Hunting the Elusive

We all know that anime music takes a lot of inspiration from classical music. The original sound tracks of anime usually contain quite a few pieces that sound like classical music (orchestral, operatic or otherwise). Famously, Evangelion is commonly seen as having started the trend. Series like Maria-sama ga Miteru use classical-sounding music in the background constantly. Black Lagoon has an operatic insert song. Code Geass, classical/orchestral sounds to give a sense of grandeur. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu uses Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad"'s allegreto" in episode 11 (during the game).

This of course extends to games (leading to such orchestral performances of game music as held by Eminence), most notably the Final Fantasy series. Games like Hitman - Blood Money surprised me with the Reprise of the main theme which sounded like a version of Ave Maria.

And recently, two fairly new anime series, "Nodame Cantibile" (based on the drama series of the same name, see Moe Moe Rabu for adun's review of the anime) and La Corda d'Oro ~Primo Passo~, directly deal with the themes of classical music.

Then there are the elusive songs which you think were composed for the anime, but which are actually based (in terms of the melody) on classical works. These links are not immediately apparent unless you are digging for it, and even then, melodies can be hard to trace. Usually, it's only through luck -- a passing tune, a song playing in a store, a concert, on the radio -- that you begin the find the links.

There are many such cases, but for now, I can only recall two. Gunslinger Girls anime ending, so called "Dopo Il Signo", sung in operatic style by a Japanese singer, is melodically based on the cello piece "Apres un Reve" by Gabriel Faure. Yes, both names mean the same thing ("After a Dream"), but one is in Italian (keeping with the setting of Gunslinger Girls), the other in French.

And another which I discovered just recently, was that the main theme of "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence", "Follow Me" (sung in English) was not an original composition as I had thought it was. It is in fact using the melody of "Concierto de Aranjuez: Adagio", composed by Joaquin Rodrigo.

This would have been quite apparent if I had read the liner notes properly, but as it stood, I only found out from listening to a random classical radio station early one Sunday afternoon (specifically, it was the harp rendition of the song, which is frequently played on guitar).

What, then is the point of this post, besides providing an opportunity to you, my readers, to leech a diaspora of my favourite anime songs? Not much, I'm afraid, except perhaps as a showcase of my melody tracing skills. :P

After all, what can we say? That anime depends on classical music? Because anime depends a lot on many other music genres as well -- you could well say that anime takes its musical influence from a multitude of sources, just as it takes its characters, styles and settings from all over the world. The dependence on classical music is not something unique to anime either -- so many other forms of pop culture frequently refer to classical music.

What this quest illustrated for me, quite importantly, was the role that Chance had in any hunt for the elusive. Sometimes the links between various pieces of information ARE elusive, and are easily missed. Sometimes, the hunt cannot be confined to the Internet -- it expands out to the real world, to other forms of media, and to the library.But chance will give a second opportunity to pick up on these connections. 

And when these fleeting moments come, exploit them as best possible -- pick up a pen and a piece of paper and scribble down any scrap of information which, when fed into a search engine, would dig up the information again. Miss the chance, forget the names and words, and that tentative thread will once again be lost in the skein of an information-saturated life.