Hey,
Just got back from Boston where over the weekend I went to
see Final Fantasy Distant Worlds. For those of you who don’t know, Distant
Worlds is a live symphony orchestra that works in union with Square Enix to tour
around the world playing music from the Final Fantasy series.
The musical scores from Final Fantasy are arguably some of
the best pieces ever to be featured in any video game. And seeing the music
being played live was definitely an amazing experience.
Some of the classic FF scores played in Boston were: "Suteki
da ne", "Terra's Theme", “Opera: Maria and Draco”, "Aerith's
Theme", and “Swing de Chocobo”.
I was even lucky enough that on the night I went to the
concert it was attended by Masashi Hamauzu who co-composed the music of Final
Fantasy X and was the main composer of Final Fantasy XIII. In the last
performance of the night Masashi Hamauzu actually joined in with the choir for “One-Winged
Angel” from Final Fantasy: Advent Children.
Pretty awesome to see. Especially since Hamauzu provided
bass vocals in the original eight-person chorus when the song was recorded for
Final Fantasy VII.
Though the music definitely stands on its own, during
performances Distant Worlds also displays unique content from Final Fantasy
games on a giant screen. The CGI and gameplay clips are edited by Square Enix
for the special use of Distant Worlds.
As a result, this gives a kind of
“Fantasia” like feel to the performances as the images playing on the screen
are synchronized to the music of the orchestra. This also adds a whole other
dimension to the concert and makes the experience all the more enjoyable.
I think there is something inherently special about stunning
audio and visual elements being used together in harmony. And it is here that Distant Worlds achieves
something great and truly shines.
If you are a fan of the series, like video game music, or classical
music in general I absolutely recommend checking out one of their performances.
SuperFan5
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