Classical Composer Reaction/Analysis to DANCING MAD from FINAL FANTASY by Nobuo Uematso | Ep. 766 

There's a common saying that originated in a youtube comment somewhere, but someone said "Nobuo Uematsu composing Dancing Mad on the SNES sound chip would be like Michaelangelo making the Sistene Chapel out of crayon."

While dancing mad is playing you ascend an almost biblical tower of flesh and machinery melded together by the twisting corrupted power of a long dead magic once again taken from it's source hidden away for thousands of years and now in the hands of a once lowly, traitorous jester turned and changed, descending from the heavens on rays of light, the God of Magic made flesh. This blew my 10 year old mind, I got into prog, metal, and classical because of this music, life changing.

The most amazing thing of all is Nobuo Uematsu never had any formal training in music. So for him to be able to compose masterpieces like this is astounding. Uematsu would most definitely be named among modern composers like John Williams if he were composing for movies and not video games.

13:27 Is perhaps my favorite moment ever. Hearing the full choir, orchestra, and organ come in on that absolutely gorgeous mournful melody, with the electric guitar wailing above just hits on a deep level. For the context of this boss battle, it is the final battle against Kefka, who is basically an insane clown due to the awful experiments performed upon him by the Gestahlian Empire. Earlier in the game Kefka had made himself into a god, and effectively destroyed the world (the game is split in half, with the first half being the World of Balance, and the second half the World of Ruin). Kefka is a deeply nihilistic individual, who at this point has grown jaded with even godhood, and has decided that he will end all of existence since your group still has hope, which he finds to be a horrible joke. Your party has, through the course of the World of Ruin, seen the hope that still springs even amongst the sorrow and suffering of that destroyed world, and is now fighting to give the world a chance to rebuild. Each segment of this song is a different phase of the boss battle, and each phase is inspired by "The Divine Comedy". You are scaling a tower in the fight, with the tower being the enemy for much of the fight. The first phase ( 2:52 - 6:19) is the battle against the first portion of the tower, representing "Inferno". The second phase (6:20 - 7:47) is the next portion of the tower, "Purgatorio". The third phase (7:48 - 10:30) is the final part of the tower, and represents "Paradiso". This version skips the transitional bridge between the 3rd phase and the final phase, which sees the party leave the tower, enter the golden sky of heaven, and Kefka's godly form descend to meet them. The final phase then goes from 10:31 to the end of the piece, and doesn't have a direct Divine Comedy segment, as it is meant to represent seeing the face of God Himself. There's a reason I consider "Dancing Mad" to be Nobuo Uematsu's finest work, even above the more well-known "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII. The vivid musical imagery he uses throughout the piece is remarkable. And that he was able to make such a masterpiece with the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo's limited sound capabilities is nothing short of remarkable.

11:45 I love this moment. It's a little leitmotif from Kefka's personal theme song in the rest of the game. Kefka himself is basically a mad jester, trying to become a god, which I think comes through in his theme and Dancing Mad

Nobou Uematsu is a legend, and certainly one of the greatest modern composers.

This is a good track, even more incredible when you consider it was on a Nintendo cartridge.

Never clicked so fast in my life. Edit: I love me some One Winged Angel, but Dancing Mad is definitely the best song Uematsu has ever written, and may well be the best video game piece of music ever written. Edit 2: If you want another one of Uematsu's best, look up "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. That one is definitely a journey of a song.

It's worth seeing a recording of this final boss fight to get a sense of what each section of the song represents. In short the final battle mimics the journey of Dante through Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, and finally meeting God. In the story Kefka has usurped the three goddesses of Magic and has taken their place as the God of Magic, and the final battle is meant to be Kefka's satire of God as he has descended into nihilism. The first part of the fight is against a Satan-like demon, similar to the depiction in the Inferno, trapped at the waist in a frozen lake at the center of hell; where the beating of his wings causes as he tries to escape causes the lake to only further freeze and harden. The second part depicts a group of humans including a crucified woman bound to machines, representing the punishments of purgatory. The third part depicts a scene inspired by the Michelangelo statue Madonna della Pietà, where Mary is holding the crucified Jesus. Finally, with the protagonists rising up through the clouds, Kefka, the villain turned God, descends to meet them and greets them with mocking laughter.

