is a Japanese
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
,
pianist, and
lyricist. Hamauzu, who was employed at
Square Enix
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...
from 1996 to 2010, was best known during that time for his work on the ''
Final Fantasy'' and ''
SaGa
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...
'' video game series. Born into a musical family in Germany, Hamauzu was raised in Japan. He became interested in music while in kindergarten, and took piano lessons from his parents.
Hamauzu was hired by
Square as a trainee, and his debut as a solo composer came the following year when he scored ''
Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon
The ''Chocobo'' series is a collection of video games published by Square, and later by Square Enix, featuring a recurring creature from the ''Final Fantasy'' series, the Chocobo, as the protagonist. The creature is a large and normally flightles ...
''. He has collaborated with friend and fellow composer
Junya Nakano
is a Japanese video game composer. After working for Konami in the early 1990s, he was employed by Squaresoft and then Square Enix from 1995 to 2009. He is best known for scoring ''Threads of Fate'' and co-composing ''Final Fantasy X'' for Squa ...
on several games.
After
Nobuo Uematsu left Square Enix in 2004, Hamauzu took over as the leading composer of the company's music team. He was the sole composer for ''
Final Fantasy XIII
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles and later for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Released in Japan in December 2009 and international in March 2010, it is the ...
''. He has also become a renowned pianist, arranging for several other composers. His music incorporates various styles, although he often uses
classical and
ambience in his pieces. In 2010, Hamauzu left Square Enix to start his own studio, MONOMUSIK.
Biography
Early life
Born in Munich, Germany, Hamauzu's mother was a piano teacher and his father, Akimori Hamauzu, an opera singer.
He developed an interest in music while in kindergarten.
Hamauzu grew up in Germany and started to receive piano and singing lessons from his parents at very young age, and when he was in high school, he composed his first original music piece. After his brother, Hiroshi, was born, the family moved to
Osaka. He enrolled in the
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...
, where he joined a student ensemble as a pianist. Hamauzu met his wife, Matsue Hamauzu (''
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Fukushi), at the university, and they have two children. Matsue worked alongside Hamauzu on the soundtrack to ''
Final Fantasy VII
is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Published in Japan by Square, it was released in other regions by Sony Computer Entertai ...
'' as a
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
and ''
Sigma Harmonics
''Sigma Harmonics'' is a 2008 role-playing video game co-developed by Square Enix and Think Garage, and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. An expanded port for mobile devices was released in 2010 under the title ''Sigma Harmonics Coda' ...
'' as a
scat singer
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. ...
; she was also a soprano for the score to ''
Final Fantasy VIII
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation console. Released in 1999, it is the eighth main installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Set on an unnamed fantasy world with science fiction elements, t ...
'' & a lead vocalist in ''
Final Fantasy XIII
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles and later for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Released in Japan in December 2009 and international in March 2010, it is the ...
''. After graduating from the university, he thought about becoming a classical musician, but he eventually found out that he wanted to work with game music instead.
Career
A fan of the ''
Final Fantasy'' games, Hamauzu decided to apply for a job at
Square.
Nobuo Uematsu was impressed with his résumé, and employed Hamauzu as a trainee in 1996.
His debut came with the 1996 title ''
Front Mission: Gun Hazard'', with Uematsu,
Yasunori Mitsuda, and
Junya Nakano
is a Japanese video game composer. After working for Konami in the early 1990s, he was employed by Squaresoft and then Square Enix from 1995 to 2009. He is best known for scoring ''Threads of Fate'' and co-composing ''Final Fantasy X'' for Squa ...
. Later the same year, he created four tracks for another multi-composer game, ''
Tobal No. 1''. Working with Nakano on these games, Hamauzu admired his musical style, and they became friends; they have later collaborated on several titles.
Hamauzu's first solo project came in 1997 with ''
Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon
The ''Chocobo'' series is a collection of video games published by Square, and later by Square Enix, featuring a recurring creature from the ''Final Fantasy'' series, the Chocobo, as the protagonist. The creature is a large and normally flightles ...
''.
Shortly after the title's release, Hamauzu and Yasuo Sako created ''
Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Coi Vanni Gialli'', an arranged album containing orchestral tracks from the game's music. Both the soundtrack and ''Coi Vanni Gialli'' were praised. For ''
Final Fantasy VII
is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Published in Japan by Square, it was released in other regions by Sony Computer Entertai ...
'', Hamauzu was the synthesizer programmer for the rendition of
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
's "The Creation", and provided bass vocals in the eight-person chorus for "One-Winged Angel".
In 1999, Hamauzu was assigned with scoring ''
SaGa Frontier 2'', replacing the ''
SaGa
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...
