Into the Score - October 24, 2008


INTRO

(BLAND LOGO ~ BACKBORN STORY)

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

Ladies and gentlemen, it is that part of the month where together, we explore music in an exciting and intricate way.  I'm Kenley Kristofferson and you are listening to Into the Score, the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music.  In this month's episode, we jump into a classic score Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata from Squaresoft's 1997 PlayStation release, the ever-wonderful, Final Fantasy Tactics.  As stated in the last episode, we're going to continue with part two of our big idea on the symphony orchestra, this time focusing on the wind and percussion instruments who found their way into the ensemble! If you ever have any ideas, I'd love to hear them - but first, I should tell you how to contact the show!

(CONTACT INFO)

CONTACT INFO

The address for Into the Score is www.intothescore.com, and reach me, you can reach me at Kenley@intothtescore.com, so k-e-n-l-e-y@intothescore.com! You can subscribe on the website through the RSS feed or you find us on iTunes! Also on every post, there is a comment section and I love to hear what you've got to say about the episode.   

To set the stage for our middle-ages adventure, this is one of the many battle themes, it's called "Trisection" and this one in particular, is by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.

(TRISECTION)

1997 IN THE WORLD

While the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics was released for the PSP in 2007, the original version for the PlayStation was released ten years earlier and to a very different world! The first successful cloning project occurred this year - that would be the sheep named "Dolly," and Bill Clinton continues into a second term in as the President of the United States and in the UK, Tony Blair begins his first term as Prime Minister.  IBM's Deep Blue defeats chess master, Gary Kasparov at his own game and Steve Jobs returns to his post at Apple Computers... and we all know how that turned out.  In the more tragic news, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash, the world loses Mother Teresa and comedian Chris Farley.  Also, the highest grossing film of all-time was released this year... guess what it is? James Cameron's Titanic... oh 1997.

1997 IN GAMING

Now, with regards to gaming, 1997 brought forth a different light.  LOTS of huge games, like... classics.  First off, it's a good idea to say that the Nintendo 64 was released in the last half of the year prior, so the developers were starting to figure the hardware out and some great games were on the way.  Mario Kart 64, Starfox 64 and GoldenEye 007 are some of the big titles that came out for the N64, but the other consoles had some ideas of their own, especially the Sony PlayStation.

First off, March 20th, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, amazing game, receiving very high praise from critics and game reviews.  Secondly, Final Fantasy VII and if you want to know what I think about it, check out Episode 10, it's a whole 90 minutes of FFVII.  

On the PC side of things, the blockbuster Myst gets a sequel called Riven and it the highest-selling game of the year.  The first game of many big franchises began this year, including the first Age of Empires by Microsoft, Diablo by Blizzard, Fallout by Interplay and Gran Turismo for the PS1.

Oh yeah, and then there's that Final Fantasy Tactics game... let's listen to a tune from it.  This is called "A Chapel," and you'll hear a lot of instruments in it.  While the strings are often the core of the orchestra, our composers really get a lot of colour our of the flutes, harp, the chimes, the brass... well... everyone.  "A Chapel."

(A CHAPEL)

DEVELOPMENT

Final Fantasy Tactics was developed by the teams who developed titles from the Ogre series, most notable Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre.  According to the wiki, the man who seems to be in charge of the infrastructure was Yasumi Matsuno and, in an interview with Japanese publication "Critique of Games," we got to hear about him via an assistant professor at the International University of Japan named Akita Inoue.  Inoue belongs to an institute within the university called the "Center for Global Communications," abbreviated to GLOCOM and writes for a game-related publication called Intelplace - my thanks to SquareHaven for translating.  Anyways, he has this to say about Yasumi Matsuno.

""Matsuno-san's dream is to make human behavior simulated in a videogame," he says. "Battle is not the entire world. There are complex politics to consider." For instance, the game director took a risk with Tactics Ogre by requiring the player to make certain choices that drastically affected the outcome of the game. Choosing whether to ally yourself with a band of rebels or put down the insurrection altered the face of the game world and led to branching storylines. The idea was intriguing to hardcore players but turned off the casual gamers, so many of Matsuno's Quest era innovations were sidelined for his first Square title, Final Fantasy Tactics. 
When Matsuno took new risks with the battle system of Vagrant Story, he was met by tremendous critical praise and lukewarm sales. In Matsuno's career, Akito maintains, that tension between innovation and convention has always been present."