FYI, this is the final battle (after a 50+ hour game!), where you are fighting Kefka, the court jester of the evil empire who went power mad and killed the emperor before infusing himself with magic by upsetting the balance of the old gods and destroying most of the planet in the process - to become a nihilistic self-proclaimed God. After fighting all the way up his tower, you meet him with all of your party members and after a dialogue where you try to show him there is value in life and love, he decides to fight you all and destroy everything. The fight itself is made up of 4 parts, as is the musical piece, where each one is distinct visually also we get some musical references to familiar tracks. All in all, along with Chrono Trigger, this is the best soundtrack for a video game ever - and all done on the extremely limited synthesizer of the SNES!!!!! You can also find many renditions of tracks from it: solo piano albums, string quartets, metal bands, up to full orchestral arrangements - the music really is that iconic and well written. I'd suggest going for a few short themes and contrasting the original SNES track to those modern full-bodied versions for the fun of it, they are only a couple of minutes each (looping, in the game).

My father used to be a disc jockey. When he heard me listening to the version of Dancing Mad from the Black Mages album, he suddenly got very excited and popped a vinyl into the record player. Emerson Lake and Palmer's TARKUS. My brain melted. The influence they must have had on Uematsu was enormous.

Dancing Mad is a proper suite, each of the four sections corresponds to a different phase in Kefka's penultimate bossfight. All of his battle stages have their own gimmicks that you have to adjust to, and if you fail you start aaaaall over again! This was both game mechanically and compositionally mind-blowing back in the mid-90s, one of the most memorable video game encounters of all time!

Thank you for reacting to one of my all time fav Nobuo Uematsu songs, Doug!

Doug's rock-out pout always makes me smile.

8-bit Music Theory has a detailed analysis of the piece that I'm sure will interest you, Doug.

This is part of the reason why a lot of video game fans consider Uematsu-san one of the greats, and if you want to hear more of his compositions in a more "metal" style, check him out with his band The Black Mages.

Well new you know why we were so loud about this piece! 😂 That's not exactly a reaction request, but you should def listen to the original version of dancing mad from the snes when you got the time!

To fully get Dancing Mad, you have to know Kefka's main theme that plays whenever he is present. It uses his melodic themes throughout Dancing Mad. Like during the organ solo section, you can hear his melody in the bass, but in major instead of its usual minor before going back to minor. During the proggy section, another part of his theme is used. Also the intro is the same as the introduction to the game itself. It is a culmination as you said that's full effect comes with having experienced those motifs throughout the game.

As a lifelong videogame nerd I enjoy Doug discovering some good music from games. For a game on the SNES with all its limitations FF 6 has some really great tracks.

In this part of Uematsu's career, he was probably the strongest in terms of melodic emphasis and near the top of leitmotif usage to build a coherent soundtrack across the entire gameplay experience. Good to mention the ELP influence 10:40 as you can definitely hear it in Uematsu's work, primarily battle themes and especially ELP's Tarkus. Prog was a big influence to the early Japanese VGM composers.

You'll have to do more of these, so cool, had everything a prog/classic/rock fan like me wants in a piece of music. I'm not a gamer but love the great tunes they come with!

Basically Dancing Mad is supposed to represent the Final Fantasy 6 main villain Kefka who is basically the very incarnation of chaos so this theme being so chaotic is very fitting.👍

Dancing Mad is what happens when the composer sits down on a long flight, starts composing a final boss song, and never stops.

Prog rock in videogame music? TIM FOLLIN is your man

That shift in the music at 13:00 always brings tears to my eyes. You can just hear the pain in it. Kefka's pain, the pain his victims suffered, and the pain the heroes have endured in trying to stop him. So well done!

It's even more impressive when you consider that this was composed in the 16-bit era. The Super Nintendo had a pretty advanced sound chip for its time, but it was still late 80s/early 90s tech.

I honest to god think this is one of the best modern "classical" pieces to be composed in the last 70 years. it is genuinely a masterpiece.

Keep in mind that this wonderful little ditty was composed using the Super Nintendo's soundfont - in essence, a limited subset of MIDI/MIDI-style tools on a machine that could only play a limited number of sounds at a time. Someone else put it best: "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad") @doug helvering - Please permit me to suggest "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV:A Realm Reborn.

This one... Playing this game back in the 90s as a teenager to this music was just mindblowing. Absolute classic. Thanks for this!

immediate like at 6 seconds !. edit: DISTANT WORLDS is the Orchestral version. The Black Mages is the rock version.

We had the 3rd movement played at our wedding on church organ, really cool moment. Unfortunately divorved now but a nice memory lol.

