Hiroshi Tamawari (#2206)

[Jormungand]

Does anyone know what happened to this guy?

His website, http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~tama/tama/, went down a long time ago. While it was up, it had a full list of his work including a lot of non-game work (musicals and original concert music, mostly).

His last game work was Vandal Hearts II in 1999. I have no idea what he's been doing since, and have not been able to find a way to get recordings of his other work (if there even are recordings). He did have a lot of .mid files, and two (poor quality) mp3s of original concert music. The last audio file I can remember grabbing from his site was this exhaustive 12 minute piece titled "14 Variations and Fugue based on Ah,vous dirai-je, Maman". The last part refers to Mozart's variation piece of the same name, the subject theme of which is what we all know as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Anyway, Tamawari's version is in his traditional classically-influenced-yet-modern orchestral style using midi synth that's just slightly above the quality of what was used for VH2.

I'm wondering if anyone knows or cares what Tamawari's story is? He's a top tier VGM composer, no doubt--though under-appreciated. VH1 & 2 are truly remarkable achievements, the fact of which is probably eclipsed by the relatively low-quality MIDI used in both scores. That said, both are easily top ten for finest and most well-orchestrated orchestral game soundtracks, and VH2 in particular is #1, no contest.

So, what has become of this pillar of musical genius? What does he do? Where does he sleep? Help me out, fellow VGM addicts!

[Jormungand]

OK, seems he relocated his site.

http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~tama/

Unfortunately, looks like his "Works" list has been truncated. There were some other Konami games he worked on that remain uncredited in the database.

[CHz]

So Hiroshi Tamawari discovered Vocaloid and wrote the music and libretto for a Vocaloid bunraku opera just FYI Jorm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydpw4nmu1RU
http://www.opera-aoi.com/intro.html

[Jormungand]

That's so cool. Thanks so much for the find, CHz. Stage work is a major part of Tamawari's career, as over the years he has been involved in everything from libretto and translation to vocal direction and composition/arrangement. It's clear he transitioned fully into the theater arena after his brief stint at Konami. Chances are he still does commissions for local universities, too.

Tamawari is a very interesting guy, and an exceptional talent. I wish he had an active website, though I'll bet there's some social media stuff we don't have linked yet.

EDIT: AHHH, he's updated his website with a bunch of stuff. I'm taking the afternoon off.

[Jormungand]

Finally clear photographs of him:
http://tama-music.sakura.ne.jp/works...5%E2%98%85.jpg


Should we replace the profile image?

[dissident93]

don't see why not, so I replaced the old one with this one.

[NukaCola]

If anyone is interested, I talk about Hiroshi Tamawari and his Vandal Hearts I & II soundtracks in the latest VGMpire episode. http://www.vgmpire.com/2015/03/18/vg...ts-validation/

[CHz]

http://www.vgmonline.net/hiroshitamawariinterview/

As for Vandal Hearts II, I was chosen to compose the entirety of its score after I asked to handle it alone. Thanks to this, I was able to much more tightly knit the relationship of the main theme and its variation between all the songs. I created many theme variations for the development of the story, and integrated many core themes and leitmotifs so that they would call to each other. For example, the prologue song repeats an ostinato (E-F-B) for its duration, which also corresponds to the leitmotif for the enemies. I placed variations of this sound pattern in several of the battle songs that can be heard in the game. This particular point is the largest difference between the approaches that were taken for this game and for the music in the original Vandal Hearts.

I also made the music match the speed at which the game’s text advances. The game waits for a bar to repeat and uses this as a signal to display the next line of dialog and the next bar in the song. As those who are familiar with the scores for the musicals should know, the lines said by the characters during a play advance in real-time according to the timing given by the music cues. For matching the speed at which the players cleared the text boxes in Vandal Hearts II, I made several passages that develop sequentially without the music getting interrupted. This was thanks to the sound programmer making a special program for this purpose.

And one more point is that I tried using musical expression methods that hadn’t been used in game music up to that point. For example, the sound of the windmills spinning, the cries of the bugs and nightingales during the evening, the bewitching sound of the wind blowing through the windows, and the sounds of the waves and the seagulls at the harbor… All these sounds weren’t used as sound effects, but instead integrated into the songs themselves, which is a method of musical expression that’s widely featured in the music for operas and ballets.

He was writing stage music even when he was writing video game music :}

[NukaCola]

Hey CHz, thanks for linking to my interview! Much appreciated.

[Jormungand]

I just love this. Thank you for this interview Patrick and Chris. There are a lot of fascinating insights here, such as the reason for VH's sound quality and the main difference between the compositional styles of VH1 and 2.

