Full transcript of “Nobuo Uematsu, One-Winged Angel - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 hi everyone today it's a little bit of a Twist on the whole modern music rock music Journey that I'm undertaking but I think I think you'll kind of begin to understand the why and how in a few minutes so not very long ago some time ago now I listened to some selections from the genin impact video game music and that was an interesting experience it was it tended more towards kind of modern classical not so much Rock but it was a fun experience well today I listening to a some music by a specific composer not a not a performing band or
0:46 something but a specific composer by the name of noo U Matsu and um maybe I should just start by reading the paragraphs I have here and then if I have anything more to say before listening I'll say it nobuo uatu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the Final Fantasy video game series so this is another video game series of course I've never played the game anymore than I played ginch and impact but I'm paying attention to the music rather than the strategy of the game itself a self-taught musician he began playing the piano at the age of 12 with English singer songwriter Elton John as one of his biggest influences so there's one of
1:34 the strands of connection to some of what I've been listening to lately Distant Worlds is the touring orchestra playing music from the Final Fantasy games around the world since 2007 the composer intended One-Winged Angel that is the song I'll be listening to today to sound like a cross between Stravinsky and Jimmy hendris what a combination I am so curious to see how this cross between the two actually works out well I know what Stravinsky sounds like I've listened to a bit of Jimmy Hendrick too although not a whole lot so that's that's another strand of connection between this whole Rock journey and what I'm listening to today
2:23 this particular piece is from Final Fantasy 7 and plays during the the climactic battle at at the end of the game with its main villain searo so as I said kind of a funny little twist on my rock Journey but still just as in this whole experience I've been looking at what influences and feeds the rock music genre itself it's kind of fun to take it a step further and see how rock music influences and feeds other types of music well this is as it says a bit of a cross where it
3:08 seems that rock music and some 20th century classical like Stravinsky are both serving as an inspiration for this so it's going to be fun we'll see how it sounds and let's listen [Music] a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
4:55 okay so right from the beginning I can clearly hear the Stravinsky influence I haven't really picked out anything that really strikes me as something I'd say oh that reminds me of henrix yet but we have a little ways to go um I love the way I love the way that it picks up this Stravinsky influence and carries it through but but I also like the I I like the way that it's handling the different rhythms and time signatures that are coming the syncopations and and what's the way it's
5:40 propelling the music forward there's a feeling of excitement um kind of the feeling of well if you've ever gone into a a tense s situation a challenging situation with a lot of confidence uh kind of excitement and thrilled to be tackling this this challenge um the best way I could describe it would be the feeling one has walking on stage to perform an
6:27 incredibly challenging piece of music and you know that a whole lot is at stake but there's also this feeling of I've prepared for this and I'm ready to give it my absolute best this feeling of all right let's stay focused but let's go and that's what this introduction this opening is kind of making me feel [Music]
7:16 I'm not sure it's just pulling from Stravinsky I'm not sure because something like this little okay you could say your kind of modeling it after Stravinsky but but doesn't it doesn't it really bring to mind a Beethoven symphony doesn't it it's not quite that but it it seems like it's kind of quoting that very very overtly [Music]
8:03 on on oh [Music]
9:28 this is great fun I guess well I may as well say it I I'm I'm enjoying this far more than I than I enjoyed the genjin impact uh music this this has more spice and personality to it I really feel the the energy and the flavor of it a whole lot more um engaging and interesting than genin impact music uh not that that was bad music at all but but this this has some sort of some sort of character to it and that's what I like is the character the personality of it isn't it fun the way it has this March Rhythm bum bum Bumm bum bum well
10:17 that makes sense of course being that it's set for a battle but but I love the way we have this March feel and then there are places where it just kind of well here recently in this little section we would be marching along and then we have this y kind of a triplet almost a almost a we could say a jazzed up version of it maybe that's the little bit of hendrix's influence well I don't know because I don't know Hendrick well enough to say this is a hris
11:02 feature but it's kind of fun isn't it square and strong that moment y so nice after building up that that tension and expectation [Music]
12:24 okay and maybe I should also mention that the lyrics are in Latin you can probably figured that out that they're certainly not in English they're in Latin and I have the translation here beside me maybe I should just read because it's a couple lines you have near the beginning burning inside with violent anger and then that repeats several times sephiroth of course that's the main villain as I read um and then a bit later we have fate monstrous and empty and then again burning inside with violent anger and now at the end we have come come come to me do not let me die and that's kind of how it runs to the end let's back up a little bit I
