Into the Score - July 3, 2007

Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (Anime Influence in Video Game Music)

1) Intro
2) Contact Info
3) Time in Gaming when UW:NH was Released
a. History of the franchise
b. Why is the game important? What was it like?
4) Story of the Game
5) Composer
a. Yoko Kanno
b. Kanno's composing credits - ANIME
c. Kanno's alias for singing.
6) How did she organize the score?
a. Dependent on conditions - music changes with different scenarios
i. Overworld Theme, Castle Theme - essentially, the music changing with the scenarios.
ii. Overworld Theme
1. Depending on which character that you are playing, the Overworld theme changes.  For example, when you're playing through Joao's campaign, the music is "Caprice for Lute", when it's Catalina, then it's "Catalina." Etc.
iii. Town Theme
1. Depending on the region of the world that the player is in, the town theme changes:
a. "Mast in the Mist" - Western Port
b. "Empty Eyes" - tropical port
c. "Moslem Dance" - Arabic port
d. "Land of Luxury" - East Asian port
e. "The Mahout" - Eastern port
f. "Supply Port" - ummm... supply port.
7) Analysis
a. Moslem Dance
i. Two metres going on at the same time.
ii. 
8) Uber-Analysis
i. Close to Home
9)  Arrangement
a. Close to Home (from Uncharted Waters: Special Edition)

INTRO

(THE MAHOUT)

I'm Kenley Kristofferson... and this is Into the Score.

And a good evening to all! Welcome to Episode 9 of Into the Score, which is the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music.  I am your host, Kenley Kristofferson and this is the first week of July in 2007.

The piece that we've been listening to in the background here is called "The Mahout" from Koei's Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, which is the second game in the Uncharted Waters series.  The piece plays when our ship casts anchor into an Indian port and is written by Yoko Kanno.  This episode, we take a look at Yoko Kanno's score to Uncharted Waters: New Horizons and the influence of anime in video game music.  But first, the contact info.

CONTACT INFO

Our website is www.songofthefates.com and if you want to send me an email, you can do it at Kenley@songofthefates.com, so k-e-n-l-e-y@songofthefates.com and that's all one word.  We'll find out what's been happening in gaming when our game of the episode was released right after we listen to some of its incredible music: This is the Western port theme, it's written by Yoko Kanno and it's called "Mast in the Mist"

(MAST IN THE MIST)

THE BASICS

That was "Mast in the Mist" from our diamond in the rough, Uncharted Waters: New Horizons.  New Horizons is the second game of the UW franchise and, by far, the most popular one.  I feel a bit ridiculous talking about the "most popular" game in a franchise that no one as ever heard of.  I heard of the game while I was just on msn and listening to RPGFan radio, which was an online-radio station that played RPG music, no longer running I'm afraid.  Where was I? Oh yes, I was listening to the station and all of a sudden, this one piece came on that made me just... stop everything I was doing, I was stunned at the amazingness of this piece of music - it was an arranged version of a piece called "Close to Home", the ending theme of a game that wasn't on my radar, called Uncharted Waters: New Horizons.  IMMEDIATELY, I did some research on the game, found the game, downloaded it (as the cartridge isn't available anymore, that's okay by the law) and was hooked immediately.

The game is based in the 16th century - the era of exploration... navies rule the Seven Seas but pirates lurk among the shores of distant lands and cast their boats upon the great oceans.  That was the first hook for me - I am absolutely obsessed with pirates and have been for years.  Anyways! The game involves six characters that all leave their homes for the water and get involved in trading, naval battles, treasure hunts... yes! I just love it! So if this game is so uber-awesome, yet nobody knows about it, it must have been dwarfed by other titles or something, right? Let's find out what was going on at the time when UW:NH was coming out.

TIME IN GAMING

UW:NH  came out in 1994 for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis (or the Sega Mega Drive, for listeners outside of North America) and was ported to PC shortly after.  It is similar in gameplay to Sid Meier's "Pirates" in gameplay by critics, though I think that it more closely resembles the Civilization series.  We talked a bit about what was happening in gaming circa 1994 with Episode 3 - Super Metroid was released for the SNES, Square releases Final Fantasy IV, Blizzard releases its sleeping giant of a franchise called Warcraft.  Pretty notable year!

