Koichi Sugiyama

Career

Early life and television career

Sugiyama was born in Tokyo, Japan, on April 11, 1931. In high school, he began to write various small musical works. He attended the University of Tokyo and graduated with full honors in 1956. He then went into the reporting and entertainment sections of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. He joined Fuji TV as a director in 1958. He left the station in 1965 to become a freelance director but had begun concentrating solely on musical composition and orchestration by 1968.

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Sugiyama composed for several musicals, commercials, kayōkyoku pop artists, animated movies, and television shows, such as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, and Cyborg 009. He also assisted Riichiro Manabe with the composition for Godzilla vs. Hedorah, composing the record single of the soundtrack and conducting for some of the tracks. Sugiyama also wrote the 1976 single Heart Dorobō for the Japanese pop trio Candies.

In a little known foray for Matsushita Electric, Sugiyama composed, arranged & conducted a track called Disco Check, for the fourth volume of Technics '80 Audio Inspection records, performed with 24 instruments by the Nova Studio Group.

''Dragon Quest'' and other video games

Sugiyama's first contact with Enix was by a fan letter he wrote them regarding a PC shogi game in the early 1980s. In response, Enix's staff asked for Sugiyama to compose music for their games. Sugiyama started composing for the PC-8801, and was working for Enix at the time. His first project with the company was the 1986 game Wing-Man 2: Kītakurā no Fukkatsu. Later that year, he composed for his first major project, Dragon Quest. His classical score for the game was considered revolutionary for console video game music.

Sugiyama was one of the first video game composers to record with a live orchestra. In 1986 Enix released the CD Dragon Quest Suite, for which Sugiyama's music was performed by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble. The soundtrack's eight melodies, titled Opening, Castle, Town, Field, Dungeon, Battle, Final Battle, and Ending, set the template for many role-playing video game soundtracks released since then, some of which have been organized in a similar manner.

In 1987, he composed for Dragon Quest II. Music from the first two Dragon Quest games was performed at one of the first game music concerts, "Family Classic Concert". "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" and "Dragon Quest II Symphonic Suite" were arranged and conducted by Sugiyama himself, and both were performed live by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble on August 20, 1987, at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He subsequently held the "Family Classic Concerts" annually in Japan until 2019.

From 1987 to 1990, Sugiyama continued to compose for various other Enix games. In 1991, he introduced a series of video game music concerts, five in all, called the Orchestral Game Concerts, which were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The performances included music from over eighteen different video game composers, such as Koji Kondo, Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, Keiichi Suzuki, as well as Sugiyama himself. These concerts were held from 1991 to 1996; during this time, Sugiyama composed for other video games and arranged for some of them to be performed in the Orchestral Game Concerts. He served as a sound producer on 1991's Master of Monsters, composed by Hayato Matsuo.

In September 1995, Sugiyama composed the Dragon Quest Ballet. It premiered in 1996, and has since been performed regularly over the years by the Star Dancers Ballet. During those years, he also released several Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites. In late 2004, he finished and released the Dragon Quest VIII soundtrack. In 2005, Sugiyama was holding a series of concerts in Japan with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with music from Dragon Quest VIII, as well as his classic compositions from the past. In August 2005, his music from Dragon Quest was performed live at the European Symphonic Game Music Concert, marking the first time that his music was performed by a live symphonic concert outside of Japan. Sugiyama later composed the score to Dragon Quest X and XI.

Throughout his work Sugiyama repeatedly used motifs to maintain a consistency and nostalgic quality in the different installments. Each of the Dragon Quest games that he worked on included a nearly identical, upbeat theme track titled "Overture". Sugiyama composed more than 500 pieces of music in the 35 years he was involved in the Dragon Quest franchise. Sugiyama's style of composition has been compared to late Baroque and early Classical period styles. Earlier on in his career, Sugiyama said that his process for making music for games was based on seeing initial drafts on its setting and story.

Sugiyama's related hobbies included photography, traveling, building model ships, collecting old cameras, and reading. He has opened a camera section on his website, and also founded his own record label, SUGI Label, in June 2004. Sugiyama also composed the fanfares for the opening and closing of the gates at the Tokyo and Nakayama Racecourses. He was given the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, by the Japanese government in 2018 before also being named a Person of Cultural Merit by them two years later. Sugiyama died from septic shock at the age of 90 on September 30, 2021.

Political activities and beliefs

Sugiyama engaged in Nanjing Massacre denial, stating that the facts regarding it were "selective" in nature. He was one of the signatories on "The Facts", a full-page ad published by The Washington Post on June 14, 2007, that was written by a number of Japanese politicians and academics in response to the passing of United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121, which sought an official apology from the Government of Japan regarding their involvement of using comfort women, sexual slaves used by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Sugiyama was also a board member of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals.

In 2012, Sugiyama wrote an editorial saying that he thought Japan was in a state of "civil war between Japanese and anti-Japanese". Giving examples, he argued that the Japanese media portrayed acts of patriotism negatively, such as performing the National Anthem of Japan or raising the Japanese flag. He further thought that the demands of the Japanese anti-nuclear movement to immediately dismantle all nuclear energy facilities without offering any alternative solutions would affect the country's ability to defend itself.

