Classical Composer Reaction/Analysis to DANCING MAD from FINAL FANTASY by Nobuo Uematso | Ep. 766
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- #finalfantasy #dancingmad
In this edition of #thedailydoug, I'm returning to the music of Nobuo Uematso and the Final Fantasy gaming franchise with the epic work Dancing Mad. This music accompanies the player through the culmination of the game and the final battle...and the music is simply epic. There's great orchestral rips and dissonances...choir chants...electric guitars...and everything in between! I know you'll love this one!
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There's a common saying that originated in a youtube comment somewhere, but someone said "Nobuo Uematsu composing Dancing Mad on the SNES sound chip would be like Michaelangelo making the Sistene Chapel out of crayon."
I know I've seen Jeremy Jahns say as much in his review of the game.
It is Nobuo's greatest musical achievement for the FF series Iin my opinion!
This quote can be sourced to popular TH-cam movie/game reviewer Jeremy Jahns
That is so weird, someone thinking he composed on anything on a sound chip... Shows how people have no idea what they are talking about. "Can you imagine how steven spielberg wrote this script on a CRT-TV ?", pure stupidity.
@@andreasnyman2839 people obviously mean, "composed FOR the SNES sound chip". There's no reason to be so obtuse.
While dancing mad is playing you ascend an almost biblical tower of flesh and machinery melded together by the twisting corrupted power of a long dead magic once again taken from it's source hidden away for thousands of years and now in the hands of a once lowly, traitorous jester turned and changed, descending from the heavens on rays of light, the God of Magic made flesh. This blew my 10 year old mind, I got into prog, metal, and classical because of this music, life changing.
Yo, beautiful thoughts
Whats more, pillar symbolize hell, purgatory and heaven.
+
Same. It wasn't until a few years ago that I made the connection between Uematso's music (and definitely this song in particular) and my love for prog and metal. FF6 is my all-time favorite game, and its music kind of changed my life. At the very least, it was very formative music. I think that experiencing this music in the context of the game also gives it a lot more weight than the CDs and cassettes I was listening to at the time. Long songs kind of became an obsession of mine because it felt like a journey. A song like this just never gets boring.
This song blew me away as a teenager and One Winged Angel did not exist back then yet. This is easily one of my favourite songs but all of the Final Fantasy music enchanted me. Very cool thoughts on the song.
The most amazing thing of all is Nobuo Uematsu never had any formal training in music. So for him to be able to compose masterpieces like this is astounding. Uematsu would most definitely be named among modern composers like John Williams if he were composing for movies and not video games.
I would generally agree but this particular track was a complete ripoff of the kansas "leftoverture" album.
@@Soldano999 elaborate, this is the first I've heard of this
@@Soldano999 This is also the first I've heard of it. Kansas is my all-time favorite rock band, and I've heard the Leftoverture album dozens of times. I've never associated it with this track. On what grounds do you claim it to be a complete ripoff of that album?
@@clintonwilcox4690 maybe you could listen to "magnum opus" one more time then.
@@Soldano999 You said this track is a complete ripoff of the album. Now you're making a different claim. I'm familiar with Magnum Opus, but I haven't played FFVI all the way through (and it's been over a decade since I've tried). I am familiar with Dancing Mad, though, having the Black Mages' version on CD. So again, how is this track a complete ripoff of the Leftoverture album, or Magnum Opus, in general? What similarities are present that you think Uematus was ripping off that song or the album, in general? I ask because even if there are similarities (and I don't think they're as similar as you seem to think they are), that doesn't make it a ripoff of the song or the album. There are millions of songs and only 12 notes, so obviously nothing is truly original because there are only so many notes and chords a composer can work with.
Nobuo Uematsu is a true master of video game composition. I would always recommend his work to anyone interrested in game soundtracks.
I think a lot of the younger gamers that are now making their own games or audio, and were inspired by him
It really comes down to Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo, and David Wise as some of the best video game composers.
@@LordMalice6d9 Don't forget Tim Follin !! absolute legend
@KyleBaran90 There are so many great ones to choose from.
But in terms of widespread influence in the video game music sphere, it's really Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, and David Wise in the top 3.
I was a child when I first faced this boss. My parents thought it was just a silly game for kids. I'm so grateful this composer decided to write and squeeze this absolute beast into something that's pretty much a floppy disk. He saw this pixel game with swords and decided the story deserves THIS.
Nobuo LOVES prog rock and I'm always excited when I hear it in his songs because I know he's happy to write it ❤️.
The man is indeed a legend. I can imagine how satisfying it would've been for him to finally hear someone orchestrate it the way he heard it back in the day. (That or the poor guy was just dead, DEAD tired from composing like 19 operas in a month and a half using just a toaster, a spoon, waffle iron and NONE of those connected to the internet)
He's a HUGE fan of prog rock. Its all over his music!
@@LordMalice6d9 Aw man like I was a little kid during 7 and when he was "yeah Purple Haze was a big thing for me, wondered how it'd sound orchestral" and to know that was part of the foundation for One Winged Angel.
And then though in 9 he's, lol God bless him he's like "ok Kuja's theme is just 'We Will Rock You,' guys you have no idea what they've done to me and how tired I am...."
It was heartbreaking in a way that he was "retiring" in Ten, but when he did the Black Mages concerts and you could see how much fun he was having, free of corporate and lawsuits and just a crazy ass master of all forms playing the rock he loves?
If that's not a final fantasy, then we have all missed the point.
Best wishes Milord Malice. Fairness follow you
@@wren7195 Thought he "retired" due to health reasons in 14 original launch era
13:27 Is perhaps my favorite moment ever. Hearing the full choir, orchestra, and organ come in on that absolutely gorgeous mournful melody, with the electric guitar wailing above just hits on a deep level.
For the context of this boss battle, it is the final battle against Kefka, who is basically an insane clown due to the awful experiments performed upon him by the Gestahlian Empire. Earlier in the game Kefka had made himself into a god, and effectively destroyed the world (the game is split in half, with the first half being the World of Balance, and the second half the World of Ruin). Kefka is a deeply nihilistic individual, who at this point has grown jaded with even godhood, and has decided that he will end all of existence since your group still has hope, which he finds to be a horrible joke. Your party has, through the course of the World of Ruin, seen the hope that still springs even amongst the sorrow and suffering of that destroyed world, and is now fighting to give the world a chance to rebuild.
Each segment of this song is a different phase of the boss battle, and each phase is inspired by "The Divine Comedy". You are scaling a tower in the fight, with the tower being the enemy for much of the fight. The first phase ( 2:52 - 6:19) is the battle against the first portion of the tower, representing "Inferno". The second phase (6:20 - 7:47) is the next portion of the tower, "Purgatorio". The third phase (7:48 - 10:30) is the final part of the tower, and represents "Paradiso".
This version skips the transitional bridge between the 3rd phase and the final phase, which sees the party leave the tower, enter the golden sky of heaven, and Kefka's godly form descend to meet them. The final phase then goes from 10:31 to the end of the piece, and doesn't have a direct Divine Comedy segment, as it is meant to represent seeing the face of God Himself.
There's a reason I consider "Dancing Mad" to be Nobuo Uematsu's finest work, even above the more well-known "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII. The vivid musical imagery he uses throughout the piece is remarkable. And that he was able to make such a masterpiece with the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo's limited sound capabilities is nothing short of remarkable.
I do feel it's missing a little bit when they don't include the soundclip of the laugh at least once just before the last part starts.
most villain have motives like revenge, conquering something or world domination.. but Kefka only wants one thing: "absolute destruction"....
Dancing Mad is a proper suite, each of the four sections corresponds to a different phase in Kefka's penultimate bossfight. All of his battle stages have their own gimmicks that you have to adjust to, and if you fail you start aaaaall over again! This was both game mechanically and compositionally mind-blowing back in the mid-90s, one of the most memorable video game encounters of all time!
All of of it is ripped off the Kansas album "leftoverture"
@@Soldano999 no
Great music, but the easiest final boss of Final Fantasy’s 8-bit era.
@@Soldano999this is so far from true it’s not even funny, and yes I went and listened to the entire album you brought up before commenting on just how wrong you are.
@@for_the_lore5567this was a snes game. The 3rd of the 16 bit era.
The file size of FF6 is about 3 MB in total.
That's equivalent to about 3 minutes of mp3 playback (128Kbps)
So you also know, for the "3" theme:
Final Fantasy 6 was released as Final Fantasy 3 in the US.
11:45 I love this moment. It's a little leitmotif from Kefka's personal theme song in the rest of the game. Kefka himself is basically a mad jester, trying to become a god, which I think comes through in his theme and Dancing Mad
also 9:01
Yes! So many people hear that part and don't know what it represents. It's Kefka's jester theme peeking thru for a second. Both playful and menacing like Kefka himself
Not trying to become a god. He becomes the god of magic and is eventually defeated.
The craziest part about the entirety of the 4th movement of Dancing Mad, minus the sad and tragic part near its middle and end is that it is an overhauled remix of Kefka’s theme song, it’s just far more intense sounding.
It's in the bass line in the section before also
This is a good track, even more incredible when you consider it was on a Nintendo cartridge.
Uematsu is the 8-Bit god
Exactly the reason why ff6 has the best ost in final fantasy series
Uematsu wrote a fking opera in it
@@cames Nah, that's FFVIII by a lightyear.