Yet, with such a notable year in gaming, why are we talking about a game that no one seems to have heard of?

RECEPTION

Well, the reception of the game is a bit hard to discuss because there seems to be no documentation on it - it's like this weird jewel that no one has heard of OR no one deems important enough to document.  There is an UN:NW fan-club at http://www.unchartedwatersnewhorizons.com, all one word and several websites that talk about it as one of the greatest games of all-time.  It seems that the game is praised like crazy, but only by people who have played it.  What I mean to say is, there is a crazy dichotomy between those who have never heard of the game and have no idea it exists and those who thinks that is one of the best games ever developed and I can't say that I've heard of that for any other game... while the gameplay really drew me in, the biggest pull was the music, and it's written by Yoko Kanno.

BIOGRAPHY

Yoko Kanno was born in Miyagi Prefacture, Japan on March 18th of 1964.  While she has composed for film, TV, video games and Japanese pop artists (in the genre which we shorten to Jpop), her biggest musical contribution to the world is, without question, via the genre of anime.  In fact, IGN.com calls her the most important anime composer of all time.While anime can be simply boiled down to a medium of Japanese animation, it is much, MUCH more than that, we're going to delve a bit deeper into anime later in the episode.  Anyways! Kanno has written for such pivotal and staple animes as Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Visions of Escaflowne and Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex among many others.  One of her more notable pieces is the opening to Cowboy Bebop and it's called "Tank!"

(TANK!)

That was "Tank" from Cowboy Bebop, written by Yoko Kanno and performed by her project band called "The Seatbelts."  If you want to watch the video of the opening (which I recommend, because it's awesome), there's a link in the shownotes!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6600690678362995677
While she doesn't have a lot experience with English or French (as cited by Wikipedia, so you can interpret the "truthiness" of that as you like), there is one interesting English name that comes up in her credits.

In most of her credits, you'll see Japanese names - it's all recorded in Japan, so that's not all that surprising.  Then, out of the mist comes Gabriela Robin, a curious English name in a sea of kanji in the credits.  There is much speculation that Gabriela Robin is, in fact, the bashful composer herself, Yoko Kanno.  While she insists that they are two different people, the mystery persists and persists so much, in fact, that there is a fan-website citing ALL of the instances that prove she could be, and it's gabrielarobin.com/mainsite/gr.html, - website is in the shownotes.  A lot of the scrutiny is deflected by Kanno always citing her inability to sing - maybe she's just a bashful composer who's scared to sing? Stranger things have happened... but one thing is for sure: She may say that she can't sing, but she sure as hell knows that she can compose - as proof, let's dive into the music.  


THE MUSIC

I really dig the music in this game - there is so much variation in the pieces, in the styles, in the fields... just so much.  But really, the game takes place in (pretty much) the whole world, so to have everything in the western tradition really isn't fair to ALL of the other cultures in the world, especially if you're trying to successfully recreate their environments on a 16-bit console.  This isn't to say that our composer doesn't combine Western traditions with other World ones, but the World influence is usually prevalent in it - this is similar to the practice of eclecticism, which we talked about in Episode 4, but today we take that practice one step further.

In which case, the score is organized according to different conditions in the game.  This isn't usual in a lot of games - for example, multiple Overworld themes depending on whose campaign you're playing through, or multiple town themes depending on what area of the world you're in - the combinations are endless.  There are a few staples that are constant and never change, depending on the outside environment or campaign, like the Castle theme...

(CASTLE THEME)

... Or the Naval Battle theme...

(NAVAL BATTLE THEME)

And that would make sense, I mean... the sea is everywhere and it's the same sea, so the same fighting music would make sense.  But now, let's have a listen to some more specific ones.  When we are following Joao de Franco of Portugal, we hear this theme on the high seas, this is "Caprice for Lute."

(CAPRICE FOR LUTE)

Or following Catalina, on the hunt to avenge her brother and her fiancˇ (who are not the same person) by becoming a pirate, seeking revenge on the Spanish fleet to which she once belonged! This is "Catalina."

