Into the Score - May 8, 2008

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

1) Intro
2) Contact Info
3) 2008 in Gaming
4) The Nintendo DS
5) Level-5 and cutting-edge-ness
6) Story of the Game
7) Development
a. Puzzles
8) Composer
a. Tomohito Nishiura 
9) The Music
a. Instrumentation
b. Bal-Musette
10) Analysis
a. 


INTRO

(PROFESSOR LAYTON'S THEME)

I'm Kenley Kristofferson... and this is Into the Score.

Happy summer and sunshine, world! Well, Northern Hemisphere world... happy winter, Southern Hemisphere! The sun is shining here in the Paris of the Prairies and from the heart of Canada, we bring you "Into the Score," which is the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music.  I am your host, Kenley Kristofferson and it is my esteemed privilege to bring to you, the study of Level-5s wonderful (yet moderately obscure) release, Professor Layton and the Curious Village.  It came out in 2008 here in North America on the Nintendo DS and is scored by Tomohito Nishiura! We are currently listening to "Professor Layton's Theme," and while it is quite awesome, I can't really tell you how to reach the show if it's playing, I just get distracted, so let's change gears.

(CONTACT INFO)

CONTACT INFO

That's better! The address for Into the Score is www.intothescore.com, as always.  If you would like to reach me, you can always send me a note at Kenley@intothtescore.com, so k-e-n-l-e-y@intothescore.com! We're also on iTunes, so you can subscribe through the site or through iTunes! Also, there is a comment section on every post, so if you want to leave your ideas, comments, criticisms, debates... you name it! Definitely do it! I always reply as well, so if you leave a comment, always come back and check out the response, it's all about discussion in the comment section! 

Hey dudes, it's June! School's done! It's Summer! I hope that everyone is enjoying this time of year.  This episode came at a really intense time of year, wrapping everything else up, but that's not the only thing that's been holding this episode back.   I've been researching this episode like crazy, almost getting lost in the process, just trying to find some information.  Once I found a shred of what I was looking for, I would look somewhere else for more, then keep searching, searching.  Eventually, I had been calling a past university professor, scouring academic journals and history textbooks and pillaging through video after video of traditional French accordion music.  But now, I've realized that I just have to go with what I have, because I could research for months on this one topic... the one word that I was looking for as to what this whole "Professor Layton" style...ladies and gentlemen, that word is "Bal-Musette."

In other news, I've been wrapping up school and practicing my jazz guitar like crazy, pain-stakingly practicing the Charlie Parker Omni-book.  If you're a jazz player, you'll know exactly what I mean.  It's an amazing book, but probably some of the most challenging music that I've ever read.  

Speaking of challenging, this game is full of puzzles - some easier than others... some way challenging.  The music playing during these puzzles is coming up... it's appropriately called "Puzzles," and it's by Tomohito Nishiura!

(PUZZLES)

2008 IN GAMING

This game was released in 2008... which is this year, making this the newest game that Into the Score has ever covered.  While 2008 is only halfway done, some pretty huge releases have hit the consoles already.  On January 31st, Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers Brawl came out in Japan for the Wii - North America got it on March 9th and I think Australia gets it this summer.  The game is huge, selling 820,000 copies in the first week during its Japan release, and 1.4 million in North America - that number is from the wiki and its address is in the shownotes.  The game is a joint venture between Konami, Sega and Nintendo, having all of their heroes in a fighting platform game - quite awesome.  

On April 29th, the fourth installment of RockStar's Grand Theft Auto series came to light and has been celebrated more times than I can mention.  It is the first game since 1999 to receive a perfect rating from IGN and since 2001 for GameSpot respectively.  Seeing as this happened just two months ago, I think that a lot of us in gaming, or at least those who are interested or participate in video game culture are still feeling the effects of this release, be it addicted friends, reviews plastered everywhere...it's modern history.  

One game with mixed reviews was released for the PSP, the long-awaited story of Zack Fair, the demise of SOLDIER and what really happened at the Nibelheim Reactor... Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core.  This was my game of the year, to be honest - I couldn't put it down.  It's huge, I mean... it got bashed, it got praised, it got middle-of-the-road reviews...but at the very least, one cannot deny that this game is important.  One of the most important releases this year.

Another cool thing about studying a game that came out in an unfinished year is that we get to see what's coming up.  There's a big hype for Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3, as well as Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360.  They're going to be huge.

Allow me to step back for a moment, because there are a few games that were fairly successful thus far in 2008 and I'm just going to list off a few of them... Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, CrossWords... anything in common? They are all for the Nintendo DS.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_in_video_gaming)

So what exactly is the Nintendo DS? The wiki on the subject had this to say: "On November 13, 2003, Nintendo announced that it would be creating a new console for release in 2004.[8] Nintendo said that it would not be the successor to either the Nintendo GameCube nor the Game Boy Advance,[8] but rather it would be considered a "third pillar" alongside the two consoles.[9] On January 20, 2004, the console was announced under the codename "Nintendo DS".

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS)



The rise of the DS was really quite slow, but it picked up considerable speed near the end of 2005.  Upon the first year of its release, Nintendo had only sold 2.84 million units of the handheld console.  I know, it sounds like a lot, but it would take a few years for the DS to really pick up steam, with the biggest jump in sales happening in the holiday season of 2006, going from 17.7 million units to an incredible 21.3 million that season! As of the March 2008 quarterly report, the DS has sold 70.6 million units... unbelievable.

So what's the big deal? What's so special about the DS? Well, first things first - it's got two screens... ultra cool.  Are they the same? Well, not really - one screen is a typical screen and you really just look at it.  The bottom screen, however, is a touch screen... this is new for Nintendo.  What does one touch the screen with? And this, my friends, is really the catch of the DS.  The Nintendo DS relies on the use of a pen-like object called the stylus and many games depend on the touch screen and stylus working together.  This opens up the opportunity for writing, drawing, point-and-click... the options are limitless, and Professor Layton and the Curious Village takes full use of these new and exciting capabilities.

Before we jump into what this game is about, let's listen to some music.  This is "The Adventure Begins" from the OST and it's by Tomohito Nishiura!

(THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!)

STORY

The story begins with Professor Layton and his little sidekick, Luke, finding their way into the village of St. Mystere to solve an "inheritance dispute" after the passing of an important man within the village, Baron Augustus Reinhold.  After this man passes away, his will is disclosed and within it, he offers his family's cherished treasure, the Golden Apple.  Also within his will, he states that the Apple is hidden somewhere within the village, and whomever finds the apple will receive the whole of his estate... which involves a premium garden and a pretty nice mansion.  Needless to say, everyone who heard about the puzzle immediately set up to solve it, but none could.  What's even more perplexing is that we realize that no one in the town had actually head of the Apple until it was mentioned in the will, which begs one really big and enticing question: What is the Golden Apple?

Interestingly enough, Professor Layton really isn't that interested in the Golden Apple.  In the introduction he states that he can't shake the feeling that this whole Golden Apple thing is linked to something bigger, some larger mystery.  He's on the scene because Reinhold's wife, the Lady Dahlia, asked him to investigate the events surrounding her husband's death, which we learn is much more than meets the eye.

When we finally reach the town, we hear this piece.  It's called "About Town," and as soon as we enter, we know that there's more to this story than just the death of a baron... this is "About Town."

(ABOUT TOWN)

I love this piece... there's something very eerie about it, something... mysterious? Is something mysterious about to happen in St. Mystere? We know that things aren't what they seem, which leads us into the main playable concept in the game... puzzles.