@@HittokiriBattousai17 16-bit for this one, it was on snes, but your point stands
Never underestimate the pure sonic excellence of a Nintendo cartridge. That's GB, NES, SNES, N64 ect ect. Packed full of leg wiggling fist pumping hits!
YEAH!
Nobou Uematsu is a legend, and certainly one of the greatest modern composers.
how many real modern composers do you actually know to make this statement?
Praise be the fox God
@@blondafro4112 How much do you know of Uematsu to imply that's not the case? Or perhaps it's because he composed music for video games, a medium that you do not consider to be "real art" ...
@@blondafro4112and you?
@@blondafro4112he is a "real" modern composer you muppet
Never clicked so fast in my life. Edit: I love me some One Winged Angel, but Dancing Mad is definitely the best song Uematsu has ever written, and may well be the best video game piece of music ever written. Edit 2: If you want another one of Uematsu's best, look up "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. That one is definitely a journey of a song.
The eternal battle of the Final Fantasy fandom: Dancing Mad vs. One-Winged Angel... XD
Big agree, while understanding some may not agree. But Dancing Mad more or less defined my teenage years, not to mention this entire soundtrack.
Thanks for the rec! I haven't played that one (only the console, "classic" games) yet, so I hadn't heard it. Loved it!
I don't know about all that, Roses of May is pretty good.
Yeah, that Bach pastiche in the middle (which plays during the part of the fight where Kefka looks like a parody of an angelic being) was where I went from liking the song to loving it. And then that final prog-rock breakdown at the end solidified it. Uematsu was on fire for pretty much all of the 90's.
The song also hits well at the end of the game because of how it weaves earlier motifs from the game (specifically Kefka's own theme). I've always said, video game soundtracks are often more like opera than film soundtracks because of the way in which character is associated so closely with music, and how much variation and reprise are used to contextualize scenes. It's also worth noting with this song that each movement would repeat until you finished that part of the fight, and then would transition to the next as you finished.
And this is even more impressive when you hear what the limitations of the soundcard on the SNES were, in terms of how many channels could play at once, and the limited range of MIDI it could produce. The analogy has been used that Uematsu painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in crayon on this piece, and it's an apt one.
The Black Mages version is spectacular as well. Much more rock/metal oriented but still contains all of those movements.
Exactly, and I mean, really a lot video game music is just outstanding taking account of what could be done, is the fine art of obtaining water from rocks
The third section is not just a parody of an angelic being. It resembles Michelangelo's Pieta. Kefka is putting himself in the role of Jesus.
@@lordpessimism I thought the Pieta part came earlier? I don't really remember what specific form happens in what part of the fight, so you may be right. But I wasn't thinking of the Pieta part when I wrote that.
It's worth seeing a recording of this final boss fight to get a sense of what each section of the song represents. In short the final battle mimics the journey of Dante through Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, and finally meeting God. In the story Kefka has usurped the three goddesses of Magic and has taken their place as the God of Magic, and the final battle is meant to be Kefka's satire of God as he has descended into nihilism.
The first part of the fight is against a Satan-like demon, similar to the depiction in the Inferno, trapped at the waist in a frozen lake at the center of hell; where the beating of his wings causes as he tries to escape causes the lake to only further freeze and harden.
The second part depicts a group of humans including a crucified woman bound to machines, representing the punishments of purgatory.
The third part depicts a scene inspired by the Michelangelo statue Madonna della Pietà, where Mary is holding the crucified Jesus.
Finally, with the protagonists rising up through the clouds, Kefka, the villain turned God, descends to meet them and greets them with mocking laughter.
Thank you for knowing this!
Underrated comment. Uematsu put so much effort into a four part oratory to match both Kefka's tower and ascension, and also Dante's journey. It's one of many reasons why it's so good.
FYI, this is the final battle (after a 50+ hour game!), where you are fighting Kefka, the court jester of the evil empire who went power mad and killed the emperor before infusing himself with magic by upsetting the balance of the old gods and destroying most of the planet in the process - to become a nihilistic self-proclaimed God. After fighting all the way up his tower, you meet him with all of your party members and after a dialogue where you try to show him there is value in life and love, he decides to fight you all and destroy everything. The fight itself is made up of 4 parts, as is the musical piece, where each one is distinct visually also we get some musical references to familiar tracks. All in all, along with Chrono Trigger, this is the best soundtrack for a video game ever - and all done on the extremely limited synthesizer of the SNES!!!!! You can also find many renditions of tracks from it: solo piano albums, string quartets, metal bands, up to full orchestral arrangements - the music really is that iconic and well written. I'd suggest going for a few short themes and contrasting the original SNES track to those modern full-bodied versions for the fun of it, they are only a couple of minutes each (looping, in the game).
"Now behold, I am divine, my proclamations are absolute, my holiness can't be questioned (listen to that pipe organ)... Wait, stop that. Stop, not dying. BITCH I'm a GOD I DO WHAT I WANT!
