A Sea Change
Something that might have gotten overlooked in the Grammys this past weekend had nothing to do with Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, and any Red Carpet craziness.
The competition for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists consisted of:
Baba Yetu - Christopher Tin, arranger (Christopher Tin, Soweto Gospel Choir & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
Baby - Roger Treece, arranger (Bobby McFerrin)
Based On A Thousand True Stories - Vince Mendoza
Don't Explain - Geoffrey Keezer, arranger (Denise Donatelli)
Imagine - Herbie Hancock & Larry Klein, arrangers (Herbie Hancock, Pink, Seal, Jeff Beck, India.Arie, Konono No 1 & Oumou Sangare)
Between Bobby McFerrin and Herbie Hancock, you'd think that one of them would have won, right?
Wrong.
The winner was Christopher Tin, for Baba Yetu.
What makes this win so historic was that although Baba Yetu was released as part of an album in 2010, it was originally composed in 2005 for Sid Meier's Civilization IV.
You read that right. The music for a video game won a Grammy.
I can't emphasize how happy I am to see that happen. Music in video games has come a long long way from the classic jingle of Pac-Man; video game franchises like Civ, World of Warcraft, Baldur's Gate, Halo, and others have been graced by exceptional soundtracks that rival anything composed for movies or television, yet because they are for a game, they are often overlooked.
Perhaps now the composers of video game soundtracks will get a bit of love.
Here's the Grammy Winner Itself:
And a Sampling of a few other notable pieces of video game music:
The competition for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists consisted of:
Baba Yetu - Christopher Tin, arranger (Christopher Tin, Soweto Gospel Choir & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
Baby - Roger Treece, arranger (Bobby McFerrin)
Based On A Thousand True Stories - Vince Mendoza
Don't Explain - Geoffrey Keezer, arranger (Denise Donatelli)
Imagine - Herbie Hancock & Larry Klein, arrangers (Herbie Hancock, Pink, Seal, Jeff Beck, India.Arie, Konono No 1 & Oumou Sangare)
Between Bobby McFerrin and Herbie Hancock, you'd think that one of them would have won, right?
Wrong.
The winner was Christopher Tin, for Baba Yetu.
What makes this win so historic was that although Baba Yetu was released as part of an album in 2010, it was originally composed in 2005 for Sid Meier's Civilization IV.
You read that right. The music for a video game won a Grammy.
I can't emphasize how happy I am to see that happen. Music in video games has come a long long way from the classic jingle of Pac-Man; video game franchises like Civ, World of Warcraft, Baldur's Gate, Halo, and others have been graced by exceptional soundtracks that rival anything composed for movies or television, yet because they are for a game, they are often overlooked.
Perhaps now the composers of video game soundtracks will get a bit of love.
Here's the Grammy Winner Itself:
Click to viewAnd a Sampling of a few other notable pieces of video game music: