Modus Ponens
01-27-2008, 02:42 AM
Today I went with my former roommate and fellow video game music aficionado Steve to Seattle's lovely Benaroya Hall to attend PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, as performed by the Seattle Symphony, accompanied by some choir or another (whose name we both missed. The conductor kept referring to them as a "men's choir", but there were quite obviously women present). Anyway, it was truly a memorable experience.
PLAY! has been touring the world since its 2006 debut in Rosemont, Illinois, making performances in...all over the fucking place. The event featured, besides the music, three large screens high up above the stage onto which were projected live camera shots of the orchestra, choir and conductor, as well as scenes and miscellaneous video from the games whose music was being performed. The audience got a big kick out of it when they showed the NES's Super Mario Bros. while the orchestra played on.
In attendance were Halo's composer, Martin O'Donnell, and Jeremy Soule, the composer for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Guild Wars, among many other titles. The conductor acknowledged their presence in the audience, noting that they are both fellow residents of the Northwest, and they stood up and we applauded. After the show I got Soule to autograph my program. I told him how much I love the Secret of Evermore soundtrack, which he wrote...gee, it must have been around thirteen years ago, now. He said that he was surprised by how many fans told him the same thing. I admitted to him that it was, in fact, the only game that he had done that I've played, and he was amused.
The conductor was a little bit of a tool. He pronounced Chrono "crawno", and we had a bit of a snicker over that, and we were particularly amused when he said, after they had finished playing their Zelda medley, "Everybody loves Zelda, right? [audience applauds] It's the only game I've ever beaten. Well, I've beaten Bowser a few times." ...Whatever, dude.
All in all, though, it was magnificent, despite the glaring absence of music from at least a few titles I can rattle off. The set list, as copied off the program and annotated by yours truly, follows:
NOBUO UEMATSU -- PLAY! Opening Fanfare
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VIII--Liberi Fatali
KOJI KONDO / Nintendo -- Super Mario Bros.
TAKENOBU MITSUYOSHI / SEGA -- Shenmue
JOEL ERIKSSON / Electronic Arts -- Battlefield 1942
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VII -- Aerith's Theme
MASATO NAKAMURA / SEGA -- Sonic the Hedgehog
TAPPY IWASE / Konami -- Metal Gear Solid
YOKO SHIMOMURA & HIKARU UTADA / Disney/Square-Enix -- Kingdom Hearts
INTERMISSION
JEREMY SOULE / Bethasoft/UbiSoft -- THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY SERIES--Swing de Chocobo (not performed)
YASUNORI MITSUDA / Square Enix -- Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross
JASON HAYES / Blizzard -- World of Warcraft
AKIRA YAMAOKA / Konami -- Silent Hill 2
MARTIN O'DONNELL / Microsoft -- HALO
KOJI KONDO / Nintendo -- The Legend of Zelda
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VII--One-Winged Angel
Most numbers were medleys of pieces from the games mentioned, with a few exceptions (such as One-Winged Angel and Aerith's Theme). Note that they did not play their chocobo number, much to my chagrin; they bumped it in favor of playing a suite from Guild Wars in honor of the attendance of its aforementioned composer, Soule, tying him with Koji Kondo for number of games represented at the show, placing him in fine company indeed.
The highlights for me were:
• Liberi Fatali: the live choir really kicked my face
• Sonic the Hedgehog: they never really cut loose and played their hearts out on the main theme or on the Green Hill Zone theme like I hoped they would, but they were certainly there, just in a more subdued manner, as was the Marble Zone theme, which I've always enjoyed, and Starlight Zone, in which they really did "open up" and play with well-deserved vigor
• Chrono: the crawno series was well represented with a lovely piano piece from Cross whose title escapes me, flowing nicely into the Trigger main theme, which was superb, albeit a tad slow, flowing into Scars of Time from Cross, leading into Frog's Theme and ending with To Far Away Times, the ending theme from Trigger
• The Legend of Zelda: this medley began with the opening theme to Ocarina and then went straight into every piece covered by the album-end medley from Japanese import Hyrule Symphony (a great CD in itself). It was very nice to see characters and regions from Zelda up on the screen
• One-Winged Angel: again with the face-kicking, compliments of the live choir
So...fun times. If this comes anywhere near any of y'all, y'all would do well to try to make it. You won't regret it.
