Play! A video game symphony V (526586156)

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony was a concert series that featured music from video games performed by a live orchestra. The concerts from 2006 to 2010 were conducted by

Arnie Roth Arnold Roth (born April 28, 1953) is an American conductor, composer, and record producer. His work includes conducting concerts for video game music. He is also a classically trained violinist and a member of the Grammy Award-winning music g ...

. From 2010, Andy Brick took the position of principal conductor and music director. Play! was replaced by the Replay: Symphony of Heroes concert series.

History

In 2004,

Jason Michael Paul Jason Michael Paul is an American concert producer, promoter, and entrepreneur. His production company, "Jason Michael Paul Productions", produced “Dear Friends”, ''PLAY! A Video Game Symphony'', and Nintendo's ''Legend of Zelda: Symphony of ...

was approached by

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 ...

to organize a concert for music from its ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' series. After the concert sold out in a few days, Paul decided to turn video game music concerts into a series. Arnie Roth, who had previously conducted the '' Dear Friends - Music from Final Fantasy'' and ''More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy'' concerts, was selected to conduct the concerts. Andy Brick, who had previously conducted the

Symphonic Game Music Concerts The ''Symphonic Game Music Concerts (''shortened to: ''Game Concerts'') are a series of award-winning orchestral video game music concerts first performed in 2003 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, notable for being the longest running and th ...

, was chosen as the associate conductor. The concerts are performed by local symphony players and choirs. Play! premiered on May 27, 2006 at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The premiere show featured performances by Koji Kondo, Angela Aki, and

Akira Yamaoka is a Japanese composer and music producer. He is best known for composing music for several video games in the '' Silent Hill'' series by Konami, among other games. Yamaoka also worked as a producer on the series, as well as composing for the ' ...

, and composers

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton ...

Yasunori Mitsuda is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer. He is best known for his work in video games, primarily for the ''Chrono'', '' Xeno'', ''Shadow Hearts'', and ''Inazuma Eleven'' franchises, among various others. Mitsuda began composing musi ...

Yuzo Koshiro is a Japanese composer and sound programmer. He is often regarded as one of the most influential innovators in chiptune and video game music, producing music in a number of genres including rock, jazz, symphonic, and various electronic genres ...

and

Jeremy Soule Jeremy Soule (; born December 19, 1975) is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television, and video games. He has composed soundtracks for over 60 games and over a dozen other works during his career, including ''The Elder Scrolls'', ' ...

were in attendance.

Concerts

Each concert features segments of

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...

performed by a live orchestra and choir, with video footage from the games shown on three screens. An opening fanfare, written by Nobuo Uematsu, is performed at each show. Music from all video game eras is performed at the shows. According to Paul, the show is a "straightforward music program," designed "to keep the arts alive in a way that is classy."

Performed music

Music from the following games has been performed at Play!: *''

ActRaiser is a 1990 hybrid platformer, god game, and city-building game with light action RPG elements for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Quintet and published by Enix, combining traditional side-scrolling platforming with urban ...

'' *'' Apidya'' *''

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...

'' *''

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

'' *''

Blue Dragon Blue Dragon may refer to: Biology * '' Glaucus atlanticus'', a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Glaucidae * '' Glaucus marginatus'', a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Glaucidae * '' Pteraeolidia ianthina'', a she ...

'' *''

Castlevania ''Castlevania'' (), known in Japan as is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about Dracula (Castlevania), Dracula, created and developed by Konami. It has been released on various platforms, from early system ...

'' *''

Chrono Cross is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is set in the same world as ''Chrono Trigger'', which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. ''Chrono C ...

'' *''

Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the ''Chrono'' series. The game's development team included three designers th ...

'' *''

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

-Medley'' *''

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

-Medley'' *''

Daytona USA is an arcade racing video game developed by Sega AM2 in 1993 and released by Sega in 1994. Players race stock cars on one of three courses. The first game released on the Sega Model 2 three-dimensional arcade system board, a prototype debuted ...

'' *'' Dragon Age: Origins'' *''

Dreamfall ''Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Drømmefall: Den Lengste Reisen) is an Adventure game, adventure video game developed by Funcom for Microsoft Windows and Xbox (console), Xbox platforms in April 2006. On 1 March 2007, a sequel entitled ''D ...

'' *''

Guild Wars ''Guild Wars'' is an online role-playing game franchise developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT. The games were critically well received and won many editor's choice awards, as well as awards such as Best Value, Best Massively Multiplaye ...

'' *''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'' *'' Kingdom Hearts'' *''

Lost Odyssey is a Japanese role-playing video game developed by Feelplus and planned by Mistwalker for the Xbox 360. It was published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in western territories. The story follows Kaim, one of a select group of ...

'' *''

Metal Gear Solid is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces opera ...

'' *''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

'' *''

Shadow of the Colossus ''Shadow of the Colossus'' is a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It takes place in a fantasy setting and follows Wander, a young man who ...

'' *''

Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...

'' *''

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four video games in the series, '' Silent Hill'', ''Silent Hill 2'', ''Silent Hill 3'' and '' ...

'' *'' Sonic the Hedgehog'' *''

Stella Deus , released in the west as ''Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity'', is a tactical role-playing game co-developed by Atlus and Pinegrow for the PlayStation 2. It was published in Japan and North America by Atlus, and in Europe by 505 Games. The gamepla ...

'' *''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...

'' *''

Super Mario World ''Super Mario World,'' known in Japan as is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and Australia in 19 ...

'' *'' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'' *'' The Darkness'' *'' The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind'' *'' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'' *''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'' *'' The Revenge of Shinobi'' *'' Ys'' *''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

Album

On January 9, 2009, a live album CD and DVD of the concert was released. It was recorded in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and was performed by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

Reception and legacy

The concerts have been well received. Audiences regularly give standing ovations after each song. Jeremy Soule, composer of the music for ''The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'', said that he "consider 'Play' to be the ultimate video-game surround system." According to Paul, Play! helps to promote the work of composers, as well as "lend credibility to the genre of video-game music." Roth stated that the concerts help to also push the classical industry forward and to "draw new audiences." According to Soule, video game concerts can help to educate old generations "that game music isn't just a bunch of bleeps and bloops." One associate conductor stated that the performance crosses the generational gap, bringing together older and younger generations.

References

External links

*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423194132/http://www.play-symphony.com/ , date=April 23, 2013 , title=Official website Video game concert tours 2006 in video gaming 2007 in video gaming 2010 in music 2010 in video gaming 2008 in video gaming 2009 in video gaming 2006 in music 2007 in music 2008 in music 2009 in music

History

Concerts

Performed music

Album

Reception and legacy

See also

References

External links