I will eternally proselytize about the sonic possibilities of chiptune and how the lack of options actually forces musicians to make creative decisions. Uematsu has said that he enjoyed writing music using those basic synth waveforms-he considered it a puzzle-solving exercise. For one, the NES could only play three notes at any given time, so it would be difficult for any composer to really stretch their legs on the thing. In Final Fantasy, this genre variety feels slightly obscured by the primitive hardware. Nobuo’s sharp melodic ear and sophisticated taste are the two qualities that define the Final Fantasy sound to this day, even as other composers have taken the reins. While the individual tunes from contemporaries (such as the first Dragon Quest) blend neatly with one another as if portions of a single movement, Final Fantasy feels more like a Discover Weekly mishmash of hard rock, classical music, and pop ballads. Part of the answer is that Uematsu is so preternaturally gifted at writing melodies, and while I implied his listening preferences were once more “limited,” you can tell from the outset that he loves all kinds of music. Tracks like the “Prelude” or the “Main Theme” are undisputed classics, but neither icon status nor fans’ childhood nostalgia can adequately explain why that is. It might seem like I’m thumbing my nose up at this music, so let me clarify. However, when you combine the young Uematsu’s amateur background, his relatively nascent musical frame of reference at the time, and the heavy limitations of the NES’ sound chip, what you get is pretty simple theme music for what happens to be a pretty simple RPG. To be clear, I’m not interested in discussing how the first Final Fantasy soundtrack could have improved if he’d just listened to more Herbie Hancock I don’t see how that would even have suited the game. From interviews, I get the idea that he listened to rock or pop more often than electronica or jazz at first you would probably catch him vibing to Rocket Man over Rockit in 1987. The Final Fantasy series’ signature composer taught himself how to play music, and by his own account, he is not great at reading or scoring in the traditional sense. ![]() Considering how ornate his music has become over the series, it’s easy to forget, Nobuo Uematsu is no trained maestro.
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