Singapore Arts Festival (SAF) lets an orchestra loose on the video game “Final Fantasy”.

After scoring a hit with the symphony concert “Play!” in which music scores from popular video games were performed by the Singapore Festival Orchestra (SFO) two years ago, SAF rebooted with “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy”, with Grammy Award winner Arnie Roth returning to hold the baton. Two performances scheduled at the 1,800-seat Esplanade Concert Hal sold out fast, thanks in part to a wide range in and special student discounts of ticket prices. One matinee was added—all tickets were snapped up in days.

In an interview with Sunday Leisure, Roth recalls that one of the producers he worked with introduced him to Nobuo Uematsu [composer of “Final Fantasy” music] and his orchestra, the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, was the first one to launch the tour in the US in 2005.

“It’s the situation in which everyone in the traditional music industry didn’t believe that ‘Final Fantasy’ could actually be a symphony concert. We’re sold out in the 4,000-seat concert hall.”

Having now conducted “Distant Worlds” concerts by various orchestras--including Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra--in many prestigious concert halls all over the world, Roth calls it “a rewarding concert experience.”

He admits, though, that he’s heard of negative responses.

“I also come from that world [of classical music], and you have to understand that orchestras spend their lifetime learning their crafts and instruments. Nobuo said, ‘Think of it as the most gorgeous band that one could ever have.’ He understands the power and all that, but he also understands the amount of discipline that it takes for each performer to be able to play the instrument at the top level and really shape the music together. So you can understand that there might be some who say, ‘What are we playing? Music from video games?’, or ‘This is insignificant music: it’s not Beethoven’s or Mahler’s, why are we doing this?’, etc.”

By far, it has been almost the opposite. Roth says, “If the compositions aren’t measured up, orchestra musicians are intelligent of course. If they’re sitting there playing whole note with no activity, or what we might call ‘elevator music’, they will react to that.”

Roth notes that the majority of the audience is young, ranging from mid to late twenties until early thirties, plus a good number of teenagers, with a smattering of guys in their 40s and 50s who played the first “Final Fantasy” game 25 years ago.

“What we get is the combination of the classical music and pop-rock audience. You have the connoisseurs, excited about what they’re going to hear, so they’re quiet, even quieter than [typical] classical music audiences; and the roars of approval from the pop-rockers as each song title is announced.”

“This wonderful combination is very good for the orchestra as the audience really hear them play these beautiful scores. The arrangements are done in such ways that they showcase different performers in the orchestra which is the main feature here.”

A giant screen above the stage shows images from “Final Fantasy” in what Roth calls “loose synchronization” with the music, but most of the audience are more into the music.

“You have to understand that most of these audience members have played ‘Final Fantasy’ games for hundreds of thousands of hours, so they know these images and they’re here for the live performance and we have more than 100 performers [from Singapore Festival Orchestra, Victoria Chorale, and The Vocal Consort] here on the stage.”

Shamelessly admitted, I have neither played “Final Fantasy” games nor known Nobuo sensei. Yet, hearing Singaporean audiences’, mostly teenagers, loud and enthusiastic reactions to his presence in the concert hall and SFO’s energetic two-hour performance of “Distant Worlds”; watching him walk upstage to the chorus and sing with them during the encore; seeing the smiles on the faces of the orchestra members, including five young Thai musicians; and afterwards witnessing many audiences rushing out to stand in line for the American conductor’s and the Japanese composer’s autographs all combine into one of the most memorable evenings in my symphony concert-going experience.

I’m now a convert to Roth’s belief that this is a new approach in music education, and that one day some in these young and raucous audience will be back for Beethoven and Mahler.

After Singapore, Roth went to Taipei for another sold-out concert, then Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Seattle, and San Francisco. For more, check out www.ffdistantworlds.com. 

The writer’s trip was courtesy of National Arts Council and Singapore Tourism Board.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in THE NATION on Sunday, June 14, 2009