Koichi Sugiyama

Infobox musical artist

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Name = Koichi Sugiyama
| Img_capt =
Background = non_performing_personnel
Birth_name = nihongo2|椙山 浩一
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1931|4|11
Tokyo, Japan
Died =
Origin =
Nationality = Japanese
Instrument =
Genre =
Occupation = Composer, conductor, musician, arranger
Years_active = 1958—present
Label = SUGIlabel
Associated_acts =
URL = http://sugimania.com/
Notable_instruments =

nihongo|Koichi Sugiyama|すぎやま こういち|Sugiyama Kō'ichi (his birth name is nihongo2|椙山 浩一, which is pronounced the same) (born April 11, 1931) is a Japanese music composer, council member of JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers), and honorary chairman of the Japanese Backgammon Society. He is best known for composing music for the "Dragon Quest" video game series, which is published by Square Enix and several Japanese TV shows, such as Space Runaway Ideon, Cyborg 009, and Gatchaman.

A classically trained conductor, he is considered a primary inspiration for other game music composers such as Nobuo Uematsu, and has been referred to as a "Big boss of game music." [ [http://www.nobuouematsu.com/steffen.html Nobuo Uematsu interview by Eric Steffens February, 1999] ] He is also known as a Japanese right-wing revisionist.

Biography

Koichi Sugiyama was born in Tokyo, Japan. While growing up, Sugiyama’s home was filled with music, which ultimately inspired his passion. In high school, he began to recognize his passion, and wrote various small musical works. [http://sugimania.com/ Koichi Sugiyama's Official Profile] ] .

After graduating from the University of Tokyo with full honours in 1958, he went into the reporting and entertainment sections of cultural broadcasting. In addition, he joined the Fuji Telecasting Co. as a director. In 1965, he left the telecasting company as a freelance director, and in 1968, he quit directing and concentrated on music composition.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sugiyama composed for musicals, commercials, pop artists, and for animated movies and television shows, such as Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman, Cyborg 009, and Patlabor. [ [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=9738 Koichi Sugiyama's Anime News Network Profile] ] He also assisted Riichiro Manabe with the composition for Godzilla vs. Hedorah, composing the record single of the soundtrack, and conducting for some of the tracks.

Sugiyama's first contact with Enix was by a fan letter he wrote them regarding a PC shogi game in the early 1980s. After Enix's staff overcame the shock of receiving a handwritten postcard from a celebrity of Sugiyama's stature, they were so impressed by his depth of knowledge and appreciation of games that they decided to ask Sugiyama to write the music for "Dragon Quest". Sugiyama started composing with a smaller Japanese home computer called the "PC-8801," and was working for Enix at the time. [ [http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3133890 1up.com's Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) review] ] In 1986, he composed for the hit RPG video game "Dragon Quest" for the Famicom. "Dragon Quest" introduced an orchestral sound to the video game world.

Sugiyama was the very first video game composer to record his video game music with a live orchestra. In 1986, the CD "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" was released, utilizing the London Philharmonic Orchestra to interpret Sugiyama's melodies.

In 1987, he composed for "Dragon Quest II", and then held the very first video game music concert in the world. "Family Classic Concert" was arranged and conducted by Sugiyama himself. It was performed by the Tokyo String Music Combination Playing Group on August 20, 1987 at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan. "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" and "Dragon Quest II Symphonic Suite" were performed. [http://sugimania.com/dq/index.html Koichi Sugiyama's Official Concert index] ] The "Family Classic Concerts" have always had excellent turn outs; since then, Sugiyama has held over eighteen of them all across Japan. [ [http://sugimania.com/family/index.html Koichi Sugiyama's Official Family Classic Concerts Listing] ]

Sugiyama continued to compose for video games from 1987 to 1990. In 1991, he introduced a series of video game music concerts, five in all, called the Orchestral Game Concerts, which were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. [ [http://www.geocities.com/leergutdieb/bio.html Unofficial Koichi Sugiyama Biography] ] The performances included over eighteen different video game composers, such as Koji Kondo, Yoko Kanno, Kentarou Haneda, Nobuo Uematsu, Keiichi Suzuki, as well as Sugiyama himself. These concerts were held from 1991 to 1996; during this time, Sugiyama composed for other video games and arranged for some of them to be performed in the Orchestral Game Concerts. In September 1995, Sugiyama composed the Dragon Quest Ballet. It premiered in 1996, and returned in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002. During those years, Koichi also released the Symphonic Suites for the Dragon Quest games he had worked on thus far.

Sugiyama also has completed other projects, such as the fanfares for the opening and closing of the gates in the Tokyo Race Track and the Nakayama Race Track.

Koichi Sugiyama's non-work related hobbies include photography, traveling, building model ships, [ [http://rhapsody_1st.1up.com/ Gaming's Rhapsody: First Movement" from 1up.com by Nich Maragos, 20 July, 2005] ] collecting old cameras, and reading. He has opened a camera section on his website, [ [http://sugimania.com/tuhan.html Koichi Sugiyama's Official camera page] ] and he also has his own record label "SUGIlabel" which he started on June 23, 2004. [ [http://sugimania.com/sugi.html Koichi Sugiyama's Official SUGIlabel page] ]

In late 2004, he finished and released the "Dragon Quest VIII" Original soundtrack, and the Dragon Quest VIII Symphonic Suite.

