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Symphony Orchestras and Video Games
robi2106 writes "The BBC is running an article regarding the cooperation between video game composers and top symphony orchestras, like the recent Los Angeles Philharmonic concert entitled Video Games Live. The VGL event contained orchestral productions of video game music, a live video game match between audience members on jumbo screens behind the orchestra, and pre-recorded game footage accompanied by the orchestra. Such productions are becoming more and more popular." From the BBC article: "With the emergence of machines like the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences. When Mr Wall composed the score for Myst III, he used a full symphony orchestra and choir. "
I'd give anything to hear a full orchestra performing the Super Mario Bros. theme song.
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The RPG Xenosaga featured orchestrated music, performed by the London Philaharmonic Orchestra, right in the game, and it was great. The choice for music use in the game was very different though, it was primarily used for cutscenes while the actual dungeon crawl moments were mostly sound effects and ambience.
In the end I kind of liked it, especially after Xenosaga 2 brought back cheesy electronic bgm for the environments, it left me begging for silence.
I've played Myst III too, and if anything deserves a mention for orchestrated soundtrack, I'd say it's Xenosaga.
Has the best musical score for any video game I'v ever played.
I should thank the editors for actually including the link to the BBC article since a brain fart left me forgetting to include the link.
Any how. Crazy. First submission accepted for me!
But abotu the article.... there have been a couple of games I remember that I actually wanted the soundtrack. Starsiege: Tribes had some fun techno tracks that could be assigned to a level based on the map designer's settings. Also, and even better, is the Evil Genius music, which is a symphonic score straight from Austin Powers / James Bond. Great game. Great musical score.
jason
I had some friends down in the SoCal area who were really excited for the Video Games Live concert. But unfortunately, they told me it was extremely disappointing, and didn't even hold a candle to the previous Final Fantasy concerts.
I got a chance to hear a little of the concert on NPR and it sounded great. I really enjoy classical music so I think this is great. It is funny people have been saying for decades that classical music is going to die, but if this kind of thing keeps up there will be many future generations of classical music listeners...................thanks to Microsoft,Sony, and Nintendo.
Madre de Dios! Es El Pollo Diablo! -- Captain Blondebeard
...had music by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, composed by Jesper Kyd. While not up to the level of some of the other soundtracks mentioned here, it did fit the bullet opera mood of the game perfectly. The right combination of music, slow motion and visual effects can make a character's death by gunplay seem less like a whoops-annoyance-main menu-reload and more like the inevitable consequence of his chosen profession. Good show.
...had a sound track performed by the Moscow Symphony. Pretty impressive...
The Army reading list
...this isn't the first time that an orchestra has performed VG music. Final Fantasy holds that honor. You can hear the entire event by purchasing, (or torrenting, if you are poor and/or evil) the 02202002 soundtrack.
"What I cary in this box is your utter subjugation."
Imagine PacMan or Tetris set to Philip Glass's compositions. You'd be in a trance for days :)
anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences
There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.
For example, Halo famous musical score is only present in the single-player game, when the game knows that certain events will happen sooner or later. The multiplayer game is devoid of any music, because the important events - a bomb being planted, a flag being stolen, a large battle in one spot, whatever - are impossible to schedule and cue ahead of time. The point is that recording high-quality orchestral scores is well and good, but the next crucial step is for the music to be generated on the fly (possibly from prerecorded snippets).
Quake had friggen Nine Inch Nails. Please tell me you go to the Symphony enough to actually care if the music is in your video game or not? Nine inch fucking nails! C'mon!
HJ
Videogame music is one of my favourite genres of music. Well at least I think it's a genre. Nobuo Uematsu is just one of the people that come to mind when I think of videogame music. It's just that videogame music comes with a lot of emotion. You remember playing a part of the game, something important happening, and the music that was playing during. It's more interactive that normal music. I don't think I'm the only one that thinks that way either, check out VGMusic.
Great stuff. Music often can be a wonderful enhancement, just think of how much it adds to movies. I won't miss MIDI sounding gameplay music at all. There are reasons why I usually play games with the music level at zero.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Red Alert (hell, all of the C&C games) have really good scores, with C&C and RA standing out.
Total Annihilation is another good qne, the game cues music based on action (a battle theme reves up when shots are fired, a "defeat" theme after you lost, a "victory" or "building" theme, etc...)
Starcraft was also great, in its own little musical way.
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
Warcraft musics getting the respect they deserve. Finally. Long live Glenn Stafford and Tracy W. Bush. =)
The extra stuff they seem to have planned sounds very cool. Soundtracks are often great except they frequently need the picture to support them. Myself, I came to the conclusion that video from games would probably *not* work (too much distraction in my opinion); if I ran the concert, I'd probably do something more somber like still slides from the game. (Which is why I probably won't run these things. =) I wonder how this will work - probably well enough though...
The 2000 tickets for the game music symphony concert of the FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague at the Games Convention in Leipzig were sold out in under two hours, according to heise.de.
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
There was a concert in Tokyo performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring themes from Super Smash Brothers, including Yoshi's Story, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and a couple of others. Mario themes appear in the medleys, I think. See http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/mania/ssbmsl.shtm l and http://www.gametrax.net/albums/084846/. Unfortunately, it looks like the cd isn't for sale, but look around for it.
h tml
Also of interest may be Mario and Zelda Big Band. The name should be all you need to know. http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/mania/m&zbblcd.s
It would be nice if there were concerts like these out of japan...
-ReK
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reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
I remember visiting Stockholm some years ago. I watched the changing of the guard at noon in front of the royal castle. Imagine the scene: Several dozens trained soldiers in ceremonial uniforms in rank and file, some even on horseback, a full-size military orchestra, the whole shebang. They started out playing the national anthem, several marches and for the grand finale - the Indiana Jones Theme Song ! It was just soooo bloody cool ! (and not even OT as the Indy Games also have that song in it ;-) ) .
I've really wanted to go to one of the For Friends concerts, featuring Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy scores. I'd really like to see The Black Mages and The Minibosses also.
A true orchestral rendering of the excellent Eternal Arcadia OST.