#1
|
||||
|
||||
Arcana/Card Master Composer Breakdown Discussion
Just popped this CD in the car this morning and got to thinking... I think we need to have a thread on this. I've known the music to this game since my childhood, and am now pretty confident about my guesses here. Of course, they are guesses, and this is a discussion forum, so feel free to chime in!
(tracks based on spc set) (JI) / Jun Ishikawa (HA) / Hirokazu Ando 01) Grass Flute (JI) 02) HAL Logo (JI) 03) Our Story's Name/Title (JI) 04) Prologue to the Tale (JI) 05) A New Chapter (JI) 06) Rooks ~ The Card Master (JI) 07) Crowded Marketplace (JI) 08) Alchemist's Workshop (JI) 09) Weapon Shop (HA) 10) Magician's Tent (JI) 11) Resting (JI) 12) The Legend (JI) 13) Reinoll ~ Generous Hermit (JI) 14) Death of a Loved One (JI) 15) Cristal Sword (HA) 16) Got Item (JI) 17) Trusted Circle (JI) 18) Journey (HA) 19) Trickery (HA) 20) Conflict/Battle Theme (JI) 21) Fanfare (JI) 22) Ariel ~ Soldier of Betrayal (JI) 23) Fantatical Warlock Galneon (JI) 24) Shrine for the Worship of Chaos/Balnia Temple (JI) 25) Draven's Valley Pass (JI) 26) Silent Forest of Doubt (JI) 27) Darwin ~ Treasure Hunter (JI) 28) Cavern of Ice (JI) 29) Decisive Battle/Boss (JI) 30) Dark Castle Bintel (JI) 31) The Goddess (JI) 32) Birth of a Hero (HA) 33) Second Armageddon/Final battle (JI) 34) Two Beautiful Princesses (JI) 35) The Symphony of Elemen/Ending (JI) 36) unknown6 - duplicate of 34 37) unknown7 - duplicate of 01
__________________
Soundcloud | A'deo Chronicle OST | Horse Isle 2 OST | Mega Man XA | Royalty-Free Music Vol.1 |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. I will listen to it all and make my own guesses first before reading yours so that I am not biased in any way, then we can see where we agree and disagree. In the past I used to think this was an Ishikawa dominated score, but I'm not so certain anymore, now that I'm more familiar with Ando's writing. I'm still pretty positive about certain songs being Ishikawa, but I guess Ando's typical writing style doesn't stick out to me here much. As a rule he is more of a stylistic chameleon than Ishikawa so harder to spot.
(JI) / Jun Ishikawa (HA) / Hirokazu Ando 01) Grass Flute (JI) 02) HAL Logo (HA) 03) Our Story's Name (HA) 04) Prologue to the Tale (JI) 05) A New Chapter (HA) 06) Rooks ~ The Card Master (HA) 07) Crowded Marketplace (JI) 08) Alchemist's Workshop (JI) 09) Weapon Shop (HA) 10) Magician's Tent (JI) 11) Resting (JI) 12) The Legend (JI) 13) Reinoll ~ Generous Hermit (HA) 14) Death of a Loved One (JI) 15) Cristal Sword (JI) 16) Got Item (HA) 17) Trusted Circle (HA) 18) Journey (HA) 19) Trickery (JI) 20) Conflict (JI) 21) Fanfare (JI) 22) Ariel ~ Soldier of Betrayal (JI) 23) Fanatical Warlock Galneon (JI) 24) Shrine for the Worship of Chaos (JI) 25) Draven's Valley Pass (JI) 26) Silent Forest of Doubt (JI) 27) Darwin ~ Treasure Hunter (JI) 28) Cavern of Ice (JI) 29) Decisive Battle (JI) 30) Dark Castle Bintel (JI) 31) The Goddess (JI) 32) Birth of a Hero (JI) 33) Second Armageddon (JI) 34) Two Beautiful Princesses (HA) 35) The Symphony of Elemen (HA)
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk Last edited by Blitz Lunar; Apr 19, 2012 at 10:45 AM. Reason: oops, just adding color tags. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
Okay, follow-up post, just to make keep things separate and tidy. So it looks like...