...wait why am I disintegrating?"
My father used to be a disc jockey. When he heard me listening to the version of Dancing Mad from the Black Mages album, he suddenly got very excited and popped a vinyl into the record player. Emerson Lake and Palmer's TARKUS. My brain melted. The influence they must have had on Uematsu was enormous.
Thank you for reacting to one of my all time fav Nobuo Uematsu songs, Doug!
Thank you for your incredible support!
@@Doug.Helvering PLEASE 🙏 DO FINAL FANTASY X the music in that is not only beautiful but haunting...
@@Doug.Helvering the reason his theme is so chaotic is because he a EVIL CLOWN 🤡
I saw this preformed live at the Symphony Center in Chicago. This guy was jamming on the huge pipe organ they have there and it was glorious.
I was going to make the same comment! Pipe organ during one of the Chicago shows definitely made an impression on me.
Every time I've seen an organist get the chance to go all out, they absolutely take it and it's the best!
I saw this in Chicago as well, in June 2010. 1st time Distant Worlds did a “Marathon” concert. 2 concerts on the same day. One-Winged Angel sung by an audience “choir” is wild.
No freakin way! 😮😮😮!!!
8-bit Music Theory has a detailed analysis of the piece that I'm sure will interest you, Doug.
You'll have to do more of these, so cool, had everything a prog/classic/rock fan like me wants in a piece of music. I'm not a gamer but love the great tunes they come with!
Uematsu has always been my favourite composer in gaming, precisely because of his clear appreciation and inspiration of hard rock and prog rock. The first long form game I ever played was Final Fantasy 7, and I remember the first time I got into a boss fight and heard the boss fight theme "Those Who Fight Further" and I thought "wow this really sounds like Deep Purple". Big fan ever since
I'm 43 just turned 43 on April 9th
It took me 20+ years to beat FF6
Im excited to hear Doug's breakdown
I just finished the game for the first time in March it was an amazing game. It was the pixel remaster that came out on the switch
@Mowmauf ps4 pixel remaster only on I didn't complete is 2 but all other pixel remasters 7 I'm working on 9 right now
@@inrainbows1829 I just finished FF 10 today for the first time as well
@Mowmauf 10 is next for me
I went in a weird order
After Pixel remasters I bought 16 finished it went back to 15 finished it now on 9 then to 10
@Mowmauf greatest role playing video games ever
Chrono trigger is good too
Doug's rock-out pout always makes me smile.
I’ve only seen a couple of his videos, but I still know that if it looks like he’s sneering, he likes it. 😂
This is part of the reason why a lot of video game fans consider Uematsu-san one of the greats, and if you want to hear more of his compositions in a more "metal" style, check him out with his band The Black Mages.
^ This! There is a great version that they do of Dancing Mad.
Except the whole thing was ripped of a kansas song on the leftoverture album...
@@Soldano999 which song?
@@Soldano999 Citation needed.
The Black Mages version of Dancing Mad in particular is really good, because it flows like a complete composition and not individual movements designed to loop separately.
As a lifelong videogame nerd I enjoy Doug discovering some good music from games.
For a game on the SNES with all its limitations FF 6 has some really great tracks.
In this part of Uematsu's career, he was probably the strongest in terms of melodic emphasis and near the top of leitmotif usage to build a coherent soundtrack across the entire gameplay experience. Good to mention the ELP influence 10:40 as you can definitely hear it in Uematsu's work, primarily battle themes and especially ELP's Tarkus. Prog was a big influence to the early Japanese VGM composers.
Leitmotiv is a word in English? Funny. 😂
@@Apfelkind4000 yeah, but we angecize it a bit, calling it leitmotif, with an f instead of a v
@@Arkouchie Up until now, I only knew about Kindergarten and Poltergeist.
@@Apfelkind4000 zeitgeist? liverwurst? kohlrabi? sauerkraut? ...
@@asthasr2 Liverwurst is "Leberwurst" in German. The rest I dodn't know.
Basically Dancing Mad is supposed to represent the Final Fantasy 6 main villain Kefka who is basically the very incarnation of chaos so this theme being so chaotic is very fitting.👍
To fully get Dancing Mad, you have to know Kefka's main theme that plays whenever he is present. It uses his melodic themes throughout Dancing Mad. Like during the organ solo section, you can hear his melody in the bass, but in major instead of its usual minor before going back to minor. During the proggy section, another part of his theme is used. Also the intro is the same as the introduction to the game itself. It is a culmination as you said that's full effect comes with having experienced those motifs throughout the game.
Leitmotifs that run throughout games are an enormous strength of Uematsu specifically, and also generally something that sets video game music apart in how you have to kind of contextualize it
Well new you know why we were so loud about this piece! 😂
That's not exactly a reaction request, but you should def listen to the original version of dancing mad from the snes when you got the time!
