret it. Once I’ve clicked ‘publish,’ it’s out of my hands and onto your screen. Sure, I can edit it and add responses and clarifications, but that won’t change what you’ve read. At this very moment, what I’ve written stops being mine and becomes yours. Congratulations. And sorry.
Naturally, this transference applies to music as well. I have the utmost respect for composers; I wouldn’t be writing for this site if I didn’t. Some are virtually heroes to me, or at least the fan in me, who isn’t having a good time right now. But something needs to be said regarding authorial (or compositional) intention: it is not the end of the story. As I said above, once you hear a piece of music, it’s yours. Do with it what you will. Allow the composer to influence that, certainly, and any other context from which it came (for example, a particularly annoying boss fight), but you are not obliged to leave it there.
I understand that is not what Gideon was arguing either, but the article ‘Context is Everything’ hints very strongly that he means the original context, and that’s an absolute with which I must take exception.
Not only is authorial intention not the end of the story, it doesn’t even have to be the beginning. It’s a good start, but just as good is you hearing the music and liking it even if you haven’t played the game. If anything, that might sell one more copy of the game. Composer’s happy, company’s happy, you’re happy. And even if not, if you like that music, you’ll keep listening to it. One way or another, from one start or another.
Wait, where's that big katana? The long silver hair? That's not Sephiroth!
Perfect example: One. Winged. Angel. Oh man, what RPG gamer doesn’t have something to say about good old Sephy’s penultimate battle and its chorus in Final Fantasy VII? In its original context, ‘One-Winged Angel’ started playing as Sephiroth, now transformed into something like a God and ready to destroy your plans for tomorrow permanently, descended from the heavens sporting seven wings and a whole heck of a lot of hit points. Awe-inspiring stuff. No argument whatsoever. But that sense of awe conveyed by the music is not limited to a single fight in one game. It is now “Sephiroth’s Theme,” and people are still performing “One-Winged Angel” live, arranged and rearranged, and you can be assured a good number of the audience members have only the vaguest idea what ‘Safer Sephiroth’ might be. Personal anecdote time: to test the power of that particular tune (and certain other game music), I like to drag non-gamers along to orchestral performances to watch their reactions. I am sure you can imagine the looks on their faces when the choir hits stride. It’s a game music cliché by now, but “One-Winged Angel” does ‘stand as tall out of context.’ And were it the exception to the rule, we wouldn’t have game concerts at all. And this site would be a game review site with some focus on the music as it functions within the game context. I, for one, am very thankful it is not. I don’t even play many games.
That might seem a blasphemy of sorts, particularly if you subscribe to Gideon’s apparent school of thought. Personally I think a musically-inept writer such as myself thinking he has the right to talk about music at all is worse, but I do love this music. Passionately. I come to it as a fan, occasionally informed, often happy to just listen and comment. I also come to it as a writer, or more specifically, a critical reader, who believes that the artistic creative process never actually stops. An academic word for this is ‘dialogue’ – the creator, the creation and the appreciator are constantly working together to form ‘the experience.’ In that light, the original context (a video game) is an important but not pivotal component in the triangle – it stimulates the creator (composer), saturates the creation (original sound track) and situates the appreciator (you and me).
Lofty stuff, and I feel a bit dirty just saying it. After all, as Gideon pointed out: “With amazingly few exceptions, scores are written for their subjects after – at the very least – the basic concept is fleshed out.” In other words, the context came first, and the score conforms to it. We need a soundtrack, it has X themes, Y settings, Z characters. Scenarios. Battles. Events. Get to it or you’re fired. At heart, composing (and most art creation these days) is a business. The context for the composer is almost always the most significant influence on the work at hand, and the composer will generally believe that the work is best appreciated in that context. This makes sense! That’s the ‘stimulate and saturate’ part. But we’re not the composer of the piece, nor are we the director. We’re the listeners. That’s all we can really do with this original piece of music – to do any more (arrangement, for example) is to make it ours, and thus not the original anymore. As listeners, our appreciation is situated by not only the context (the game) but also the creation (the music). Both can play that role, and the impact of either is often dependent upon how well one functions isolated from the other. At the risk of mutilating a mummified horse, I’ll point out that the Ys series has had some shockingly bad games and almost polar opposite (in terms of quality) soundtracks. That music continues to be a part of my life; the games from which they come are best left to nostalgia and maybe a heavily-reimagined remake. Conversely, I love Mortal Kombat, but I can’t really say I care much for the game’s soundtrack. (Even if we all love the now-iconic MOOOOORTAAAL KOMBAT techno song.)
"Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit...kill da wabbit?" ("What's Opera, Doc?", 1957)
Put another way: the music can become its own context. I’m not saying it’s happened all that much with video game music, and I’m not saying it will. Most game scores ‘do the job,’ especially those influenced by the haven of uninspired soundtracks, Hollywood. The derivative tendency of video game and movie music is also a debate for another day; suffice to say I find the majority of Hollywood movie soundtracks and game soundtracks that aspire to be ‘cinematic’ dull and repetitive. But on the matter of music becoming its own context: “Ride of the Valkyries.” Oh, I love the smell of Wagner taken out of context. Bugs Bunny went there when Elmer Fudd wanted to ‘kill da wabbit’; Dynamo from The Running Man used it as his theme. Most recently, it featured in Watchmen, arguably paying homage to the most well-known ‘new’ context, Apocalypse Now. “Ride of the Valkyries” belongs to all of these and yet none of them. When we hear it now, it’s used to convey a triumphant arrival of ‘the cavalry’ – not entirely unlike its original usage in Der Ring Des Nibelungen, but only thematically. We don’t need to know that to get it. And while I have my fears for the disposability of current culture, I don’t think it’s too far a stretch to see something similar happening to a tune we cannot, at the moment, completely dissociate from its context. Something from Star Wars, maybe. Sure, how about ‘The Imperial March’ someday coming to represent all things tyrannical and oppressive? If we consider this video, then it may have already begun.
But it won’t happen if we adhere to the belief that [original] ‘Context is Everything.’ I’m going to be very blunt here, even more so than usual. Context is a cage. Call that cage a cell or a crib, a room or a reservation, it’s still a cage. The original context might accommodate things made for it that have absolutely no intention otherwise, no higher aspirations, but I refuse to believe any self-respecting composer would be so myopic and unartistic with every single composition (even if a paycheck is a paycheck and eating ramen all the time sucks). But it is not up to the creator to let the creation out of that cage; he or she worked very hard to find that fit, to hide the fact that it is a cage. Sometimes, as with Bear McCreary’s Battlestar Galactica music, the creator is allowed to explore the creation’s potential and you get CD releases and live concerts; so much more than “Eddie [James Olmos] banging s%#! off stage,” to quote Katee Sackhoff’s (Starbuck) mock-ignorance. Here is a composer whose actions outright contradict the sentiment of ‘Context is Everything,’ and bless him for doing so. Bless those who made music so intrinsic to the series’ success. Now we have reciprocation: the Battlestar Orchestra – affiliated with the original context’s success but far from a mere extension of it. Were overwhelming popularity a sole reason for a TV show getting its own concerts, we’d have live performances for the music from Lost or 24…not that I can actually recall any of it right now.
And just as not every musical creation deserves that level of isolation, quite a few go unappreciated by their creators, particular the financially-minded company. Here’s where we come into play, we lovers of the creation. We who find it, take it home, give it a whole new environment and treat it in a way not even its creator could imagine. Without fan appreciation and feedback to indicate there is such a market, you wouldn’t have live concerts of video game music in the first place. Does that make the composer who composed the music for the original context wrong? Of course not. It just means that what has been composed deserves more than what it was composed for. And if there’s one thing a creator truly longs for, it’s the appreciator finding their own way to love the creation. And like I said, music composed for a specific context doesn’t always go there, but when it does, when we find a soundtrack that stands on its own, when we hear something great and wonder where it came from, and when music of any genre for any purpose stops being ‘BGM,’ it is our duty to recognise that and to take it out of the original context and bring it into a new one. Our own. And there we have almost unlimited choice, because everything is potentially a context.
[Associate Editor’s Note: Please tune in to the OriginalSoundCast, the official podcast of OSV, as we discuss this issue in further depth!]
Good points well made, a fine fine writer. Not to mention I agree.
