Nobuo Uematsu, One-Winged Angel - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction

10:05 "Some sort of... character to it" Boy do I have a mad clown laying in wait for you.

Careful with this rabbit hole, us Final Fantasy fans will never let you go. Nobuo Uematsu was the sound of many Millennials'' childhoods. His successor, Masayoshi Soken, is currently doing a bang up job as well with the live service MMO FF14 which has hundreds and hundreds of tracks alone. The boss fights like E12S, Susano, and more are just so beyond epic and as you mentioned in this video with your comparison to Genshin, just fun and loaded with personality. And because the FF series spans many settings from high fantasy to steampunk to futuristic, each game stands out. For my money, FF7, FF8, and FF13 are the best complete soundtracks

I like how she’s describing ”is that boss battle music I hear?”

The Hendrix influence is in the "Advent Children" arrangement of this piece, which is still orchestral but includes extra instruments that bring a rockier edge.

Definitely check out the Advent Children version of One-Winged Angel if you want to hear the rock elements realised more overtly, with electric instruments on top of the orchestra and choir

This man is legitimately one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Loved your video.

I think video games are a driving force in keeping classical music alive. So many amazing composistions come from video games. Final Fantasy alone has so much great music.

39 year old man and I still cry every time I hear this song. Best friend introduced me to this back in 97 and I went and got a Playstation that day because of it. I've replayed it countless times and have devoted thousands of hours to playing it in different ways. Thank you, Chris. Miss ya.

The Hendrix influence in this piece is specifically the intro for Purple Haze. Hendrix does staccato octaves landing squarely on the beat. This idea forms the basis form One Winged Angel. Chords landing on the beat to mimic a matching rhythm and the pattern of low-high low-high

Nobuo Uematsu is to Video Games as John Williams is to American Films. On a side note, As Yokko Kano is to Anime.

6:15 it is insane how your description is so spot on with what is happening in the videogame when this song is played.

you know a final boss is gonna be good when the theme is not only in Latin, but says THE BOSS' NAME AS THE HIT

The character of Sephiroth is several things. An elite soldier, a national hero, Frankenstein's monster and in the end Lovecraftian horror. This song perfectly matched how exciting yet unnerving the player's final confrontation is with him.

If you were to listen to Nobuo Uematsu's other famous track: "Dancing Mad", which he composed in the game before "One-Winged Angel", I would actually consider recommending listening to its original form. There's a specific reason for this, the game it was made for was released back in 1994 on the SNES game system. Because of the limiting technology at the time, music on video games back then was highly simplistic, often short and compressed to preserve memory. Yet despite that, Nobuo Uematsu was able to craft a ridiculously complex and haunting song that's nearly TWENTY MINUTES LONG. Some one once described composing a song like he did for the SNES was like "painting the Sistine Chapel with crayons." So if you were to listen to it, that is the specific version I would recommend listening to.

I’ve been to Distant Worlds concert a couple of times, in Barcelona and in London, and when “One Winged Angel” the audience goes totally crazy. It’s an amazing experience ☺️

There are no video game composers more well respected than Nobuo Uematsu. I fell in love with his work as a teenager, and watching you enjoy it was just so fun. Thank you.

Dancing Mad from Uematsu is a must, but frankly I'd listen to all of his music all day. Love also his "Phantasmagoria" which is the only project by Uematsu that doesn't involve videogames

Oh the memories, the panicked "he won't die, he won't die, every time I kill him he transforms and gets back up stronger, he won't die." And the prolonged siege, entire turns of just healing your wounds bracing for the next crashing blow before you can respond. It was like fighting the ocean.

Nobuo Uematsu is a genuine master composer. He particularly excels at instrument selection to craft and set up atmospheres with the different combinations of timbres. Lovely, memorable pieces one after another. I really love to watch educated musicians break down and study his pieces so i can appreciate them even more, thank you for your insight.

I suggest watching a youtube video called "The Nintendo-fication of Jazz" which talks about how video game music is becoming the new "jazz standards" that musicians are going to for identifiable pop culture sounds and music. Classic and progressive composers like Uematsu being just one of the driving forces behind games music being recognized by the next generation of musicians as their heroes. And with the extreme popularity of game music being played by symphony orchestras for the past two decades, it's only a matter of time before these compositions become new classics.