In 2005, Sugiyama was holding a series of concerts in Japan with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with music from Dragon Quest VIII, as well as his classic compositions from the past. [ [http://sugimania.com/concert.html Koichi Sugiyama's Official Concert announcement page] ] In August 2005, his music from "Dragon Quest" was performed live at the European Symphonic Game Music Concert. There, for the first time, his music was presented in a live symphonic concert outside Japan. [ [http://www.vgmconcerts.com/ Symphonic Game Music Concert Official website] ]

In 2006, Sugiyama began working on some diverse projects, one of them being the music for "". [ [http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2006/0508_2/ Square-enix North America announcement] ] On August 19, 2006, Sugiyama announced "Dragon Quest IX's" production in Japanese video game magazine Famitsu by saying "I'm not sure when Dragon Quest IX will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited."ja icon cite web | url = http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2006/08/11/103,1155293596,58611,0,0.html | title = nihongo2|ファンの声を反映したプログラムで、今年もドラゴンクエストコンサートが盛大に幕開け | publisher = Famitsu | date = 2006-08-11]

Style

Throughout Sugiyama's works, motifs repeat themselves to maintain a consistency and nostalgic quality in the different instalments. This is especially true for the "Dragon Quest" series. Each of the games include a nearly identical, upbeat theme song titled "Overture." In addition, "Dragon Quest III-VIII" include a simple, casual tune on the saved game selection screen titled "Intermezzo."

Sugiyama's style of composition has been compared to late Baroque and early Classical period styles. Composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel are some of his inspirations, along with the type of melodic styles heard during the mid-20th century of American cinema.

As a Japanese nationalist

Sugiyama is also known as a historical revisionist on Japanese history. Especially concerning the Nanking Massacre and Comfort Women issues, Sugiyama completely denies guilt of the Japanese Empire. He is one of the first signatories approval person of "The Facts" advertisement in the Washington Post. [http://www.jiaponline.org/documents/Jun14AdALLSignatoriesLIST.pdf] [ [http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/sj/2/column/y/64/index.html ワシントン・ポスト紙に「慰安婦意見広告」― その経緯と波紋 / SAFETY JAPAN [花岡 信昭氏 / 日経BP社 ] ] Some "Dragon Quest" fans said they have been disappointed by his political stance. [ [http://www.stoo.com/news/html/000/747/846.html The Composer of Dragon Quest said "Comfort Women are liars] ]

Video game soundtracks

* "Dragon Quest" (1986)
* "" (1987)
* "" (1988)
* "" (1988)
* "" (1990)
* "Akagawa Jirouno Yuurei Ressha" (1991)(with Yasuhiro Taguchi)
* "" (1992)
* "" (1992)
* "Divertimento ~ Hanjuku Hero" (1993)
* "" (1992)
* "Syvalion" (1992)
* "Tetris 2" (1993)
* "" (1993)
* "" (1994)
* "The Monopoly Game 2(JP)" (1995)
* "" (1995)
* "Dragon Quest Monsters" (1998)
* "" (1999)
* "Dragon Quest Monsters 1 & 2" (2000)
* "" (2000)
* "" (2000)
* "Dragon Quest Monsters 2" (2001)
* "" (2003)
* "" (2003)
* "Itadaki Street Special" (2004)
* "" (2004) (also conductor)
* "" (2006)
* "Dragon Quest IX [http://ds.ign.com/articles/750/750590p1.html]

Other works

* "Symphonic Suite "Dragon Quest" (I - VIII)
* "Symphony "Ideon"
* "Bukyoku (I, II)" for strings
* "Audio Symphony" (No.1 & 2)
* "Okinawa" for cello and strings
* "Sail on the Sea" for piano 4 hands
* "Ballon's Flight" for piano 4 hands
* "The Voyage of little Sindbad (Japanese TV)"
* "Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman (Animated Movie)" (1979)
* "Cyborg 009" (1980)
* "Space Runaway Ideon" (1980)
* "Patlabor" (1981)
* "Sea Prince and the Fire Child / Syrius no Densetsu" (1981)
* "Gojira VS Biorante / Godzilla vs. Biollante" (1989)
* "" (1993)
* "Mahô Kishi Rayearth / Magic Knight Rayearth" (1994)(1995) (music supervisor)

Notes & references

External links

* [http://sugimania.com/ Official Koichi Sugiyama Website (Japanese)]
* [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/sugiyama/ Comprehensive Koichi Sugiyama Profile at Square Enix Music Online]
* [http://www.geocities.com/leergutdieb/ Unofficial Koichi Sugiyama Website (English)]
* [http://www.square-haven.com/people/Koichi-Sugiyama/ "Koichi Sugiyama"] profile and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/25/koichi-sugiyama/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.altpop.com/stc/reviews/search.mv?term=dragon+quest&field=series SoundtrackCentral.com] Reviews of various Dragon Quest albums