“As well as being a game music nerd, I’m a metalhead, particularly the Scandinavian melodic stuff. I also like J-Pop and Russian folk music. The fact that you can find all three in game music is an article for another day.”
Oh, and I’m seriously looking forward to this article!
VERY fine retort. As we will discuss further in the upcoming podcast, my point was not that music cannot be enjoyed in a different context. I simply argued that in terms of proper music criticism and theory, in its original context is how it should be evaluated (read: more like the composer originally anticipated and intended his music to be experienced). Lots of other points that I will delve into further! Great discussion!
@Adam:
I’m glad you are, because it’s coming! Or, at the very least, I have plans to draw serious aesthetic lines between VGM and all sorts of other ear-candy…Thanks for reading and commenting, always appreciated and welcome. 🙂
@Gideon:
It’s your barbecue, I just brought some beer and munchies. 🙂
@Gideon
Perhaps it is that you like Western OSTs and such?
I mean, Japanese soundtracks are generally pop inspired, rock inspired, and based on catchy hooks and whatnot. I mean, I could tell you that from my collection, and not just from a generalization. The OSTs you seem to like, or scores as they are more like, are based on a bunch of things about carrying the emotion in a different way. The way that the music from Halo expresses tension is far off from the way Mitsuda tells you you’re screwed in whatever boss you’re at, for a number of reasons.
First of all, the tension isn’t really real in an RPG. It’s all waiting and such, so it isn’t quite “there” (although I do like many RPGs, and I’m playing Earthbound now and ADOOORRING it) but you still need to represent that theme.
In Halo it’s trying to be like a movie score, timing with your actions (although it doesn’t actually, afaik) and representing the threat as real and in your face, and working very vicerally.
But I think the biggest difference is the hooks in a lot of Japanese music. I mean, my favourite genres are pop music, (mostly) Japanese video game music, and prog rock, and two out of three of those are based mostly around catchy hooks and memorable segments (and in my love of prog I get caught up in the music to the same effect as with those other two) and it really shows a connection.
Perhaps that’s it. You like the movie soundtracks and western soundtracks, unlike me and Wes. Or at least so it would seem.
(sorry for the unfortunate writing skills, I hope I got my point across)
I want to clarify to any readers that I am not on the podcast. You want my feedback and dialogue regarding this idea, here’s where you’ll see it, directly responding to you. ^_^
___
Hi Samwise, thanks for commenting. 🙂
I think your idea regarding ‘hooks’ merits exploration. It might paint us as less-discerning listeners, but I’m a huge sucker for a catchy riff or rhythm. I think Japanese VGM, particularly the RPG but also other game genres, takes this idea of a hook and applies it to fairly classical modes. I guess you could look back to, say, Dvorak or Holst for a few origins of this ‘catchier’ orchestral music — both became posthumous pioneers in the movie soundtrack genre. Regarding prog rock, there’s no denying the influence of the likes of ELO on Uematsu.
I actually do like movie soundtracks and Western soundtracks, as you put it, I just dislike the tropes that have become almost copy-and-paste in various ready-made situations. This includes, I am sad to say, even something as typically awesome as the Orffian (is that a word?!) chorus a la ‘O Fortuna.’ On the other hand, I’m a huuuuuge fan of Murray Gold’s Doctor Who soundtracks, and they’re nothing if not riddled with hooks and Orffian (I am growing to like this term) chorus as the Daleks invade Earth. Are they pop? Kinda-sorta, but I think we’d be deluding ourselves if we thought we could distinguish between OSV’s sphere of coverage and ‘pop culture’ music. Yeah, I love the fact that we’re niche, but there’s something refreshing in attempting to figure out where that niche lies in the greater realm of music overall.
Getting back to my adoration of Murray Gold and Bear McCreary: I’d say that’s another point to consider regarding my general dislike of Hollywood-style soundtracks. The tv series OST, in light of its necessary length (but also repetition) has far more demand for the hook, as it is arguably far more character-driven than event-driven. Hollywood movies, weighing in at 2 hours, maybe 3, are generally event-driven. You just don’t have that long to develop a strong connection the characters. If you look at the track list for a hollywood movie OST, you’re likely to see the action scenes named, maybe a turning point or two, a few character-reflecting tracks and maybe a suite or two. A Tv series OST, on the other hand, often has tracknames that indicate a certain character’s actions or a villain/monster’s theme. The Japanese RPG, as a third angle, usually places even greater emphasis on places and fields.
With all that in mind, I’d say that my progression from loving Japanese RPG OSTs to embracing Tv Series OSTs (or at least what I consider to be the best of, of course) is far more logical than going from Japanese RPGs to western movie OSTs. The amount of time spent with the characters is far more comparable (let’s say 25 hours+), the focus is not dissimilar and the idea of the ‘season finale’ corresponds directly with the time-proven J-RPG element of the ‘end boss.’
@Wes
I can barely comment on half of that, goes to show how uneducated I am, in this area… But I will start by saying, I’ve only seen a few episodes of Doctor Who, and the theme song at the very least is amazing. I guess it’s similar in theory to John Carpenter’s use of electronics in his soundtracks, although it sounds completely different of course.
I think though, that with action first person shooters, and other such genres, attempts to emulate the films scores brings up a problem with their soundtracks: Unless the sound engineers on the project mustered up some sort of sequencing faerie magic, the music doesn’t have that timing that a movie can have. An example would be The Dark Knight’s soundtrack, Hans Zimmer punctuates all of the actions going on without missing a beat. While great atmospheric effects can be achieved, as was discussed in that interview that was just republished on Metroid Prime’s soundtracks and sound programming, that isn’t quite the same thing. And it is also composed by a Japanese man, which is an interesting point.
While, and this is personal opinion of course, Western game music often attempts to emulate Hollywood soundtracks and other such things, it misses the timing. Japanese game soundtracks revolve around setting themes, characterization, and setting/atmosphere and often does so without relying on ambient effects.
Xanadu Next is a perfect example of that, from what I’ve heard and seen. On the Western side, the most atmospheric soundtrack I can think of would be Myst, which succeeds in being absolutely desolate and alien, but I wouldn’t call it listenable outside of the context of the game, which returns us back to the original idea that Gideon was getting his ideas from Western OSTs which rely much more on the game’s context.
I don’t know exactly how this relates, but I do know it does. I’m currently playing Earthbound, and prior to playing (as in very prior as well as just before) I tried listening to some of the soundtrack. It couldn’t be done. I found what I now know as one of the (many) battle themes to be boring, and for the Onett song to be annoying. But having played the game (I just finished off Belch and am going strong!) I can say that those are two songs which I adore! Without the games context however, they didn’t mean anything, and I couldn’t even appreciate them musically.
I’d love to read Gideon’s take on my idea, since I’m sort of putting words into his mouth. Of course, I’m basing this off of the soundtracks he reviews, and his Editorial which this is a response to.
Samwise:
Can I just say, thank you for engaging with this topic; these sorts of discussions are precisely why I write, not just for OSV but anything at all, even if my long-winded style might seem a little more monologous…
Regarding Doctor Who: the original theme song by Grainer has a really interesting past, but it in itself never quite grabbed me. I mostly associate it with the low-budget pre-revival Doctor Who, which wasn’t entirely painful but certainly a different beast to the post-Buffy sci-fi/drama we have today. [another edit here post-research!] Doctor Who actually has a fairly long history of incidental music releases, but I am fairly sure this changed gears with the series’ revival, as the BBC orchestra records the majority of the NuWho (as we call it) soundscape. I really do recommend it (check out ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’ on youtube — that’s just off the top of my head).
Ah, the 80s movie synth soundtrack! Oh my dear lord, was there anything ever so horribly capable of high highs and very low lows? ‘Big Trouble in Little China’, possibly my most watched movie, has a distinct soundtrack, and Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and (okay, I know I’m risking a stoning for this one) Andrew Powell’s Ladyhawke soundtrack are all proud occupants of my playlist. But….oh, so much bad synth in the 80s…
And yet we can’t deny that led into JDK’s distinct sound. That and hair metal. But we’ll get to that. (edit: in another post — I got to the end of this and realised I’d missed it, and that there isn’t yet sufficient place for it…:))
You mention FPS and Hans Zimmer and I’m immediately thinking about Modern Warfare 2. For me, the FPS is primarily a PC experience (I know that isn’t the case for a lot of people, but bear with me), and that means turning off the music and turning on my playlist. I did it with Diablo, Starcraft, the various MMOs I’ve put myself through…Unreal Tournament (the only FPS I don’t suck at)…you name it. So I don’t consider myself the most legitimate commentator on that sort of soundtrack and its function. And, with gentle hypocrisy, I do listen to both Diablo and Starcraft music now that I’ve finished playing both. Go. Figure. But to respond directly to your point: yes. I think McCreary’s attempt to create a soundtrack that molds itself around the action with “Dark Void” was valiant and clever but ultimately let down by the game, i.e. the context (take note there, Gideon…;)).