We agree on: 01) Grass Flute 04) Prologue to the Tale 07) Crowded Marketplace 08) Alchemist's Workshop 09) Weapon Shop 10) Magician's Tent 11) Resting 12) The Legend 14) Death of a Loved One 18) Journey 20) Conflict 21) Fanfare 22) Ariel ~ Soldier of Betrayal 23) Fanatical Warlock Galneon 24) Shrine for the Worship of Chaos 25) Draven's Valley Pass 26) Silent Forest of Doubt 27) Darwin ~ Treasure Hunter 28) Cavern of Ice 29) Decisive Battle 30) Dark Castle Bintel 31) The Goddess 33) Second Armageddon/Final battle We disagree on: 02) HAL Logo Shmeh, it's a logo, what can you do. 03) Our Story's Name Could quite easily be Ishikawa, really. I guess the chord writing seemed suitably intricate for Ando. 05) A New Chapter Yeah, I dunno, I'm not certain about this one. I just went on the classical style being more likely to be Ando. 06) Rooks ~ The Card Master Again, could easily be Ishikawa, he loves his transpose stuffs. 13) Reinoll ~ Generous Hermit This to me is the one that sounds most like Ando on the score. Just those complex kinds of progressions aren't heard often in Ishikawa's music. 15) Cristal Sword Transposing and suspension usage makes me think of Ishikawa. 16) Got Item Hngh. Jingle. idno 17) Trusted Circle Hngh. Jingle. idno #2 19) Trickery Again I hear some sort of transposey suspension stuff going on. And I guess I've heard songs with a similar mood to this in Kirby Super Star and suchlike. 32) Birth of a Hero I don't think Ando would use 7th arpeggios as blatantly. lol. seems too OBVIOUS for him. 34) Two Beautiful Princesses Nothing particularly evocative. Could easily be either of them. 35) The Symphony of Elemen You might be right with this one after all. Again I know Ando is a dab hand with orchestration but something about those arpeggiated string parts reminds me of Ishikawa. _________________ Looks like we're in agreement on most of them though.
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk |
#4
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
I've come to revisit this breakdown and integrate Lunar's suggestions.
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
_______________________ So, with Lunar's help, I went diving into some Ishikawa+Ando Kirby music and came back to study their non-Kirby work. I just can't get enough of Arcana, it's such an excellent soundtrack. It's clear that Ishikawa was the lead composer here, with Ando taking a small role similar to (but much less than) Kirby 64. That said, Ando's contributions (at least what we know of them) are beautiful and nuanced. Altogether I can happily admit it to my top SNES soundtracks, ranked alongside Secret of Mana, SD3, FF6, and whatever other masterpieces I'm forgetting. Arcana is actually one of the first video game soundtracks I ever heard, having played it looooong ago, somewhere between the ages of 8 and 12ish maybe. It left an impression. I remembered the game's music clearly up until discovering that other people actually listened to VGM and I could do the same via internet. So Arcana was an early, formative experience that probably shaped my personal and professional pursuit of music in a major way. It's amazing to re-examine it decades later and find that I still hold it in the highest esteem. Not to get too off-topic, and I've lamented about this before, but I wish Ishikawa and Ando weren't slaves to Kirby. I like Kirby music, and after really studying it carefully, I find the things I love about both composers in abundance. However, these games are of a very different genre than games like Arcana and Alcahest, which were distinctly darker in tone, and I think this is the kind of tone I want to hear more from this particular pair. Both have spent the majority of their career writing music about a diminutive pink marshmallow that swallows his foes whole and flies via inflation; I just think composers of this caliber should be allowed to branch out more. Of course, that depends on HAL, which has narrowed its focus to mostly Kirby with the odd casual game for Nintendo. It's not that I'm arguing HAL should make RPGs, as I don't know that that would be a strength for them (Arcana certainly wasn't amazing as a game), but somehow, someway, I want to see Ishikawa and Ando (collaboratively or separately) score more "serious" (I really can't think of a better word, please assist!) genres, preferably RPGs.