PLAY! has been touring the world since its 2006 debut in Rosemont, Illinois, making performances in...all over the fucking place. The event featured, besides the music, three large screens high up above the stage onto which were projected live camera shots of the orchestra, choir and conductor, as well as scenes and miscellaneous video from the games whose music was being performed. The audience got a big kick out of it when they showed the NES's Super Mario Bros. while the orchestra played on.
In attendance were Halo's composer, Martin O'Donnell, and Jeremy Soule, the composer for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Guild Wars, among many other titles. The conductor acknowledged their presence in the audience, noting that they are both fellow residents of the Northwest, and they stood up and we applauded. After the show I got Soule to autograph my program. I told him how much I love the Secret of Evermore soundtrack, which he wrote...gee, it must have been around thirteen years ago, now. He said that he was surprised by how many fans told him the same thing. I admitted to him that it was, in fact, the only game that he had done that I've played, and he was amused.
The conductor was a little bit of a tool. He pronounced Chrono "crawno", and we had a bit of a snicker over that, and we were particularly amused when he said, after they had finished playing their Zelda medley, "Everybody loves Zelda, right? [audience applauds] It's the only game I've ever beaten. Well, I've beaten Bowser a few times." ...Whatever, dude.
All in all, though, it was magnificent, despite the glaring absence of music from at least a few titles I can rattle off. The set list, as copied off the program and annotated by yours truly, follows:
NOBUO UEMATSU -- PLAY! Opening Fanfare
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VIII--Liberi Fatali
KOJI KONDO / Nintendo -- Super Mario Bros.
TAKENOBU MITSUYOSHI / SEGA -- Shenmue
JOEL ERIKSSON / Electronic Arts -- Battlefield 1942
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VII -- Aerith's Theme
MASATO NAKAMURA / SEGA -- Sonic the Hedgehog
TAPPY IWASE / Konami -- Metal Gear Solid
YOKO SHIMOMURA & HIKARU UTADA / Disney/Square-Enix -- Kingdom Hearts
INTERMISSION
JEREMY SOULE / Bethasoft/UbiSoft -- THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY SERIES--Swing de Chocobo (not performed)
YASUNORI MITSUDA / Square Enix -- Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross
JASON HAYES / Blizzard -- World of Warcraft
AKIRA YAMAOKA / Konami -- Silent Hill 2
MARTIN O'DONNELL / Microsoft -- HALO
KOJI KONDO / Nintendo -- The Legend of Zelda
NOBUO UEMATSU / Square Enix -- FINAL FANTASY VII--One-Winged Angel
Most numbers were medleys of pieces from the games mentioned, with a few exceptions (such as One-Winged Angel and Aerith's Theme). Note that they did not play their chocobo number, much to my chagrin; they bumped it in favor of playing a suite from Guild Wars in honor of the attendance of its aforementioned composer, Soule, tying him with Koji Kondo for number of games represented at the show, placing him in fine company indeed.
The highlights for me were:
• Liberi Fatali: the live choir really kicked my face
• Sonic the Hedgehog: they never really cut loose and played their hearts out on the main theme or on the Green Hill Zone theme like I hoped they would, but they were certainly there, just in a more subdued manner, as was the Marble Zone theme, which I've always enjoyed, and Starlight Zone, in which they really did "open up" and play with well-deserved vigor
• Chrono: the crawno series was well represented with a lovely piano piece from Cross whose title escapes me, flowing nicely into the Trigger main theme, which was superb, albeit a tad slow, flowing into Scars of Time from Cross, leading into Frog's Theme and ending with To Far Away Times, the ending theme from Trigger
• The Legend of Zelda: this medley began with the opening theme to Ocarina and then went straight into every piece covered by the album-end medley from Japanese import Hyrule Symphony (a great CD in itself). It was very nice to see characters and regions from Zelda up on the screen
• One-Winged Angel: again with the face-kicking, compliments of the live choir
So...fun times. If this comes anywhere near any of y'all, y'all would do well to try to make it. You won't regret it.