Musicians create whimsical soundscape for fantastical worlds of Studio Ghibli
During the closing number of act one of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday, conductor and music director Moon Doh called out each family of instrument and instructed the audience to listen to them play their parts one by one.
The individual callouts combined with Doh’s introduction of each song by explaining the story of the Studio Ghibli movie the audience was about to hear were great ways to ease listeners into the fantastic worlds of the Japanese animated movies.
The symphony was performing music Saturday written by composer Joe Hisaishi, who wrote the music for Studio Ghibli films including “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Spirited Away.” Early on in the show, Doh asked the audience to applaud if they have seen any Studio Ghibli films, to which about half the auditorium responded with claps.
The ones who have not seen movies like Totoro may have been skeptical hearing the plot alone, but Doh spoke about the appearance of house spirits and the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro as the violins, violas and cellos wove intricate melodic lines as the brass imitated the sound of a large creature snoring — the sound of Totoro himself.
The combination of whimsical strings, Doh’s patient narration and horn-based sound effects was the perfect summation of the music of Hisaishi, who collaborated with director Hayao Miyazaki on many of his films.
Although the music Saturday was from Japanese animated films, the sounds were not challenging to grasp for the Butler audience, because the songs included leitmotifs that listeners could latch onto while melodies were built atop them. It makes sense that Doh likened Hisaishi to the John Williams of Japanese cinema. Their abilities to write a memorable melody that could be repeated with little spritzes of change are unmatched.
And even when some of the tunes went on for more than 20 minutes, the evolving story of the songs never got old or tiring to listen to. On some songs, the piano and harp took center stage, creating sounds that emanated fantasy worlds and fantastical creatures.
The first piece of the show came from “Princess Mononoke,” a 1997 film by Miyazaki that follows a young warrior torn between two worlds — the human community of advancing technology and the world of nature that humans were trampling over.
After the final note of the piece, Doh told the audience that the deep sounds of the timpani drums functioned to demonstrate the gravity of the main character’s struggle, while the string-played melodies sung about his journey throughout. It was a great introduction to the show and a great way to tell the audience the general atmosphere of Miyazaki’s films.
And although the animation serves as the basis for all of the films, Doh convinced the crowd that it’s the music that drives viewers into the stories of their characters. Hisaishi was responsible for creating the sounds associated with those worlds.
