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Masashi Hamauzu Appreciation Thread

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cafemomo

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Let's have a Hamauzu appreciation thread! I believe he has earned his place up in the top of the videogame music world alongside Uematsu

What are your favorites from him? Here are some of mine.

Final Fantasy X
Final Battle
Thunder Plains

Final Fantasy XIII
Blinded by Light
Lightning's Theme

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Radiance
Epilogue

Unlimited SaGa
Laura's Theme
The Sacred Starry Skies


oh and his version of Green Greens is wonderful
 
I love his Vielen Dank album, which includes some arrangements of his video game work, but also a lot of originals. Same goes for Opus 4. I thought I'd link these because I know they won't be as well-covered as his game work.
 
Aeana said:
I love his Vielen Dank album, which includes some arrangements of his video game work, but also a lot of originals. Same goes for Opus 4. I thought I'd link these because I know they won't be as well-covered as his game work.
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Heh, was just listening to Vielen Dank earlier.
I've been checking out his IMERUAT and non videogame works lately.

Wonderful stuff.
 
My favorite composer. Words can't express how much I admire his work. I can't wait to listen to Legend of Legacy's OST.
 
Blinded by Light and Saber's Edge are probably my favorite standard battle and boss battle themes of the entire series. So goooood!

Also, Unlimited Saga's intro theme (the one played during the CG movie intro).
 
I like some of his contributions to the X soundtrack, but the XIII games are the first mainline FF games I don't bother having the complete soundtracks to in my music library. Just selections like Blinded By Light, Test of the L'Cie, and Paradigm Shift. He's got nothing on Uematsu, Sakimoto, Ishimoto or Shimomura for my tastes. e: like I beat XIII but I don't even remember that Lightning Theme track.
 
Aeana said:
I love his Vielen Dank album, which includes some arrangements of his video game work, but also a lot of originals. Same goes for Opus 4. I thought I'd link these because I know they won't be as well-covered as his game work.
Click to expand...

There's also the works for the World Clock Sony site too, which also had an official release by him titled Masashi Hamauzu Piano Works δ・ε・ T_Comp1.

I try and buy anything he puts out, and most of his piano works have had the scores published in some capacity. They're quite enjoyable to analyze and perform. Recently he did a lecture about Op. 4 Piano and Chamber Works piece and presented an analysis of some of the major features of each of the main "key-focused" pieces. There are some small examples from that posted on his twitter that I found to be extremely informative.
 
He does some good work in Sigma Harmonics, a game that never came to the states. (Although you can also hear a bit of recycling there I think.)
 
I found out who this guy was because of Unlimited SAGA's OST. I also remember vividly asking some friends if that game was worth it and they plain face told me it was a turd. I never found out if it was true or not (no PS2) but I was always baffled at how an OST could be that good for a game considered so bad.
 
Azure J said:
I found out who this guy was because of Unlimited SAGA's OST. I also remember vividly asking some friends if that game was worth it and they plain face told me it was a turd. I never found out if it was true or not (no PS2) but I was always baffled at how an OST could be that good for a game considered so bad.
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The art and music for that game are absolutely beautiful.
The game is definitely an acquired taste, with obscure mechanics, combining tabletop RPGs and hard dungeon crawling. It's definitely not for everyone but I feel like it's quite underrated and has a lot of redeeming qualities.

Riposte said:
He does some good work in Sigma Harmonics, a game that never came to the states. (Although you can also hear a bit of recycling there I think.)
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I'm still pissed we didn't get that game. I need to play every game composed by Hamauzu!

Yes, that includes Chocobo's Dungeon. (Is there a fan translation available for that one?)
 
Azure J said:
I found out who this guy was because of Unlimited SAGA's OST. I also remember vividly asking some friends if that game was worth it and they plain face told me it was a turd. I never found out if it was true or not (no PS2) but I was always baffled at how an OST could be that good for a game considered so bad.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Hamauzu's resume is loaded with crappy games.
 
With regards to the Green Greens example in the OP, I actually liked the Pikmin track he did even more!

I would've liked hear the Kirby wind quintet Grünende Flur he wrote for the LEGENDS 2011 concert. Same with the Pikmin orchestra piece Kleine Suite für einen großen Tag he did for that concert as well! I know that his arrangement of Aquatic Ambiance was performed again that year too.

