Wednesday, September 7, 2022

MIDI Week Singles: "Requiem" - Cyber Org (PSX)

 

"Requiem" from Cyber Org on the PlayStation (1999)
Composer: Yoshihiro Sato
Label: DigiCube
Publisher: Square Co., Ltd
Developer: FuzzBox


I do love me a good organ intro, and the only complaint I have with the first 0:31 of the song is that, probably due to the music hardware on the original PlayStation, there is not nearly enough of the organ on the lower end.  Granted there does not always need to be a deep tone from the foot pedals, but that intro demands it.  And while we are on criticism right off the bat, I am not a fan of how the song ends.  From 2:42 when the snare drum starts along with the timpani, the music sounds like it is building to this incredible finish, but then 3:50 hits and the song just hits an ending chord and it is over.  Not having ever played this game, I can only assume that the music loops back to 2:42 and it repeats until whatever happens at 3:50 happens in-game and the song ends.  I think I would have preferred if the piece had looped and then faded out, but that is just a personal preference; which is odd coming from me because I am not a fan of fade-outs, but video game soundtracks are often the exception since songs are often written to loop back infinitely.

Speaking of ending, the song does have a pseudo-ending of sorts at 2:15 with the piano's final chord, but then is picked up by a harpsichord-like instrument.  This second seems like a strange fusion of Baroque and jazz (not being a music theory or music history person, I cannot comment on the similarities of Baroque and jazz and whether jazz borrowed anything from Baroque-era music) that builds as the harpsichord is joined by the choir, organ, piano, and the rest of the orchestra until it reaches that amazing part at 2:42 where the song takes off until its inevitable end.

I have no idea what happens in this game as it appears to have been released in Japan and might have been FuzzBox's only game they developed (that I could find).  I was also a little sad to see that Yoshihiro Sato does not have as large a discography as I was hoping based on the quality of the music that they would have composed for more games.  I guess we will likely end up using more music in the future from Cyber Org to feature more of Yoshihiro Sato's music.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

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