Generic title about music

I like old video game music, but I love it when it's professionally arranged and performed by a real orchestra.

I did a bit of bitching last time. This time I don’t feel like doing that so I’m going to talk about something I love instead.

Everyone should be able to experience something that affects them so deeply they are brought to tears. In my case, there are very few things I find more satisfying to listen to than this orchestral “poem” of music from Final Fantasy VI. I’m not ashamed to say that the first time I reached the end of this piece I cried tears of joy. That last triumphant fanfare when they break into the notes of the main theme makes me feel emotions I did not know I could still feel. I strongly suspect part of it is nostalgia. I mentioned before that I wish I could feel the same sort of anticipation or enjoyment I felt as a kid reading comics or playing certain games. When I listen to this I get close to that.

Final Fantasy VI (or III depending on the market and release version) is one of the very best games I’ve ever played. I’ve been searching for a game at that level for a long time. I have tried a series of mobile games and looked through the Steam shop for something that might measure up to FFVI but everything seems to come up short. And while there is certainly some nostalgia in my aging heart when it comes to SNES games, I did play through it within the last few years and boy, does that game hold up. 90s-era JRPG graphics aside, the characters feel as real as the best stories I have read, and certain aspects of the plot have influenced the fantasy novels I have written (and I’ll talk more about those later… much later).

Back to the music above: there is a comment where someone says that whoever created this arrangement (Jonne Valtonen and Roger Wanamo) must have loved the game and had a deep understanding and appreciation for the game’s themes and plot as the music is a sort of abbreviated tour through the game itself. And I certainly agree. The composer could not fit all 4-ish hours of Uematsu Nobuo’s fantastic music into the 19 or so minutes they had to work with (I’m assuming here that because this had to fit into a concert of video game music they were given a limit of some sort) but they included enough to give listeners a feel for the flow of the game. It works, although I would love to listen to an hour-long epic journey through the game: I want to hear Phantom Forest and Dark World worked in there. They could add Aria di Mezza Carattere as well (performed at a different video game concert), but if all I ever get is this nearly-20-minute piece I will still be satisfied. It is more than I could have hoped for to begin with.

The only game of this genre I enjoy more is Chrono Trigger, and there are orchestral arrangements of its music available as well. The problem is that they sound like a college marching band or a high school band next to the professional arrangement and performance of Born with the Gift of Magic above. Valtonen and Wanamo created a piece that could be played alongside real classical music and not sound too out-of-place. The performance above is by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Wikipedia tells me they perform at the Nobel Prize, and they sound the way a proper orchestra should. There is nothing tinny or shallow about the tone of their instruments, everything is full and rich. I wish I knew more about classical music to be able to say exactly why it is so satisfying to listen to them perform this piece, but there is a vast difference between this and the Chrono Trigger arrangements and performances I’ve listened to. If anyone knows of some good books on classical music, please let me know so I can sound less stupid in the future.

My personal shortcomings in knowledge of classical music aside, this still makes me feel something I was afraid I’d never feel again. I hope that you all have something in your lives you find so beautiful, so satisfying it makes you want to cry tears of pure joy. Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to give this one more listen.