Yasunori Mitsuda

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Yasunori Mitsuda (光田 康典 Mitsuda Yasunori, born January 21, 1972) is a Japanese composer, sound programmer and musician best known for his work in video game music, specifically Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, and Mario Party.

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[edit] Biography

Mitsuda was born in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Kumage.[1] As a child, he took piano lessons, but he was more interested in sports and so never took music seriously. He also took to computers at an early age, and he taught himself to program simple songs and games. After a brief infatuation with golf, Mitsuda rediscovered music in high school, inspired by the scores of movies such as Blade Runner and by the works of composers such as Henry Mancini.

After high school, Mitsuda moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the Junior College of Music. Despite the school's low prestige, Mitsuda received solid instruction from his professors, most of them practicing musicians who would take Mitsuda to gigs with them to help carry and set up equipment. At the cost of being used for free physical labor, Mitsuda got a first-hand view of the Japanese music world and valuable training both in and out of the classroom.

Veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu showed Mitsuda an advertisement for an opening in the music department at the software game developer Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix Co., Ltd.), the same development where he was currently employed. Mitsuda sent a demo which won him an interview at the game studio. Despite the "disastrous" interview (as he describes it), Mitsuda was offered a position on the company's sound team in April, 1992.

Although his official job title was "composer", Mitsuda found himself working more as a sound engineer, a person who takes compositions by other people and adapts them to the technology used in making video games. In 1994, he finally gave Square's vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi, an ultimatum: let him compose, or he would quit. Sakaguchi assigned the young musician to the team working on Chrono Trigger. Mitsuda was allowed to compose the majority of the tracks for the game under the watchful eye of veteran composer Nobuo Uematsu, in the end arranging fifty-four tracks (Uematsu composing the remaining ten, having Noriko Matsueda assist him with one). Mitsuda revealed in 2004 that Uematsu offered to help him on the soundtrack after he developed a stomach ulcer due to his working so hard.[2] Following Chrono Trigger, Mitsuda composed the soundtrack for Front Mission: Gun Hazard, again with Uematsu. According to Uematsu, Mitsuda worked so much that he eventually "shit blood" out of stress and physical problems.[3]

The Chrono Trigger soundtrack proved extremely popular with fans. Mitsuda worked on four more titles for Squaresoft, the last being Xenogears in 1998 (he also composed the soundtrack to Xenosaga EPISODE I: Der Wille zur Macht). He then went freelance, though he continued to work closely with Square Enix on projects such as the Chrono Trigger sequel, Chrono Cross. He has also released non-mainstream-game music, such as his CD Sailing to the World (which includes a selection of music from a little known game called "The Seventh Seal"). A new acoustic arrangement of the music from Chrono Cross was quoted by Mitsuda as planned for release in 2006, despite it being previously rumored to emerge in July of 2005; however such an album has yet to be published.[4] An artistic collaboration with Masato Kato, creator of the Chrono series, called kiЯitɘ and featuring music, art, and stories, was released on 18 May 2005.

His music from Chrono Trigger was performed live by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1996 at the Orchestral Game Concert in Tokyo, Japan. The first symphonic performance of his music outside of Japan took place in 2005 at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany when music from Chrono Cross was presented. A suite of music from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross was a part of the symphonic world-tour with video game music PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, where Mitsuda was in attendance for the concert's world-premiere in Chicago on May 27, 2006. His suite of Chrono music, comprising "Reminiscence," "Chrono Trigger," "Chrono Cross~Time's Scar," "Frog's Theme," and "To Far Away Times" was performed.

He is currently working in with a team of developers in the greatly anticipated Gaia Battle MMO.[5]

[edit] Musical style and influences

Yasunori Mitsuda's music often show Celtic, Indian, Caribbean and East Asian influences. The strong Celtic influences are particularly evident in his soundtrack for Chrono Cross in songs such as "Another Termina" and "Dragon God" as well as in his Xenogears arranged album, CREID. Mitsuda's style is difficult to pigeonhole, however, since he is able to compose music in several different styles depending on the demands of the project. For example, the Chrono Cross track "Chronomantic" sounds Caribbean, while the song "The Great Sneff's Troupe" from that same soundtrack is East Asian in flavor. A number of his other compositions show strong Indian influence, such as the Chrono Trigger tracks "Corridor Of Time" and "Schala's Theme" and the Chrono Cross tracks "Time's Grasslands", and "Time's Scar" for example.

Mitsuda has always acknowledged popular cinema as a strong influence on his work. This is particularly evident in various battle themes he has written, such as "Gale", which is used in both Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross. The main theme from Chrono Trigger is another example of Mitsuda's cinematic side.

Mitsuda's music translates surprisingly well to jazz, as well. The album The Brink of Time consists of several arrangements of his Chrono Trigger soundtrack performed by a live jazz band called Guido.

[edit] Equipment

[edit] Sound designer credits

[edit] Video game soundtracks

[edit] Other works

  • Xenogears Arrange Version: CREID / Yasunori Mitsuda & Millennial Fair (1998)
  • Street Fighter Zero 3 Drama Album (1999)
  • Biohazard 2 Drama Album: Chiisana Toubousha Sherry (1999)
  • Biohazard 2 Drama Album: Ikiteita Onna Spy Ada (1999)
  • 2197 (One track titled "Blue Sonnet") (1999)
  • Ten Plants 2: Children Songs (one song) (1999)
  • Square Vocal Collection (three songs) (2001)
  • kiЯitɘ / Yasunori Mitsuda × Masato Kato (2005)
  • Infinite Prophecy ("Infinite Prophecy Main Theme") Original music for a Dreamseed project, first titled "Novabound." The project went on hiatus in 2006. It is now back in full development at Dreamseed under a new name and design, being developed for the Nintendo Wii Internet Channel as an Independent Flash RPG using the WiiCade's Wii API 2.0. Dreamseed's contract with Mitsuda included permission for him to publish the track on his own CD releases only if it was titled "Novabound Main Theme."
  • Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange (original arrangement of Track 1, "The Adventure That Never Ends (Rush Theme)")
  • Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange (original arrangement of the first track of the album, "The main theme of Rogue Galaxy") (2006)
  • Sailing to the World Piano Score (arranged by Masashi Hamauzu) (2006)
  • Luminous Arc (sound producer and composer of a few songs; majority of songs composed by Akari Kaida) (2007)

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Japanese)Yasunori Mitsuda Biography. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  2. ^ Power Up Excerpt. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  3. ^ Gun Hazard Original Sound Track Liner Notes. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  4. ^ Daiker, Brandon (2006-05-30). "Play! A Video Game Symphony" Interview with Yasunori Mitsuda. N-sider. Retrieved on 2006-06-27.
  5. ^ Yasunori Mitsuda to compose music for Gaia Battle. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  6. ^ RPGFan News - Sega Announces Original DS RPG

[edit] External links