What skater has the all-time impressive music list?

[DancingCactus]

The great Uematsu Nobuo has produced some of the greatest video game music ever AND is Japanese. You'd think a Japanese skater would have done a Final Fantasy program by now.

I can list dozens of game soundtracks that I think are absolutely on par with or superior to movie/ opera music on the fly.

 

[Magill]

The great Uematsu Nobuo has produced some of the greatest video game music ever AND is Japanese. You'd think a Japanese skater would have done a Final Fantasy program by now.

I can list dozens of game soundtracks that I think are absolutely on par with or superior to movie/ opera music on the fly.

Yuzuru actually has made a Final Fantasy program (even in two versions, different just in tiny details). He first debuted it in his first solo show Prologue (2022) and later included both in GIFT and Re_Pray, where it comes in these two versions. It looms large in his solo shows

 

[icewhite]

The great Uematsu Nobuo has produced some of the greatest video game music ever AND is Japanese. You'd think a Japanese skater would have done a Final Fantasy program by now.

I can list dozens of game soundtracks that I think are absolutely on par with or superior to movie/ opera music on the fly.

Dozens? Wow.
In general I think most movie soundtracks are not great either, not as independent pieces of music that is. They have a job to do and that's what they usually do. I think in figure skating movie soundtracks are used way too often in relation to their quality and they are just chosen because people think that skaters and audience can build a connection even if they aren't musical at all.

Even soundtracks which are soo strong in a movie often do not have more than a few captivating and musically rather simple tacts. I'm talking about scores like "the piano" - one of my alltime favourite movies with a haunting soundtrack - but only in the context of the pictures, the actors, the story and the moment does it come to full bloom, and it does not really consist of more than 3 great minutes overall, and that's when edited.

Or for instance the score of "The Hours" is great, but it does not really work on its own and not really in figure skating imo.

The soundtrack of Amélie is amazing in the context of the movie, but ultimately it works with a few simple ingredients and repetitions. (Goodbye Lenin is also very good.) I think Yann Tiersen afterwards decided that he did not want to do this kind of "toothpaste advertising" music anymore, seems he looks upon it a bit like Ravel on his Bolero.

Then there are so many soundtracks that are quite popular in skating, but they are actually very, very average (in my complete amateur opinion), like Avatar or even Man in the Iron Mask etc. etc.
La La Land and the Greatest Showman - no idea, I never understood the appeal, but maybe I'm just musically ignorant.

Some are really great and I can listen to them on their own. Mostly Morricone. In general older soundtracks from the 60s, 70s it seems who were catering much slower, more "epic" movies than they are made today. Today's common cuts demand a different music I suppose. But I will never fully get the appeal of Zimmer or such composers... like Desplas, Portman and the likes it seems to me it works where it is supposed to work, but it's not something I need to hear in a concert hall, although many people love it.

I think the best operas which are the ones getting performed mostly have stronger music than most movies or games. But there are not too many pieces you can just take out and use for skating and especially aria would probably often sound terrible if played through the speakers of an ice rink. Right now I can only think of male opera pieces that are used and popular. You need a certain quality of sound for a high female voice to not sound shrieky.

 

[Echodog]

Actually Karen Chen skated to her song "Fire Dance" as a SP and later exhibition in the 2018-19 season.

And the excellent Cha Junhwan to the Jennifer Thomas original composition 'The Fire Within'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiRhZ8axMjw

 

[Mathematician]

I'm always smitten by how good some people choosing music for tv/netflix series are, though. They are just picking, but they have such vast knowledge and abilities. It's always frustrating to me that most figure skating choreographers and teams seem to have such a very limited knowledge. I know a lot of great music doesn't offer itself to skating, but I'm sure people with better knowledge could do better work here, choose more interesting and still broadly appealing music, could do better edits than we often get.

Because high budget Netflix productions have people make a living specifically for the job of score development. Nobody is getting paid anything for skating music. The coach just picks a song he likes and the real job is everything else that comes after.

 

[synesthesia]

The great Uematsu Nobuo has produced some of the greatest video game music ever AND is Japanese. You'd think a Japanese skater would have done a Final Fantasy program by now.

Just another proof how different music tastes can be. I'm no "Final Fantasy" expert, but from what I've heard of the soundtracks I prefer those not composed by Uematsu Nobuo (XII, XIII, XV).