Everyone in St. Mystere is oddly obsessed with puzzles: They love giving puzzles in exchange for information, they have puzzles as locks to their doors, they work on puzzles in their free time, it's really quite... inspiring, actually.  I wish our world was like that.  Anyways! Puzzles are the focal point of the game.  In fact, the direction from the game was overseen by the Japanese puzzle-smith, Akira Tabo, who is on faculty at the Chiba University in Japan.  The producer, Akihiro Hino, is a huge fan of Tabo's book of brain-teasers called "Head Gymnastics" and the two collaborated for this dazzling work, nice work, team :) 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Layton_and_the_Curious_Village)

Some of this may be repetition, but Johnathon Lumb of 1UP.com did a terrific job describing the collaboration of the two and the quote is as follows:

"Japan's Weekly Famitsu interviewed the two men at the helm of the project, Level-5's Akihiro Hino and Akira Tago. The pair first met at Hino's request, as he was a big fan of Tago's Head Gymnastics books and he expressed his desire to turn those books, which he'd been reading since his childhood, into a game. Tago knew he wanted to work with Level 5 after he visited its offices and saw how relaxing the office space was, making the company very interesting to him.

The idea for Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village started with Hino wanting to use the puzzles from Head Gymnastics to create a game with a story element. Mid-way through development, he also considered making a pure game version of the books, but with the recent trend of brain training games decided that would be a waste of Tago's talent and would not get noticed as much, so they reverted back to the game with a story, bringing the project closer to what it has become today.

With Tago's input, the idea was transformed into more of a family game, with specific instructions being to make a game that parents would be happy to tell their children to play, thanks to its intellectual content. The requests went both ways too, with Hino asking Tago to allow him to use freely more than 2,000 puzzles from the Head Gymnastics collection, as well as asking him if he could create another 30 or so brand new puzzles, some being specifically created to make use of the DS's touchpen functionality."

(http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3154379)

Now, we know that puzzles are a big deal, but how does the music fit into this.  It fits into the whole theatre production of the game - there is an incredible synergy between the animation, the artwork, the voice acting, the sound design and the music, almost as though one is watching a movie.  In fact, I've posted the trailer on the ITS website, so please check it out.  If you're thinking "Trailer... for a DS game?" then you're not too far off-base - this game is art.

It's as though all of the departments came together, sat down, and said "okay, what's this going to be like? The art is soft and very consistent throughout the game, most often being compared to the highly-praised "The Triplets of Belleville," a French/Belgian/Canadian movie released by Sony Pictures in 2003.  In that uniqueness, the unique pieces had to fit together in a very cohesive way, because if one piece of the puzzle was out, the atmosphere of the every segment of the game would be compromised.  It seems that our composer, Tomohito Nishiura, had some decisions to make... and that brings us, to the Music.

MUSIC

Tomohito Nishiura is the composer for this game and sources that I have found agree that he works for Level 5, the Developer Company of Professor Layton.  He has no biographical information in the internet, but we get to hear some of his work very, very shortly.

With regards to the decisions that he had to make, we know that the music had to fit the atmosphere of the game, not be cutting-edge and add a wild eclectic nature to the setting.  In other words, it had match the surroundings.  Now, as we draw out our fine tooth comb, let's assume that all of the departments at Level 5 had a unified goal of making our game look authentic and feel cohesive.  Let's start with the artwork and animation: The city of St. Mystere is illustrated to look like a traditional French town.  We can assume this because a) it looks that way, and b) the town is called "St. Mystere", not "St. Mystery," therefore solidifying that it's in French (or at least has French origin).  The artwork is reminiscent of early European animation, so the fact that is could be set in France really isn't so far off.  The next point that solidifies it's European influence is the names of the supporting characters that reside within St. Mystere.  In the game's extra-unlockables, there is a "Character Profiles" section that states 40 in-game characters and something unique about them.  If we look at the names, we have names of English influence, like Archibald, Gerard or Rodney; we have Italians like Prosciutto, Pauly , Marco or Zappone, we have German names like Baron Reinhold, Russians like Pavel, French like Sylvain or Crouton and the list goes on.

So our setting is French, our artwork and cinematography is traditional European, our characters are traditional European and now... what about the sound.  Well, Nishiura-san decides to combine the styles that we've been talking about (French and Traditional European) to result in traditional French music.  Now, the crux of the matter is that France has been making important music in the West since about the 12th century with the increasing innovation of the Notre Dame school and even before that with secular poets and musicians who would tour the country and perform.  There were several musical innovations in the times following, including the ars nova (or "new art") in the 14th-century, serious growth during the Renaissance and then subsequent growth through every era of Western Classical music following.

