Videogame composers in the 21st century: Exposition history and development of styles in videogame music (part 2 of 6)
Koichi Sugiyama (b. 1931), a Japanese composer classically trained at the University of Tokyo is considered the father of videogame orchestral composers. He composed the music for the Dragon Quest videogame series released in 1986, which was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Sugiyama is most often considered the first of the classically trained videogame composers and influenced the first wave of Japanese videogame composers led by the influential Nobuo Uematsu. It was Uematsu and his contemporaries in Japan who influenced the next generation of videogame composers around the world.
Of note, was a significant technological development regarding musical scores integrated into videogame soundtracks propagated by Sugiyama and further developed by his musical successor Nobuo Uematsu. The technology that created directional and simulated surround sound emerged. With this technology came the overall considerations of the audio aspects of videogames as they became organically integrated into the action of the game scripts. Initially, sound and music in videogames all replicated the artistic/aesthetic presence and functionality that they did in films. As in film, there became two basic elements, that of non-musical and musical sound.
The first was a subconscious or subliminal element supporting the mood or tone of the scene or action much like background music or underscoring in film scores. The videogame Resident Evil provides excellent examples of this type of composition as do others in which an ambient quality to the orchestral sound radiates behind the action of the scenes often leading the viewer’s emotional sense of the scene through the orchestration, tempos or electronic colors of the soundscapes.
Then, the second setting became sound and music that was literal, representing a character, thought, idea, place, thing or serving as a theme or signal for the viewer. This forecasts something to come in the action or development of the scene. From a music composition standpoint, this latter became associated with the tradition of theatrical or program music with specific themes for characters in operas, themes or leitmotifs present in symphonic compositions.
Early videogame musical scores 1958-1990
The first 28 years of videogames (1958-1986) spanned the range from silent games to those incorporating sound experiments, synthesized and various other electronic sounds, popular music and the use of rock styles and other pieces by established popular recording artists. “Baby Boomers” and “Generation Xers” may remember such titles as: Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Pacman (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), Tetris (1985), and Super Mario Brothers (1985).
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