'' series' long-time composer
Kenji Ito. He spent some time conforming to the music Ito had established for the series, but eventually realized that he wanted to use his own unique style. The project introduced him to synthesizer programmer
Ryo Yamazaki
''Front Mission'' is a series of tactical role-playing games produced by Square Enix (originally Square (video game company), Square). The music of the series includes the soundtracks to the main series, composed of ''Front Mission (video game), F ...
, whom he has worked with on most of his subsequent soundtracks.
Hamauzu also released ''
Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2'', an arranged album featuring piano pieces of the game's music. In 2001, Hamauzu and Nakano were chosen to assist Uematsu in the production of the score for the critically acclaimed ''
Final Fantasy X
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth main entry in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, the game was re-released as ''Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster'' for PlayStat ...
'', based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style. Hamauzu also contributed the
Piano Collections arranged album of the game, which he described as his most challenging work, and the track named "feel", an arrangement of "Hymn of the Fayth", from the
EP ''
feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus''.
In 2002, Hamauzu composed the music for ''
Unlimited Saga'', a game that would be received negatively by critics due to a variety of gameplay issues. After Uematsu’s departure from Square Enix in 2004, he took over as the lead composer of the company’s music team. He incorporates various styles of music in his compositions, though most of the tune he uses classical and ambient tones in his pieces. In 2005, Hamauzu, Nakano, and the duo Wavelink Zeal (Takayuki and Yuki Iwai) scored ''
Musashi: Samurai Legend'', the sequel to the 1998 title ''
Brave Fencer Musashi''. Hamauzu composed the highly anticipated but critically unsuccessful ''Final Fantasy VII'' follow-up, ''
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII'', in 2006. Later the same year, he arranged the ''Sailing to the World Piano Score'' at the request of Mitsuda. The album was well received by fans, and helped confirm Hamauzu's position as a leading piano arranger of video game music.
Hamauzu released a solo album, ''Vielen Dank'', in 2007 after recording it in
Munich, Germany. The album includes eleven piano pieces that he composed for personal pleasure after the creation of ''Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2'' as well as 14 arrangements of his game compositions. Two tracks from the album were performed at the 2007 ''
Symphonic Game Music Concert'' in Leipzig. In 2008, he composed the soundtrack to ''
Sigma Harmonics
''Sigma Harmonics'' is a 2008 role-playing video game co-developed by Square Enix and Think Garage, and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. An expanded port for mobile devices was released in 2010 under the title ''Sigma Harmonics Coda' ...
'', with synthesizer programming by Mitsuto Suzuki rather than Yamazaki.
At the 2006
E3 event, a Square Enix press conference revealed that Hamauzu would be returning to the ''Final Fantasy'' series, scoring ''
Final Fantasy XIII
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles and later for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Released in Japan in December 2009 and international in March 2010, it is the ...
''. He left Square Enix on January 19, 2010. He went on to form his own studio, Monomusik, which he described as a personal studio that did not include any other composers. Despite leaving Square Enix, Hamauzu was still hired to score various games by the company, including ''
Final Fantasy XIII-2'', ''
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII'', ''
World of Final Fantasy'', and the
high definition version of ''Final Fantasy X''. Outside of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, Hamauzu also wrote music for games such as ''
Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming'', ''
The Legend of Legacy'', and ''
The Alliance Alive'' in the 2010s.
Musical style and influences
Hamauzu composes music in a wide variety of styles, often using multiple styles throughout the various pieces of a soundtrack. He mostly creates
classical and
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
, and uses the piano predominantly as an instrument. He frequently uses
dissonance to provide an atmospheric effect.
In ''Unlimited Saga'', for example, the style of his compositions mix classical marches,
tango music, electronic ambiance, instrumental solos,
bossa nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
, and
jazz.
He cites animation composers Hiroshi Miyagawa and
Ryuichi Sakamoto of
Yellow Magic Orchestra, impressionist composers
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
and
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, and his father as major musical influences.
During his adolescence, he enjoyed listening to the works of Miyagawa and Sakamoto. While attending university, he developed an appreciation for classical music, especially the compositions of Ravel and Debussy.
Works
''All works listed below were composed by Hamauzu unless otherwise noted.''
References
External links
Official website
MONOMUSIK website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamauzu, Masashi
1971 births
21st-century Japanese composers
21st-century Japanese male musicians
21st-century Japanese pianists
Anime composers
Japanese lyricists
Japanese male composers
Japanese male pianists
Japanese music arrangers
Japanese pianists
Living people
Musicians from Osaka
Musicians from Munich
Square Enix people
Tokyo University of the Arts alumni
Video game composers