Incredible breakdown of a classic track. I'm amazed how this dude can just break down exactly what's being played the second he hears it.

Now if Liquid Tension Experiment can just cover this song, I can die a happy man... thanks for reviewing this childhood favorite!

6:52 Funnily enough, there is a rendition of this track that is included in one of the Final Fantasy XIV OST CDs, and it is split there into 4 movements with this one being the 2nd one.

Absolutely majestic piece of art by Uematsu, glad you got to it!

It's structured as a 4 movement movement symphony and the boss battle is a 4 phase fight so 1 movement per phase. Kefkas theme is the "regurgitation" as you said it pops up a few times. The story the music tells as you're fighting Kefka once he's become a god is really something and it seemed you were catching on to some of the themes even without having played the game nor knowing anything about the characters. It might be worth having a quick listen to the original just to hear how different it sounds.

It brings me joy to see someone who has never heard this fantastic track before respond with so much enthusiasm. It certainly is one of my top favorite with or without game footage. Also, a big deal is how much the organ shines through on this one, its a lovely sound.

if you enjoyed that, continue to listen to Uematsu works ! he worked from the first to the tenth episode if i'm correct and few other games too, and there are at least one marvelous track in every games he worked on ! he had his own group of instrumental rock, The Black Mages (he was playing himself during concert) and made 3 albums covering his own composition from Final Fantasy with his band, if you want a playlist of final fantasy tracks to listen ( not necessarily these albums in particular) just use the track list of it ! The Black Mages I, II and III are probably the best track list for a final fantasy best of ! but don't forget to listen to other Squaresoft/SquareEnix composer, they are all very talented and made a bunch of very cool music for nearly 40 years now ! like Kenji Ito, Masayoshi Soken or Yoko Shimomura for exemple :)

The fact that they made this with a 16-bit sound chip and it is absolutely glorious in the game is mind-blowing.

I really hope to see you do more and more Final Fantasy Music. No matter where you go in the series it's incredible. The soft tones of 'To Zanarkand' from Final Fantasy 10, all of the different versions of 'Battle at the Big Bridge' that originated from Final Fantasy 5, the surreal music like "The Extreme" or 'Liberi Fatali' and even the powerful 'Maybe I'm A Lion' from Final Fantasy 8. You couldn't lose seeing all the amazing directions this series' music goes.

Nobuo Uematsu is such a brilliant composer!

I found this channel through your Pink Floyd videos, and I've been watching all of those. Imagine my surprise, and absolute glee to see you analyze music from my favorite video game series. I've been playing those games since 1992, and I am actually playing one right now while your videos play. Nobuo Uematsu's music is absolutely brilliant. Now, I have to go searching through your videos for more FF! Excellent work!

Honestly you missed out by not listening to the original version. Hearing what it accomplished with all the limitations it had on it from a technical perspective is really important for context.

I freakin love watching you work it out dude!!! THAT IS DOPE!!!!

Dude, you can literally be the first person to do what you are doing with FF and anime. You will most likely dominate this "little" niche. No one else has done quite what your doing and we all love it

I'm glad you did the distant worlds version. I love these albums.

The Distant Worlds albums are some of my favorite to listen to. I absolutely love the Final Fantasy music.

I wonder if the professor adds any of these songs to his playlists.. I sure can't get one day without hearing this masterpiece. Nobuo is a genius

I've been waiting for this moment since you started your channel! This is going to be an epic video.

The way Kefkas original theme weaves throughout each movement is just amazing.

This is a great version, although I still prefer The Black Mages' (Nobou Uematsu's Prog band) version of the song.

I cant wait! This is an all time favorite of mine

Every transition is a phase change of fighting kefka. The las transition is mind blowing. He is a genius

I love that on this recording, Uematsu himself is on the organ. As much as I enjoy One Winged Angel, it will never beat the utter brilliance that is Dancing Mad - the themes, the fight going on during the music... it will forever be my favorite. I genuinely think Dancing Mad is the greatest piece of music that Uematsu has ever created. As a lover of his work since the start, nothing in my life has ever compared to sitting in the audience and *hearing* this piece played. I loved it as 14-year-old girl playing Final Fantasy VI, sitting there gobsmacked, and as a 30-odd-year-old woman, sitting in the seats watching Arnie Roth conduct? I still get goosebumps and am moved to tears. My friends, who were never big on video games and came with me to humor me as I bought their tickets, became huge Uematsu fans after this concert. They always point to Dancing Mad as the linchpin of their entire change of opinion on video game music, and now will go out of their way to find it. There's a reason why many of us old-school Final Fantasy fans cite VI as our favorite, and the music is the icing on an incredibly beautiful, moving, and lore dense cake. There's even opera in there!

