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ASO lures younger audience with sounds of 'Final Fantasy'

By PIERRE RUHE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/23/2005

Nicole Sims, 22, is the catch the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has been looking for.

A math major at Agnes Scott College, she has never seen a show at Symphony Hall, although she has been a devoted subscriber — to an online version of a role-playing video game called "Final Fantasy." The game debuted in 1987 in Japan, with new, more advanced editions appearing every few years. With more than 60 million units sold worldwide, the 12-volume series is a video game megaseller.

At the controls, her eyes wide and slightly glazed over, she becomes one of the androgynous-looking animated characters. She uses magic to battle evil forces, dodges monsters or pools of fire, meets new friends and generally saves the world from impending destruction.

"I got really immersed over Christmas break," recalls Sims, with short-cropped platinum hair and trendy "tunnel" earrings that hoop inside the lobe. "I played it eight hours a day. Every day I was wanting to cancel my [$15 a month] account, but I kept going. It is so addictive."

Friday and Saturday, using that drug to lure young audiences into its orbit, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is performing scenes from "Final Fantasy," with music by Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu.

For the ASO and a handful of other orchestras around the country, a concert of video game music is seen as a healthy way to tap a demographic considerably younger than its subscription-series average of about 55. With fears that the younger generation won't discover the joys of classical music as their elders reliably once did, orchestras are looking for novel ways to lure fine-arts novices.

"It'll get people involved with the Atlanta Symphony on a level they find accessible," says ASO artistic administrator Frank Dans, "and if it sells out, it'll help our finances, too."

Sims will be there, for her first ASO concert. She might even, she says, impersonate a favorite character by wearing a costume.

She compares the game's music to the soundtracks of "Jaws" or "Star Wars" — recognizable, indispensable, crucial to the enjoyment. Uematsu's synthesizer music for "Final Fantasy" covers many styles, from cocktail-lounge piano to militaristic orchestral to guitar pop. Unlike the rap or driving rock music that backs many games — think "Grand Theft Auto" — Uematsu's music works for the ASO because it slips easily into polished orchestrations.

"Final Fantasy" creates its own virtual universe that draws from Japanese anime, Hollywood action flicks and "Dungeons and Dragons," that '70s-era pencil-paper-and-dice fantasy game with a cult following. Now video and computer games, with U.S. sales of $7.3 billion last year, are gaining on movies ($25.5 billion in theater and DVD sales) in the commercial/pop culture world. A lot of that cost is in the gear: about $250 for PlayStation equipment, $50 for "Final Fantasy XI."

Concert-hall performances of video-game music have been around for several years in Japan. In America, one of the most prominent was performed in May 2004 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was the shot heard round the world — an orchestral pops concert that sold out in a few days, populated by a coveted demographic: young men aged 18-31, bursting with disposable income. Pops orchestras in Chicago and San Francisco signed on, with similar results.

The Atlanta Symphony's involvement started after artistic administrator Dans scouted the Chicago show in February. "The music is well written and very straight-forward to play," he says. "It's in a language we know, a bit like 'Carmina Burana' or 'The Planets.' It's not cheesy."

What sold the ASO on the concert was the audience. "Mostly young men in their 20s," Dans recalls. "They were extremely reverential and versed in the music.

"The emcee would mention a title, and they'd erupt. It's obviously an important part of their lives."

Jason Michael Paul, whose JMP Productions in Los Angeles books the "Final Fantasy" concerts, suspects that "orchestras are buying into this idea because they're starving for an audience."

For these two concerts, the ASO pays a fee of almost $100,000, which includes sheet music rental, video equipment, a technical director and a conductor. The ASO provides the orchestra, chorus and venue, and it keeps the box office receipts.

Noting that the L.A. and Chicago concerts sold out in a short time, Paul is confident that these events "can revitalize orchestras, which are dying as an art form."

Whether that's true, game composers profit from the association with a professional, name-brand orchestra. Uematsu started his career in TV jingles before writing his first video game score in 1986. With more than 30 games to his credit, he's been called Japan's John Williams. Music from "Final Fantasy" has been compiled on CD (a hit in Japan) and is downloadable from iTunes. Still, Uematsu battles perception that his work isn't serious.

"We can give his music credibility by having an orchestra play it," says Paul, evoking the age-old longing that creators have for both financial reward and artistic cachet. There's even a much-discussed new book, "Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter," by Steven Johnson, which argues that video games develop "fluid intelligence skills" like abstract reasoning, problem-solving and pattern recognition. (This sounds like the flipside of the once influential "Mozart effect," where it was classical music that made you smarter.)

But the if-it's-popular-it's-good attitude hasn't convinced everyone. "About video game music, I ask the same question as the Three Tenors phenomenon," says New York-based music historian Joseph Horowitz. "Does its success simply promote more of the Three Tenors, or does it really lead people to an interest in classical music and the fine arts? The answers aren't obvious, despite how these events are marketed."

John Plaxco, 23, has been hooked on joysticks since he was 10. Now a computer science major at Georgia State University, he plays the games daily, sometimes during class. His mother, Susan, sings in the ASO Chorus, and he's studied piano and other instruments. He listens to a little classical music, with Tchaikovsky a favorite.

But Uematsu's music holds much more significance to him.

He recounts the story of when he first played "Final Fantasy VII." The game takes 40 hours or more to play. About 30 hours into it, long after he had developed a massive crush on Aeris, the waifish heroine, she was whacked by the bad guy — run through with a giant sword.

"When I realized that the game was designed so she'd die, that you couldn't change the outcome, I broke down and cried," Plaxco remembers.

"Even now, when I hear that music [called 'Aeris' Theme'], I get a little choked up," he continues. "I had such a deep emotional attachment to her."

So do many fans of the game, it turns out: The "Aeris complex" has become an Internet term for manipulating the audience by the premature killing off of a major character — a concept that Alfred Hitchcock understood when he staged Janet Leigh's bloody shower scene early on in "Psycho."

Plaxco continues: "I've stayed with the 'Final Fantasy' series largely because of Uematsu's music. With his music, it's more art than game."

IowegianStar wrote:(On a side note - the PS2 game "Medal of Honor:Frontline" has a very striking track - when you view the 'credits', the background is a video of the recording session held in a church.)

Matthew Gilchrest wrote:Does anyone know who the tubas players are?

Methinks one of 'em is Chris Olka. Sounds like it could be him. Great playing and a good score.

poomshanka wrote:You know, at one point I could've sworn I saw a website for the Northwest Sinfonia, something original like "northwestsinfonia.com". I think it might've even had a personnel roster. Now that domain's unattached, and the only thing that comes up in the usual searches is maybe a reference to a score they've worked on, or a review, etc. Not even some kind of ad hoc site - zip, zero, zilch, nada.

Maybe it's more of a "pick-up" group? I dunno. Perhaps one of our more Pacific Northwesty TubeNetters might have some info?

poomshanka wrote:You know, at one point I could've sworn I saw a website for the Northwest Sinfonia, something original like "northwestsinfonia.com".