(http://squarehaven.com/news/2007/05/27/Critique-of-Games-Akito-Inoue)

It's true, Tactics is a very involved game, probably the most of the Final Fantasy series... If you consider it a part of the series.  The game was released between Final Fantasy VII and VIII and was written by Matsuno.  The game was celebrated by critics for many, many things including gameplay, the job system as well as the story; again, written by Matsuno.  In fact, Matsuno is one of two directors to have two games get a perfect score from Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, with those games being Vagrant Story for the PS1 and Final Fantasy XII for the PS2.  Interestingly enough, both of those games were scored by our Tactics composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto.  The story is very intricate, involves a HUGE cast and details heavily in religion, politics and family strife.  The catch is that, by having a very involved story, the other parts of the game have to be involved too - it would just we weird to have a really heavy story with a really basic and simplistic everything else.  

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/data/197339.html

As an example of this, we have a system that we've seen in other RPGs that is resident in FFT, called the job system.  A job system implies that instead of being a generic character, each member of the party can be assigned a job and then learn certain abilities from that job.  For example, everyone starts off as a chemist or squire and then branches out from there and as (say) a squire, you get abilities like "Stone" (a fairly-long-ranged attack) or "Tailwind," which increases your speed, allowing you to have more turns in battle.  From there, you can choose to be a white mage, archer, black mage, a knight and so on.  With the white mage, you learn healing and protective magic; with a knight, you gain the abilities to equip swords or armour, as well as breaking enemies' swords and armour.  Now, when you gain a certain number of job points (earned by using abilities or attacking), your job gets a level up.  When you reach a certain level with a certain number of jobs, you unlock more powerful jobs... see how this is getting intense? This is just one of many intense systems, but it's these intense systems that make the game more fun.  However, we should find out what this is game is all about, now that we know how it works.  To get us there, we're going to hear the opening of Chapter 1: The Meager.  Our protagonists, Ramza and Delita are in cadet training in the Magick City of Gariland, just prior to a battle outside.  It's called "Commander in Training."

(COMMANDER IN TRAINING)

STORY

We talked about intensity before, but I don't think that any system matches the intensity or complexity of the game's story.  The "story" section splits it up in three categories: Setting, Characters and then finally, Story... we shall do the same.

The setting in the game is crucial because of the unusual attention to geopolitical history.  The story itself takes place within the kingdom of Ivalice, which in FFT, is the west side of a continent is surrounded by water on the north, south and west.  If you compare it to a map of Ivalice in Final Fantasy XII, seems like it's on the extreme west of the map.  Furthermore, for those who are really into the "Ivalice Alliance" branding of Square Enix, Final Fantasy XII takes place before Tactics, according to the official timeline found in the Ultimania Omega version of FFXII. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivalice)

Now that we've sorted that out, Ivalice is has a neighbor to the west, called Ordalia, upon which the two have just ended a conflict called "The Fifty Years' War."  At this point, both nations are suffering from the economic and political fallout of fighting for fifty years... makes sense.  To had insult to injury, the king of Ivalice dies shortly after and his two heirs Prince Orinus and his adopted daughter, Princess Ovelia, are too young to lead. This means that the state has to assign someone to take power until his heir is old enough lead - so they need to elect a regent.  Two men vie for the throne, Duke Larg (who is symbolized by a white lion) and Duke Goltanna (shown by a black lion).  But, there is still one more faction involved in this strife - the church.  To explain it ever-so articulately, I turn to the War of the Lions strategy guide, published by BradyGames and written by Adam Deats and Alicia Ashby.  This is from their introduction:

"The people of Ivalice saw this struggle for the throne play out before them , and their confidence in the monarchy weakened.  Yearning for order, they tuned to the increasingly powerful Church of Glabados.  To be named a heretic by the church was to face a life as an outlaw, regardless of noble birth of any other former presti9ve.  With the Holy Office of Inquisition and the Knights Templar to enforce its every decree, the Church saw in the War of the Lions a chance to usurp full temporal authority over Ivalice.  The Knights Templar, meanwhile, saw the chance to realize far darker ambition."

(Ashby, Alicia and Adam Deats.  Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.  Indianapolis: BradyGames, 2007. 

So the real story is all about the vying for power between three ultra-powerful institutions, but who do we really follow? Before we get into that, let's hear a theme that plays a whole lot in the game - it's called "Hero's Theme" and it's by Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto.

(HERO'S THEME)

That was "Hero's Theme" by Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto.  Big question, though - who is our hero? Well, according to the fictional in-game history Alazlam Durai, the real hero of the Lion War is omitted from history - a boy from a royal house named Ramza Beoulve.  Ramza's father, Barbaneth, was a Heavenly Knight during the Fifty Years' War and left the House Beoulve in a very good standing with other noble houses.  

