Chrono Trigger - Music

Music

Chrono Trigger was scored primarily by Yasunori Mitsuda, as well as veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, with one track composed by both Uematsu and Noriko Matsueda. A sound programmer at the time, Mitsuda was unhappy with his pay and threatened to leave Square if he could not compose music. Hironobu Sakaguchi suggested he score Chrono Trigger, remarking, "maybe your salary will go up." Mitsuda composed new music and drew on a personal collection of songs composed over the previous two years. He reflected, "I wanted to create music that wouldn't fit into any established genre...music of an imaginary world. The game's director, Masato Kato, was my close friend, and so I'd always talk with him about the setting and the scene before going into writing." Mitsuda slept in his studio several nights, and attributed certain songs—such as the game's ending theme, To Far Away Times—to inspiring dreams. He later attributed this song to an idea he was developing before Chrono Trigger, reflecting that the song was made in dedication to "a certain person with whom I wanted to share a generation." He also tried to use leitmotifs of the Chrono Trigger main theme to create a sense of consistency in the soundtrack. Mitsuda wrote each song to be around two minutes long before repeating, unusual for Square's games at the time. Mitsuda suffered a hard drive crash that lost around forty in-progress tracks. After Mitsuda contracted stomach ulcers, Uematsu joined the project to compose ten songs and finish the score. Mitsuda returned to watch the ending with the staff before the game's release, crying upon seeing the finished scene.

At the time of the game's release, the number of tracks and sound effects was unprecedented—the soundtrack spanned three discs in its 1995 commercial pressing. Square also released a one-disc acid jazz arrangement called "The Brink of Time" by Guido that year. The Brink of Time came about because Mitsuda wanted to do something that no one else was doing, and he noted that acid jazz and its related genres were uncommon in the Japanese market. Mitsuda considers Chrono Trigger a landmark title which helped mature his talent. While Mitsuda later held that the title piece was "rough around the edges," he maintains that it had "significant influence on my life as a composer." In 1999, Square produced another one-disc soundtrack to complement the PlayStation release of Trigger, featuring orchestral tracks used in cut scenes. Tsuyoshi Sekito composed four new pieces for the game's bonus features which weren't included on the soundtrack. Some fans were displeased by Mitsuda's absence in creating the port, whose instruments sometimes aurally differed from the original game's. Recently, Mitsuda arranged versions of music from the Chrono series for Play! video game music concerts, presenting the main theme, Frog's Theme, and To Far Away Times. He worked with Square Enix to ensure that the Nintendo DS Chrono Trigger port's music would sound close to the Super Nintendo's version. Mitsuda encouraged feedback about the game's soundtrack from contemporary children (who he thought would expect "full symphonic scores blaring out of the speakers"). Fans who preordered Chrono Trigger DS received a special music disc containing two orchestral arrangements of Chrono Trigger music directed by Natsumi Kameoka; Square Enix also held a random prize drawing for two signed copies of Chrono Trigger sheet music. Mitsuda expressed difficulty in selecting the songs for the orchestral medley, eventually picking a song from each era and certain character themes. Mitsuda later wrote:

Fans have heavily remixed the soundtrack, producing over 700 tributes and several cover performance albums released over the internet or sold at retail. These include Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda and Chrono Symphonic, the latter released by the remix website OverClocked ReMix. Japanese fans often sell their remix work in compilation albums popularly called "Dōjin" by Western fans. Music from Chrono Trigger was performed live by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1996 at the Orchestral Game Concert in Tokyo, Japan. A suite of music including Chrono Trigger is a part of the symphonic world-tour with video game music Play! A Video Game Symphony, where Mitsuda was in attendance for the concert's world-premiere in Chicago on May 27, 2006. His suite of Chrono music, comprising "Reminiscence", "Chrono Trigger", "Chrono Cross~Time's Scar", "Frog's Theme", and "To Far Away Times" was performed. Mitsuda has also appeared with the Eminence Symphony Orchestra as a special guest. Video Games Live has also featured medleys from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. A medley of Music from Chrono Trigger made of one of the four suites of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009 which was produced by the creators of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series, conducted by Arnie Roth. Square re-released the game's soundtrack and a video interview with Yasunori Mitsuda in July 2009.