If I had to recommend 1 version for someone to listen to it'd have to be the black mages album version, it's really the definitive one
@@xellestar agreed, amazing what they did
@@xellestar I was the one to recommend this version (thought it better suited the channel's premise), but I'm 100% into a comeback to this in the Black Mages version! I weas so split between those two when writing my recommendation!
I think the FFXIV version catches the essence of Dancing Mad the best
My favourite video game song since the first time I heard it on my SNES back in 1994. Really happy that you react to it.
That shift in the music at 13:00 always brings tears to my eyes. You can just hear the pain in it. Kefka's pain, the pain his victims suffered, and the pain the heroes have endured in trying to stop him. So well done!
It's even more impressive when you consider that this was composed in the 16-bit era. The Super Nintendo had a pretty advanced sound chip for its time, but it was still late 80s/early 90s tech.
His music on the snes platform was just as innovative as the game’s graphics, design, and gameplay. With each installment in the series, too.
This one... Playing this game back in the 90s as a teenager to this music was just mindblowing. Absolute classic. Thanks for this!
I honest to god think this is one of the best modern "classical" pieces to be composed in the last 70 years. it is genuinely a masterpiece.
Keep in mind that this wonderful little ditty was composed using the Super Nintendo's soundfont - in essence, a limited subset of MIDI/MIDI-style tools on a machine that could only play a limited number of sounds at a time. Someone else put it best:
"For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
@doug helvering - Please permit me to suggest "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV:A Realm Reborn.
The fact that they made this with a 16-bit sound chip and it is absolutely glorious in the game is mind-blowing.
I never comment on TH-cam, but I was glad you finally encountered Nobuo Uematsu at his best. I know you got a great ear (which is nice to observe, btw) and Uematsus music just goes to so many places and splits up traditional harmony in so many ways... It was nice to see you encounter one of his best.
I saw them perform this arrangement at the Royal Albert Hall, and my word that organ hits so hard live
Something i gotta live before i die
I’d do anything to hear Doug react to anything from Shadow of the Colossus. The best video game OST ever in my opinion.
immediate like at 6 seconds !.
edit: DISTANT WORLDS is the Orchestral version. The Black Mages is the rock version.
Love the black mages songs
The section at the end as the boss realises he is about to be defeated, and especially the highly emotional guitar at 12:50 onwards, really gives me a sense of Kefka's narcissism and psychosis; I love it. It sounds to me as though he's crying out at the injustice of being killed by the heroes, when he is clearly the infallible and just God who deserves to rule forever.
The Black Mages (a rock band with Uematsu and other musicians from the company who made the Final Fantasy games) have a great version of this song, and that end section in particular really evokes that feeling in me.
Others have likely mentioned it, but the entire suite seems to be from his point of view - he sees himself as God - not in the usual "small G" way that a lot of Japanese anime and videogame antagonists are, but he sees himself as an omnipotent Big G God, hence the church organ and various Christian themes during the battle
Now if Liquid Tension Experiment can just cover this song, I can die a happy man... thanks for reviewing this childhood favorite!
Kansas already did...
In the 70's.
The album's name is "leftoverture"
And this entire song is a complete ripoff
@@Soldano999 how many more times are you gonna try and be a troll?
@@DravenxEyeless i'm not trying to be a troll. Listen to magnum opus by kansas first then tell me you don't find very obvious similarities
@@Soldano999 Is it, perhaps, the case, that
Both are referencing the same musical tradition of symphonic suites, and by doing so, end up with similarities by coincidence of attempting the same thing?
@@Arkouchie i'm not talking about similar styles i'm talking about specific parts that are exactky the same
Prog rock in videogame music? TIM FOLLIN is your man
Also, shout out to Geoff Follin, his brother and life long musical collaborator. I've just this moment learned he passed away just over a week ago. RIP Geoff
@@CIYT88 sad to hear that, and I agree. RIP Geoff
Incredible breakdown of a classic track. I'm amazed how this dude can just break down exactly what's being played the second he hears it.
We had the 3rd movement played at our wedding on church organ, really cool moment. Unfortunately divorved now but a nice memory lol.
I really hope to see you do more and more Final Fantasy Music. No matter where you go in the series it's incredible. The soft tones of 'To Zanarkand' from Final Fantasy 10, all of the different versions of 'Battle at the Big Bridge' that originated from Final Fantasy 5, the surreal music like "The Extreme" or 'Liberi Fatali' and even the powerful 'Maybe I'm A Lion' from Final Fantasy 8. You couldn't lose seeing all the amazing directions this series' music goes.