(CATALINA)

Now, one of the other crazy things about this game, as I was saying before, is that there are also different town themes according to what area of the world they're found in.  There's tropical ports, Middle-Eastern ports, Asian ports and so on.  Never in my nerded-up life have I ever seen a game place SO much importance on town themes - there are six town themes in Uncharted Waters: New Horizons... six! And thankfully, that isn't too much for us to play, so seeing as we may never see this again in our lifetime... we're going to talk about all six town themes.

TOWN THEMES

The one that we'll be most familiar with in the game is the Western town theme, called "Mast in the Mist."  So when we're in Portugal, Spain, England, France... this is what plays.  We've heard this before, but just to jog our memory, this is "Mast in the Mist" by Yoko Kanno.

(MAST IN THE MIST)

Next up is a piece called "Moslem Dance," and it's played when we find ourselves in an Arabic port.   One of my favorite parts of this piece is that every line except the mallet part is in 3/4, meaning three quarter notes in a bar (sample), but the mallet part is felt in 6/8 (sample) - we talked about this meter last episode.  Have a listen, this is "Moslem Dance."

(MOSLEM DANCE)

The next dude we're going to talk about is the tropical port town, and the piece is called "Empty Eyes."  It's fun in the way that drinks with umbrellas with them are fun.  It's an uber-short loop, but that's cool, it's a neat little listen.

(EMPTY EYES)

The next town theme is the Indian port theme and it's called "the Mahout."  It's got some serious sitar and acoustic bass action with delay.  It's really hard to feel the time until the piano comes in with this sweeping passage to reset our ears to where the beat actually is - I dig, this is "The Mahout."

(THE MAHOUT)

After that little ditty, we get to "The Land of Luxury", which to 16th-century pirates, is very clearly, the Far East.  The loop isn't very long, but also uses some uber-delay and is really slow and drawn out-sounding, this is "Land of Luxury."

(LAND OF LUXURY)

Sometimes, you find ports that you wouldn't normally expect to find on the map - in particular, these are supply ports, where you can buy food and water for your ship so that they don't starve to death.  Very cryptic and also with a lot of delay on the parts... seems to be a common thread here...

(SUPPLY PORTS)

Things like delayed piano, sparse instrumentation... it's seems a bit more like a movie than a video game, but if you listen to her work from anime, you can definitely hear the resemblance.  Anime has had this effect on video game music for quite some time - and that's our big idea for this episode - "Anime's influence on video game music."

ANIME INFLUENCE ON VIDEO GAME MUSIC

Before we dive into how anime has changed the field of VGM, we should probably address what anime exactly is.   Anime is a Japanese form of animation that is thought to have first originated at the turn of the 20th-century but grew in style, complexity and cimematic elements around the 1960s and 70s.  It is true that the West was the first school to experiment with animation, the West also had a very exciting and economically-booming live action film industry, which Japan simply did not have.  Japan is also an island that is distanced very far from North America and Europe, making "shooting on location" very difficult.  Furthermore, even if the Japanese film crews built sets that resembled Paris, Rome or New York, the audience would look at the actors and say "that person is not French," and then the quality would be severely... well... you know where I'm going with this.  So, instead of spending hordes of money and trying to jumpstart a film industry, Japan did everything that live-action video did, except they did it with animation.

And to me, this is the defining characteristic of anime: Anime does not treat the audience like they are "watching a cartoon", which is a stereotype put forward by Western countries; but instead, uses complex story arcs, cutting-edge camera angles and vivid detail in direction and animation to produce gripping products that are works of art and often deliver effects in animation which could not be done with real people or locations at the time.  That was a big rant, let's move on. 

Some anime that is considered by most anime buffs or "otaku" in the West is... hmmmm... Astro Boy, which we'll be familiar with... ummmm... Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, Akira (which was a cult success in the 1980s in North America), ummm... Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, any of the Gundam series of anime (belonging to a subcategory of anime called "mecha").  There's just so much to watch and I know that the listeners who are anime fans will probably think of more or think "why the (beep) did he put that on the list?" Sorry fans, that's the marvel of the concept which we humans call "the opinion." The first anime that I ever saw was a series called 3x3 Eyes and I really dug it.  After that I saw Wicked City (and was way too young to be watching a movie like that!), Crying Freeman, 8 Man After and finally, Akira.  I've seen Akira eleven times and I still don't really get it - well, I sort of get it, but there's just so much to know... if any of you listeners watch it, you'll know what I mean.  Also, if any listeners somehow acquire a copy of an older 90s anime called EYES of Mars, please let me know where I can get it, because I've been on the hunt for that one for quite some time... Okay, back to music.

