The Superior Music of Final Fantasy Seven

by Bishop Wilkins 

Nobuo Uematsu is moving, in terms of his music, away from "catchy" and into "good". By "catchy" I mean those tunes which, by the sheer repeatability of their melody line, have the uncanny power to continue ringing in your head hours, days, years after hearing them. By "good" I mean music that is complex; music that is diverse; and most importantly, music that evokes a wide range of deep, intense emotion.

The music from his early games, Final Fantasy I for example, consist of melody line and base line, pure and simple. The songs average about thirty seconds in length. As simple as they are however, Uematsu demonstrates an undeniable genius for the catchy melody. Five years after playing Final Fantasy I, having not seen the game once in the intermittent period, I could still easily recall the spooky battle theme, and would even find it drifting into my head of it's own volition once in a while. When Final Fantasy IV was finally translated to the US FFII, I heard in its music traces of that same lovable simplicity of the first game's music, but now there was much more. Drums and percussion! Multiple synthesizers! Still, the music had that old singability. As did the FFVI fighting song, although to an even lesser degree. With Seven's battle theme, the singability was gone, but I did not miss it. I was too busy feeling the greater level of purpose created by the complexity of the chords and the dynamic alterations. It's true that I'm not whistling the Final Fantasy VII battle theme for the rest of the day after playing, but that's because the energy of the new battle theme doesn't come from an unadorned melody line. It comes from the complexity of it's synthesized string section and it's changing harmonies and accenting percussion. Yes, the early battle music was catchier, but the new music is downright powerful.

In fact, Uematsu is one of the few musicians I can name who consistently and relentlessly increases his ambition with each new project. And to this date, he has not once failed to reach the new goals he sets. Final Fantasy Seven is no exception. The songs of Seven's soundtrack range from marches like "A Full Scale Attack" to the Costa Del Sol samba, to the symphonic epic of the overworld theme, to Cait Sith's silly Sesame Streetish jazz. The variety present in his music has continued to grow throughout the Final Fantasy series. From hearing the first game, I'm sure no one could have guessed the wide scope that his work would one day encompass. The songs of that first game are essentially different ideas based around one basic theme. Different sentences of the same paragraph. An interesting paragraph, but nonetheless only one paragraph. They all share the same sort of fairy tale, awe-inspired air. Then, in Final Fantasy II, the chocobo song appears! Then, with the move to 16 bit, drums and various synthesizers. By Final Fantasy VI, Uematsu has delved so far as the orchestra-with-techno-industrial-backup of the Magitek Research "Devil's Lab". His expansion into new territories seems palpably determined. More remarkable still, his new efforts are usually successful. Who can deny the sticky sweet sunniness of "Costa Del Sol"? Does anyone think that "Cait Sith's Theme" failed to enhance his character? They are not orthodox as traditional video game music goes, but the new compositions are effective.

Despite all this, the increasing complexity and variety of Uematsu's soundtracks are not his fastest growing skill. His fastest growing skill is his ability to extract rich emotions from his listeners. The haunting theme of the slums of Midgar (translated "Anxious Heart") gives me chills every time the opening strains sound. The echoing bells elicit strange flavors of emotion not even glanced over in any of Uematsu's previous soundtracks. What in his earlier work can compare to these visceral new ideas? The subdued bass of Narshe? The silent mystery of Mist Valley? They hint at it, but Anxious Heart takes it to a new level. A deeper level. Similarly, Aeris' theme is a new, trickier incarnation of Celes' and Rosa's songs. It has all the tragedy and sorrow of Celes' theme, tuned to a stronger pitch, and Uematsu has added something more: a fragility that makes me shudder. The opening chord trio has such a frank rawness that it almost makes me feel as if something indescribably precious is about to break. This uneasy feeling is not simple to describe, but it is intense. I cried during Celes' attempted suicide... but I REALLY cried during Aeris' burial. Maybe this can be partially attributed to the dialogue and the artwork, but it is primarily the doing of the throbbing melody. Increasingly, Uematsu's songs are no longer just "happy", "sad", or "exciting", but instead strike feelings that are harder to name, or perhaps feelings that have no name at all. Isn't this one of the more important qualities of music in general: the capacity to describe things beyond the range of vocabulary? Those who ridicule the Final Fantasy Seven soundtrack for not having the appropriate music to go along with the action are looking at things the wrong way. Uematsu is no longer just providing music to affirm and clarify the pictures and words. He is now providing music to enhance and change the quality of the pictures and words.

One Winged Angel is the perfect example. It's the final battle - the culmination of the epic quest and the decisive moment for the fate of the planet! But does Uematsu opt for a heart-pounding, frantic all out attack beat like in the early Fantasies? No... his approach is far more subtle and more memorable in the end. A multifarious menagerie bleeding out color, reminiscent of Amano's brighter watercolor paintings. One Winged Angel is not about battle at all. This song heralds the godlike majesty of Sephiroth. The effect is absolutely fantastic. First I was almost dizzied by the unexpectedness of the melodies I was hearing. Then I almost wanted to laugh with joy and gratitude for this new type of experience that was not just a faster, bigger finale, but something entirely unique. But looking back at the previous final boss music, you can see how the song has come about. Abandoning the straightforward approach after Zeromus and the Final Fantasy V final battle, he began experimenting with the eerie gothic organs of "Dancing Mad". Seeing that a completely different style of song could work for climactic battles, he decided to try something even more unique for Final Fantasy VII. The fighting system of Final Fantasy I was an awkward representation of battle, rather annoying over time and clunky to use. As the series progresses, this fighting system has changed until now it resembles a graceful, stylistic dance more than it does any kind of unsuccessful representation. In the same way, Uematsu's composing sense is changing.

As melancholy as I get when I realize that there will never be any more music like the early Uematsu melody lines, I want nothing less than to have the old Uematsu back. For him to go back in the direction of "catchiness" after going so far into "good" would be a disappointment greater than I think anyone acknowledges. He has from the start made a unique and important contribution to the music of video games, and if he continues to transcend himself as he is doing now, he will eventually have made a unique and important contribution to the music of the world in general. That is what I want to see. Unlike many of his critics, he seems to understand that if he were to continue composing in just one way, his songs would become stagnant. He knows he has to change. This attitude is admirable, not deplorable. Although I still consider the orchestrated/vocal arrangement of Tina's theme from Final Fantasy Pray his finest single piece, the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VII demonstrates that Uematsu is in general evolving at a rapid pace. So rapid, in fact, that many of his listeners have failed to keep up with him. It is distressing that so many of his fans continue to mourn the loss of his early style. I want to follow him to the new and better places that he is going.