13:09 really enjoy Also the the clarity of the coral music um and how it contrasts with all this wild fireworks going on in the orchestra I think I think that it works really well to have this smooth classical Latin Coral sound and then this wild frines excitement swirling around it baby baby baby
13:56 baby baby baby baby to [Music] so I hear a lot of Stravinsky in this I hear I hear some elements of what we could call
14:43 Jazzy but but to my ears it's hard for me to say that there's a strong Jimmy Hendrick influence or even even rock music or or even um overtly Jazz influence simply because so much of 20th century classical music everything from the French stuff to Stravinsky to all any well there's all the American composers um those are the ones that really jump out to me as being ones I should mention of course we hear there are the British composers all all the European anywhere
15:29 that classical music really was being um focused on during the 20th century jazz music had a big influence on it kind of like kind of like the way in which we could say that that Indian music had a big influence on the Beatles and their musical development and then of course it influenced they in turn influenced all the other musical developments coming around and after them so it's hard to say for me that I
16:15 hear a specific Jimmy Hendrick influence it may also simply be that I don't know jimmi Hendrick's music well enough to pick out specific references to his playing but but um it has a sort of Joyful 20th century classical um let's say accessible 20th century classical because we're not going down into the really uh academic compositions and it's fun to my ears to me it is really fun and engaging to listen to It's the kind of music that I would find my myself turning on um and turning up
17:03 if I am trying to get a bunch done around the house or something uh I would turn it on I would have if I have little kids around whether it's nephews or nieces or my own little girl okay let's have a grand cleanup Party All Right Turn Up the Music put the toys here let's sweep real fast let's wash some dishes let's let's do this let's have some fun while we're doing it it's that kind music that I go for when I have that sort of activity ahead of me and um I love it it's great fun now I'm trying to imagine myself playing a a video game and listening to this kind of music well first of all I don't play video games so it's kind of hard for me to imagine
17:48 um and to me the idea of well I can't say I've never tried a video game actually a few kids have tried to get me to play and and I'm so clumsy it's I'm sitting there trying to control everything and of course I never make it past the first level uh that's okay but the idea is that okay maybe if you feel very natural and at ease in a [Music] game then this would certainly be an invigorating almost uh Focus inducing adrenaline adrenaline triggering bit of music if you're in an intense battle I don't know for me it might be a bit more
18:34 distracting than I want to deal with because as I'm thinking of myself in a competitive situation video gaming I'm thinking I don't want a game setting my temp I don't want music setting my Tempo setting my mood I want to be focused and and zeroed in on whatever I'm doing and for me for me music is something that pulls me out of what I'm doing if I want to focus on something I personally needs silence or something that is not invasive and I find this to be something that requires me to get involved and engaged and and
19:22 excited but I mean when it comes to video games and the music that there people are consuming in the games I love the fact that this kind of music is showing up in some of these games um now I understand of course that there are all kinds of music and different games have different musical settings but the fact that something like this can show up in a video game um we classical musicians we sometimes bemoan the the loss of interest and and the loss of audience and in many circles there's this discussion of okay is classical music going to die is this because we don't
20:09 have the same sort of societal interest in going to a a Symphony concert or or participating in local musical events like there used to be well there are so many factors playing into it but basically I'll sum it up and say it's a different world today than it was a hundred years ago um but the fact that somebody is able to play a game while listening to this kind of music is pretty exciting to me the fact that they're enjoying it uh they're engaged by it and somehow it it enhances their experience in a way that works for them as I said I don't
20:55 know if I could handle it but that's okay and uh it's it's a fun it's a fun combination of activities and sensory experiences I would love to hear from any of you if you can explain a bit more where I would listen to find the Hendrix influence or perhaps it's so subtle that it's woven in there and and really more weighted towards trinsky but if any of you can pick out anything that really tends towards Hendrix I would love to hear that because well the composer himself said it's meant as a as a cross between the
21:41 two of them so unless I can speak to the composer himself maybe you can fill in the gaps for me that was a fun listening experience um I enjoyed it noo uatu the composer uh it was the what was it the penultimate um no the climactic battle at the end of the game of Final Fantasy 7 Final Fantasy 7 One-Winged Angel that was a lot of fun we'll see what comes next and I'll see you soon
