Slashdot Mirror
Final Fantasy Concert Series Coming to the States
On February 19th in Chicago, Illinois, a concert series titled "Dear Friends" will kick off a U.S. tour. The music? Music from the Final Fantasy series performed by orchestra. From the press release: "The first FINAL FANTASY concert in the U.S. brought fans from far and wide together in Los Angeles to share in an unforgettable musical experience," said Ichiro Otobe, president and COO of Square Enix, Inc. "We are pleased to announce that, due to the overwhelmingly positive response, a North American tour will soon bring the emotionally moving and powerful scores to fans across the country." This is personally very exciting for me. See you there!
As a computer geek - especially one who has played damn near every Finaly Fantasy game - I'm thrilled as it is by the opportunity to hear these great soundtracks in a medium other than MIDI. I don't care how far the technology develops, nothing beats a live orchestra in a real concert hall, period.
As a trained classical musician living and [trying to] freelance in Chicago, I'm thrilled even more (and would get a nice early Christmas by being called to play said gig... ahh, one can only dream...)
Too bad the article says nothing of who actually arraanged these works for orchestra... (To the Slashdot crowd who may not know what I mean - I ask who actually transcribed the full orchestral score and individual parts from the MIDI original.) Was it Nobuo Uematsu himself? Being a great composer (and in his genre, he certainly is, IMHO) is one thing, while being a great arranger/orchestrator is an entirely different matter. His stock would go waaaaay up in my book if he did both....
I hope the land around you yields, a crop like all the other fields, and then your waiting might make sense...
I've been listening to FF music for about 7 years now. I actually have a copy of "Kefka's Domain" (the OST for FF3, as it's the American version) that I used to listen to on a regular basis. Aside from the game OSTs available for purchase, there already exist a fair amount of Final Fantasy music that was recorded by orchestra. There are several "Piano Collection" compilations (where pieces are performed solo on Piano), as well as some strange remix collections, but my personal favorite (and I still listen to it regularly) is a collection called "Grand Finale", which consists of orchestral renderings of Final Fantasy VI (III)'s tracks. They are all great, although some people have questioned the use of certain instruments here and there (bagpipes on Relm's track?). If you're real hard core, try to find the Dream Oath Opera (from FFVI)... A 20-minute or so version of it exists out there somewhere, complete with Japanese vocals. Simply amazing.