A few episodes back, we talked about a concept called "eclecticism" and that is the practice of combining two or more styles of music in a piece or work.  I think we talked about it in the Chrono Trigger episode... This is not done in a satirical way, as often done with cartoons in the Western world like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse, but in a way that pulls another musical colour into the mix - similar to how anime is definitely drawn and animated, but it portrays a very real and human aspect.  If you watch anime, you'll know what I mean.  One example of this is taken from one of my favorite animes of all-time, called Gundam SEED, it's a mecha anime and this music usually plays when they're in the desert in the Middle East, it's called "Akatsugi no Kage."

(AKATSUGI NO KAGE)

Definitely a Middle-Eastern sound, but not full of unnecessary cheesy riffs to satirize Middle East, it's very artful and tasty.  The composer, Toshihiko Sahashi, also takes this one step further for battles in the Middle East and adds some rock elements, this is called "Tssuki Shuusai".

(TSSUKI SHUUSAI)

Now, the addition of rock elements is a big one in anime.  I think that it's actually one of the defining elements in anime because it really captures the eclectic nature of anime - taking music of all styles and combining it form one new genre, anime music.  If I were to take two genres or styles or whatever and put them together to form anime music, my best and most educated attempt would be the eclectic rock orchestra and Jpop, because J-pop has a huge influence on both anime and video game music too.  We hear a lot of J-pop in the openings of anime, so let's take a look at one.  Here's the opening from Neon Genesis Evangelion and it's called "Cruel Angel Thesis."

(CRUEL ANGEL THESIS)

IGN made a comprehensive list of, what they think are, the 10 best anime soundtracks of all time - the address is in the shownotes...

http://music.ign.com/articles/708/708910p1.html

Now, let's bring this back to vids - how do anime music and video game music come together? Well, a lot of reasons - geographic location is a big one: most anime and most popular video games until the turn of the millennium were exported from Japan.  Another one is similarity - a lot of artwork for video games is anime-based and as the visuals draw from the art form, so does the music.  Even in listening to the music, there is a huge similarity in the way the composer writes the music - heavy influence on tasteful eclectic style and often to J-pop too.  I suppose that another big reason why video game music and anime music are so similar is that there are times where composers simply write for both mediums - Yoko Kanno is one of the most celebrated anime composers around and here she is, writing for the game of our podcast.  One good example of a piece that is cross-genre is the closing theme to Uncharted Waters: New Horizons and is "Close to Home."  While this is the piece that brought me to New Horizons, this is not the recording, but this is from the OST and it still bares a very distinct, anime-esque sound and will catapult us into the "analysis" portion of the show, here's Yoko Kanno's "Close to Home."

(CLOSE TO HOME - OST)

This is the first video game piece that I transcribed by hand, actually.  I had to learn it on the piano, after I heard it.  So I found the recording and played it over and over and over again.  The song is in the key of F, so only a Bb in the black-key department... or so I thought.  As I got into further into the melody, the song changed key - in music, when a song changes key in a line, we call it modulation, or we say that the song "modulates." Usually it changes to a note in the key itself, so if we're in F, it'll change to any note in the F scale, F G A Bb C D E F.

But no, there was one part where I just couldn't figure out where the hell the notes were going.  In fact, it's this part here:

(CLOSE TO HOME - MOD. PART)

Well, a few episodes back, we said we could call the scale degrees, or notes in the scale, by number.  There are eight notes in a scale, so we could call the first note (F) scale degree 1, then G is 2, A is 3, Bb is 4 and so forth...

I was playing the song, and then all of a sudden... I'm in Ab major.  And I just thought... "what just happened?" I'm in F... the third of the scale (and the third of the chord of the home key, F, pretty important note)... the third of the scale is now flattened... instead of A, it's Ab... major... what is going on! It seamlessly gets there... it's one of the smoothest transitions that I've ever heard.  Without even knowing, we move to a key outside of the home key... how did she do it?