The boss has 4 stages with this theme playing, starting from hell, ascending to heaven. Nobuo is a genius
I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again. Uematsu is a freaking GENIUS! To think he wrote one of gaming’s most iconic final boss themes ON THE SUPER FAMICOM is simply amazing! 🤩
Suggestions for you if you’re looking into Uematsu’s Final Fantasy works, I recommend either “Eyes on Me” from Final Fantasy VIII or “Melodies of Life” from Final Fantasy IX. Both pieces are fantastic!
6:52 Funnily enough, there is a rendition of this track that is included in one of the Final Fantasy XIV OST CDs, and it is split there into 4 movements with this one being the 2nd one.
It brings me joy to see someone who has never heard this fantastic track before respond with so much enthusiasm. It certainly is one of my top favorite with or without game footage. Also, a big deal is how much the organ shines through on this one, its a lovely sound.
if you enjoyed that, continue to listen to Uematsu works !
he worked from the first to the tenth episode if i'm correct and few other games too, and there are at least one marvelous track in every games he worked on !
he had his own group of instrumental rock, The Black Mages (he was playing himself during concert) and made 3 albums covering his own composition from Final Fantasy with his band, if you want a playlist of final fantasy tracks to listen ( not necessarily these albums in particular) just use the track list of it ! The Black Mages I, II and III are probably the best track list for a final fantasy best of !
but don't forget to listen to other Squaresoft/SquareEnix composer, they are all very talented and made a bunch of very cool music for nearly 40 years now ! like Kenji Ito, Masayoshi Soken or Yoko Shimomura for exemple :)
Absolutely majestic piece of art by Uematsu, glad you got to it!
The massive mood swings are definitely intentional as a representation of Kefka Palazzo's character- prone to explosively violent mood swings.
Dancing Mad is what happens when the composer sits down on a long flight, starts composing a final boss song, and never stops.
Doug would LOVE the Music from Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Such HUGE Symphonic sounds.
Agree he needs to hear Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, Ludwig the Holy Blade and Gehrman, the First Hunter. Each of them has such amazing orchestration.
Nobuo Uematsu is such a brilliant composer!
I found this channel through your Pink Floyd videos, and I've been watching all of those. Imagine my surprise, and absolute glee to see you analyze music from my favorite video game series. I've been playing those games since 1992, and I am actually playing one right now while your videos play. Nobuo Uematsu's music is absolutely brilliant. Now, I have to go searching through your videos for more FF! Excellent work!
It's structured as a 4 movement movement symphony and the boss battle is a 4 phase fight so 1 movement per phase. Kefkas theme is the "regurgitation" as you said it pops up a few times. The story the music tells as you're fighting Kefka once he's become a god is really something and it seemed you were catching on to some of the themes even without having played the game nor knowing anything about the characters. It might be worth having a quick listen to the original just to hear how different it sounds.
Dancing Mad is top tier music. It's one of my absolute favorites.
Nobuo Umatseu was not involved with the writing of the main antagonist, Kefka. However, the composition of Dancing Mad lets us know he understood everything that went into his characterization. The music tells his story. Everything from being a lowly jester who no one took seriously, up to his apotheosis, responsible for the destruction of an entire planet and countless deaths.
The contrast and shifts from minor to major and back again. The erratic and thunderous percussion. The dark, melancholic themes from the organ. It's all there. It's interesting to see composers who never played the game or know anything about Kefka and recognize these shifts that are present in his development and personality. He is as complex as you can make a one-dimensional character by far, very much like the Joker.
In short. There is a reason why Kefka is the GOAT among FF villains. He'll never be dethroned.
“Unstable nature” is the perfect way to describe Kefka. Final Fantasy has always excelled at using music to tell their story, and it’s why Uematsu is the best.
Without any game footage, you understand it.
This is a great version, although I still prefer The Black Mages' (Nobou Uematsu's Prog band) version of the song.
He has to listen to some black mages songs someday
The way Kefkas original theme weaves throughout each movement is just amazing.
I freakin love watching you work it out dude!!! THAT IS DOPE!!!!
Honestly you missed out by not listening to the original version. Hearing what it accomplished with all the limitations it had on it from a technical perspective is really important for context.
Absolutely agree. To be honest, I am more excited to hear the 8 bit version then the remastered, orchestral, progressive rock and other remake version of this song. I dunno, the limitations of what the SNES really made for Nobuo to really be creative and pushed the boundaries of what that system could do in terms of composition. And I always prefer the original 19 minute version over any stripped version. The whole purpose of Dancing Mad is that you also feel like this is one epic and long journey from the bottom of the tower to the top of it where we meet Kafka in his God status.
I mean, he can still listen to it and it'd be still a very good analysis.
You gotta hear the original version. It somehow conveys the majesty of the piece just as well as the orchestral version, despite the fact the SNES sound chip couldn't actually play multiple instruments at once!