Overall, I think my favorite videogame OST Hamauzu has worked on would probably be the SaGa Frontier II OST. The brilliance of the tracks in that game is only exemplified in the Piano Arrange album he did for the game. He is a master of the piano arrangements though, and the way he transforms the original pieces into beautiful music that is idiomatic to the piano is always brilliant. It's never a boring conversion when he translates game music to the piano.
 
Blinded By Light is just absolutely insane. It's still his magnum opus, imho, for how it never got old and its unconventional approach to making a Final Fantasy main battle theme. Those soaring violins are still one of the best examples of a video game pulling off tension and dissonance to an absolute highlight of pure melodic ecstasy.

It's a shame that the Lightning saga is so mixed, with diverse and intense love/hatred. His music (and also that of his co-workers) deservedly got their critical acclaim and his XIII is probably one of the most effective and thematically resonant scores of the series. His music in X is definitely his collective best though - the tensioned and chaotic Challenge being one of the best boss battle music in the series, Servants of the Mountain/People of the North Pole exquisite, his Besaid one of the very first musics of X and setting the tone so perfect and wondrous right then, and last, but not least, his powerful and deservedly acclaimed arrangement of Someday The Dream Will End.

Sorry for rambling on but the man is just one of the best in the industry, at least in my eyes. Thanks for the thread.
 
Meowster said:
It's a shame that the Lightning saga is so mixed, with diverse and intense love/hatred. His music (and also that of his co-workers) deservedly got their critical acclaim and his XIII is probably one of the most effective and thematically resonant scores of the series.
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I've always been a bit disappointed with his work on XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. It seems he was content to take a step back and let the other composers take center stage when I just wanted another XIII.
 
BTW, favorite bits of Unlimited SaGa music:

Battle Theme I (It's just so jazzy and wispy)
Perpetual Motion (I can't hear this theme without imagining a march through the innards of a clock)
Enigmatic Scheme (Sounds like a pompous mook squad theme but the instrumentation is just so playful)
Battle Theme IV (Very easily my favorite theme in the game. I just love the buildup to this almost tango like style midway through the song. Also, the accordion player was going off on this track. :lol)

Aeana said:
He also did the soundtrack for Binbougami-ga, and it's awesome right from the start.
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wait WHAT.

I watched this series and never knew this. This is awesome. It also sounds so much like him. How did I miss this? :lol

Meowster said:
Blinded By Light is just absolutely insane. It's still his magnum opus, imho, for how it never got old and its unconventional approach to making a Final Fantasy main battle theme. Those soaring violins are still one of the best examples of a video game pulling off tension and dissonance to an absolute highlight of pure melodic ecstasy.
Click to expand...

Blinded By Light is just too damn good. Legitimately one of my favorite pieces of gaming music of last generation. It just excellently conveys this sense of both wonder and spectacle while moving through so many phases of mood/tone.
 
Thoraxes said:
With regards to the Green Greens example in the OP, I actually liked the Pikmin track he did even more!

I would've liked hear the Kirby wind quintet Grünende Flur he wrote for the LEGENDS 2011 concert. Same with the Pikmin orchestra piece Kleine Suite für einen großen Tag he did for that concert as well! I know that his arrangement of Aquatic Ambiance was performed again that year too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for making me hunt this down. It was totally worth it.
 
jb1234 said:
I've always been a bit disappointed with his work on XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. It seems he was content to take a step back and let the other composers take center stage when I just wanted another XIII.
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It was more disappointing how little he was involved after XIII, I think. The main menu music for XIII-2, I think it is called Wish or Wishes, is probably my one of my favorites of all his music. But as much as I love his work in those two games, I really think Suzuki was the highlight with some really inspired and experimental music.
 
Azure J said:
Thanks for making me hunt this down. It was totally worth it.
Click to expand...

The subtle and various ways he works in the melody in that arrangement is really great. It's plastered throughout the entire piece, but is only really unveiled blatantly to the listener at two main points.
jb1234 said:
I've always been a bit disappointed with his work on XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. It seems he was content to take a step back and let the other composers take center stage when I just wanted another XIII.
Click to expand...

That's mostly because he quit SE after XIII. He just works out of his self-owned studio and publishing label, MONOMUSIK, but is clearly popular enough to still be contracted to do work. His output has increased in both quantity and quality since he's left.
 
