U is for Uematsu

There's really no "classical" U names out there, at least where I looked. That doesn't mean they aren't there, just not where I looked. But rather than give up on this little project with the end dangling so closely in sight, I just made a slight detour that I think you may find acceptable. Music snobs can stop reading now.

I love the Final Fantasy series of video games and while I think they are irreversibly different and somehow less special after the 9th installment, it's something from which I still take great pleasure. What the games do very well is create stories and moods. Nothing spectacular in the gameplay if you just look at the nuts and bolts, but the worlds and characters that have been created are just as vibrant and interesting for me to think back on as many other books I have read. I think one of the key elements of this design is Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for the series.

Uematsu himself is definitely a good, but as he would probably say himself, not a great musician and his compositions don't really even belong in the same category as the great symphonies, but he is able to express ideas and feelings in his little melodies that are impossible to quantify and are best left to simply be enjoyed. I think his true gift is the smaller, quieter scenes of simple melody, almost like folk music, and as the games have become more flashy and technical, he has had to adapt and it has not really been for the best.

I could go on and on and link in tons of scenes and songs that I just love, but for now, I'll limit it to 2 and a link. How's that sound? First, a character sketch from FF6. This is Relm Arrowny's theme. Not a main character by any stretch of the imagination, but a well defined character that is perfectly matched by this nice little tune. It is in the original SNES synth version and I do question if the synth-bagpipe was really the best choice for the main line, but I think you can hear the simplicity and direct quality of the writing that really isn't there in most video games.



The second is my favorite musical scene from Final Fantasy 7. This is a scene where Cloud and Aeris go on a date together. It's a quiet moment in the game before the first major climax and the music (esp. from about 1:10-3:30 or so) really sets it aside and makes it special. There's a lot of video game music I enjoy, but "special" is something I can't really apply to any other composer out there.



As promised, here's a link. It is to the first of a two parter done on Uematsu. A lot of regular Final Fantasy history in there as well, but it lets you hear a lot of different Uematsu stuff in a pretty compact form. Enjoy, or whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqEnZ608Qlg