His answer to returning to game music is very interesting. His orchestral music for the VH games was gold, and much of it was battle music. I wonder if creating such convincing tension (especially in compositions like 狂気) was especially difficult for him compared to the event and town music? But honestly, even the most intense battle themes were masterful. He makes them look easy. Can you tell how much I admire this composer?

The first one is about the relationship between stories and music. This is what was, is, and will always be like my life’s work. I might end up expressing it as an opera, as a game, as a movie or even as a drama.

I look forward to any and all of the above, Tamawari-san!

[Chris]

Thanks Joe! When I was reading his perspectives about game music today, I couldn't help but think that he would be a perfect fit for a Western-developed indie game that puts its emphasis more on storytelling than aggression.

Keep advising us on who to interview. Although he's only got a handful of games to his name, Hiroshi Tamawari was super-insightful and definitely a prominent contributor to VGM history. We're looking to find other composers who have great stories to tell.

[Raizen1984]

Chris, you would be my hero if you could deliver detailed interviews with any of the following:

Naoki Kodaka
Kazunaka Yamane
Mari Yamaguchi
Seiichi Fukami
Katsunari Kitajima
Hiroshige Tonomura
Yuki Iwai
Junya Nakano

Just throwing those out there in case you were taking suggestions

[Chris]

Thanks. Our attempt with Nakano fell through, but many of the others sound good. I'll do some research.

[GDPR_delete_03]

I just can't seem to get a handle on Tamawari's music. It seems very much 2nd tier stuff to me. That said, the interview was quite interesting! I should give another listen to the Vandal Hearts soundtracks. Maybe it'll finally hook me. It did take a while for me to 'hook' onto Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. There a couple tracks from each Vandal Hearts that I enjoy, but the thing as a whole continually escapes me, for whatever reason.

Perhaps Tamawari's style simply escapes me. I hope it's not that, as I'd hate to miss out on it, and I'm already predisposed to good thoughts towards it since it's so underrated and unknown.

Originally Posted by Chris

Thanks Joe! When I was reading his perspectives about game music today, I couldn't help but think that he would be a perfect fit for a Western-developed indie game that puts its emphasis more on storytelling than aggression.

Keep advising us on who to interview. Although he's only got a handful of games to his name, Hiroshi Tamawari was super-insightful and definitely a prominent contributor to VGM history. We're looking to find other composers who have great stories to tell.

If you can land an interview with Akito Nakatsuka, that would be fantastic. There's only one interview with him out there, on an old Japanese Nintendo page on a game that wasn't released. Excepting that, he's never been interviewed. And what an interview with him could be like! The atmosphere of Nintendo the early years. Who was Yukio Kaneoka, and where is he now. Why he was chosen for Zelda II instead of Kondo, and how he went about writing the music.

Interviews with Yasunori Shiono, Ryuji Sasai, Ryoji Yoshitomi, and/or Yuichi Ozaki would be awesome, too.

[Jormungand]

I just can't seem to get a handle on Tamawari's music. It seems very much 2nd tier stuff to me. That said, the interview was quite interesting! I should give another listen to the Vandal Hearts soundtracks. Maybe it'll finally hook me. It did take a while for me to 'hook' onto Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. There a couple tracks from each Vandal Hearts that I enjoy, but the thing as a whole continually escapes me, for whatever reason.

Perhaps Tamawari's style simply escapes me. I hope it's not that, as I'd hate to miss out on it, and I'm already predisposed to good thoughts towards it since it's so underrated and unknown.

Tamawari is unique in that he is one of the few master orchestral composers. It's a level of sophistication that shows a deep concern for texture, voicing, form and structure, and dozens of other instrumental considerations. It would be difficult to immediately appreciate such music without having a deep appreciation or understanding of both classical orchestral music and the technique of orchestration itself. That doesn't mean the music isn't accessible to the average listener--it just means it needs time to mature.

Vandal Hearts 1 & 2 are a gold standard of orchestral game music. I can't claim they are the gold standard (they should be), because barely anyone knows or cares. It doesn't help that they're older synthesized scores, and VH1 in particular sounds like it was produced by someone's Windows 95 MIDI soundcard. But upon careful examination, you start to uncover these amazing colors and harmonies--regardless of the sound quality.

Perhaps this sort of orchestral music isn't of interest to you. First, check out the classics. Tamawari is a composer who shows many influences from Bartok, Berlioz, Prokofiev, Holst, Hindemith, and probably a dozen others I'm missing. There's also his influence from more modern composers like Bernstein and Sondheim.