Thoraxes said:
That's mostly because he quit SE after XIII. He just works out of his self-owned studio and publishing label, MONOMUSIK, but is clearly popular enough to still be contracted to do work. His output has increased in both quantity and quality since he's left.
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Yeah, I can see why SE would want to emphasize their in-studio composers. I'm not convinced that his output has increased since leaving, though. Certainly the scope of his projects has shrunk. I don't expect another (semi) solo 4-disc soundtrack any time soon.

Of course, given the state of SE, I don't doubt it was the right career move to make. It just bums me out how all of my favorite composers from that company have diminished since going freelance.
 
jb1234 said:
Yeah, I can see why SE would want to emphasize their in-studio composers. I'm not convinced that his output has increased since leaving, though. Certainly the scope of his projects has shrunk. I don't expect another (semi) solo 4-disc soundtrack any time soon.
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Oh, I mean besides video games. From the multiple piano and chamber music albums he's put out, to his collaboration with Mina for IMERUAT and the multiple albums that resulted from that, and to anime and and animated short he's worked on, his musical scope has increased a ton since leaving SE. I find that his talents outside of the videogame sphere are something I greatly enjoy when he isn't restricted to the game medium as much. Then there's also all of the scores he's published for the piano works too, not to mention the worldwide concerts and performances with Nuss and IMERUAT, and with chamber musicians he knows.
 
Thoraxes said:
Oh I mean besides video games. From the multiple piano and chamber music albums he's put out, to his collaboration with Mina for IMERUAT and the multiple albums that resulted from that, his musical scope has increased since leaving SE.
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Yeah, he's doing a lot more concert music work. I need to listen to those albums, that reminds me. Need to track down the sheet music too, if it's available.
 
jb1234 said:
Yeah, he's doing a lot more concert music work. I need to listen to those albums, that reminds me.
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I would guess by your avatar you may play piano. Assuming you do, I can easily recommend purchasing the scores as I found them to be quite enjoyable to perform. I even performed some of them for my grad. school juries when I was at conservatory and my teachers enjoyed hearing music from a composer they were not previously familiar with. It's very hard to find the older stuff in print form, but the more recent works that he published are all available on his international site.
 
jb1234 said:
It just bums me out how all of my favorite composers from that company have diminished since going freelance.
Click to expand...

I think it has hit Uematsu more than Hamauzu.

Uematsu's work after he left SE has been a hit or miss with me (videogame wise)

The Last Story and FFXIV are great, but the rest, not so much.

Hamauzu is still constant with his quality after he left SE.
 
Thoraxes said:
I would guess by your avatar you may play piano. Assuming you do, I can easily recommend purchasing the scores as I found them to be quite enjoyable to perform. I even performed some of them for my grad. school juries when I was at conservatory and my teachers enjoyed hearing music from a composer they were not previously familiar with. It's very hard to find the older stuff in print form, but the more recent works that he published are all available on his international site.
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I do, yeah. I have a degree in piano performance, although I went more into collaborative work, with opera singers especially. I'll look up his international site and see what I can find. Thanks!

I think it has hit Uematsu more than Hamauzu.

Uematsu's work after he left SE has been a hit or miss with me (videogame wise)

The Last Story and FFXIV are great, but the rest, not so much.

Hamauzu is still constant with his quality after he left SE.
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Yeah, I'd agree. I also think of Sakimoto, whose work has largely diluted with the creation of Basiscape. When he does the occasional solo project, I'm on board but I'm not as fond of his frequent collaborators.
 
jb1234 said:
Yeah, I'd agree. I also think of Sakimoto, whose work has largely diluted with the creation of Basiscape. When he does the occasional solo project, I'm on board but I'm not as fond of his frequent collaborators.
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But but but but Sakimoto is no stranger to collaborations. Heck, Revolter was Sakimoto + Iwata.
 
I discover his work with FF XIII release and I love how he is not Uematsu because I was surprised to read so many complains about his style.
But his background, the way he approach music is enjoyable in so many ways.

His Battle theme in Unlimited Saga is very very good, expressing a lot of different feelings... Love this guy and I don't think a company can go wrong hiring him for composing delightful tracks.
 
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