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When Yoko Kanno was a child she had a crush on a boy. To show her affection,
she wrote a song for him. Now, anime fans are the object of the affection,
lured by the music that Kanno writes for shows such as Macross Plus and
Cowboy Bebop. Listen to the Bebop music, and you hear what sounds as much
like a review of Western music as anime theme. What leads Kanno to write
such eclectic tunes? |
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First there is her love of jazz and classical music, from Claude Debussy
and Maurice Ravel on the classical side to Pat Metheney and Armando "Chick"
Corea in the world of fusion jazz. She liked George Clinton's funk bands,
and even traveled to New Orleans to hear jazz in what is considered that
music's birthplace. |
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Then there is the practical consideration of a commercial artist who
creates works based on what a producer or director wants. When the people
behind the Vision of Escaflowne asked for Gregorian chants, Kanno complied
- but she also added music with a Scottish theme because she liked its
"old country" feeling. Then there was the operatic solo in that series,
which was sung by a European countertenor, a man singing in falsetto and
not a woman. That information surprised anime fans, many of whom probably
didn't know that such a thing existed. |
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"I compose music in my head and I write down the music score," said
Kanno. Her workplace is a piano: no synthesizers or computers for her,
which is unusual in the synthesizer-laden world of anime music. Most of
the time, Kanno is commissioned to write a score after a film is created
and must use the film for inspiration - sometimes with only two weeks to
create the music. Then there was Macross Plus, where she finished the score
two years before the movie was finished! |
