Jeremy Soule

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Jeremy Soule

Jeremy Soule is a BAFTA Award-winning American composer of soundtracks for film, television and video games. Soule's soundtracks are often critically acclaimed as being among the best in the computer and video game industry and as rivaling the quality of many orchestral film soundtracks.[1] The majority of Soule's music is synthesized electronically and emulates real orchestral music. However, he works frequently with real orchestras and choirs, such as the London Philharmonia, Northwest Sinfonia, and Prague Philharmonic orchestras, as well as the Pinewood Singers.[2]

Biography

A native of Keokuk, Iowa, Soule, while still in high school, was a devoted fan of video and computer games. He came to feel that the music found in most games "lacked drama and intensity" [3]. He started private studies with professors from Western Illinois University when he was 13 years old, and earned the equivalent of a Master's Degree in Composition before completing high school. However, as he did not enroll in the school, he did not technically earn a degree. [4][5]

After completing high school, he created an experimental demo showcasing what he felt video game scores should sound like using traditional cinema style techniques. Soule sent the tape to LucasArts and Squaresoft and was promptly given the task to score Secret of Evermore after Square reviewed the demo. The finished game features an untraditional score incorporating ambient background sounds (like wind blowing and ocean waves) into the music and utilising a more mellow orchestral sound, in stark contrast to the epic scores found in most computer role playing games.

When Ron Gilbert of LucasArts left to form his own company, Humongous Entertainment, Soule left Squaresoft to score Gilbert's children's adventure game series, Putt-Putt. While working at Humongous, Soule met video game designer Chris Taylor and later composed the score for his major projects, Total Annihilation and Dungeon Siege. In between the two projects Soule formed his own business, Artistry Entertainment, and began doing freelance work. He also composed the soundtrack of Chris Taylor's successor of Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander in 2007.

Since then Artistry Entertainment has grown and scored a string of highly successful games such as Guild Wars, Guild Wars: Factions, Guild Wars: Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the Harry Potter series resulting in Soule's music being among the highest in circulation in the video games industry. Jeremy has worked with other composers such as his brother Julian Soule in many of his soundtrack works.[6]

His music from the Harry Potter series was performed live in 2003 at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany. In 2005, his music from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was performed live at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert as well. His music was also featured in PLAY! a Video Game Symphony. PLAY! is a symphonic world-tour presenting music from various blockbuster titles, including The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Jeremy Soule attended the world-premiere of PLAY! on May 27 2006 in Chicago.

Soule is also a supporter of the game music arrangement community, as shown by the arrangement he submitted to OverClocked ReMix, honouring both Nobuo Uematsu and site creator David "djpretzel" Lloyd. The track, "Squaresoft Variation", arranges the Final Fantasy VI piece "Terra."

Prominent works

Notes and references

  1. ^ SoundtrackNet : Article - Inside Prey
  2. ^ Services: Composer
  3. ^ The Armchair Empire - Interview: Jeremy Soule
  4. ^ GameSpy: World of Musicraft: Jeremy Soule
  5. ^ An Interview with Jeremy Soule
  6. ^ Ryan Kelly (February 2001). "Interview: Soule Brothers". GameSpy.com. Retrieved 2008-05-27.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jeremy Soule.
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