Biography
Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6, 1950 in Nagano, Japan under the name Mamoru Fujisawa. His musical training started early on, when he began to take violin lessons at age five. It was around this time that he first discovered his passion for music. Fujisawa truly began to explore this passion in the 70’s, during which, a cultural menagerie of Japanese popular music, new-age, and early electronic music flourished. Inevitably, those genres influenced Fujisawa's early compositions. (Wikipedia) Fujisawa was highly influenced by the new-wave of Japanese electronica such as the Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto group. It was not until 1975, that he made his first public performance, and it is not until a decade later that he dawns his stage name, Joe Hisaishi, on his first solo album Alpha Bet City. (Dasnoy & Tsong, 2013) Hisaishi developed his name from the American artist, Quincy Jones. The kanji for "Hisaishi" is read similarly to the Japanese pronunciation of "Quincy," and "Joe," came from "Jones."(IMDB)
In 1983, a record company recommended Hisaishi to Hayao Miyazaki as a possible candidate to create the Image Album for Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, which, at the time, was being made into a movie. (Team Ghiblink, Nausicaa.net) Hisaishi’s soundtrack for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was a balance between electronic and classical music, a blending of new compositions along with covers of Handel and Brahms's music. (Dasnoy & Tsong, 2013) Miyazaki, inevitably, was highly impressed with Hisaishi’s Image Album and frequently listened to it during the production of the film. The soundtrack for the film was slated to be composed by its producer, Isao Takahata. However, after Miyazaki’s strong recommendation f...
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Team Ghiblink (n.d.). Joe Hisaishi in Budokan. In GhibliWiki. Retrieved from http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi_in_Budokan
Team Ghiblink. (n.d.). Joe Hisaishi. Retrieved from http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/hisaishi/
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Joe Hisaishi. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi
Wondercity Inc. (2011). Wondercity Inc. Official Fanpage Biography. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/JoeHisaishi.official/info
Wu, C. Y. (2007). A Study of Joe Hisaishi's Film Music in Hayao Miyazaki's Animation. (Master's thesis, Taipei University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan), Available from National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan. (003604684)Retrieved from http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi/login?o=dnclcdr&s=id="095TNUA5249003".&searchmode=basic
This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
The films musical score alerts the viewer to an approaching attack of the shark and they automatically build this association with the music in their mind. Horror films often make use of high string instrument notes that irritate viewers and increase tension. Music plays an important role in film editing and the editor must choose its placement wisely to ensure its intended effect on the viewer’s mind and
Moonrise Kingdom, directed by Wes Anderson, is a film that uncovers a heartwarming tale about young love, and investigates what it means to fit in. The film follows a pair of lovestruck children, creating a whimsical and young atmosphere full of innocence. This innocence is portrayed throughout the film, especially when one of the main protagonists states, “We’re in love. We just want to be together. What’s wrong with that.” This theme is supported greatly by using original scoring and popular music. Techniques alike to these can be derived from classic films such as George Lucas’s Star Wars films. Although his films utilize wall-to-wall scoring, this film uses original scoring to achieve similar effects. Also, by utilizing small orchestra
Elizabeth Weis, John Belton (1985) Theory and Practice Film Sound, New York: Columbia University Press, pp 346.
For this essay I will be looking at the work of Hans Zimmer to discuss how music in film engages the viewer and evokes emotion and pulls the viewer toward the film. Hans Zimmer is a German born music composer. Hans Zimmer’s love of music stems from his childhood when he learned how to play various instruments. Before Zimmer began composing music for films he was in a well-known band. The band was called The Buggles whom were famous for their song Video Killed the Radio Star. After the Buggles Zimmer played in other bands but never had another hit. As Zimmer has progressed as a film composer so has his list of nominations and awards. Zimmer has won 4 Grammy Awards and 2 Golden Globes and many more for his outstanding film scores. The reason I chose to write this essay on Zimmer was that his genres and music score are extremely versatile ranging from animations to comedy to dark thrillers. This is important to highlight as it shows Zimmer can create almost any atmosphere with his music whether it be sad or creating tension that all cause us to engage with the film. Zimmer's use of themes and introduction of different instruments allowed him to create these wonderful engaging film score. In this essay I will look at three films by Hans Zimmer these are The Holiday Rush and Rain Man.