Ramza is a really interesting protagonist because he really just falls into the plot and he's really just forced to react to what's happening around him, rather than stir things up himself.  At least, that's how it starts.  He's enrolled into the Akademy at the Magic City of Gariland for squire training along with a friend of his named Delita.  Now, it's important to note that Ramza comes from noble blood, whereas Delita is a commoner and while distinction is important within the social thread of the game, it doesn't really mean anything to either of them.  In which case, a group of knights attack the city during a training exercise - this group of attackers is a group of abandoned knights from the Fifty Years' War called the "Corpse Brigade."  The reasoning behind their attack is dependent upon the defeat of Ivalice in the Fifty Years' War, which takes place before the game's beginning.  These soldiers returned home and saw the ruined economy first hand by not getting paid for their services in defending their country... so they revolt.  Their first target was Gallione and their second, Magic City of Gariland... okay, now we're up to speed.

After Ramza and Delita's battle with the Corpse Brigade, they make their way back to Ramza's castle, called Eagrose.  Along the way, the find a man surrounded by Corpse Brigade forces - his name is Algus (or Argath) and he's a servant for the Marquis Ondore of the Limberry province, they save him and head towards Eagrose, where Ramza's father is found to be dying.  

So what we're seeing here, is the noble decline following this huge war - the Marquis is captured, Lord Barbaneth of the Royal House Beoulve is dying, the Corpse Brigade is leading a rebellion again the Monarchy... life is bad.  But it gets worse.

Algus betrays the group, Delita has a near death experience and new struggles for power vie at the throne... the country is chaos.  Ramza gets fed up with this and becomes a mercenary, but that leads him to bizarre happenings, finding an ancient city with mythical stones and an angry church that thrusts into the past for power.

And you thought the battle system was complicated... the hardest part of the game is remembering who everyone is, what they do and deciphering the BEAUTIFULLY translated text.  Well... that's a half-truth... the original FFT had a ridiculous translation, but War of the Lions is a literary masterpiece... 

Speaking of masterpiece, let's find out about our composers.  First, Masaharu Iwata and the piece "Battle of the Bridge."  It plays when you find on stone or on a bridge... you don't say.

(BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE)

COMPOSER

Masaharu Iwata was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 26, 1966.  He has worked on games such as Ogre Battle and Ogre Tactics as well as Baroque, Evolution and of course, Final Fantasy Tactics.  With regards to his musical upbringing, he has this to say:

"I've loved music since I was a child, but the results of my experiments with music in school were poor. Starting from Jr. High school, I became a big fan of Y.M.O., so I bought a synthesizer and participated in cover bands and such with friends. Around then, synthesizers started dropping in price and every year more and more new equipment would go on sale, so it was an interesting time. It was also around then that videogames started developing, and like most youths of the time I got hooked on them. After graduating high school, I bought a new synthesizer and wondered if I could find any part time work that was compatible with my love for games and music, so I applied at Bothtec, and when the opportunity came for them to employ me, I entered this industry. When Bothtec became part of the Quest brand, I began working for Quest. A year later I began working independently, and have been a freelancer ever since."

(http://iwata.cocoebiz.com/)

And that's from his personal website! The addy is in the shownotes.  He is the founding member of Basisscape, which is a firm devoted to the promotion of video game music and sound, alongside Hitoshi Sakimoto - our game's other composer.  

Hitoshi Sakimoto was born on February 26th of 1969 in Tokyo, Japan.  Both composers cite the "Yellow Magic Orchestra" as a big influence on their musical career.  He began his musical career in 1987 by making games with his friends as a hobby.  By 1989, he was freelance composing and after nine years of freelancing was hired by Square in 1998.  Two years later, he resigned from Square and continues to freelance.  

That information was taken from his official website, but the musical digging doesn't stop there.

http://sakimoto.cocoebiz.com/

On October 10th of last year, Jeremy Parrish and Sam Kennedy did an interview with composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto and really delved into his craft of music-making.  He writes all of his melodies on an old Mac with software called Vision, then uses six to seven Pcs to render the instruments into the way that he wants them to sound.  Now, this sound is a big part of Sakimoto's writing - I'm not sure if he knows it, but all of his fans sure do - Sam and Jeremy of 1UP included.  In fact, they tried to ask him about it and while it seems like they didn't have the musical lexicon to ask what they were trying to ask, you know that they're trying to reach the topic of instrument patches.  Here's that section from the interview.

