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Arnie Roth Q&A

Arnie Roth is a Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor for film and TV. In addition to being a long-time member of Mannheim Steamroller, he's performed with numerous musicians, including Diana Ross, Jewel, the Three Tenors, and more. His Distant Worlds concert series features live orchestrations of Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy music.

Anwell: When did you become interested in music? What inspired you to pursue it as a career?

Arnie Roth: I studied violin from the age of 8 and around my senior year of high school decided that I would go for a career in music. I had already experienced performing as a solo violinist, as part of small chamber ensembles, in orchestras, and also as one of the first electric violinists in a rock band. I suppose it was the joy of live performance that must have led me to decide to pursue a music career, since I had just begun some original composition and arranging and had not yet done much conducting at that point.

Sensual Soul: What classical composers have influenced you most? What modern music to you like to listen to and why?

Arnie Roth: I am still loving the scores of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and many other traditional scores, and also enjoying many contemporary scores by Ligeti, Adams, and many others. But I also love so many classic rock songs as well as a lot of new and old jazz, blues, folk, and a particular fan of Bjork’s Dancer in the Dark music.

Tenko72: Were you a game fan before you played the music?

Arnie Roth: Certainly I had some limited experience with several games, but truthfully, I was certainly not a ‘gamer’. I initially approached the performance of game music in live concerts as I would any new major music scores I would have to learn and perform. However, my own background of composing movie scores, arranging and orchestrating songs for major artists, and a lot of work in many multimedia fields was probably a contributing factor in my really embracing the power, beauty, intimacy and stylistic variety in all of the videogame music scores I worked on. That. and the fact that working intimately with all of the composers from the video game field as closely as I have – i.e.,Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, Yoko Shimomura, Chris Huelsbeck, Yasunori Mitsuda, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Marty O'Donnell, Jeremy Soule, Jason Hayes, etc. - I was exposed to much background on their music scoring, and a lot of scores and early audio examples that many would not normally have access to, all helping me to give better performances of these scores.

MHHornfreak: What made you work with video game music? Is there a particular moment/experience that you'd like to share with us that stands out?

Arnie Roth: While I had worked with Marty O'Donnell for many years on the early, original scores for Halo, I suppose that it was really when I began working closely with Nobuo Uematsu on the Dear Friends: music from Final Fantasy concerts that was the most significant moment that made it clear how rewarding these concerts could be.

Stay Sane Inside Insanity: How do you prepare when you are composing? Are there certain things you do that give you that "bright idea"?

Arnie Roth: So many projects I work on are so deadline driven, there is often little excess time to ‘get in a mood’ to compose or do much background research to build up to a particular project. I do follow one important rule when working on larger projects: if you get stuck on a particular cue, or piece of music, put it away and move on to a new piece, and then I can usually come back it a day or two later and be able to move forward more efficiently.

alexanator8797: What is your favorite composition that you have composed?

Arnie Roth:I haven’t written that one yet. I have been happy with various works I have written, but this is a similar answer to the age old cliché about music mixes: they are never truly finished, you just have to stop at whatever point you hit a deadline. It can keep changing and evolving endlessly.

Kauzl: Which do you find brings you more joy, composing for film, or live conducting for an audience?

Arnie Roth: These are 2 different types of joy, of course. It’s not so much about which brings greater joy. The act of composition is a more intimate, internal act, and the joy from this is more complex and harder to quantify as it is over a longer time period too. The joy from making music live on stage with the world’s greatest orchestras is unmatched.

Kingrussel: What makes a 'Video game song' different from a 'Movie song' or a 'Popular song?' And not by definition.

Arnie Roth: When a song is written specifically for a movie, there are usually lots of factors affecting the song, such as relationship to a specific scene in the movie, specific conflict/resolution from the plot, describing the relationship between specific characters in the movie, and many other factors some of which may be notated in a script, or an early section of the actual recorded video of the movie. All of these factors are almost identical for songs written for a video game. However, the original inspiration or reason for writing a ‘popular song’ would normally have nothing directly to do with a specific story line or story board or video sequence, or anything so formally drawn. They are usually written as a more personal individual statement, and may be describing similar factors, such as relationships, conflicts, etc. Many movie producers search high and low for songs that contain the right message and ‘feel’ for a specific scene, in order to license a pre-existing song, and of course it takes much luck and hard work searching to find this.

Makoto_Gin: Has there been anything else you thought about pursuing outside of music?

Arnie Roth: At an early age, I was enamored with astronomy and microbiology, and toyed with pursuing that, but by the time I was 16 years or so it was clear to me which direction I should take.

MHHornfreak: And what are your opinions on composing and technology? How much of an impact do you think technology has had on writing music such as your own and other composers and what kind of roles do you think it will play in the future?

Arnie Roth: For myself, the ever improving technology available to me has greatly increased my efficiency, speed and the superior quality of demo tracks that we are always producing as part of the process on all of the film and video game projects we work on. While technology has certainly added a large amount of music that may have been written mostly as a direct result of new available technology, which is making song composition so much easier for so many more people, I feel that overall, there has not been a similar increase in the amount of highest quality music scores.

Laili: Which Final Fantasy music piece moves you the most?

Arnie Roth: That is always a very tough question! It is impossible not to love One Winged Angel, as well as so many of the exciting uptempo scores from FF, but on the other hand, I really like Aerith’s Theme, and it is quite a different type of score – very intimate and emotionally sincere.

the_sullen_grey: Also what music do you personally listen to during your free time? Any artists or musicians you particularly admire or idolize?

Arnie Roth: See above:

I am still loving the scores of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and many other traditional scores, and also enjoying many contemporary scores by Ligeti, Adams, and many others. But I also love so many classic rock songs as well as a lot of new and old jazz, blues, folk, and a particular fan of Bjork’s Dancer in the Dark music.

Pkmndaisuki: Will you continue to do the Distant Worlds concert for at least another year? I'd love to attend again.

Arnie Roth: Absolutely! So many of the orchestras we are performing with are asking for us to return, plus all of the other locations around the world that we want to bring the music of Final Fantasy, it would seem that we should definitely continue the tour – and probably for more than just 2010, as well!

Dr. Norman: Do you have any words-of-wisdom for musicians?

Arnie Roth: You’ve heard this before: DON’T EVER STOP PRACTICING, LEARNING AND GROWING! A career in music requires a lot of hard work and discipline, besides talent. And Good Luck!