...ifferent visual concepts and musical composers, recently Phillip Glass. There is one thing for certain, music still becomes a primary component of her work. Take for example the words of Paola Ferreiro speaking about Neshat's recent work Zarin (2005), “There is practically no dialogue in the video. With the omission of voice, dramatic acting and soundtrack become the communication devices for the narrative. The lack of dialogue gives the viewer interpretative freedom, especially if they are ignorant of the original inspirational text.” (Ferrairo) I will undoubtedly keep Turbulent, Rapture, and Soliloquy close to my heart, as they are her most powerful works of art due to the fact that the sounds drive the entire emotional interpretation of the pieces. However, it is just as intriguing analyzing how Shirin Neshat
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
Steve Reich was born in New York on October 3, 1936. His parents soon divorced, leaving Reich to constantly commute between New York and California via passenger train. Reich has stated that is was the sound of the wheels on the train tracks that helped to develop his strong rhythmic sense at an early age (Ross, 541). He studied philosophy at Cornell University with a minor in music before switching to composition full-time at Juilliard School and Mills College with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud (Mertens, 47). Although both great composers, Reich didn’t fit well within either of their styles. In the early seventies, Reich studied with a drummer of the Ewe tribe in Ghana and participated in a Balinese gamelan seminar where he began to develop a strong concordance with world music. This influence is clearly evident in many of Reich’s compositions.
The Day The Earth Stood Still is acknowledged for its use of dramatic music to depict the mood that the audience should feel. “While these unusual instruments and recording techniques had previously been utilized in Hollywood film music, Herrmann’s score for The Day the Earth Stood Still was undoubte...
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.
Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584, in a Japan struggling to recover from more than four centuries of internal strife. The traditional rule of the emperors had been overthrown in the twelfth century, and although each successive emperor remained the figurehead of Japan, his powers were very much reduced. Since that time, Japan had seen almost continuous civil war between the provincial lords, warrior monks and brigands, all fighting each other for land and power. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the lords, called daimyo, built huge stone castles to protect themselves and their lords and castle towns outside the walls began to grow up. These wars naturally restricted the growth of trade and impoverished the whole country.
The use of sound has been greatly developed and is now considered as "one of the richest sources of meaning in film art." (Giannetti, 2002). When sound in film is being examined, two positions must be assumed; digetic sound and non-digetic sound. These positions relate to the basis of the sound in film and television. For example, digetic sound refers to the sound that materialises inside the creation of the film (if a character h...
Every musical system around the world is a complex cultural phenomenon. The culture underlie a series of concepts which impart the musical system into the other basic cultural activities of the society. It is then defined and conceptualized by the society at large and then ingrained in the cultural phenomena. Thus, in order to fully understand a specific music of a particular culture, we must examine it in its cultural context along its musicological context.
The importance of music in movies is highly regarded for manipulating the viewer’s emotions and helping them immerse into the story. Music is one of the prime elements in cinema. Without it a movie would feel dull and unexciting. There are three elements in a movie: one is acting, the second is picture, and the third one is music. It is a holy trinity; if incomplete, there would be a lack of sensation and excitement. Both acting and picture can stand independently from one another, but music is the one that makes the movie memorable.
Throughout this semester we have discussed an array of musical periods ranging from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to more recent modern times. As music progressed through time certain concepts such as melody, harmony, and texture changed along with the introduction of different instruments. In the early phases of music it was more directed toward religious ceremonies, but as time went on it became integrated into everyday life. Even though musical dynamics seem to change as the years go on, it has never failed to create some form of emotional response such as laughter or sadness.