"1UP: How do you get that distinctive sound? Pretty much all of your soundtracks have a certain "sound" to them -- we're just wondering what you use to get that.

HS: You mean like inspirations?

1UP: No, not inspirations, but that actual sound of the music -- the synthesized violin sound.

HS: So, wait, are you talking about the style of the sound?

1UP: Yeah. For instance, I can hear a soundtrack for a game and know that it's yours -- and not because of the melody, but because of the way it sounds. I can tell it's your music even without hearing much of the melody. So I'm wondering, what do you use to make that sound? And do you feel it's important? That it's your trademark, your sound?

HS: Well, there are 10 to 20 sound sources that you can typically buy -- orchestra-style sound sources and various other sound sources -- and lately, the quality of these sound sources has become quite good, to the point where they sound pretty real. A while ago, they weren't that good, though, so what I always tried to do was never actually simulate an orchestra. Instead, there are some great sounds that come out when you play the sound sources through the sequencer -- it doesn't sound real, but it has a unique flavor. So what I've always tried to do was try to take advantage of that sound, rather than try to simulate an orchestra or something else."

(http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3163748)

There is ABSOLUTELY a Sakimoto-style of sound.  Just to prove the point, let's listen to something else by him and let's see if we can find comparison within the sound of each instrument with this sample and with Tactics.  This is from Final Fantasy XII and it's from my favourite city in the game - perhaps one of my favourite cities in the series! It's called "The Port City of Balfonheim," and it is a pirate city.  It's written by Sakimoto, and again, we're listening for the instrument sounds.

(PORT CITY OF BALFONHEIM)

Now let's compare it to one of the pieces playing Ovelia's Theme, which we'll talk about a bit later in the episode.  This is called "Ovelia's Worries" and we're listening for the particular sound of each individual instrument as well as the instruments together.

(OVELIA'S WORRIES)

To me, the first sounds newer, but still in the same character as before.  There are a few reasons for that, which we will delve into as we tackle my favourite section of the podcast: The music.

MUSIC

Alrighty, lots to say about this one.  The music in this game has been celebrated more times than I can count by music groups like Soundtrackcentral.com and gaming groups like 1UP.com.  When we listen to the score, I should think that one of our first instincts is that it is entirely for the symphony orchestra - so it is written in the fixed ensemble practice.  To review fixed or set ensemble practice, it is simply where the game's score is composed for a set group of instruments, as opposed for a variable set of instruments.  To give an example, most Final Fantasy games have different groups of instruments playing each piece, we call this flexible ensemble practice, this one does not, one group of instruments plays the whole thing.  Another example of set ensemble practice is Shadow of the Colossus, also written entirely for symphony orchestra and featured in our last episode of Into the Score.

However, Final Fantasy Tactics makes use of A LOT of orchestral colour - not to say that Colossus doesn't, but in Tactics, colour is largely appropriated with this vast use of texture.  Alright, we have a couple of words to explain here: Colour means the sound of different instruments used together either in a melody or in a group.  So for example, a choir of clarinets has a particular colour.  When we add flutes to that, the flutes change the tone colour of the melody.  When the low brass come in, or the percussion, the colour is changed by what instruments are being used at that particular part of the piece and it's this colour that gives us connections to make within the music.  

For example, if we were take a theme that we know, like say... the "Imperial March" from Star Wars, we're going to hear a snare drum and the cellos playing ostinato (or the repeating part) underneath, then a strong melody by the brass.  Listen for those two things.

(IMPERIAL MARCH)

Alright, so we have to ask ourselves, why would the composer choose those instruments? Well, if we think of snare drums and bass drums playing this repeating-type pattern, I would think of the military.  Well, fancy that, Darth Vader is a huge figure in the Imperial Army.  This idea is furthered by the fact that a brass choir is playing the melody, almost like a military brass band.  So that particular texture invokes those sorts of connections.

The next word that we have to explain here is texture.  Texture takes colour into consideration, but really has more to do with the number of different things going on.  Let's take an example from Tactics.  We've heard this one before, and try and hear how many different lines are going on - this one is hard, but I have faith.  It's called "A Chapel."

(A CHAPEL)

Let's build from the bottom up, the groove underneath is by the low strings and brass, that's at the bottom of the textual sandwich; next we have the swirling strings and woodwinds doing this very busy running part up top.  Let's try and hear those things... here's the example one more time.

(A CHAPEL)

In between those two parts, we have the melody in the French horn.  When it gets a long note, the strings come in with this cutting sort of motive.  In music, we often call this "call-and-response" or "question and answer" one instrument asks the question, another instrument responds.  Try and hear that now.

