Thanks for the suggestions! I'm definitely checking them out
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei
From time to time while watching anime I've wondered what, if anything, is "Japanese" about modern anime scores. One aspect seems to be the use of percussion. Listen to the scores for Dennou Coil or Moribito and see how often deep drum sounds appear. In some cases I'd say there's a certain "wistful" or "sentimental" feeling that characterizes Japanese scores (Ootake's work on Bartender is a good case in point).
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yeah, if it's not by instruments and music motifs pulled straight from Japanese folk, I go by feel, which is subjective and often hard to put a finger on... it comes down to whether you think the music is expressing
mono no aware (the "ahh-ness" that is integral to
Bartender) or
yuugen, or those sort of Japanese aesthetic ideas. A lot of Japan-esque music uses western scales, chord progressions, sometimes exclusively western instruments and otherwise western music concepts in order to express "Japanese" ideas or convey Japanese imagery... and at the same time there's music that will use Japanese folk instruments for an indiscriminate "ethnic" flavor without being particularly Japan-esque.
Sometimes percussion is hard to go by because ensemble
taiko drums (mixed with other indiscriminate "tribal" drumming) has
become very common in modern soundtrack work. Everyone is used to hearing that sound and it's no longer associated with anything.
Suddenly I'm remembering the recent
Battlestar Galactica TV show though, and how that had very recognizable (i.e. real) ensemble taiko drumming in it. There was a part in the 4th season where
a Shamisen and Japanese wind instruments started jamming over the taiko drums and my jaw hit the floor
I was really glad they did that
but yeah, I'm thinking about doing a feature or something on soundtrack composer Kenji Kawai, so
Moribito (among other things like
Vampire Princess Miyu and obviously
Ghost in the Shell) are on my mind. I'll check out that
Kemono no Souja Erin and
Final Fantasy X... I remember Dennou Coil pretty well, but I think it had predominantly western music... strings, glocks, pizzicatos and horns doing the usual orchestral soundtrack stuff, though it was a nice soundtrack for the show
nice avatar btw
... I only saw the movie once but I remember that hilarious bit of animation