|
The music of the video game ''Final Fantasy XIII'' was composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Former regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute any pieces to the soundtrack. Music from the game has been released in several albums. The main soundtrack album, ''Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack'', was released on four Compact Discs in 2010 by Square Enix, the developers and producers of the game. Selections from the soundtrack have been released on two gramophone record albums, ''W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII'' and ''W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII Gentle Reveries'', both in 2010 by Square Enix. An album of arranged pieces from the soundtrack, ''Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack -PLUS-'', was also released by Square Enix in 2010, as was an album of piano arrangements, ''Piano Collection Final Fantasy XIII''. The theme song for the Japanese version of the game, , was released as a single by For Life Music in 2009. The soundtrack received good reviews from critics, who felt that it was Hamauzu's best work to date and an excellent mix of material and genres which took the series' music in a new direction. The "Plus" album received weaker reviews, primarily due to its perceived lack of tracks that were significantly different from those in the original soundtrack album, while "Kimi ga Iru Kara" was considered bland and disappointing. The "Piano" album's reception was split between critics who felt that the tracks did not deviate enough from the original pieces and those who felt that the straightforward arrangements were sophisticated. Music from the game was played at a live orchestral concert in Stockholm, Sweden, and was added to the permanent rotation of the international ''Distant Worlds'' concert series, while tracks from the piano album have been played in concerts in Japan and Paris. ==Creation and influence== Masashi Hamauzu composed the game's soundtrack. His previous work on the series was as a co-composer for ''Final Fantasy X'' and as the main composer for ''Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII''.〔 The game was the first main-series ''Final Fantasy'' game not to include any compositions by original series composer Nobuo Uematsu; although he was originally announced to compose the main theme of the game, this role was taken over by Hamauzu after Uematsu signed on to compose the soundtrack to ''Final Fantasy XIV''.〔〔 Game producer Yoshinori Kitase chose Hamauzu because he felt that Hamauzu would be the best for the job as he was composing an orchestral-based soundtrack then for ''Dirge of Cerberus'' and the ''Final Fantasy XIII'' team wanted that style for the game. Hamauzu described the soundtrack in the liner notes for the soundtrack album as comprising multiple genres of music so that the player would not get tired of it, while also using several motifs so as to tie the varying pieces together; particularly in grouping the themes from the Cocoon and Pulse areas in the game.〔〔 He tried to match each piece and theme to his sense of the narrative and characters involved in the scenes that they would be played in, and feels that being the sole composer for the project allowed him to ensure that the overall direction of the soundtrack was consistent.〔 Besides some pieces he did for promotional events in 2006 and 2007, Hamauzu began composing the soundtrack in Autumn 2008 and finished it around one year later. When he began the bulk of the composition, he started by composing the motifs he wanted to use, rather than any particular piece.〔 The first track that he composed was "Blinded by Light", as one of the promotional pieces; it was based on the director Motomu Toriyama's vision of the game as a mixture of fantasy and near-future, as the storyline for the game had not yet been finalized. As the game was intended to be a conscious departure from the staples of previous ''Final Fantasy'' games, Hamauzu was not constrained in keeping the music in line with previous soundtracks from the series. Despite this, he did not compose the music specifically to "break from the series' past", but rather focused it on the game as it was presented.〔 The score features some recordings by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged by Yoshihisa Hirano, Toshiyuki Oomori and Kunihito Shiina.〔〔 Hamauzu had previously worked with the orchestra on his album ''Vielen Dank'', released in 2007.〔 Four songs in the soundtrack include vocals by Mina Sakai, an artist whom Hamauzu works as a producer for.〔 Two of the songs are in English rather than Japanese, and "The Gapra Whitewood" was intended to be as well, but during practice Sakai and Hamauzu changed it to use a fictitious language as they felt her focus on pronouncing the English words was detracting from the melody.〔 The two English tracks were re-recorded for the English version of the game, as the localization team felt that they did not sound natural to native speakers.〔 On three of the pieces from the soundtrack: "Sazh's Theme," "Daddy's Got the Blues", and "Can't Catch a Break", described as jazzy pieces related to the character Sazh, Hamauzu's compositions were arranged by Toru Tabei, a friend of his, who Hamauzu describes as being more familiar with that style of music.〔 The theme song for the international version of the game is "My Hands", from British singer Leona Lewis' second album ''Echo''; it was chosen to replace ''Final Fantasy XIII''s original theme song from the Japanese version, "Kimi ga Iru Kara" by Sayuri Sugawara.〔 Square Enix President Yoichi Wada has stated that it would have been better if the American branch of the company had produced a theme song from scratch, but the lack of staff led to the decision of licensing an existing song instead.〔 Hamauzu, who composed the music for "Kimi ga Iru Kara", only met Sugawara once, and was not involved in producing the vocal song.〔 He was not involved in the decision to use "My Hands" for the international version.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Music of Final Fantasy XIII」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|