__________________
Soundcloud | A'deo Chronicle OST | Horse Isle 2 OST | Mega Man XA | Royalty-Free Music Vol.1 |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
It's been a few years since the guesses. Lately I've been digging and researching the music of Kirby, particularly what Ishikawa and Ando wrote. Right now I am going back to Arcana (their non-Kirby music). Does anyone have a new breakdown or a current one that we can go with?
|
#6
|
||||
|
||||
This would be a composite of Lunar and my guesses, the very uncertain tracks left blank:
(JI) / Jun Ishikawa (HA) / Hirokazu Ando 01) Grass Flute (JI) 02) HAL Logo 03) Our Story's Name/Title 04) Prologue to the Tale (JI) 05) A New Chapter 06) Rooks ~ The Card Master 07) Crowded Marketplace (JI) 08) Alchemist's Workshop (JI) 09) Weapon Shop (HA) 10) Magician's Tent 11) Resting (JI) 12) The Legend (JI) 13) Reinoll ~ Generous Hermit (HA) 14) Death of a Loved One (JI) 15) Cristal Sword (JI) 16) Got Item 17) Trusted Circle 18) Journey (HA) 19) Trickery (JI) 20) Conflict/Battle Theme (JI) 21) Fanfare (JI) 22) Ariel ~ Soldier of Betrayal (JI) 23) Fantatical Warlock Galneon (JI) 24) Shrine for the Worship of Chaos/Balnia Temple (JI) 25) Draven's Valley Pass (JI) 26) Silent Forest of Doubt (JI) 27) Darwin ~ Treasure Hunter (JI) 28) Cavern of Ice (JI) 29) Decisive Battle/Boss (JI) 30) Dark Castle Bintel (JI) 31) The Goddess (JI) 32) Birth of a Hero (JI) 33) Second Armageddon/Final battle (JI) 34) Two Beautiful Princesses 35) The Symphony of Elemen/Ending Many that are marked are very certain. All the dungeon/field and battle themes, for example, are very obviously Ishikawa, while tracks like "Reinoll" are very obviously Ando. On the blank tracks, it could potentially go either way. I will say that I am more swayed to credit both "A New Chapter" and "Two Beautiful Princesses" to Ando. Either way, these two are stylistically a pair: whoever composed one surely composed the other. "Got Item" is enough like "Fanfare" that I think Ishikawa probably did it. "Magician's Tent" is so unlike anything either composer usually showcases. For "HAL Logo", see my previous comment: I think it was a thing before Ando joined the company. Such a great soundtrack. I really would like to see these two do something not Kirby, something darker.
__________________
Soundcloud | A'deo Chronicle OST | Horse Isle 2 OST | Mega Man XA | Royalty-Free Music Vol.1 Last edited by Jormungand; Mar 6, 2017 at 04:22 PM. |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Ys IV composer breakdown | 《J》 | Video Game Music Discussion | 18 | Oct 14, 2020 04:31 AM |
Kirby composer breakdown discussion | ChunkyLover130 | Video Game Music Discussion | 15 | Jun 9, 2020 09:04 PM |
legend of zelda composer breakdown discussion | ChunkyLover130 | Video Game Music Discussion | 7 | Dec 17, 2015 05:00 PM |
Rockman & Forte composer breakdown discussion | Jormungand | Video Game Music Discussion | 17 | Jan 29, 2015 02:01 PM |
Breath of Fire III composer breakdown discussion | Jormungand | Video Game Music Discussion | 48 | May 31, 2014 02:47 PM |