When
video games began a quarter-century ago, the music was made of simple
bleeps no more sophisticated than the blocky graphics. Now, sounds are
as complex as the graphics, and the games' three-dimensional worlds are
accompanied by music that sounds like a movie soundtrack. Give some of
the credit for this advance to Hiroki Kikuta, who has composed the
music for Square's Secret of Mana and other games. "It's completely
different from writing normal music," said Kikuta. "If we talk about
RPG music, `field music' when a character is on the field, this is the
kind of music that players are subjected to for hours. Usually if you
have to listen to music like that for hours, it would be painful. One
of the things you have to do is to write music that's not painful to
listen to for hours and hours." Kikuta said the idea is to create
background music that doesn't have standard melody and structure, so it
blends into the background of the game. "It definitely is a challenging
target, but you get paid for that."
The
sound of Kikuta's music comes from the instruments he learned to play;
first the acoustic guitar, then the piano and synthesizers. "The music
is intimately tied to the instrument it's played with. My kind of video
game music is made possible with the use of computers and sequencers."
Video game music now is being treated by movie soundtrack music,
especially the Final Fantasy series, which has spawned concerts and
soundtrack discs. That's not necessarily Kikuta's game music goal,
though. "Fortunately, I'm not really bound by pressures on
non-contractural sources connected to the game, but I do question
motives where contextual and non contextual pieces are bound together
and marketed as product," he said. While some video games have
Wagnerian leitmotifs for characters, Kikuta doesn't always use that
technique. And he prefers to avoid the old technique of major keys for
heroes and minor keys for villains. "For one thing, human emotions
aren't supposed to be that simplistic. I think human emotions can't be
simply classified as a C major chord - it's constantly changing."
And
while some composers prefer a particular key signature or rhythm,
Kikuta dispenses with conventional harmony and melody in his game
works. "I despise the concept of key, because in my composing method, I
come up with works where you don't feel the key - that's what I use to
manipulate the emotions of the players. Suppose there's a chord made of
C E and G notes; I would rarely use that chord...by using a chord that
not a C major chord, I would come up with a chord that's ambiguous. By
using a chord such as that, you end up with a chord that's far more
flexible, and that kind of ambiguity makes the use of delicate
melodies possible. It's ambiguous as far as its key, but still
beautiful as music. This is something that I often use, and this is a
method that distinguishes me from other composers."
When
video games began a quarter-century ago, the music was made of simple
bleeps no more sophisticated than the blocky graphics. Now, sounds are
as complex as the graphics, and the games' three-dimensional worlds are
accompanied by music that sounds like a movie soundtrack. Give some of
the credit for this advance to Hiroki Kikuta, who has composed the
music for Square's Secret of Mana and other games. "It's completely
different from writing normal music," said Kikuta. "If we talk about
RPG music, `field music' when a character is on the field, this is the
kind of music that players are subjected to for hours. Usually if you
have to listen to music like that for hours, it would be painful. One
of the things you have to do is to write music that's not painful to
listen to for hours and hours." Kikuta said the idea is to create
background music that doesn't have standard melody and structure, so it
blends into the background of the game. "It definitely is a challenging
target, but you get paid for that."
The
sound of Kikuta's music comes from the instruments he learned to play;
first the acoustic guitar, then the piano and synthesizers. "The music
is intimately tied to the instrument it's played with. My kind of video
game music is made possible with the use of computers and sequencers."
Video game music now is being treated by movie soundtrack music,
especially the Final Fantasy series, which has spawned concerts and
soundtrack discs. That's not necessarily Kikuta's game music goal,
though. "Fortunately, I'm not really bound by pressures on
non-contractural sources connected to the game, but I do question
motives where contextual and non contextual pieces are bound together
and marketed as product," he said. While some video games have
Wagnerian leitmotifs for characters, Kikuta doesn't always use that
technique. And he prefers to avoid the old technique of major keys for
heroes and minor keys for villains. "For one thing, human emotions
aren't supposed to be that simplistic. I think human emotions can't be
simply classified as a C major chord - it's constantly changing."
And
while some composers prefer a particular key signature or rhythm,
Kikuta dispenses with conventional harmony and melody in his game
works. "I despise the concept of key, because in my composing method, I
come up with works where you don't feel the key - that's what I use to
manipulate the emotions of the players. Suppose there's a chord made of
C E and G notes; I would rarely use that chord...by using a chord that
not a C major chord, I would come up with a chord that's ambiguous. By
using a chord such as that, you end up with a chord that's far more
flexible, and that kind of ambiguity makes the use of delicate
melodies possible. It's ambiguous as far as its key, but still
beautiful as music. This is something that I often use, and this is a
method that distinguishes me from other composers."
