Music of The Final Fantasy VII Series - Creation and Development

Creation and Development

Nobuo Uematsu composed the music of Final Fantasy VII in less than one year, although he had taken two years to create the soundtrack for the previous title, Final Fantasy VI. Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the series to be developed for the PlayStation, and while the media capabilities of the console allowed for CD quality music, Uematsu opted instead to use MIDI sounds. This decision has been credited as giving the soundtrack "a very distinctive mood and feel", forming a strong association for listeners between the game and its soundtrack. Uematsu has stated, however, that the move into the "PlayStation era", which allowed video game composers to use sounds recorded in the studio rather than from synthesizers, had "definitely been the biggest change" to video game music. The first piece that Uematsu composed for the game was the opening theme; game director Yoshinori Kitase showed him the opening cinematic to the game and asked him to begin the project there. The track was well received in the company, which gave Uematsu "a sense that it was going to be a really good project". He later stated in the liner notes for the soundtrack album that the music for Final Fantasy VII was his "greatest harvest" to date.

Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the series to include a track with digitized vocals, "One-Winged Angel". The track has been called Uematsu's "most recognizable contribution" to the music of the Final Fantasy series, though the composer did not expect it to gain such popularity. The song, described as "a fanfare to impending doom", is said to not "follow any normal genre rules" and has been termed "possibly the most innovative idea in the series' musical history." The lyrics of "One-Winged Angel", a Latin choral track that plays at the climax of the game, were taken from the medieval poetry on which Carl Orff based his Carmina Burana, specifically the songs "Estuans Interius", "O Fortuna", "Veni, Veni, Venias" and "Ave Formosissima". Uematsu has stated that the intro of "One-Winged Angel" is based on Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", and that the song revolves around the image of Sephiroth and despite the chorus and orchestra, he still thinks of the song as a "rock piece". He has said that "One-Winged Angel" is his favorite tune from the soundtrack, as well as his favorite battle theme from any Final Fantasy game. There was a plan to use a "famous vocalist" for the ending song as a "theme song" for the game, but the idea was dropped due to time constraints and thematic concerns. Uematsu has said that the soundtrack has a feel of "realism", which prevented him from using "exorbitant, crazy music".