The answer lies in another device that somehow squeeked its way into the piece, and that's called primary mixture, or the Neopolitan-sixth.  In major, you can flatten the sixth note of the scale (example) to make the IV-chord minor.  (example)  That's how it was usually used in common practice Western music.  Let's leave that for a second.

When we confirm the home key, meaning that the composer makes it very obvious where the music wants to go back to, we set up the tonic chord, or the chord where our ears feel at rest in the music with other chords.  Like this...

(II-V-I)

This allows our ears to be like "yes... that's where we are... this feels good." That particular progression of chords is called a II-V-I because the roots of the chords are on the second note, the fifth note and then the first note, or the I.   The two chord is minor, so it sounds like this (example), a little bit darker; The V chord is dominant, meaning that it sounds like this (example) - this is what a dominant chord sounds like, it kind of pulls our ears back to the I chord, which sounds like this, this one is major.  When we're in a major key, meaning this sound (major scale), that's what a II-V-I will sound like.  Sorry that this is so much information, but it explains the crazy shift of notes into this weird key for just a little bit.  

Okay, so we can do that II-V-I anywhere we want! In fact, by flattening our sixth note in the scale during that line in "Close to Home", the order of the notes is different now and our ears hear it at the II chord of another key - you won't realize it, that's what's so crazy, your ears will just understand it.  The IV chord is usually major, but now that it's minor, our ears hear it as the II chord, especially when we play this chord next (V of bIII), then the next chord that we have to hear is (bIII-major).  Then she makes the IV chord major again and it brings us back to the home key.  

That was really intense, my brain hurts, let's get to the arrangement and listen to some music.  If you got lost, just come back now and I've got some big news to tell you.


ARRANGEMENT

I have two clips to play for you this arrangement time.  I'm going to leave a special piece that I'm going to play at the end of this.  Remember how I said that there was one piece that really just blew me away, and that it was "Close to Home" but not from the OST... well... that's what we're going to cap-off with.  

The arrangement is from an entirely arranged album from Uncharted Waters I and from UW: New Horizons called Uncharted Waters: Special Edition and it is recorded with a lot of live instruments, new solos, superior arrangements... the OST is pretty good, Uncharted Waters: Special Edition is unbelievably amazing.  You must get your hands on this album because it will change your life.  It is by far one of the best albums that I own and I cannot recommend it enough.

But first, I have something else in mind... I have another remix of "Close to Home," and it's actually one that I have done.  I tried to submit it to OverClocked ReMix but it got the veto because of some production things - it was two yes's and three "re-submits", so it was almost borderline, but alas.  I wanted to give you listeners and original arrangement, but seeing as no one has heard of the game, let alone the OST, the only one that I could think of was my own! Plus, it allows me to put my money where my mouth is a bit and show that I'm not just some dude with his head in a VGM book! First we'll start with my arrangement, called "Sunset on the Harbour" and then we'll hear "Close to Home" from Uncharted Waters: Special Edition.

So that brings Episode 9 to a close, thanks so much for listening.  I'm Kenley and this has been Into the Score, the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music.  You can check us out at our NEW website, which is www.intothescore.com or email me at Kenley@intothescore.com.  

For the next episode, I said that I had a surprise for our big "Episode 10" extravaganza, and I thought that we could tackle a score worthy of our double-digit podcast.  And we will...A score that I am very, very familiar with and it's by the man I've been studying for the last 8 years of my life... that man is Mr. Nobuo Uematsu and the game is Square's 1997 release, Final Fantasy VII.  As a special bonus to that episode, we will have an in-depth study to Jeremy Robson's orchestral masterpiece, his "Final Fantasy VII Philharmonic Suite" and I will guide you through each movement.  It's going to be amazing!

Thanks again for listening! I'm Kenley and first we'll hear "Sunset on the Harbour" and then "Close to Home" from Yoko Kanno's Uncharted Waters: Special Edition.  See you in two weeks!

(SUNSET ON THE HARBOUR)

(CLOSE TO HOME - SE)

(END)