I will confess my only exposure to Xanadu Next’s soundtrack is the soundtrack itself and the appropriated tracks used in Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki. I am utterly in love with ‘Intermission,’ which might sound funny since I confessed to being somewhat over the bombastic choir. It just works. But regarding ambient effects, something I’ve noticed when I listen to emulated OSTs from the Super famicom: every single square rpg from that time used ambient effects as tracks. Be it ‘wind’ or ‘rain’ or ‘eerie’ not-quite-music, a few replays through the likes of Chrono Trigger or FFVI will reveal fairly important scenes that have only ambient effects as the background music. I’m thinking Lavos here…
Oh, even in the JRPG scene there are OSTs that prove almost unlistenable outside of their context, be it through repetitiveness or sheer dependency upon the game. I do not deride such soundtracks at all; if they do the job, then that’s great. I’ve made fairly clear my stance there: if they can be more, then we should let them be more. No obligation on the music’s behalf either way. It’s up to us to decide whether or not that music can or should survive/thrive in and of itself. 🙂
@ Wes
Well there isn’t much more to add, haha.
I’ll say a few things though.
Vangelis’ soundtrack for Blade Runner is AMAZING, and is one of the best integrations I’ve ever seen/heard of a movie and a soundtrack.
As for Hans Zimmer, this is totally off topic, but his best was The Last Samurai, even though I know many would disagree, or at least call me a loser for liking the movie at all! But that’s neither here nor there, haha.
I’ll get in a lot of trouble for this, but I think that the soundtracks for Final Fantasies VII through X are lacking, although X is for slightly different reasons. The biggest problem with the PS1 entries, I find is that the sound quality is terrible. I don’t know about you, but the heavy use of drums in IX kills my ears, because of how bad the samples are.
And yet, Chrono Cross, and Castlevania Symphony of the Night have beautiful sound quality, across the board! Mitsuda gets away with it with Xenogears, even though I find the quality in that to be a little grating.
Anyway, what this brings me to is that I find the Super Nintendo to have one of the best sound chips out there, for multiple reasons. You talk about the use of ambience in Squaresoft RPGs of the day, and I think it is used effectively, just like Secret of Evermore, and my favourite example would be Super Metroid. Now, I’ve only played the beginning of that game, but if I remember correctly, you land your ship after escaping the exploding space-lab, and there’s simply the sound of rain. And as you enter the caverns of Zebes, the music slowly appears, and you’re completely surrounded by rock and hidden life (with the little protozoic guys scurrying away from your footsteps in the corner, I get completely surrounded by atmosphere).
Bringing up the Blade Runner love again, and finally getting to my point, is that Blade Runner and Super Metroid have similar soundtracks in the sense that they’re completely atmospheric, while still being music. The song that sticks out at me most from Blade Runner is Memories of Green, which has little siren noises and flying cars wooshing by, while being led by the soft but piercing piano. I think Super Metroid is just like that! (And that’s an impression from a brief sampling of the game, to boot!)
@Samwise:
You say not much to add, then when I check, boom! Much added. Let’s see…
re: Blade Runner — no argument whatsoever. Unlike the many iterations of the movie itself, that soundtrack was undeniably as awesome the first time as the most recent.
re: Zimmer — That’s okay, I’m utterly in love with the ‘Gladiator’ soundtrack, so we’re all permitted some Hans fandom. I also enjoyed The Last Samurai, music and movie, and that’s coming from someone whose first adult novel was ‘Shogun’ (tender age of 7, go figure); for the next ten years, I absorbed everything I could about Feudal Japan through to the Meiji period, so…yeah, I should’ve disliked Last Samurai but really didn’t. It had the best non-sex scene I wasn’t expecting and it gave the world Ken Watanabe!