(A CHAPEL)

There's actually one more thing in there, but you have to listen really hard.  There is a harp that is filling in the space left by the woodwinds up top.  It seems kind of random, but there is method to the madness.  Listen for that now.

(A CHAPEL)

So what we have in this score are pieces that are very thick in their texture.  There is quite often, three or four or even five things going on at the same time, which is really intense! What we also get (quite often, actually) is a mixing of textures; so for example, we get short plucked notes on top of long drawn out string parts.  We can hear that in "Algus's theme"...

(ALGUS)

Then when the melody part comes in, it's a march-like oboe part - yet another added style to the texture.  Another good example of that is in the "World Map" music.  The melody is in the French horn (again, a technique that these gentlemen like to use) and complimented by the trombone in a "call-and-response" type way, the lower ostinato is in the low brass, the flutes have an ostinato way up high and strings have drones, or just really long notes underneath it all.  So four things - Horn/Trombone melody, low brass ostinato, flutes for a high ostinato and a drown in the strings...big ears, guys, big ears...

(WORLD MAP)

Lots to listen for.  However, with this said, this does betray one idea that we spoke about in our last podcast.  In the SOTC episode, we said that the string section was the center of the orchestra, it was the heartbeat, the pulse, the roots of the tree... but then, why isn't Sakimoto treating them like that? He's got all these other instruments doing all of these other things and just leaving the strings to do their thing.  Well, in our last episode, we spoke about the history of the symphony orchestra and at the end of the Baroque, that was true - the strings were the heart of the orchestra.  However, that was 400 years ago and things have changed... it's time we learned about that.

(SYMPHONY MARIO)





HISTORY OF THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (pt.2)

Where we left off last time, the symphony was beginning to center around the string section.  In his treatise "The Study of Orchestration," (author) Samuel Adler describes this as being the first of two different periods of the orchestras development, with the first being "the beginnings of the orchestra to the death of Bach and Handel; and from the Mannheim School, Haydn and Mozart to the present." (4)

(Adler, Samuel.  The Study of Orchestration.  New York.  W. W. Norton & Co., 2002.)

So, to review, we started with groups of instruments playing together in an ensemble, but seeing as they often accompanied choirs or vocalists, the instrumentation was very flexible and a lot of the parts were played from memory and heavily elaborated on (hence the lack of printed music from the pre-Medieval times).  If there was notated music, it was organized like a vocalist's piece of sheet music: Soprano, alto, tenor, bass...or any combination of those.  When the Baroque Era began in-and-around the beginning of the 16th century, the viols underwent a lot of development in both quality and size, transforming into the violin, the viola, the cello and the double bass - with that said, the orchestra began to grow a bit in size and center around these types of string instruments.  With the advent of opera in the Baroque Era, this early orchestra became the fashionable ensemble to play the music - this also helped the orchestra's development.  One such orchestra that excelled as an ensemble was the group from Mannheim, Germany, which was conducted by Johann Stamitz from 1717 to 1757... 40 solid years.  Donald Grout and Claude Palisca, authors of "A History of Western Music," have this say about Mannheim:

"Under the leadership of Johann Stamitz, the Mannheim Orchestra became renowned all over Europe for its virtuosity ([Historian, Charles] Burney called it "an army of generals."), for its hitherto unknown dynamic range from the softest pianissimo to the loudest fortissimo."

(Grout, Donald Jay and Claude V. Palisca.  A History of Western Music.  New York: 
W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.  pg. 456.)

As the popularity of this school grew, wind instruments like the flute, the oboe and the early trumpets were added to enhance the orchestra's palette of colour.  By the time of Mozart, the orchestra was pretty much set and was set up into three different choirs: 

Choir 1 - The strings (first/second violins, violas, cellos and double basses)
Choir 2 - The woodwinds (two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons... so two of everything.)
Choir 3 - The brass (two horns, two trumpets and timpani).

This isn't to say that some composers didn't experiment by putting new instruments into their orchestras, but this was really the core group.

Now, you may be thinking "aren't the timpani those big drum things in the percussion section?" Well, they are, but the convention of the time was that trumpets and drums play everything together - keep in mind that the valve on a trumpet (that thing you push down to change notes) wasn't invented yet, so you only got a few notes.  But, that does bring up an interesting question... what about the percussion section? While the snare and field drums were already invented for use in the court, we didn't really have a lot of percussion yet... we had crash cymbals, bass drum, triangle... yeah, it just hadn't found its way in yet.  But when we get to the 20th century, that all changes.

