Concert in Toronto this weekend!!!!!

Yikes!!! What a great concert : ). I've been traveling to Toronto this weekend to attend to Play! a Video Game Symphony !
They've been playing orchestrated arrangements of the music from the composers Nobuo Uematsu (FF Series), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross/Trigger), Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros/Zelda), Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Shenmue), Masato Nakamura (Sonic the Hedgehog), Hikaru Utada & Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Tappy Iwase & Kazuki Muraoka (Metal Gear Solid), Jeremy Soule (Morrowind), Jason Hayes (World of Warcraft), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill 2), Michael Salvatori (Halo) and some more. The Orchestra was conducted by Arnie Roth.
Ok, I will give my opinion about this representation. It was great, I've paid 120$ for the tickets, that I bought about 6 months ago : ) and I still don't regret it. However, damn I hate American composers (not just American, let's say occidentals : P)!! I feel bad every time I say something like this : ). Like one of my friend who always says "You like it because it is Japanese", he's wrong (maybe not at 100% ; ) but he still be).

I will skip most of theory, a good reason of that is that I've never cared to learn it : ) so half of what I say is speculations and opinions, but I know it has something to do with history. Occidental music is based on rules that were influenced by the Catholic church. Some centuries ago, the religion even had prohibited the use of some chords because they were too sensual : P. Most of today's music follow these rules, even in pop music. Jazz I think is slightly different, but probably influenced too.

However, Japanese people seems to always adopt different culture to adapt it their way. Like their language who's been borrowed to Chinese and slightly modified. American culture is still "Japanese way" too in their country. I'm not talking about Japanese pop culture, because I don't know much about it, but Video Games music don't follow all these rules. Sorry if I generalize, but I am usually talking about Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's work : ) (my favorites). Like they say in the program of the show, Nobuo Uematsu (the most famous video games composer I think) is a self-taught composer. As composers, they don't bother about the "ok, it MUST be like this" like in occidental culture, they do it because for them it's ok, they like it. For me it is more "Human" music, that has been created from the depth of someone's soul : ) following only the emotions and opinion of the composer. It is not preinvented music and reorganisation of what's been already composed. I've played a lot of Japanese video games music on my piano, and it is pain to analyse : ). Not all of them, but I must admit, they know how to use (sorry, I'm not sure of the exact word in English) the tensions inside the progression of the chords.

For the American video games music, it is pure classical music following the normal chords progressions, people can like it : ), but I don't. Usually I wouldn't talk only about classical music, but since the show was about it : P,... Japanese video games music and 70s progressive rock are the only two music style I know that follow complex chords progression, but still enjoyable : ).

The reason why I like music, it is because it is something that cannot be completely understood. If you want to compose real complex music, you can't just think it, you really have to feel it. For me it is the most human form of art, because it is so absurd : ).

Maybe I'll change most of the sentences, but for now I'll stop there : P. Still, you can take time to post somments, I like people to go on my blog : P.