You can see how this research was all encompassing.  While a lot of this is taken from my music history classes and textbooks, but there is a wiki that's pretty good on the "Music History of France" and it's worth checking out, the address is in the shownotes:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_history_of_France)

So, as this question grows and grows, which does Nishiura-san choose? Well... he's in a traditional town, most citizens are not part of the aristocracy, they're largely common-folk, which is cool... so what would they listen to? What would the common folk listen to? And not only that, how would we know what they listen to and bridge that gap in our minds and in our DS's?

The missing link in this argument is time period - this is the one thing that we haven't really talked about.  When we get to St. Mystere, it is fairly dusty, there is no modern technology (i.e. computers, cell phones) and the clothes are quite dated.  The clothes, along with Professor Layton's beetle pin the time period to about the late-1930s
or early 1940s - think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Now, what music could possibly be playing in a French town in the 1930s? In Western Classical music, the 1930s brought about some pretty extreme music, often (but not always) without key or metre.  Because this could be a whole other podcast, I'm not going to go into detail about this, but the 30s in Classical music was a busy time, including exploration into atonality (or having no tonal center, thus not having a "key"), the twilight of Romanticism, oppression of the Soviet regime in music, the advent of jazz music in and out of the concert hall... busy time.

But this still leads us back to the same question - what were the residents of St. Mystere listening to? It sure wasn't jazz or atonal orchestras.  Nope, it sounds like this - this is "Crumm's CafŽ" from the Professor Layton  OST by Tomohito Nishiura.

(CRUMM'S CAFƒ)

Now, it wasn't EXACTLY like that, as is common in video game music.  We know that video game music often is a little bit cutting-edge and original by taking traditional music and moving it in new directions.  The music upon which  Professor Layton is based was a type of music in the French tradition, and after a very long-winded buildup, it's called... (MARIO) Bal-musette.

BAL-MUSETTE 

You have no idea how much research it took for me to find this term! Essentially, the tradition and style of Bal-Musette was one of popular music that began in approximate the 1880s.  At this time, there was an emigration out of the French province of Auvergne into the capital city of Paris.  The immigrants of Auvergne, called the Auvergnats sought work in the French capital and eventually opened cafŽs that sold charcoal and wine, as well as very small dance halls, called "bal-musettes".  The name features a bagpipe-like instrument called a "musette", or "cabrette"  that the Auvergnats brought with them upon their immigration into Paris.  According to Steve Tchamouroff in his article "A Short History of Bal-Musette," "The first bal musettes featured Auvergnat bourrŽes, plus polkas, mazurkas and, above all, waltzes. (Waltzes dominated the bal musette repertoire to the extent that sometimes modern players use the word "musette" to refer to the waltzes from this tradition.)" And that's a direct quote, the website is in the shownotes.

(http://www.washingtonaccordions.org/balmusette.htm)

He also states that Italian immigrant workers brought another type of traditional instrument to Paris - the accordion.  According to the wiki, other instruments followed soon after, including the banjo, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, mandolin and bandoneon.  

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal-musette)

We hear some of these instruments in the score and a few others.  With regards to instrumentation, the game is pretty uniform in terms what instruments actually play through the whole game.  In fact, it's almost as though we can narrow it down to accordion, music box or celesta, clarinet, bassoon, piano, flute and solo violin... and "Professor Layton's Theme" includes some drum kit.  In essence, this game is one of the few games in the repertoire of video games that has the game scored for a particular ensemble, rather than simply scoring the game with any instruments that are appropriate for the game's scene.  Other games that do this include "Dragon Quest VIII", which is scored for symphony orchestra and... is it "Driver?" anyways, the soundtrack is scored for a jazz orchestra playing straight funk music - quite awesome.  