Also check with other game music that's of a similar level of sophistication. As I mentioned before, there are few game/anime composers that are at this level. Yuzo Koshiro (Actraiser 1 & 2, Story of Thor 2, and Ten Plants only), Kohei Tanaka, Yoko Kanno (Nobunaga Chronicle of Heaven, all of her anime scores), and oviously Kouichi Sugiyama come to mind. Hayato Matsuo is just on the brink; check out his score for Dragon Force 2. And since you know FF12, his "A Land of Memories" is one of the greats.

I recommend spending more time with VH1&2, returning to them every now and then. I think you'll find some surprises and eventually it will become a favorite. At the very least, appreciate VH1 for being the only game score ever to be mostly wind ensemble music (all but 3 tracks).

Interviews with ... Ryuji Sasai, ...

Try this one from 2009.

[GDPR_delete_03]

Thank you so much for responding! It is much appreciated.

I like to think that I'm not an average listener, but who knows. I am not particularly experienced in the technique of orchestration - though I like to think I am improving - nor have I listened to near as much classical music as I should have/be listening to. My native style of music as it were is very much film, television, and video game music, across the gamut of orchestral and instrumental styles.

I will definitely give Tamawari's scores another listen or three. I've heard far too many good things about it to give up on it. And scoring by wind ensemble is certainly a very unique choice, especially given the quality of MIDI. I will also check out the scores you've mentioned. I'm already a fan of Kohei Tanaka's score to Alundra (despite the fascinatingly plastic strings sound used in it) so I'll give that another swing along with all you've mentioned.

All orchestral, instrumental, classical, symphonic music is of interest to me. I will listen to it all. Even rock has, to an extent, grown on me thanks to Sasai and Tsuyoshi Sekito. Do you have any particular pieces you'd recommend? I am always on the look out for new music to take a listen to.

Yours,
Terry93D.

[Jormungand]

Originally Posted by Terry93D

All orchestral, instrumental, classical, symphonic music is of interest to me. I will listen to it all. Even rock has, to an extent, grown on me thanks to Sasai and Tsuyoshi Sekito. Do you have any particular pieces you'd recommend? I am always on the look out for new music to take a listen to.

Absolutely. I made a playlist of some favorites. As I was doing it I realized I could probably make a hundred of such lists and never run out of good suggestions, but this is a decent place to start.

Some notes:
Strauss--if you choose to search for a live performance of this piece from the opera, be warned that it may be NSFW. One of Strauss' best, colorful in orchestration during the first half, and a seductively beautiful melody in the second (starts about 5.5 minutes in, very memorable theme)

Bach--it's difficult to find good recordings of wind ensemble music performed by professional groups rather than students. This is the best one I found; it's OK, and gets the point across. Heavy, dark, and brooding arrangement of a Bach song (1736).

Grainger--I had the pleasure of playing this in college (euphonium). It's my favorite work for wind ensemble. These are just two selections, but the whole suite is fantastic. Great mixing of traditional folk songs and colorful chords.

Smetana--brilliant, light orchestration during that first minute meant to convey flowing water in a river.

Tchaikovsky--everyone knows the melody from this, but few are familiar with the whole piece. The 5 minute build-up in the beginning is a lush, creeping palette of warm colors and yearning melodies. A dramatic, sweeping action cue follows, and only after all that the familiar "theme of romance" enters--but only for a moment before gentle and timid strings play a second theme. Then the true exposition of the romance theme comes in.

Bartok--Tamawari pays homage to the poly-rhythmic theme from the middle of this piece in "The History" and "Destiny" from Vandal Hearts II.

Ravel--his own orchestration of 4 pieces from a longer piano suite, which I also recommend. My favorite composition of his. Also, Tamawari's "Epilogue and Staff Credits" is based on Ravel's "Bolero".

Candide--I threw this one in here for fun, but also because Tamawari spent a large part of his post-Konami career doing arrangements, lyric translation, and stage direction for popular musicals. This work by Leonard Bernstein shows carefully executed orchestration that's perfectly matched by one of the best sopranos in the musical theatre business. She's also absolutely hilarious.

[Jormungand]

On October 30, Tamawari is releasing an orchestral works album.

Based on the tracklist, a lot of the material included was at some point featured on his website (in .mid form EDIT: and some mp3s too!). I expect we will hear versions with higher-quality synth.

[Jormungand]

Preview

As I thought, modern HQ samples. It sounds very crisp. It's balanced just right, and not at all overbearing (as modern orchestral synth often tends to be, as many composers really blow out the brass and percussion).

[GDPR_delete_03]

This is sounding excellent. Tamawari hasn't lost an ounce of talent - if anything, he's gotten even better.

[Jormungand]

A lot of samples, mostly orchestral.