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April 11, 1931 – September 30, 2021 was a Japanese composer, Conducting, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing for the Dragon Quest franchise, along with several other , anime, film, television shows, and pop songs. Classically trained, Sugiyama was considered a major inspiration for other Japanese game music composers and was active from the 1960s until his death in 2021.
Sugiyama was also a council member of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (JASRAC), board member of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and honorary chairman of the Japanese Backgammon Society. Prior to his death, the Japanese government honored him with Order of the Rising Sun and named him a Person of Cultural Merit. Sugiyama was also active in politics and activism, promoting ideas such as Japanese nationalism while denying Japanese war crimes.
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Sugiyama composed for several musicals, commercials, kayōkyoku pop artists, animated movies, and television shows, such as , 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,2NP-2019 - Technics '80 Audio Inspection Vol. 4 performed with 24 instruments by the Nova Studio Group.
Sugiyama was one of the first video game composers to record with a live orchestra. ( Translatedby Shmuplations. on 2020-01-20. Retrieved on 2023-03-15) 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. A television drama played by actor Ken Yasuda detailing Sugiyama's involvement with Dragon Quest aired on Nippon TV on August 27, 2022.
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 music and early Classical period styles.
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 Racecourse 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.
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.
(2018). 9781351975513, Routledge. ISBN 9781351975513 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. ( Translated by Shmuplations.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived on 2022-01-22. Retrieved on 2023-03-14)
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.
Notable works
Video games
Works primarily featuring re-used compositions are omitted.
+ Video game scores
! Year
! Title
! Dragon Quest Jesus Animal Land Murder Case World Golf II Wingman Special 4.6 Billion Year Story World Golf III Jesus II Tetris 2 + BomBliss Torneko's Great Adventure Dragon Quest VI Shiren the Wanderer 2 Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest
Film and television
+ Film and television scores
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Ref. Godzilla vs Hedorah "Defeat Hedorah" Gatchaman II Music Music Music Music (2015). 9781611729092, Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 9781611729092Music
External links
Categories: Official Website, 1931 Births, 2021 Deaths, 20th-century Japanese Classical Composers, 20th-century Japanese Classical Pianists, 20th-century Japanese Conductors, 20th-century Japanese Male Musicians, 21st-century Japanese Classical Composers, 21st-century Japanese Classical Pianists, 21st-century Japanese Conductors, 21st-century Japanese Male Musicians, Activists From Tokyo, Anime Composers, Anti-korean Sentiment In Japan, Composers From Tokyo, Conservatism In Japan, Japanese Contemporary Classical Composers, Japanese Film Score Composers, Japanese Historical Negationists, Japanese Male Classical Composers, Japanese Male Classical Pianists, Japanese Male Conductors, Japanese Male Film Score Composers, Japanese Male Television Composers, Japanese Music Arrangers, Japanese Nationalists, Japanese Television Composers, Japanese Video Game Composers, Nanjing Massacre Deniers, Orchestrators, Persons Of Cultural Merit, Recipients Of The Order Of The Rising Sun, 4th Class, University Of Tokyo Alumni
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