Final Fantasy IX OST
for any audio CD player





 Description

The music of the video game Final Fantasy IX was composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu. It was his last exclusive Final Fantasy score. The Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack, a compilation of all music in the game, was originally released on four Compact Discs by DigiCube in 2000, and was re-released by Square Enix in 2004. A Best Of and arranged soundtrack album of musical tracks from the game entitled Final Fantasy IX: Uematsu's Best Selection was released in 2000 by Tokyopop Soundtrax. Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack PLUS, an album of music from the game's full motion videos and extra tracks, was released by DigiCube in 2000 and re-released in 2004, and a collection of piano arrangements of pieces from the original soundtrack arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi and performed by Louis Leerink was released as Piano Collections Final Fantasy IX in 2001.

The game's soundtrack is best known for "Melodies of Life," the theme song of the game, performed by Emiko Shiratori in Japanese and English. The song was released as a single by King Records in 2000. The soundtrack was based around a theme of medieval music, and was heavily inspired by previous Final Fantasy games, incorporating themes and motifs from earlier soundtracks. The music was overall well received; reviewers found the soundtrack to be both well done and enjoyable, though opinions were mixed as to the reliance on music of previous games. Several tracks, especially "Melodies of Life" and "Vamo' Alla Flamenco", remain popular today, and have been performed numerous times in orchestral concert series, as well as been published in arranged and compilation albums by Square as well as outside groups.

Creation and influence[edit]
In discussions with director Hiroyuki Ito, Uematsu was told "It'd be fine if you compose tracks for the eight characters, an exciting battle track, a gloomy, danger-evoking piece, and around ten tracks or so." However, Uematsu spent an estimated year composing and producing "around 160" pieces for Final Fantasy IX, with 140 appearing in the game.[1][2]

Uematsu composed with a piano, and used two contrasting methods: "I create music that fits the events in the game, but sometimes, the event designer will adjust a game event to fit the music I've already written." Uematsu felt previous games Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII had a mood of realism, but that Final Fantasy IX was more of a fantasy, so "a serious piece as well as silly, fun pieces could fit in." He felt the theme was medieval music, and was given a two-week break to travel in Europe for inspiration - "looking at old castles in Germany and so on."[1][2] However, the music was not entirely composed in the medieval mode, as Uematsu claims that "it would be unbalanced" and "a little boring". He aimed for a "simple, warm" style and included uncommon instruments such as a kazoo and dulcimer. Uematsu also included motifs from older Final Fantasy games "because Final Fantasy IX was returning to the roots, so to speak" and incorporated ideas such as "the old intro for battle music" and arranged the Volcano theme from Final Fantasy and the Pandemonium theme from Final Fantasy II, as well as others from the series.[1][2] Uematsu has claimed several times that Final Fantasy IX is his favorite work, as well as the one he is most proud of.[3][4] He also stated in the liner notes for the Final Fantasy IX: Original Soundtrack album that he was "glad that [he] was able to join this project."[5]

Albums[edit]
"FINAL FANTASY IX" Original Soundtrack[edit]
"FINAL FANTASY IX" Original Soundtrack
Ffixostfrontcover.jpg
Soundtrack album to Final Fantasy IX by Nobuo Uematsu
Released August 30, 2000
May 10, 2004 (re-release)
Recorded Sound City, Tokyo
Genre Ambient, Classical, Electronic, Future jazz, Techno,[6] Video game music
Length Disc 1: 72:18
Disc 2: 71:18
Disc 3: 71:40
Disc 4: 72:05
Label DigiCube
Square Enix (re-release)
Producer Nobuo Uematsu
"FINAL FANTASY IX" Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album containing musical tracks from the game, composed, arranged and produced by Nobuo Uematsu. It spans four discs and 110 tracks, covering a duration of 4:46:31. It was first released on 30 August 2000 by DigiCube, and subsequently re-released on 10 May 2004 by Square Enix. The lyrics for the theme song to the game, "Melodies of Life", were written by Hiroyuki Ito for the Japanese version and Alexander O. Smith for the English version. The song was performed in both languages by Emiko Shiratori.[7]

The album reached #4 on the Japan Oricon charts, and sold 101,000 copies as of January 2010.[8][9] The album was well received; many reviewers found that it was a "good" soundtrack, though not without faults. Josh Bizeau and Roko Zaper of Soundtrack Central especially liked it, finding it to be "a blessing for Final Fantasy music",[10] and both Patrick Gann of RPGFan and Isaac Engelhorn of Soundtrack Central felt it was Uematsu's second-best work to date, behind only the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VI.[7][10] Ben Schweitzer of RPGFan, however, found that the heavy reliance of the soundtrack on music and themes from previous Final Fantasy soundtracks resulted in a sense of "stretched creativity" and "a bit of blandness", though he still felt it was not "a bad soundtrack... [but] not really a great soundtrack."[7] Other reviewers, however, such as Engelhorn and Tyler Schulley of Final Fantasy Symphony, enjoyed the fact that it pulled from previous soundtracks, feeling that it gave the album "the classic feel of the older Final Fantasies" while still being "original and beautiful".[10][11]


Track listing[12]

Literal translation of the original titles appear in (brackets) if different




Please note: This is the Japanese Edition


 


Items are dispatched once payment has cleared.
All items are sent via Royal Mail or courier in plain protective packaging.

We always ship within a couple of days of receiving payment - always ASAP!!.

Anything we sell is as-is, we always strive to describe items in as much detail as possible.
Please feel free to ask any questions ahead of time if you're not sure, we will be glad to answer them.



Thanks for visiting us!!