Kōichi Sugiyama: Difference between revisions

Kōichi Sugiyama is survived by his wife Nobuko Sugiyama, who manages his estate and the catalog of his music with the [https://sugiyama-kobo.com/ Sugiyama Kobo label].

Upon graduation Sugiyama planned to enroll in a private music college but was denied entry by each institution he applied to due to being unable to play the piano well, a strict requisite for admission which was the norm at the time. As purchasing a piano himself was prohibitively expensive, Sugiyama elected to enroll in Tokyo University instead as it was one of the cheapest options available and pursued a science degree. The love for music would not leave the man's soul, however, and Sugiyama regularly skipped classes to participate in activities at the club he founded in Seikei High School<ref>"Q それほど音楽に傾倒していたのに進学したのは音楽大学ではありませんでしたね

A もちろん音大に進みたくてあらゆる音大から願書を取り寄せたのですが、どの学校にも試験科目に「ピアノの実技」があるのです。当時、家にはピアノがなかったので音楽大学受験のための練習ができませんでした。そこで音楽大学はあきらめて「仕方なく」東京大学に入学しました。東大に通っている間も出身高校の音楽部の活動に足繁く通い、音楽に没頭していましたね。"</ref>. This resulted in him needing to repeat a year, and after graduating Sugiyama found employment as a part-time quality control inspector at a factory through his father's connections. This period wouldn't last long though, as a broadcast of "The Lost Caterpillar" caught the attention of a famous contemporary music critic [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%89%E5%9D%82%E6%84%9B%E5%BD%A6 Yoshihiko Arisaka], who wrote very favorably of Sugiyama and recruited him into the [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81 Nippon Cultural Broadcasting radio network]. First assigned to score for the news department's segments, Sugiyama found success as a part of the entertainment division where he was given control over the live performance segment "Hitatchi Concert" (''日立コンサート''). This was a very valuable learning experience for the man as it taught him the intricacies of producing and arranging music on a professional level he was not exposed to before. In 1958 Sugiyama would move from radio to television as he took employment with [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%B8%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%93%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3 Fuji Television], where he would direct programs such as "The Hit Parade" (''ザ・ヒットパレード'')<ref>Q 大学卒業後は文化放送やフジテレビで活躍されます

Sugiyama would continue his career at Fuji Television while also becoming a free-lance commercial composure in the 1960's, writing songs for popular musicians such as The Peanuts, which led to some accusations that he gave preferential treatment to his own work on his television programs. He would retire from his position Fuji Television in April of 1965 when the company entered heated disputes with the Japanese Association of Composers and Arrangers over the royalties owed to musical artists, in addition to his payment as a composure becoming greater than his salary as his popularity rose<ref>DQ30thアニバーサリー 2016, pp. 12–14</ref>. He would continue working with the company as a freelance director until 1968, when he would part ways with the company to devote himself entirely to composing.

Sugiyama started composing with a Japanese home computer called the PC-9801 in the early 80's to experiment with new technology, and also took up an interest in the emerging market of video games around the same time. One specific title that caught his attention was "Kazuo Morita's Shogi" (森田和郎の将棋), which was published by [[Enix]] on the PC-9801 in August of 1985, and Sugiyama found himself hooked on the simple but addictive nature of the title. The game also came packaged with a questionnaire postcard for player feedback: Sugiyama filled it out on a whim in a cheeky manner, leaving the questionnaire on his desk before stepping away for other business. In a moment of pure chance, his wife Nobuko saw the card and slotted it into their mailbox as she stepped out to go grocery shopping<ref>"（笑）。そのアンケートはがきには 「終盤は強いけど、序盤の駒組みがイマイチ」みたいに、 ちょっと生意気なことを書いて、 そのままほったらかしにしておいたんです。 そしたら、たまたまうちのカミさんが それを見つけて、買い物に行く途中に ポストに放り込んだみたいなんです。" https://archive.fo/pz7E3</ref>. The questionnaire was later presented Enix co-founder [[Yukinobu Chida]], who was surprised to find that it was filled out by a celebrity because all of the names were written in hiragana, something to be expected of an elementary school student. Intrigued, Chida sent out an Enix representative to contact Sugiyama to see if he would be interested in composing music for a game: Sugiyama immediately replied and after a meeting in Shinjuku was arranged he was hired to write for "Wingman 2: The Resurrection of Kitaklar" (''ウイングマン2 -キータクラーの復活''), which would be released in April of 1986.

The original ''Dragon Quest'' was in development at the same time as the second Wingman game, and Chida would approach Sugiyama to write music for it as well as the Enix employee felt that the score written by the staff of developer [[Chunsoft]] was not satisfactory. Sugiyama was intrigued by the project, but his inclusion was strongly opposed by the head of Chunsoft [[Koichi Nakamura]]. This was due to Chunsoft being an extension of a school club and the young programmers were wary of a man in his 50's writing music for a video game.

It would be up to Chida and Yuji Horii to act as intermediaries between the staff of Chunsoft and Sugiyama, with the latter lightening the mood by speaking casually about his obsessions with analog games such backgammon, bingo, and especially pinball. Sugiyama would relate how he would frequently drive to Yokohama after work to play pinball for hours at a time, and the hesitant Chunsoft staff began to see him as a fellow gamer who just so happened to be born in the previous generation<ref>ニンテンドードリーム2005年11月号</ref>. With the age gap bridged Sugiyama was formally accepted as the game's composure, and he was asked to begin writing a rock-styled soundtrack to match Nakamura's vision for the game. He hesitated at this approach and asked Nakamura the nature of the game's setting and stylistic tone, and explained that classica music would much better suit a midieval fantasy world than contemporary rock.

Once the game was released on May 27th 1986, Sugiyama would then assert himself as the very first video game composer to record his video game music with a live orchestra. In 1986, the CD "[[Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite]]" was released, utilizing the London Philharmonic Orchestra to interpret Sugiyama's melodies.

In 1987, he composed for {{DQ2}}, and then held the very first video game music concert in the world. "Family Classic Concert" was arranged and conducted by Sugiyama himself. It was performed by the Tokyo String Music Combination Playing Group on August 20, 1987 at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan. "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" and "[[Dragon Quest II Symphonic Suite]]" were performed. The "Family Classic Concerts" have done exceptionally well with audiences every time; since then, Sugiyama has held over eighteen of them all across Japan.

Sugiyama continued to compose for video games from 1987 to 1990.  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 over eighteen different video game composers such as Koji Kondo, Yoko Kanno, Kentarou Haneda, 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 some of them to be performed in the Orchestral Game Concerts.

In September 1995, Sugiyama composed the [[Dragon Quest Ballet]], which was choreographed by Minoru Suzuki.  It premiered in 1996, and came back in 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2002. During those years, Kōichi also released the Symphonic Suites for the ''Dragon Quest'' games he had worked on thus far. As this was the very first ballet inspired by a video game in the world, Sugiyama was awarded a place in the Guinness World Records book for his accomplishment.   

*Sugiyama's favorite monster is the [[dracky]], which he likens to a conductor wearing a coattail (''指揮者が燕尾服を着ているように見えるから'')

*Suigiyama's first connection to the Godzilla series predated ''vs Biollante'' by 21 years; he created the song ''Koi no Fuga'' for the Peanuts sister duo in 1968.Beyond their musical career in their home country, the Peanuts are famous for their portrayal of the diminutive Shobijin in three of Toho studios kaiju-eiga: being ''Mothra'', Mothra vs Godzilla'', and ''Ghidorah: the three-headed monster'' during the early-to-mid 60's.