In which case, back to Layton.  There are a couple of conventions that Nishiura-san uses to really get that feeling our ears, eyes and brains all connected to this traditional European sound.  The first involves using a bassoon as the bass line - there is no bass in this game, that role is taking by the bassoon.  For the record, a bassoon is double-reed instrument that plays in the tenor and bass regions of sound, so the lower ones.  When I say "double reed," I'm referring to the mechanics of actually creating the sound, which is made by blowing through two reeds, causing them to vibrate together, like when you were seven years old and you took two blades of grass and blew through them... that's a double reed.  Anyways, the bassoon sounds like this: 

(BASSOON)

Cool, one of my favourite instruments.  That recording was taken from the West Carolina University All-State Auditions and was provided by the School of Music at said university.  The website where it's found is in the shownotes.

(http://www.westerngrad.com/6519.asp)

Okay, so now that we know what a solo bassoon sounds like, let's hear it in Professor Layton, this is "Down the Tubes" by Tomohito Nishiura and it plays when you're looking for clues in the sewer... ewwwww...

(DOWN THE TUBES)

Another example of the bassoon as the bass instrument is in a work called "Pursuit in the Night," and it's playing while you're pursuing... a villain... in the night time... I hope that that didn't spoil anything.  It's a bit under the texture, a little softer than the accordion, so really focus your ears! "Pursuit in the Night!"

(PURSUIT IN THE NIGHT)

Now, the beauty of this work is that it actually directs our ear to the next convention - upbeats and downbeats.   Let's pretend that "Pursuit in the Night" is in 4/4, the top "4" means that there are four of something, and the bottom "4" means that those somethings are "quarter notes" like the fraction, so every bar has "4" quarter notes.  Because every bar has four quarter notes, we could say "1+2+3+4+"  The beats that are the 1-2-3-4 are called the downbeats, they've got a bit more weight than their counterparts, the "ands."  The "ands" happen between the downbeats, 1+2+3+4+ and we call them the upbeats.  When we put them side-by-side, we get "1+2+3+4+1+2+3+4+" ad infinitum.  

Now, sometimes the composers use all those beats, but put them in different instruments or different registers.  For the record, a "register" is kind of the frequency range where an instrument plays, so a "flute or piccolo" plays in a high register, and a bari saxophone or a tuba plays in a low register.  Anyways, back to upbeats and downbeats.  One way of thinking about upbeats and downbeats when they're split up is what musicians often call, "boom-chick."  To put simply, the "booms" are the downbeats and the "chicks" are the upbeats, so instead of 1+2+3+4+ and we get "boom-chick-boom-chick-boom-chick-boom."  You'll often hear it in trance music, electronica or marching band or lots of traditional dance music... but the question is... can you hear it in "Pursuit in the Night?" If you're really sharp, tell me what instruments are doing it... "Pursuit in the Night."

(PURSUIT IN THE NIGHT)

If you said, "bassoon and accordion," you would be correct.  Have a listen one more time and direct your listening down to those two instruments, they aren't the melody, so you have to dig a little bit underneath the mallet part.

(PURSUIT IN THE NIGHT)

"The Basics of Vamping for Country Dancing"  has this to say about piano players doing the "boom-chick" technique of playing:

"Left hand plays on the beat (the boom).  Play the root of the chord, then the fifth...Right hand plays the offbeat (the chick). That gives punch with a strong upbeat to help the dancers, and fills out the harmony. Depending on how confident you're feeling, play a two-note chord or a three-note chord."

(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/greenery/Minimal%20Ceilidh%20Tune%20Book/vamping/index.html)

So, on a piano...the left hand plays the lower notes, right? And the right hand plays the higher notes? So, the left hand plays one note on the booms, and the right hand plays chords on the chicks...Mr. Nishiura?

(PURSUIT IN THE NIGHT)

Bingo.  Does this happen anywhere else? When we finally arrive in St. Mystere, we hear this one, called "St. Mystere."

(ST. MYSTERE)

It's the same kind of thing - there is no boom, but the "chicks" follow suit - chords on the upbeats in a higher register.  Let's try one more... how about "The Deserted Amusement Park..." clearly I don't have to say when this one gets played... :)

(THE DESERTED AMUSEMENT PARK)

Okay, so... the left hand is definitely playing on the booms, and the right hand is definitely playing on the chicks... but something is different here... let's listen one more time.  