Final Fantasy is just amazing I'm so glad you reacted to it! (Funny how you mentioned ELP as Nobuo himself has told they inspired his music)

Epic is the only way I can describe that piece. This very version has been one of my favorites for a long time now.

I am absolutely ecstatic that you did a video on this piece. This track has always had a special place in my heart for it's mood, it's complexity, and it's resolutions. Great video!

He actually did it! Awesome.

the "level" this plays on, is the Final Boss, whose a jester clown, That is also GOD. ALSO has DESTORYED THE WORLD. This fight is not to save the day, but for revenge. the movements are different stages of the boss fight, all representing something. i believe the order is, Anger, Madness, Making fun of The god he killed, The full blown Final Fight

This piece becomes even better when you realize the composer wove in elements of music from earlier in the game-the third movement showed parts of The Decisive Battle and Kefka’s Theme mixed together from earlier key moments of gameplay. It’s a masterclass of using subtle elements of music to subconsciously make the listener remember why the struggle is so important.

You gotta give The Black Mages a spin sometime! That was Uematsu’s prog metal band that covered all of the Final Fantasy music. Even if you don’t review them, all three albums are just so much fun.

If you want proggy video game music, you gotta check out Tim Foillin. Pictionary Main Theme and Solstice Main Theme. also the Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro is good too. Not as proggy, but lots of cool harmonies and such. I'd be cool if Doug starts listening to the original works. I get the appeal of orchestra covers/renditins, but the beauty in some of these songs is the limitations back then and the things composers did to overcome them, like Tim Follin.

He should do Liberi Fatali next!! Awesome video!

Amazing to see ppl discovering this, still remember the 1st time I heard it on my SNES 😄

Dancing Mad... I remember when Final Fantasy 6 (released as 3 in the US) came out. My friend and I played it together and it is honestly still one of the best games I have ever played. Hands down STILL my favorite FF game. So much of the OST is incredible. You mention how it's structured like a mini-symphony, which is interesting because the game is really structured like an opera/play. It's incredible. I would highly recommend Celes and Terras theme as well as the other monumental piece, Aria di mezzo Carattere. I was lucky enough to see it performed by Video Games Live with Jillian Averse about a decade ago; I was in tears. It's incredible seeing appreciation for game music like this, knowing it can hit without needing to have the background and nostalgia of the track. Also maybe check out some FF14 tracks, totally not because and old friend of mine got to sing on some of them :-D

The change of my man's face each time it goes into another section lmao

What I really appreciate about this channel is, aside from the engaging and informative analysis, bro goes the extra mile on the research beforehand love to see it

This piece was composed and recorded for a SNES. Only now, that games cartridges/discs can store more data, we can fully hear and appreciate what was originally a 16-bit track. There is also a cover version by Project Grissini who played all on church organs and it sounds amazing. Whoever put up hours and hours of practice to play this is a real champion.

Nobou Uematsu composed a lot, and I mean a lot, of iconic pieces of video game music that still stick with me. I think Dancing Mad is probably his best track, it's up there with "Answers" from FFXIV and "To Zanarkand" from FFX. It's a mini-symphony, it's working in so many leitmotifs while playing with the entire structure, and he wrote a freaking *fugue* into Dancing Mad. A *fugue*. On a *SUPER NINTENDO CHIP*. It's astonishing just how much he worked into Dancing Mad, and almost every arrangement for symphony is phenomenal. It's one of my favorite pieces for someone to play on organ. The Distant Worlds version has my favorite version of the first 3 movements, and the Black Mages' version from 2003 has my favorite version of the final movement. Either way, it's an astonishing piece of music that still floors me to this day.

8:30 My favourite part of the whole craziness of this score is that Nobuo Uematsu went "Ok, let's go all out on Johann Sebastian Bach influences here, but let's stick the damn leitmotif here anyway. [5 flats: 4B C D E | F D G 8F E | 4F D C E] etc you can look it up in the Musescore.

Doug, you are easily the most brilliant of all the music reactors on RU-vid. Your analysis are on another level.

I love it whenever you make videos about video game music! It's the primary reason I subscribed. Orchestral music is very common in JRPG games nowadays and I think a bit part of that is the vast influence and enduring popularity of the old Final Fantasy games. JRPGs have always been my favorite game genre but for some reason I never really got into Final Fantasy. The only one I ever completed was Final Fantasy X. I don't know if you take comments suggestions but I just want to list some games and music from them that I especially love. Recently I've been absolutely obsessed with the Project Moon games, which all take place in an extremely disturbing dystopian setting called the City. The City is ruled by these megacorporations called Wings that each control a physics defying super technology called a Singularity. Some examples of Singularities are healing nanomachines, time manipulation, and near instant transportation. Unfortunately all of the singularities have some sort of dark secret to them that requires the Wings to commit unspeakable atrocities in order to use them. The series music covers a wide range of genres including heavy metal, classical, and even EDM at one point. However, by far the most stand out music is the vocal songs by the band Mili that play during certain key boss fights in Library of Ruina and Limbus Company. They're vastly different from any other boss themes I've heard but they fit incredibly well with the setting with lyrics that heavily tie in to the story. Some particularly noteworthy songs are From a Place of Love, Gone Angels, Between Two Worlds, and Compass. The openings for Library of Ruina and Limbus company are also by Mili and are excellent as well. Especially when listened to along with the opening video. Another personal favorite series of mine is the Xenoblade series. Each of the Xenoblade games have different settings with certain shared elements and recurring themes so it's hard to give an overview of it like with Project Moon but they're all science fantasy JRPGs with a heavy focus on exploring vast beautiful worlds. In terms of music Xenoblade tends to be either classical or rock. Some particularly famous songs are You Will Know Our Names, Gaur Plain, Tragic Decision, Battle!!, Drifting Soul, Incoming! There's countless other series I want to recommend like Ace Attorney, Trails, Kirby, Persona, The Legend of Zelda, Touhou, and many more but I've already rambled on long enough.

It's funny you mention symphonic movements because it's actually written as four movements corresponding to the phases of the boss fight with some special rules for when the music should transition to the next phase depending on how long the player takes in each phase.

I do feel that the ultimate vision the composer had in mind for this piece can be found in the lesser known Earthbound Papas version (his last prog metal band), which takes all the final flourishes added over time to the song, also adding lyrics and chorus on top of it.

I don't really comment much on RU-vid anymore but I wanted you to know I really love your channel, Doug. Pretty sure nobody else has reacted to both old school Uematsu and Pain of Salvation with that amount of knowledge and genuine excitement. Thank you for that! If I may recommend, the channel 8-bit Music Theory did a great analysis series on FFVI. It's perfect to understand the context and subtleties of Dancing Mad without necessarily playing the game. After the two most iconic final boss themes, hope you'll give a listen to a character or location theme. Uematsu's sense of melody is arguably the most important aspect of his style. Fisherman's Horizon is a popular one and there's also a Distant Worlds version played by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Keep it up!

That finish is so grandiose. I just LOVE the sound of the electric guitar

You can't beat the original version of this track for me. It's incredible and written with technological limitations that are nigh impossible to parse in 2024.The soundfont is gorgeous too.

There's an 18 minute "Symphonic" version of this that someone made in a program like 15 years ago that's FANTASTIC. I've listened to it like 1000 times ha. The shifts between "acts" are far more smooth in that version. They don't seem so jarring, and the high energy act at the end in particular just sounds so much more intense. You should check it out. Easy to find.

This song, this moment, and the absolute atrositities committed drive this songs to a whole different level... This song has the pain and misery of an entire game wrapped up into this moment. It is my favorite song in the series by far...

You're just at the tip of the iceberg of Uematsu's brilliance. This is a rabbit hole I would enjoy seeing you traverse. I'd definitely love to see your reaction Find Your Flame from Final Fantasy 16

I think Nobuo Uematsu is one of the best compositors of our era. Is a dam genius.

What he was able to achieve on the limited hardware available was nothing short of genius. The top comment about the crayons and the Sistine Chapel is right. We had NEVER heard music like this before in a video game. A game that already had insanely good music took it up into the most amazing place at its final boss fight. If you play the game and build your party right, the fight itself isn't hard, but the music and progression through various stages of fighting a God is literally epic. Have never felt a boss fight like I felt that one.

It's crazy to think that kids/teenagers (mostly) heard this music long before most adults ever took it seriously. The irony being that Mozart wrote classical music as a kid! Just super cool to see composers and musicians experiencing it for the first time and feeling that special something. Although to get the full experience, you'd have to play the game to hear it in context of the story to feel it's fullness.