Not a Japanese skater, but Kevin Reynolds had a "Final Fantasy" SP in 2018-19:

____________________​

Personally, I appreciate ambient game soundtracks like the one for "Machinarium" by Tomas Dvorak:

Full Machinarium OST

Machinarium (2009) was developed and published by Amanita Design. The soundtrack was composed by Tomas Dvorak.Machinarium - http://store.steampowered.com/app...

www.youtube.com

Or Steven Wilson's soundtrack for "Last day of June", in which case most of the music existed before the game (the game was actually inspired by Wilson's music and the story is based on his sad, but beautiful song "Drive home"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxxA4mekUPY&list=OLAK5uy_l2H6hsG9MJFAzpTtWHrw33yIP8Z0RZENY&index=1

I adore the use of the Koto in the tenth track (originally titled "Insurgentes") from 1:24.




There's great, skateable music in almost any genre (maybe with the exception of extreme stuff like Grindcore or Slam Death Metal ). I tend to be most impressed by skaters, who have a feel for a wide variety of styles (which doesn’t necessarily mean that I like all of the music they’ve ever skated to). In the end it comes down to the overall picture, consisting of music, editing, choreography and interpretation that determines whether it works or not.


Back to the original question: I think the most impressive music list to me would be one entirely consisting of unconventional choices and a wide variety of styles. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any skater fulfilling both criteria. Everybody I can think of has skated to a warhorse/well known piece or two.

 

[icewhite]

Because high budget Netflix productions have people make a living specifically for the job of score development. Nobody is getting paid anything for skating music. The coach just picks a song he likes and the real job is everything else that comes after.

But I think some coaches and choreographers are getting paid very good money. And in the case of choreographers who at best do some coaching on the side but do choreos for a living, I'd expect more.
Sure, there are small fed skaters on the edge of choosing studies over skating... they won't be able to pay huge amounts...
But then there is a program like the MJ program for Cha - first of all why do MJ when EVERYBODY does it?
Secondly, if you absolutely have to do it, how can a skater of Orser (I think he was still with him at that time) have such terrible cuts? (I assume you don't know the program, but believe me it's very bad. And Cha is a great skater. And Orser is a great and expensive coach. And Shae-Lynn Bourne is one of the most well known and asked for choreographers. How can they let that happen? That skater deserves so much better.)
That's just an example. I just got murdered by getting to know Yuma will skate to an awful Sound of Silence cover next season, hopefully only in exhibition. Is Lori Nichol not able to find better music for him?

 

[Moon322]

I've always loved Yuna's music choices, and I find them all so impressive. The Lark Ascending, Die Fledermaus, Shcheherazade, Danse Macabre, Piano Concerto in F, James Bond, Arirang/Korean traditional music, Les Mis, Send in the Clowns Adios Nonino. Basically I could list all her music choices It's a great mix of wonderful classical pieces, traditional music and well known soundtracks.

Also I love Yuzuru's music choices very much. He's another example who skated to gorgeous classical pieces, soundtracks I love (Seimei, both R&J, Ten to Chi To) and cool rock/funk music (obviously Let's Go Crazy, Let Me Entertain You). He also chose to skate to various Japanese music, be it contemporary classical choices or soundtracks. I respect him for this very much, because other skaters usually choose only Western classical music or Western pop/rock and soundtracks.

 

[TallyT]

I've always loved Yuna's music choices, and I find them all so impressive. The Lark Ascending, Die Fledermaus, Shcheherazade, Danse Macabre, Piano Concerto in F, James Bond, Arirang/Korean traditional music, Les Mis, Send in the Clowns Adios Nonino. Basically I could list all her music choices It's a great mix of wonderful classical pieces, traditional music and well known soundtracks.

Also I love Yuzuru's music choices very much. He's another example who skated to gorgeous classical pieces, soundtracks I love (Seimei, both R&J, Ten to Chi To) and cool rock/funk music (obviously Let's Go Crazy, Let Me Entertain You). He also chose to skate to various Japanese music, be it contemporary classical choices or soundtracks. I respect him for this very much, because other skaters usually choose only Western classical music or Western pop/rock and soundtracks.

The ones he has chosen since going professional have also been wonderful and varied. because he can really experiment with Asian pop (Ashura-chan! If!) and game music.

