Videogame composers in the 21st century - From the conservatory, to the recording studio and concert hall (part 1 of 6)
Prelude
Musical scores and soundtracks for videogames are being created by an exciting, innovative and new generation of composers born in the final decades of the 20th century and giving life to their musical compositions through one of the largest forms of global media in the 21st century: videogames. Composers, orchestrators and arrangers who formerly would have restricted their artistic output to the conservatory, concert or recital hall now create orchestral, choral, solo vocal, experimental and electronic musical compositions in recording studios, then bring them to concert halls and tour the world performing these colorful new works. Their compositions, often film-like in style, are scored for videogames to be experienced through the latest videogame consoles, personal computers and technologies. These musical soundtracks serve to propel action, set tone and mood as well as underscore and introduce characters thematically throughout some of the biggest “blockbuster,” videogames in the marketplace such as Halo, Final Fantasy and Advent Rising.
To put this phenomenon in context for the audience, observer, perceiver and consumer, consider that one of the most exhilarating revelations in innovative artistic thought is embodied in the cathartic moment when we realize the enormity of what has been created and already lies before us. One need only recall, years ago, sitting in the movie theater, gazing up at an immense complex moving image that eventually engulfed the entire view of the 40-foot high screen. What was finally revealed to theatergoers was the the underside of a mammoth battle starship in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It took our reflection and gaining a visual vantage point to provide the context for us to become aware of what we were actually viewing. This occurred as creator George Lucas gradually revealed the gigantic star-ship while the monolithic orchestral score of composer John Williams transported us to a far-away galaxy as the resplendent orchestration set the tone and mood for what was to come.
It can also be this way with cutting-edge ideas and the newest phenomena. In the 20th century, artistically or classically trained composers found an artistic outlet and ultimately a market for their compositions by composing film scores—what ultimately became one of the most popular new art forms of the century. Decades later, as we entered the 21st century, new innovators, musical adventurers and risk-takers launched their creative energies into composing musical scores for the new and evolving world of videogames.
Understandably, a great deal of commercial music is used in videogames but it is the art music or musical scores and/or orchestrations created by conservatory or university classically trained composers that is the focus of this article. These scores go far beyond rock and other more commercial electronic forms that may have been spawned in formula writing or through simple, pragmatic, whimsical designs. The composers who we are focusing upon have created works of musical art that are inspired, thought-filled, and created by highly skilled musical artists. Their rich knowledge, craft, art and style reflect the musical scores of the timeless masters that form the heritage from which they have been given artistic life. This new breed of composers has created orchestral, choral, electronic and experimental musical compositions whose creativity, thought and energy remain dynamic, robust and innovative.
Their training and lineage include homage to the Post-Romantic Viennese symphonic composers Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, the oratorios and scenic cantatas of the early 20th German Carl Orff, the mid-20th century experimentalist American John Cage and French composer Olivier Messiaen. Representing that same time, videogame composers’ scores demonstrate the influences of other 20th century electronic composers Edgar Varese from France and Karlheinz Stockhausen from Germany. Also representing are the late 20th century musical innovations of Poland’s preeminent experimentalist orchestral composer Krzyzstof Penderecki, and the film scores of the “Dean of American film composers” John Williams, spanning from the 1960s to the present day.
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