You're right about the different sections accompanying different parts of the fight. The fight is split into 4 sections, with the final being Kefka himself. When you win a fight, you transition directly into the next one. The music is also split into 4 sections. When a section of music ends, it checks what part of the boss fight you're in, and plays the music for that fight. If you're still fighting boss 1 when music 1 ends, it will play music 1 again, but if you've moved on to boss 2 then it will start music 2 instead. The exception is after beating boss 3, it fades out the music and starts music 4 as the screen transitions into boss 4. If you listen to the 17 minute version from the SNES soundtrack, you will hear each section looped twice.

I often wonder what "Dancing Mad" would sound like with Peter Gabriel singing. Back when I first heard it 30 years ago, I was immediately reminded of early Genesis songs, especially their song "The Knife".

I know this is an odd request but I think you'd find "Two Planets approach the Roche limit" from the Kirby franchise to be outstanding. The games have some pretty heavy lore that most outside of the fandom don't know about. It's this lore that gives incredible feeling and meanings to the games outside of general gameplay that is. I can't forget to mention Shinya Kumazaki the general director of said games is an amazing artist and actually draws some stunning almost eldritch horror-type art that may also be another reason for such deep implications of the games.

Amazing song and a masterful reaction, i love how you breakdown the parts and play along!Well, one of my favorites that i would love to see you reviewing is "Ludwig the accursed/holy blade" from the game called Bloodborne, such an amazing piece and the actual lyrics from the song tells you the tale of Ludwig in a song about melancholy, sadness and somewhat redemption for this great character!

Dancing Mad is one of my all-time faves! I glad you got to experience it. And from a technical standpoint the whole FF6 OST is quite insane and Dancing Mad in particular. Uematsu (and sound team?) really squeezed the soundchips for all they had, it's really worth it giving a listen to how the composition was rendered on them originally.

Good call on the ELP. They were probably the biggest influence on Uematsu in that era, and that style of synth-heavy prog rock is about the best case scenario for the SNES audio chip's capabilities. It really was a conjunction of choices that played to minimize the technical limitations of the time.

Would love to get your take on Liberi Fatali from final fantasy 8. One of my all time favorites by Nobuo Uematsu and really showcases just how much talent he has as a composer. In fact, it's regarded so highly that it was used during the 2004 Olympics as the backdrop for a synchronized swimming event.

Have you already or do you have plans to visit the Symphony of the Night soundtrack?? If you haven't already, I think you will IMMENSELY enjoy it, any track.

I'm 3 months late but this is my first video of yours I've found! I'm sure someone else probably recommended it but the game it comes from, Final Fantasy 6 does a LOT of cool leitmotif stuff - there's a lot of it that shows up in this piece from earlier in the game. The song is incredible on it's own obviously but definitely adds to it when you also have experienced some of the musical themes in the game already.

there are elements of this that tie into the game's main theme as well as other theme songs in the game, a lot of these JRPGs have great soundtracks that are worth checking out (ff6, ff7, chrono trigger all iconic from the mid 90s)

Loving this rabbit hole you have found yourself going down. Not bad for a self-taught musician who started with very limited tools when the first Final Fantasy came out. A lot of the franchise success can be given to that man.

I feel so lucky that our generation experienced the musical genius that is Nobuo. All that through measly SNES restricted cartridges..

The fact that they were able to fit a Multi-Movement Orchestral piece in an SNES games at all blows my mind. Like if you were to ever listen to the original piece from the game you can tell it was made with an Orchestral style in mind, which is part of why lends itself so well to having been played at Distant Worlds. Also you were right when you said "Oh this would be a contrasting 2nd movement" as there are 4 movements to Dancing Mad, and you said that when the actual 2nd movement was playing. But also yeah you picking up on the different sections, you were picking up on all the different movements. It really is an incredible song, and an incredible feat for music in games when it was first released.

Been waiting for this one.

Yay!!! Almost what I asked for😅👌 Still hoping for Jake Kaufman's Impressario

Yeah there's so many different iterations of this song. Whenever they play it live its never the same. I had the pleasure to listening to it live last month in Carnegie hall in NYC. The conductor admited they haven't played it in a while cause of finding a organ player that can nail the solo - so he says. The orignial song is just one continous loop in the original 1994 video game on the Super Nintendo.The Sony sound chip on that thing was advanced and very capable. It was created by the same enigineer credited to be the father of the first Playstation, Ken Kutaragi

To this day all these years later this is still my favorite video game. I play through it again almost every year.