I agree, Dancing Mad is best listened to in three parts: SNES, Distant Worlds, and The Black Mages. Each version is so distinct in their accomplishments they're all worth listening to as a "first listen" whether it's 30 minutes or not.
FF14 version goes crazy too
Saw both Distant Worlds concerts live and they were an experience and a half. I'd never been moved by music so much as when hearing that full orchestra playing live right in front of me.
I'm glad you did the distant worlds version. I love these albums.
Epic is the only way I can describe that piece. This very version has been one of my favorites for a long time now.
I loved this when i was 10 but i couldn't appreciate how its a piece that combines baroque music with prog rock. I appreciate Uematsu's musical genius more and more
Every transition is a phase change of fighting kefka. The las transition is mind blowing. He is a genius
I've been waiting for this moment since you started your channel! This is going to be an epic video.
Dude, you can literally be the first person to do what you are doing with FF and anime. You will most likely dominate this "little" niche. No one else has done quite what your doing and we all love it
I love that on this recording, Uematsu himself is on the organ.
As much as I enjoy One Winged Angel, it will never beat the utter brilliance that is Dancing Mad - the themes, the fight going on during the music... it will forever be my favorite. I genuinely think Dancing Mad is the greatest piece of music that Uematsu has ever created. As a lover of his work since the start, nothing in my life has ever compared to sitting in the audience and *hearing* this piece played. I loved it as 14-year-old girl playing Final Fantasy VI, sitting there gobsmacked, and as a 30-odd-year-old woman, sitting in the seats watching Arnie Roth conduct? I still get goosebumps and am moved to tears. My friends, who were never big on video games and came with me to humor me as I bought their tickets, became huge Uematsu fans after this concert. They always point to Dancing Mad as the linchpin of their entire change of opinion on video game music, and now will go out of their way to find it.
There's a reason why many of us old-school Final Fantasy fans cite VI as our favorite, and the music is the icing on an incredibly beautiful, moving, and lore dense cake. There's even opera in there!
The Distant Worlds albums are some of my favorite to listen to. I absolutely love the Final Fantasy music.
Final Fantasy is just amazing
I'm so glad you reacted to it! (Funny how you mentioned ELP as Nobuo himself has told they inspired his music)
I wonder if the professor adds any of these songs to his playlists.. I sure can't get one day without hearing this masterpiece. Nobuo is a genius
I cant wait! This is an all time favorite of mine
I am absolutely ecstatic that you did a video on this piece. This track has always had a special place in my heart for it's mood, it's complexity, and it's resolutions. Great video!
Hi Doug! So happy you reacted to this, as I was the one who initially suggested it (with a lot of people who supported the suggestion afterwards, lol)
So, risking to repeat what other people already said: the battle has four parts, hence the four movement structure. The first three are a Tower of Babil-like structure, called Statue of the Gods, which has three tiers you have to ascend, to then get to Kefka on the fourth stage of the fight. The reason the original OST is 17 minutes is that it plays each "movement" twice before progressing to the next -- in the actual game, whenever you beat a tier of the statue, you go to the next and the music is (cleverly) cut wherever it is to progress to the next movement. Each movement is repeated how many times it is needed before going to the next one. The fight is an epic in a sense that it is 4 uninterrupted parts and you set up 3 teams for it -- whenever a team is wiped, the next one enters. All 3 teams wiped and it's game over and you have to restart from the beginning.
About the choice of version: the original OST is amazing, but totally 8-bit (as expected for a SNES game). The Black Mages version is full prog/hard rock and also an amazing version and I was really split between that one and this, but I felt this had more layers to analyze because of all the symphonic orchestral parts. However, I 100% support a comeback/revisit to this one in the Black Mages version. I searched for a live Distant Worlds version, but the only one I found was full-orchestral (even the last movement) and recorded from a cell phone. Doesn't look like something that was allowed by the concert's production.
Also, I laughed so much at the Emerson, Lake & Palmer reference, lmao
Thank you so much for reacting to this. You made several Final Fantasy fans really happy!
Amazing to see ppl discovering this, still remember the 1st time I heard it on my SNES 😄
As a LONG time lover of this piece, I would love to also see your reaction to the original 16 bit version, as it managed to do so much more within the technical limitations of the time than anybody really thought you could. Even digitized for 90s game systems, it still manages to impress, and you would probably have a lot of fun analyzing it.
I grew up immersed in this stuff and it’s kind of funny to think after a couple of these games we just expected this kind of greatness from him. Dancing Mad is his magnum opus for sure!!!
the "level" this plays on, is the Final Boss, whose a jester clown, That is also GOD. ALSO has DESTORYED THE WORLD. This fight is not to save the day, but for revenge. the movements are different stages of the boss fight, all representing something. i believe the order is, Anger, Madness, Making fun of The god he killed, The full blown Final Fight
8:30 My favourite part of the whole craziness of this score is that Nobuo Uematsu went "Ok, let's go all out on Johann Sebastian Bach influences here, but let's stick the damn leitmotif here anyway. [5 flats: 4B C D E | F D G 8F E | 4F D C E] etc you can look it up in the Musescore.