The Classical Era used the symphony a lot - in fact, the symphony was one of the big musical styles to really gain momentum of the time.  But we're going to skip ahead to some of the really exciting gains in the symphony, which is the 19th century... also called the "Romantic Era." Now we're into Adler's second period of the orchestra.

One really important guy in the middle of this era is Hector Berlioz.  We talked a little bit about him in Episode 2 of Into the Score.  Hector was all about orchestration - in fact, he wrote a very famous treatise on orchestration.  Just so that we're on the same page, orchestration is the practice of arranging particular parts of music for particular instruments in an ensemble.  This was handy because the 19th century saw LOTS of development and creation of instruments.  Adolphe Sax invents the saxhorn and saxophone, Ferdinand Sommer works on the euphonium, Wilheim Wieprecht and Carl Moritz patent the "basstuba" in Germany... it's an exciting time for instrument builders! Berlioz gets in on this and starts expanding his orchestras with this incredible palette of colour.  More Romantic composers do this too, including Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner especially.  With their orchestras now being upwards of 80 or 90 musicians, size was beginning to matter.

Not only were more instruments getting into the orchestra, but there were more people playing each type of instruments.  Adler states that there about three times as many string players on stage, stating that it was "6 first violins, 6 seconds, 4 violas, 4 cellos and 2 double basses", now we get "18 firsts, 16 seconds, 14 violas, 12 cellos and 10 double basses..." ridiculous.  This is not STANDARD practice... but talk about palette of colour.  Want to hear one? This is the 4th movement of Mahler's first symphony, called his "Titan Symphony."  It is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Klaus Tennstedt and it's released on the EMI music label.

(MVT. 4 - TITAN)

Lots of colour... now, where does that leave us with Final Fantasy Tactics? It leaves us right where we want to be - talking about colour.  

COLOUR

This is "Enemy Attack," and I probably don't have to tell you what's happening when it's playing.  Listen for how many different instruments you hear.  
Think about the choirs - what are the strings doing? What is the brass doing? What's the percussion up to back there? Messing around like usual? Let's find out - this is "Enemy Attack."

(ENEMY ATTACK)

Open with this beautiful chimes and tam tam (big gong) (EXAMPLE), then this awesome groove with these chomping cello and double bass parts united with the tuba and the trombone.  (EXAMPLE)

Between those chomping percussive parts, we have the timpani interspersing these cool triplet rolls (EXAMPLE), so it's very busy at first and with A LOT of colour - this is the style of Tactics.  Let's put all those together.

(ENEMY ATTACK - A SECTION)

So that's the first section, then things change and we get some thematic material from Tactics in a screaming string part and some proud brass.  Here's that part.

(ENEMY ATTACK - B SECTION)

Lots going on here and again, this is a common idea that comes through in the game's score - a lot of thick textures.  Not every piece, but a lot and because there are two composers, each with their own style, there is going to be a bit of a difference between each composer's set of works.  We didn't really know who composed which pieces until the War of the Lions came out for PSP.  In this version, a sound test appears if you name Ramza "PolkaPolka" at the beginning of the game.  Although each work has a different name, you can clearly see "Ymo.H.S." and "REZON" as two prominent composers.  As Mr. Sakimoto has claimed in more than one interview, he is a big fan of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, abbreviated to "YMO" and then his initials, "H.S." With regards to Iwata-san, "REZON" is his handle for his earlier 16-bit game titles, according to an interview with RPGFan.com.

(http://www.rpgfan.com/features/iwata-interview/index.html)

Sakimoto composed 53 of the 82 musical pieces found in the FFT OST, while Iwata composed the remaining 29.  Sakimoto claims most of the character themes, like Ramza's, Alma's, Delita's, Ovelia's, Zalbaag, Cid, etc.  along with all of their variations, while Iwata composes a lot of the practical music in the game, like the shop, the pub, the world map, the tutorial and so forth.  With regards to battle music, it's fairly evenly split, but if you want to see who wrote which pieces, I've included a document that I've put together that shows the track listing of PSP's FFT:WotL, the composer, and then the track's name from the original Tactics soundtrack - it's on the post at intothescore.com.  If you don't want to check - Sakimoto for most of the story-based thematic material and Iwata for most of the locations and interface material.

Let's focus on the thematic material of the game, and this is actually one of the main strengths AND weaknesses of the game.  I'm a little bit critical on how much of the game is based off of two themes, really... I've boiled the score down to variations on about five different themes. We'll go through them one by one, but we won't listen to every given example of it, because it would take a really long time.  If you would like to see every variation and where it happens in EACH individual piece, there is a document in the post at intothescore.com that says where the themes come - in which piece, and which second.  

