NOTES

FINAL FANTASY VI SUITE

November 18, 2025: Next week, The Blueshift Big Band is premiering my new album-length suite of music from Final Fantasy VI (1994). If you know me, this might come as a surprise, since I'm not really a "gamer."

In fact, the first time Joel Baer and Chris Parsons asked if I was interested in arranging video game music, I hesitated. Lack of gaming skill aside, I take my writing seriously and was working on deeply personal, political suites. I wouldn’t want my contributions to come across as hacky or mercenary and undermine the messages of my other work.

But over these past few years, Blueshift has shown that video game music can be serious business--and seriously fun. Their Joystick Jazz series shows a real dedication to recording high quality big band music and cultivating a whole new fan base for the art. They’ve commissioned dozens of new charts, prioritizing creativity and musical freedom. It’s likely they are responsible for more new big band music than any other organization in Chicago in the past decade.

Our work together broadened my horizons and jostled a significant musical memory. As a kid, my buddy Jason “Gus” Carlock gave me a copy of an obscure Japanese orchestral CD called "Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale"--my first exposure to the music of Nobuo Uematsu and the seemingly impenetrable of the Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy (FF) can be confusing, starting with its increasingly absurd name. There are sixteen main entries with dozens of spin-offs and sequels and no end in sight. They were made in Japan and only some were released in America--but with different numbering. So: American II is Japanese IV and III is VI. See what I mean? Thankfully, few of the games have continuity and are instead bound by recurring elements like crystals, ridable chicken-horses called Chocobos, and a helpful character named Cid. A spirit of rebellion also pervades the various installments. Whether a traditional fantasy, dystopian post-apocalypse, or a steam punk adventure, our protagonists rebel against the decadence of a corrupt state, often realizing their complicity in its oppression.

The ambitions of the plot are supported by the music. In FFVI, Uematsu wrote rich underscore, leitmotifs for dozens of characters, and pushed the technology to its limit. He even wrote an opera aria whose lines the player must memorize. If one is able to reach the end of the game, they're rewarded with a 17 minute (!) prog rock epic followed by a 21 minute (!!) finale.

I love a challenge and I saw FFVI as the "end boss" of video game music. After over a year of writing, I'm very excited to share this project with you--even if you don't like video games.

During COVID, my daughter Ceci and I watched a video of a Final Fantasy VI play-through. I considered it a 12-hour long picture book I could read aloud to her. It still took a few years before I actually attempted to play the game.

I’ve still never beaten it.

Feature 2

Aenean eu justo sed elit dignissim aliquam. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa.

Feature 3

Suspendisse nec congue purus. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa.