It is video game
music month on Clef Notes and I would love to hear any fun anecdotes from game
enthusiasts out there! Last week, we touched on arcade games as well as early
consoles. Today, I would like to expand our NES discussion to include the Super
NES that came on the market in Japan in 1990 and the U.S. in 1991.
With the
development of the new and improved NES in the early 90s came the use of a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) system in which programmers had
the option to use different instrument sounds within a game. The Super NES also
contained eight stereo channels (16 channels total) which was certainly a jump
from its predecessor.
With the Super NES
came the use of music in various roles within gaming. While games continued to
contain soundtracks that served to accompany onscreen action, several also
incorporated music into the game’s plot. One example of this is Final Fantasy VI during which an actual
opera takes place. This opera was composed by Nobuo Uematsu for the game.
Uematsu also uses leitmotifs throughout the game (a constantly recurring
musical theme that usually represents an object or character). In the video
clip here you can see the opera scene from the original Super NES version of Final Fantasy VI. Notice that at this
point in time, technology did not allow for the usage of a human voice so we
still experience chip tune music accompanying on-screen lyrics.
Join me next time
as we take a look at making music in video games, specifically The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!