There are three groups of character themes, but one of them I put in because a theme comes in twice... so it kind of gets the "participation" award of the theme sets - the themes aren't terribly important, in my opinion, but they qualify.  That theme set is St. Ajora, the fallen saint of old who the sinister church is trying to resurrect.  The first time we hear it, it's called "St. Ajora's Theme"

(ST. AJORA'S THEME)
Next, we have a variation on the theme, which is called "St. Ajora's Theme - Deluxe Edition,"

(ST. AJORA'S THEME - DELUXE EDITION)

To be honest, I didn't pick up that she even had a theme on my first playthrough of the game and I would be very impressed if any listeners did - if you did, good on ya! However, there are two other sets of character themes that play ALL THE TIME.  They're really good, but the composers went a bit excessive.  

The character theme sets are organized into two categories, which is funny, because there are two pairs of characters that we follow throughout the game - Ramza and his search for his sister, Alma; then Delita and his kidnapping of the princess, Ovelia.  So what we have is thematic character pairings - Ramza and Alma have similar themes, as do Delita and Ovelia.

Let's start Ramza and Alma.  In the game's original soundtrack, they're pieces are called "Hero's Theme" and "Alma's Theme," though we will notice that they are terribly similar.  Here's "Hero's Theme."

(HERO'S THEME)

We hear this theme all the time in the game; in fact, sometimes we lose track of it and think that it's this one, this is "Alma's Theme."

(ALMA'S THEME)

At the comparison of those two themes, you might be thinking "Those don't sound alike at all."  Well... to me, they sound very similar, especially because you hear them SO many times in the game - in fact, these melodies occur in 17 different pieces...well, there are 71 pieces in the game, but that's still a lot of two melodies in a game.  
Let's hear a few more examples of this.   Here is the "Hero's Theme" again, but this time in a battle theme called "Battle on the Big Bridge," not to be confused with any battle with Gilgamesh, "Battle on the Big Bridge."

(BATTLE ON THE BIG BRIDGE)

And now "Alma's Theme" in a battle theme too, this is "Random Waltz."

(RANDOM WALTZ)

Now, tell me whose theme is in this one...another battle theme "Antipyretic."

What about this one...  this is from the middle of the prologue movie when the title comes up on the screen..."Prologue Movie."

(PROLOGUE MOVIE)

If your ears aren't too strained from hearing similar themes, you may notice that both themes appear in both "Antipyretic" and "Prologue Movie."  To be honest, more themes than that appear in "Prologue Movie," but we'll catch up with that later on in the show.  In "Prologue Movie," we first hear "Alma's Theme" in the declamatory fanfare, then we hear "Hero's Theme" in a sad and smooth oboe part after the fanfare.  Here it is one more time.

(PROLOGUE MOVIE)

So, what are the difference between these two themes? Do they REALLY sound similar? Here's why I think that they do.  They both start with the melody outlining the harmony, hovering around the third and fifth of the chord in a smooth and linear sort of way, then break up with some big leaps.  Here's where the themes shift, mostly being that "Hero's Theme" goes up, with these two high repeating notes at the top of melody, they fall on beat 4 of the third bar and beat 1 of the next bar.  Here's an example of that from a pensive setting of the tune, called "Memories."

(MEMORIES)

So that melody goes up, whereas Alma's goes down... especially with regards to this motive here.  

(PROLOGUE MOVIE - FANFARE)

Let's hear it drawn out a bit more.   This one from "Bland Logo - Title Back," it has a bit of variation, but you'll be able to hear the descending motive.

(BLAND LOGO - TITLE BACK)

Anyways, we've seen in pieces like the "Prologue Movie" and the battle theme "Antipyretic," as well as many others that there is a macrocosmic connection in the score here.  These pieces are often seen together, and considering that these two themes are really important, one of them is the hero theme, both them are included in the prologue movie, et cetera, the fact that these two are brother and sister and a pair through the game really comes at no surprise.  But, there is another pair to look for - Delita and Ovelia.

One of the first scenes of the game at the Orbonne Monastery, we hear this - it's called "Pray" and we hear it tie in with Ovelia time and time again.  It's important to note that Delita kidnaps Ovelia in this very first scene, linking them through the whole game - it's "Pray."