In 2015, Sugiyama made an appearance on the Japanese Culture Channel Sakura television program Hi Izuru Kuni Yori where he was shown agreeing with views shared by Japanese politician Mio Sugita who said there was no need for LGBT education in Japanese schools, as well as dismissing concerns about high suicide rates among the community. Sugiyama added that the lack of children born from LGBT couples was an important topic to discuss, also suggesting that Japan was more empowering to women than South Korea. He later made a statement seemingly indicating greater acceptance by saying that LGBT couples have existed throughout human history and he supported the use of governments to occasionally help them.{{cite web |first1=Koichi |last1=Sugiyama|title=Koichi Sugiyama's official stance on LGBT|url=http://sugimania.com/says/index.html |website=Sugimania.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229014703/http://sugimania.com/says/index.html|access-date=December 10, 2019|archive-date=December 29, 2019| language=ja}}

Notable works

Video games

Works primarily featuring re-used compositions are omitted.

Film and television

References

References

1. "すぎやまこういち".
2. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official Profile".
3. "すぎやまこういち氏が9月30日に逝去、『ドラゴンクエスト』シリーズなどで多くの楽曲を手掛ける。90歳（電ファミニコゲーマー）".
4. 2NP-2019 - Technics '80 Audio Inspection Vol. 4
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6. Gifford, Kevin. "The Essential 50 Part 20 – Dragon Warrior". [[1UP.com]].
7. (2016-12-29). "Dragon Quest 30th Anniversary Special".
8. Patrick Gann. (November 29, 2008). "The "Eight Melodies" Template: How Sugiyama Shaped RPG Soundtracks". RPGFan.
9. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official Concert index".
10. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official Family Classic Concerts Listing".
11. "Unofficial Koichi Sugiyama Biography".
12. "Star Dancers Ballet Performances".
13. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official Concert announcement page".
14. "Symphonic Game Music Concert Official website".
15. (July 10, 2023). "Controversial Dragon Quest Composer Gets TV Drama About His Life".
16. Orpheus, Joshua. (October 7, 2021). "Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama Has Passed Away". Noisy Pixel.
17. (February 1, 2018). "Recomposing the Past: Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen". Routledge.
18. Kasai, Omasu. (January 1994). "Gēmudezainā nyūmon". [[Shogakukan]].
19. Nich Maragos. (July 20, 2005). "Gaming's Rhapsody: First Movement". [[1UP.com]].
20. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official camera page".
21. "Koichi Sugiyama's Official SUGI Label page".
22. (October 7, 2021). "Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama dead at 90".
23. "Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama Receives The Order of the Rising Sun Award".
24. (October 7, 2021). "Koichi Sugiyama, Japanese composer of Dragon Quest, dies at 90".
25. (July 25, 2007). "Signatories to the June 14th Washington Post "The Facts" Advertisement – Politicians, Professors, and Journalists".
26. ["ワシントン・ポスト紙に「慰安婦意見広告」― その経緯と波紋 / SAFETY JAPAN 花岡 信昭氏] / 日経BP社".
27. "The Complex Question". [[Gamasutra]].
28. "Japan Institute for National Fundamentals".
29. (September 27, 2012). "This Aged Right-Wing Japanese Composer Is Betting On The Internet Generation".
30. "Square Enix Responds to Dragon Quest Composer's 2015 Anti-LGBTQ Statements".
31. (August 7, 2018). "Anti-LGBT Dragon Quest Composer Spurs Square Enix Response".
32. Greening, Chris. (October 15, 2014). "Koichi Sugiyama Profile". Video Game Music Online.
33. (January 1, 2010). "Koichi Sugiyama :: Game Projects". Square Enix Music Online.
34. Damien Thomas. (2007). "Dragon Quest Game Music Super Collection Vol. 2".
35. Lucy Rzeminski, Lucy. (January 1, 2007). "Dragon Quest IV soundtrack". RPGfan.
36. (June 29, 2018). "Symphonic Synth Suite 46okunen Monogatari -THE Shinkaron-". Video Game Music Database.
37. Gann, Patrick. "Dragon Quest VII Warriors of Eden on Piano". RPGFan.
38. Wilson, Mike. (2005). "Dragon Quest VIII OST". RPGfan.com.
39. Nunneley, Stephany. (July 22, 2009). "Dragon Quest IX music composer gets angry when games are pirated". VG247.
40. Riley, Adam. (July 25, 2011). "Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (Hands-On) (Nintendo DS) Preview". Cubed3.
41. (October 13, 2011). "「スライムもりもりドラゴンクエスト3」，悪の組織「しっぽ団」の駆る海賊船と，新メンバーが明らかに".
42. link. [[Famitsu]]. (October 7, 2011)
43. Alexandra, Heather. (August 30, 2019). "I Keep Quitting Dragon Quest XI Thanks To Its Atrocious Music". Kotaku.
44. "Return of Ultraman". Video Game Music Database.
45. "Godzilla vs Hedorah". Video Game Music Database.
46. "Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi". Video Game Music Database.
47. "Gatchaman Song Collection". Video Game Music Database.
48. (January 1, 2020). "すぎやまこういち* – サイボーグ009 超銀河伝説". Discogs.
49. (February 9, 2015). "The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition". Stone Bridge Press.
50. "Magic Knight Rayearth Original Song Book". Video Game Music Database.
51. "Dragon Quest: Your Story CG Anime Film Reveals 5 Character Roles".