(THE DESERTED AMUSEMENT PARK)

Any thoughts? Takers? Wagers of bets? Did anyone notice that there were two "chicks" beside one another.  Don't worry girlfriends, we're talking music, your boyfriends are safe and they most certainly have not been noticing any chicks... Okay men, I saved you there... not that you and your significant others are listening to podcasts together...on video game music... analysis... Yep, we're cool.

Anyways, there were two chicks beside one another because this piece isn't in 4/4, it's in 3/4 - meaning now three beats in a bar, rather than four.  This gives our music a bit of a different feeling, almost a "lilt", sort of a feeling.  This three-beat lilt is synonymous with a dance that happened quite a bit in these bal-musette cafŽs, upon which this score was modeled and that style, is called the waltz.  

Because the waltz only has three beats, we don't hear that "boom-chick-boom-chick-boom-chick..." we actually feel a three-beat pattern that's more like "boom-chick-chick x2."  Let's hear an example of a waltz by the master of waltzes, Johann Strauss, this is the middle section from "Tales of the Vienna Woods Waltz" from the album Ein Straussfest and it's recorded by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra on the Telarc label.

(VIENNA)

And now to Layton at the Deserted Amusement Park.

(DESERTED AMUSEMENT PARK)

So, Nishiura is using that style to rekindle a musical style that was appropriate to the era where Professor Layton takes place.  Furthermore, he's using an ensemble and the bal-musette tradition to make this town into an authentic representation of what the turn of the century French tradition was all about... nice work, Mr. Composer.  

In fact, if we listen through the whole score all the way through, we'll notice that these two time signatures, 3/4 and 4/4 are the only ones that are used through the entirety of the game! We hear the 3/4 lilting feel of the waltz in many pieces through the score, first starting with the music from the opening movie, this is called "The Adventure Begins."

(ADVENTURE BEGINS)

Another example of the waltz happens in a work near the end of the game, we've heard it before, it's called "Memories of St. Mystere," The instrument is a music box, which we're going to talk more about after this example, but if you listen down to the accompaniment part of the music box (i.e. the part that isn't the melody), you'll hear that it almost always plays on every downbeat, so 1-2-3... 1-2-3... boom-chick-chick...

(MEMORIES OF ST. MYSTERE)

So, the main instrument in this work is a music box, right? Music boxes have this interesting effect on mainstream society, whereby we associate music boxes with memories.  Maybe we had a music box as a child, maybe we've seen movies like "Anastasia", for example, where memories are a big deal and they revolve around the gentle tune of a music box.  Instrestingly enough, the same is true with the piece we just heard, "Memories of St. Mystere," where else does this happen in the game?

Well, we know that there was the unfortunate death of Baron Reinhold, but the people of the town remember him when he was alive... in their memories.  What instruments play his music... let's find out.

(BARON REINHOLD)

Music box, a somber tune.  What about his lovely daughter, Flora?  This is "The Mysterious Girl."

(MYSTERIOUS GIRL)

So, that also has a reminiscing feel.  These are things that we have to listen for as lovers of music, games and loving the mystery and magic of how all of these different aspects of gaming and artistry come together.  Also, it's worth the adventure to see how the composer puts all of this work and thought into the score of the game.  The artistry is there, so why shouldn't we find it?

Thanks so much for listening to Episode 21 of "Into the Score," your comments and listenership is so appreciated and I'm thrilled to share the artistry of video game music together.  This past episode was on Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which was developed by Level 5 and has a score by Tomohito Nishiura.  Also in this episode, we studied the French tradition of "bal-musette," as well as discussed the beat, waltzes and the psychomusical effects of the music box! 

I should also say that "Into the Score" will be on a brief hiatus until I return from a month-long trip to Japan, which will be at the beginning of August, but I'll send out a brief note before then with the next episode's info and all that good stuff.  So if you're subscribing, stay subscribed, I'll be back! Thanks again for listening and it's been a slice! I'm Kenley Kristofferson and this has been "Into the Score," until next time!



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