(PRAY)

So here, we have something much different than the Ramza/Alma themes.  Ramza and Alma's themes are very melodic and very conjunct motion - conjunct meaning that there aren't a lot of jumps, except of course, until the end of Ramza's.  With Ovelia's thematic material, we get arpeggios and with a particular metric pattern.  The metric pattern being a four-bar phrase with the first three bars in 6/8 and then followed by a final bar in 3/4, giving the melody of slowing down.  Let's hear that again and we're trying to feel the counting of "123456 / 123456 / 123456 / 1+2+3+" here's "Pray."

(PRAY)

I suppose that we also hear it in "Ovelia's Theme." It's not quite as clear as "Pray," but you still hear definite chordal arpeggios and this very florid beauty in the work.  Here's "Ovelia's Theme."

(OVELIA'S THEME)

You also hear it quoted in "Game Over."

(GAME OVER)

You also hear it in "Shock!!" which I sadly cannot remember where it plays.  I've heard it, someone dies, but I can't remember who... if anyone does, definitely let me know.  Also, if you're really sharp, you'll hear "Hero's Theme," hinted after.  It's called "Shock!"

(SHOCK!!)

I just want to play one more... I know that we've heard this theme to death (try playing the game), but this is my favourite one and it's where  things go from bad to worse with Ovelia and Delita's scenario.  We hear the chimes and harp playing through the arpeggios which characterize Ovelia's theme, but we also hear this big string section descending through it, which is paradoxically, quite tragic and beautiful.  Here's "Ovelia's Worries."

(OVELIA'S WORRIES)

Okay, now we said that there were two thematic pairs - Ramza and Alma, then Ovelia and Delita.  Here's "Delita's Theme," try and hear the comparison between his theme and "Ovelia's Theme."

(DELITA'S THEME)

Hmmm... a sort of arpeggiating clarinet part, in 6/8 for 3 bars, then a bar of a slowing 3/4... thematic pairing strikes again! The arpeggios aren't quite as extreme as Ovelia's, but I think that the connection is obvious.  Quite wild.

Want to know what's even WILDER! Listen to the "Prologue Movie" and tell me how many themes you hear... this is out of control.

(PROLOGUE MOVIE 0 :00 - 1:55)

There is actually... 4... but one of them we haven't studied yet. This theme is the "Conflict" theme and we hear it most often when we complete a mission.

(MISSION COMPLETE)

Sound familiar? How about here in "P.R. Movie," which I think played in one of the early trailers for the original Final Fantasy Tactics, but I've had a tough time finding evidence to support that.  Here it is, "P.R. Movie."

(P. R. MOVIE)

Because battle is SUCH a huge part of the game, there is actually a subordinate conflict theme, which comes in very few times, but because you fight so often, it sounds like it's present more than it really is.  Similarly to the St. Ajora, this thematic material appears in only two different pieces of music, "Commander in Training" and the battle theme called "Apoplexy."

"Commander in Training" plays at the opening of Chapter 1, when Ramza and Delita are at the Akademy in Gariland.  Here it is:

(COMMANDER IN TRAINING)

Then we hear it lastly in "Apoplexy," but way faster and way more intense.  It also is elaborated on, can you hear it? It takes about 30 seconds to get into, give it a listen...

(APOPLEXY)

Okay, that's heavy... now it's time for my favourites.  One of them is really light, fun, great melody, kind of folky... totally a Kenley style of piece.  It plays when you're in the shop and it's tactfully called "Shop."

(SHOP)

My other favourite is the theme of "Zalbag, the Holy Knight," guess what it's called "Zalbag, the Holy Knight," how did you know? It's got a solid groove , it's regal, it's well-arranged through the symphony, get the most out of the ensemble.  Here's "Zalbag."

(ZALBAG, THE HOLY KNIGHT)




Well, what do you say? Shall we draw this episode to a close? I think so, it's been a pretty epic episode, with its epicness only overshadowed by its lateness... ugh.  I'm going to get the next one out on time... really... November, it's on.  

Speaking of November, our next show is going to be on the 1994 SNES release of "EarthBound!" We'll be talking about challenging the status quo and the jazz combo! It's going to be amazing! Also, we will have guests to help us out.  The fantastic Canadian VGM jazz combo, the "Runaway Five" will be on the show and will be talking about their start and why EarthBound is important to them!

Thanks so much for listening to Episode 23 of "Into the Score," where we studied Squaresoft's 1997 PlayStation release of Final Fantasy Tactics, scored by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.  We studied the symphony orchestra, thematic pairing and a whole lot of music! I hope that you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave me a comment at the post, which can be found at www.intothescore.com or you can send me a note at Kenley@intothescore.com! Thanks so much for listening and see you in a month!



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