Uematsu’s Postgame: The Music of Final Fantasy in the Concert Hall (and Beyond)

Hailed by Classic FM as the “Beethoven of Video Game Music,” Nobuo Uematsu’s scores for the Final Fantasy series (1987-present) have garnered a cult following. Yet as far back as 1989, Uematsu’s music has occupied a place not only within the respective games they accompany, but in the concert hall as well. This chapter begins by examining Uematsu’s role in the classifying of video game music since the late 1980s. Drawing on theories of musical arrangement and hermeneutics, it continues on to chart the various strategies used to arrange Uematsu’s scores, as well as interrogates the motivations for bringing the music outside of the games in the first place. The chapter concludes with a reflection on Uematsu’s placement within the video game music canon, suggesting his long-time association with these concerts contributed to his canonization.