LogFAQs > #945974692

138nd
Game: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Title: Endless Sky
Composer: Kumi Tanioka
Nominator: Zigzagoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQnwY8ou5Z0

Zigzagoon's intense enthusiasm for FFCC's music got me to explore much of the rest of the ost (tho i haven't actually listened to every song in full yet iirc, will get to doing that at some point lol) and man it's a goldmine of a sound I love.

I have had in my notes for quite a long time to say ""compare this song to mannheim steamroller"" so I am going to do that RIGHT now: this song reminds me a lot of mannheim steamroller! one of the earliest bands i got into (been a big fan ever since age 3). I compared another song to them before earlier in this topic, but i think the comparison here is less about composition and more about instrumentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ZeQEnvn-Y

tbh i don't like to use mannheim steamroller's christmas albums as the way to represent the band because for a lot of people it's the only thing they know, and i consider their non-christmas stuff just as great and underappreciated, but this pick feels like what i'm thinking in my head when i say ""ffcc is like mannheim steamroller""

FFCC's choice to cling tight to often neglected-in-modern-times renaissance-ish era instruments is a huge treat, all the variety of plucked strings and winds, but the most distinct: the crumhorn. The crumhorn is of particular interest to me because I consider my favorite woodwinds to be double-reeds, so oboe, bassoon, english horn, but also technically many far more 'exotic' things to the western ear, like crumhorn and duduk. All of those things are my favorite instruments that aren't some form of synthesizer or tuned percussion. I actually have a personal goal for 2021 as ""learn a double-reed instrument"", since one of my biggest regrets in my life is not learning one when I was younger, when I had a much more direct and convenient opportunity to do so (didn't take the opportunity my band director had encouraged me on and set me up with, because my parents did not 'get' why i was attracted to the sound of these kinds of instruments, and me letting their confusion at my genuine passion for a thing that didn't make sense to them, impact my decisions). This regret has plagued me for over a decade now, and i have decided NO MORE: I am going to learn one of these instruments. which will I choose? I don't know, but Crumhorn is on the list! and whenever I listen to FFCC music i'm just like YEAH THATS IT, THE COOL SOUND.

what's also impressive about this ost in general (though as far as i can tell this doesn't apply to this specific song) is that a lot of it is actually totally fake, in gamecube's midi-like sequence format. a good chunk of songs in this game would be possible to make individual channel visualizers and piano roll note data and all that automatically generated the same way i could do with an SNES song. That's CRAZY because of how real and alive all of it sounds. as far as i can tell this song is totally 100% pre-recorded into just a full wav-like file, though i can't confirm that because the thing that used to exist with all the sequence data ripped for this game stopped existing online and i dont know how to otherwise obtain/convert that at this time

in regards to composition, i'm just as much a fan. there are A LOT of big chord change moments that impact me so much that I FALL OVER because they're just the right amount of drama at exactly the right time.

I LOVE DORIAN MODE, IT IS THE BEST SCALE. it's like all the best parts of major and minor combined into one scale, like all using a single diatonic scale you can get the drama of alternating between major and minor without actually alternating between them. you can focus on the parts of the scale that sound like minor if you want it to sound like minor, and focus on the parts of the scale that sound like major if you want it to sound like major. AND as an added bonus ""it sounds like a jrpg and like you are in a fantasy world that has vague alignments with idealized vision of what medieval/renassiance times are like"" and i like that aesthetic. it's the one diatonic scale that in pretty much no matter what situation it's used in, i will adore it. and the chord changes highlight this scale being what's used too

and there's like a million moments that highlight the Intense feelings that combo major-minor element dorian mode gives. my favorite example: the high flute at 1:18.

1:37 though jeeez that's like an explosion of absolutely perfect emotional timing, what a climax, that jump down to a whole step from G dorian to F dorian is just fucking perfect to me

i would say i underranked this but i'm going to say that for everything left lmao. it's ""top half of ranking"" material absolutely anyway, and that is technically exactly where we are now!~ (hopefully i can get out of the habit of calling every single nomination is underranked soon once the ranking placements ""look"" higher)
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