Koichi Sugiyama

Sugiyama was born in Tokyo, Japan, on April 11, 1931.[1] While growing up, Sugiyama's home was filled with music, which ultimately inspired his passion. In high school, he began to write various small musical works.[2] He attended the University of Tokyo and graduated with full honors in 1954. He then went into the reporting and entertainment sections of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.[2] He joined Fuji TV as a director in 1958.[2] He left the station in 1965 to become a freelance director but had begun concentrating solely on musical composition and orchestration by 1968.[2]

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Sugiyama composed for several musicals, commercials, pop artists, animated movies, and television shows, such as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, and Cyborg 009. He also assisted Riichiro Manabe with the composition for Godzilla vs. Hedorah, composing the record single of the soundtrack and conducting for some of the tracks.[3]

Sugiyama's first contact with Enix was by a fan letter he wrote them regarding a PC shogi game in the early 1980s. After Enix's staff overcame the shock of receiving a handwritten postcard from a celebrity of Sugiyama's stature, they were so impressed by his depth of knowledge and appreciation of games that they decided to ask Sugiyama to create music for their games. Sugiyama started composing for the PC-8801, and was working for Enix at the time. His first project with the company was the 1986 game Wingman 2. Later that year, he composed for his first major project, Dragon Quest.[4] His classical score for the game was considered revolutionary for console video game music.[5]

Sugiyama was one of the first video game composers to record with a live orchestra.[6] In 1986, the CD, Dragon Quest Suite, was released, utilizing the Tokyo Strings Ensemble to interpret Sugiyama's melodies. The soundtrack's eight melodies (Opening, Castle, Town, Field, Dungeon, Battle, Final Battle, and Ending) set the template for most role-playing video game soundtracks released since then, many of which have been organized in a similar manner.[7]

In 1987, he composed for Dragon Quest II. Music from the first two Dragon Quest games was performed at one of the first game music concerts, "Family Classic Concert". It was arranged and conducted by Sugiyama himself and was performed by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble on August 20, 1987, at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" and "Dragon Quest II Symphonic Suite" were performed.[8] He subsequently held the "Family Classic Concerts" annually in Japan until 2019.[9]

From 1987 to 1990, Sugiyama continued to compose for various other Enix games. In 1991, he introduced a series of video game music concerts, five in all, called the Orchestral Game Concerts, which were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.[10] The performances included music from over eighteen different video game composers, such as Koji Kondo, Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, Keiichi Suzuki, as well as Sugiyama himself. These concerts were held from 1991 to 1996; during this time, Sugiyama composed for other video games and arranged for some of them to be performed in the Orchestral Game Concerts.

In September 1995, Sugiyama composed the Dragon Quest Ballet. It premiered in 1996, and returned in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002.[2] During those years, he also released several Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites. In late 2004, he finished and released the Dragon Quest VIII soundtrack. In 2005, Sugiyama was holding a series of concerts in Japan with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with music from Dragon Quest VIII, as well as his classic compositions from the past.[11] In August 2005, his music from Dragon Quest was performed live at the European Symphonic Game Music Concert, marking the first time that his music was performed by a live symphonic concert outside of Japan.[12] Sugiyama also composed the score for Dragon Quest X[13] and its expansions, as well as Dragon Quest XI.[14]

Throughout his work Sugiyama repeatedly used motifs to maintain a consistency and nostalgic quality in the different installments. Each of the Dragon Quest games that he worked on included a nearly identical, upbeat theme track titled "Overture". For over 30 years of his life, Sugiyama had composed more than 400 songs for the Dragon Quest series.[15] Sugiyama's style of composition has been compared to late Baroque and early Classical period styles.[16] Earlier on in his career, Sugiyama said that his process for making music for games was based on seeing initial drafts on its setting and story.[17]

Sugiyama's non-work related hobbies included photography, traveling, building model ships, collecting old cameras, and reading.[18] He has opened a camera section on his website,[19] and also founded his own record label, SUGI Label, in June 2004.[20] Sugiyama also composed the fanfares for the opening and closing of the gates at the Tokyo and Nakayama Racecourses. He was given the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, by the Japanese government in 2018 before also being named a Person of Cultural Merit by them two years later.[21][22] Sugiyama died from septic shock at the age of 90 on September 30, 2021.[23] A television drama played by actor Ken Yasuda detailing Sugiyama's involvement with Dragon Quest aired on Nippon TV on August 27, 2022.[24]