re: Ps1-era FF music — having relatively recently listened to the FFVII ost, I agree with you. The ‘One Winged Angel’ people recognise is actually the arranged version found on the Reunion cd; the original is just not as epic; ‘Those Who Fight Further’ (aka saranitatakaumonotachi aka Still More Fighting) is my favourite FFVII track and its many covers and updates are well-deserved. So regarding VII, the quality is lacking (at times it’s barely above midi) but the composition is still quite solid. For IX, well, I didn’t all that much attention to the music of IX. Or the game. I mean, sure, I finished it and I spent forever-and-a-day trying to find Chocobo treasures, but other than ‘Dark Messenger,’ Feel my Blade’ and ‘Hunter’s Chance’ I really don’t recognise that many themes from it. Regarding FFVIII however, I think I’m going to disagree. ‘Liberi Fatali’ was just beautifully done, and several other tracks including ‘Movin’,’The legendary beast,’ virtually every battle theme but especially ‘The Extreme’ are all very high quality, even on the OST. I’d like to know what issues you had with X; I’m going to guess inconsistency, given that it had three clear composers working on it, but that’s just a guess…
Re: Xenogears, SOTN, CC — I hate to admit it but I see the Xenogears OST as one of Mitsuda’s weaker works (and that’s all relative, it’s still a wonderful OST). I love ‘Flight’ and of course ‘Light from the Netherworld’ but neither have the staying power of ‘Time’s Scar,’ ‘Gnosis,’ ‘Radical Dreamers’ or ‘Kaeru’s theme’ for me. Then there’s KiRite which is, to me, a whole other level. But you view Mitsuda’s oeuvre as an evolution, and he shamelessly borrowed bits and pieces from his older stuff as he went, and made them work. SOTN, well, amazing sound quality, but I’ll admit this too: I’m far more a fan of the rock music you’ll find in older (and newer) castlevania titles. Musically, SOTN was an achievement and likely Yamane’s shining moment, but for listening material, give me ‘Bloody Tears,’ ‘Vampire killer’ and ‘Simon’s Theme’ anyday.
Re: Super Metroid — That opening is one of the greatest game openings, ever. Super Metroid was my first and last Metroid game and I was hooked from the very start. The rain on Zebes, then those first few chords…good lord, that is how to start a game.
(Side note but very important: hunt down Jake ‘virt’ Kaufman’s ‘Crystal Flash’ mega-uber metal arrangement of just about every tune in Super Metroid right now if you don’t already have it. Possibly the most awesome 20 minutes of game-arrangement I possess. It’s almost better than playing the game. I even ahem hacked it into a version of Guitar Hero 2 and made it the end-theme. At 22 minutes, it deserves that status.
edit: save you the hunt:
http://www.biglionmusic.com/music/arrangements/game-arrangements/super-metroid-crystal-flash)
And yes, the SNES/Sfamicom sound chip was legendary. I have a very nifty plugin for winamp that emulates it and somehow, the original rom-music from FFVI and Tactics Ogre sits just fine next to Blue Dragon or FFXII…
And your last point: yes. Those two soundtracks are what I’d consider listenable ambience. A lot of games and music just don’t have that, at least without the full experience of the context right next to it. You can hear that opening to Super Metroid and with the mix of sound effects and developing music, get a pretty good picture of what’s going on thematically. I’m not saying sound effects are necessary, but used right, they sure don’t hurt.
So we come full circle: you can’t enjoy the music in context all the time, because while you might like to watch a movie multiple times, I think you’d be silly to do it *purely* for the music each time. Besides, if the music were meant to be appreciated in context, we wouldn’t even have the OST, or as they called it in the Land Before Internet, ‘Original Movie Soundtrack.’ Even if they originally served the purpose of re-evoking the original context, you could say the separate release of the music of a movie’s soundtrack was like letting a genie out of its bottle, albeit one less apt to grant wishes and more likely to please those for whom it was made…
@ Wes
FFX: It is a mix between the different composers, yes, but also just that I find the instrumentation sometimes suspect. I only watched my brother play through the game once, and don’t have much recollection, but that’s just my prime memory.
Virt: That’s great! Thank you for hooking me up with that, I’ll check it out 🙂