Masashi Hamauzu

Masashi Hamauzu

Masashi Hamauzu (浜渦正志, Hamauzu Masashi, born September 20, 1971) is a Japanese video game music composer and musician who has been employed at Square Enix since 1996. He is perhaps best-known for his work on the Final Fantasy and SaGa series. He was born in Germany to a Japanese mother and a German father, but was raised in Japan. He became interested in music while in kindergarten, and got piano lessons from his parents.

Hamauzu was hired by Square (later Square Enix) in 1996 as a trainee, and his debut as a solo composer came the following year when he scored Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon. He has collaborated with his friend and fellow composer Junya Nakano on several games, and has worked closely with synthesizer operator Ryo Yamazaki on most titles since SaGa Frontier 2.

After Nobuo Uematsu left Square Enix in 2004, Hamauzu took over as the leading composer of the company's music team. He has also become a renowned piano arranger, and has arranged a number of albums, including Yasunori Mitsuda's Sailing to the World Piano Score in 2006. His music incorporates various styles, although he mostly uses classical and ambient music in his pieces.

Biography

Early life

Masashi Hamauzu was born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. His mother was a Japanese piano teacher and his father was a German opera singer. He developed an interest in music while in kindergarten. Growing up in Germany, Hamauzu received piano and singing lessons from his parents and created his first original compositions during high school. After his brother was born, the family moved to Osaka, Japan. He enrolled in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he joined a student ensemble as a pianist. Hamauzu met his wife at the university, and they have one daughter. After graduating from 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, he 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. Later the same year, he created four tracks for another multi-composer game called Tobal No. 1. Working with Nakano on these games, Hamauzu admired his musical style, and they became friends and have later collaborated on several titles. Hamauzu's first solo project came the next year with Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon. 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. Although the game was a failure, its soundtrack and arranged album was praised. Hamauzu had a minor role in creating the soundtrack for the highly successful Final Fantasy VII; he was the synthesizer operator for the rendition of Joseph Haydn'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 series' long-time composer Kenji Itō. He spent some time conforming to the music Itō had established for the series, but he eventually realized that he wanted to use his own unique style. The project introduced him to synthesizer operator Ryo Yamazaki, whom he has worked with on most of his subsequent soundtracks. Hamauzu also created Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2, an arranged album featuring piano pieces of the game's music. Hamauzu and Nakano were chosen to assist Uematsu late in the production of the score for the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy X in 2001. Although some fans of the series were indifferent to his contributions, his work was well-received in general. Hamauzu also created the Piano Collections album for the project, which he described as his most challenging work, and the track "feel", an arrangement of "Hymn of the Fayth", from the extended play feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus.

One year after working on Final Fantasy X's score, Hamauzu composed the music for Unlimited Saga, a game that would later be badly received by critics due to a variety of gameplay issues. Following Uematsu's departure from Square Enix in October 2004, Hamauzu became the leading composer of the company's music team. In 2005, he scored the sequel to the 1998 title Brave Fencer Musashi, entitled Musashi: Samurai Legend, with Nakano and the duo Wavelink Zeal. He 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 request from Mitsuda, which was positively received by pianists and confirmed Hamauzu's position as the leading piano arranger of game music.

Hamauzu released the solo album Vielen Dank in 2007 after recording it in Leipzig, Germany. It includes eleven piano pieces that he composed for fun after the production of Piano Pieces "SF2" ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2 and 14 arrangements of his game compositions. Two pieces from the album were performed at the 2007 Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig. In 2008, he created the soundtrack for Sigma Harmonics, but he did not collaborate with Yamazaki in favor of Mitsuto Suzuki. At the 2006 E3 event, a Square Enix press conference revealed that Hamauzu would be returning to the Final Fantasy series, scoring the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII, with Uematsu providing the main theme.

Musical style and influences

Hamauzu composes music in many different styles, often using multiple styles throughout the various pieces of a soundtrack. He mostly creates classical and ambient music, and uses the piano predominantly as an instrument. He frequently incorporates 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, and jazz.

He cites animation composers Hiroshi Miyagawa and Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra, impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, and his father as major musical influences. During his adolescence, he enjoyed listening to the works of Sakamoto and Miyagawa. While attending university, he developed an appreciation for classical music, especially the compositions of Ravel and Debussy.

Discography

Video game soundtracks

• Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996) – with Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Junya Nakano
• Tobal No. 1 (1996) – with Yasunori Mitsuda, Yasuhiro Kawakami, Ryuji Sasai, Junya Nakano, Kenji Itō, Noriko Matsueda, and Yoko Shimomura
• Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon (1997)
• SaGa Frontier 2 (1999)
• Final Fantasy X (2001) – with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano
• Unlimited Saga (2002)
• Musashi: Samurai Legend (2005) – with Junya Nakano, Takayuki Iwai, and Yuki Iwai
• Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006) – with Ryo Yamazaki
• Oolong Tea Story ~Searching for Delicious Tea~ (2008)
• Sigma Harmonics (2008)
• Final Fantasy XIII (2009) – with Nobuo Uematsu

Other works

Composer

• Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII Multiplayer Mode Original Sound Collections (2006)
• Vielen Dank (2007)

Arranger

• Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Coi Vanni Gialli (1998)
• Piano Pieces "SF2" Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2 (1999)
• feel/Go Dream - Yuna & Tidus (2001) – with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Masayoshi Kikuchi
• Piano Collections Final Fantasy X (2002)
• 20020220 music from Final Fantasy (2002) – with Shiro Hamaguchi
• Sailing to the World Piano Score (2006)

External links

• Square Enix Music Japan profile Template:Jp icon
• Square Enix Music North America profile