It's crazy to think that kids/teenagers (mostly) heard this music long before most adults ever took it seriously. The irony being that Mozart wrote classical music as a kid! Just super cool to see composers and musicians experiencing it for the first time and feeling that special something. Although to get the full experience, you'd have to play the game to hear it in context of the story to feel it's fullness.
One of the best video game tracks in history for one of the best villains on video game history
You gotta give The Black Mages a spin sometime! That was Uematsu’s prog metal band that covered all of the Final Fantasy music. Even if you don’t review them, all three albums are just so much fun.
sir Doug! nice selection! big respect from japan.
ありがとう〜
What I really appreciate about this channel is, aside from the engaging and informative analysis, bro goes the extra mile on the research beforehand love to see it
Dancing Mad... I remember when Final Fantasy 6 (released as 3 in the US) came out. My friend and I played it together and it is honestly still one of the best games I have ever played. Hands down STILL my favorite FF game. So much of the OST is incredible.
You mention how it's structured like a mini-symphony, which is interesting because the game is really structured like an opera/play. It's incredible.
I would highly recommend Celes and Terras theme as well as the other monumental piece, Aria di mezzo Carattere. I was lucky enough to see it performed by Video Games Live with Jillian Averse about a decade ago; I was in tears.
It's incredible seeing appreciation for game music like this, knowing it can hit without needing to have the background and nostalgia of the track.
Also maybe check out some FF14 tracks, totally not because and old friend of mine got to sing on some of them :-D
You're right about the different sections accompanying different parts of the fight. The fight is split into 4 sections, with the final being Kefka himself. When you win a fight, you transition directly into the next one.
The music is also split into 4 sections. When a section of music ends, it checks what part of the boss fight you're in, and plays the music for that fight. If you're still fighting boss 1 when music 1 ends, it will play music 1 again, but if you've moved on to boss 2 then it will start music 2 instead. The exception is after beating boss 3, it fades out the music and starts music 4 as the screen transitions into boss 4.
If you listen to the 17 minute version from the SNES soundtrack, you will hear each section looped twice.
Though I never played FFVI (I need to fix that 😅), this song has become one of my absolute favorites. GaMetal’s Dancing Mad 2019 Remix was my introduction to this song and is just as beautiful as this.
This piece becomes even better when you realize the composer wove in elements of music from earlier in the game-the third movement showed parts of The Decisive Battle and Kefka’s Theme mixed together from earlier key moments of gameplay. It’s a masterclass of using subtle elements of music to subconsciously make the listener remember why the struggle is so important.
On a summer's day in the early 90s, I played the original Japanese version and watched the 20-minute long ending after Dancing Mad, and I thought, is there some one else out there feeling what I'm feeling right now.
It was a magical decade.
If you want proggy video game music, you gotta check out Tim Foillin. Pictionary Main Theme and Solstice Main Theme. also the Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro is good too. Not as proggy, but lots of cool harmonies and such. I'd be cool if Doug starts listening to the original works. I get the appeal of orchestra covers/renditins, but the beauty in some of these songs is the limitations back then and the things composers did to overcome them, like Tim Follin.
Doug, you are easily the most brilliant of all the music reactors on TH-cam. Your analysis are on another level.
This piece was composed and recorded for a SNES. Only now, that games cartridges/discs can store more data, we can fully hear and appreciate what was originally a 16-bit track.
There is also a cover version by Project Grissini who played all on church organs and it sounds amazing. Whoever put up hours and hours of practice to play this is a real champion.
He actually did it! Awesome.
He should do Liberi Fatali next!! Awesome video!
Anything from FF8 would be sick.
This. FF8 through 10 is where the music peaked imo.
He would absolutely love Liberi Fatali
There's an 18 minute "Symphonic" version of this that someone made in a program like 15 years ago that's FANTASTIC. I've listened to it like 1000 times ha.
The shifts between "acts" are far more smooth in that version. They don't seem so jarring, and the high energy act at the end in particular just sounds so much more intense.
You should check it out. Easy to find.
The fact that they were able to fit a Multi-Movement Orchestral piece in an SNES games at all blows my mind. Like if you were to ever listen to the original piece from the game you can tell it was made with an Orchestral style in mind, which is part of why lends itself so well to having been played at Distant Worlds.
Also you were right when you said "Oh this would be a contrasting 2nd movement" as there are 4 movements to Dancing Mad, and you said that when the actual 2nd movement was playing. But also yeah you picking up on the different sections, you were picking up on all the different movements. It really is an incredible song, and an incredible feat for music in games when it was first released.