I can understand when skaters use a more restricted palette - music is after all one of their tools of trade and they need to be comfortable no matter how odd. @icewhite mentioned Junhwan and I am sure other people remember the first appalled reactions to Junliet? I also understand that just sometimes their tastes and ours simply clash (I have already been looked at squint-eyed for my Bublé feelings). Also remember that even the best classical music had/has its detractors, some longtime ClassicFM purists have... eloquent feelings on Bolero and others, for example. So again... it's complicated.

 

[Weathergal]

My son often complains that video games are not taken seriously as forms of art and honestly I can understand. The level of storytelling and artwork is sometimes so extremely high, way higher than in a lot of works we consider "art".
But in my eyes the musical score is often not as strong as graphics and narrative work (yet), at least from what I gather.

I'm always smitten by how good some people choosing music for tv/netflix series are, though. They are just picking, but they have such vast knowledge and abilities. It's always frustrating to me that most figure skating choreographers and teams seem to have such a very limited knowledge. I know a lot of great music doesn't offer itself to skating, but I'm sure people with better knowledge could do better work here, choose more interesting and still broadly appealing music, could do better edits than we often get.

Cedric Tours seems to be a guy with a good archive. Who else?

I think that Lori Nichol has had some out-of-the-box choices. I remember reading an interview with her a while ago where she talked about going to I think it was to some place in Toronto to explore music for programs.

I also think Benoit Richaud and Shae-Lynn Bourne have used some interesting music.

I'm sure it depends on the team whether the music selection is coach driven, choreographer driven, or skater driven -- or some combination.

 

[Mathematician]

But I think some coaches and choreographers are getting paid very good money. And in the case of choreographers who at best do some coaching on the side but do choreos for a living, I'd expect more.
Sure, there are small fed skaters on the edge of choosing studies over skating... they won't be able to pay huge amounts...
But then there is a program like the MJ program for Cha - first of all why do MJ when EVERYBODY does it?
Secondly, if you absolutely have to do it, how can a skater of Orser (I think he was still with him at that time) have such terrible cuts? (I assume you don't know the program, but believe me it's very bad. And Cha is a great skater. And Orser is a great and expensive coach. And Shae-Lynn Bourne is one of the most well known and asked for choreographers. How can they let that happen? That skater deserves so much better.)
That's just an example. I just got murdered by getting to know Yuma will skate to an awful Sound of Silence cover next season, hopefully only in exhibition. Is Lori Nichol not able to find better music for him?

Well I definitely wont disagree that skating needs to step up the music game but the Netflix comparison is still loose, cause even the highly paid choreographers are working with many different skaters and therefore many moves and changes and everything outside of just music. Meanwhile the Netflix guys are getting paid even more and specifically just on music on one project. Also this probably happens over like 1-2 years of production of the film itself, meanwhile skating programs are put together in a couple months if not a couple weeks sometimes.

But I agree with you in the sense that it should be easy anyways to find good skating music. It is a phenomenon we are all aware of in our sport and find ourselves consistently baffled over (seriously, no joke, we need to do something about the Kovacs cover epidemic in Russia. Its bad).

 

[Magill]

I've always loved Yuna's music choices, and I find them all so impressive. The Lark Ascending, Die Fledermaus, Shcheherazade, Danse Macabre, Piano Concerto in F, James Bond, Arirang/Korean traditional music, Les Mis, Send in the Clowns Adios Nonino. Basically I could list all her music choices It's a great mix of wonderful classical pieces, traditional music and well known soundtracks.

Also I love Yuzuru's music choices very much. He's another example who skated to gorgeous classical pieces, soundtracks I love (Seimei, both R&J, Ten to Chi To) and cool rock/funk music (obviously Let's Go Crazy, Let Me Entertain You). He also chose to skate to various Japanese music, be it contemporary classical choices or soundtracks. I respect him for this very much, because other skaters usually choose only Western classical music or Western pop/rock and soundtracks.

The ones he has chosen since going professional have also been wonderful and varied. because he can really experiment with Asian pop (Ashura-chan! If!) and game music.

Same here. I also usually love Yuzuru's music, especially after Sochi. Good old rock (Let's Go Crazy, Let Me Entertain You, but also Hello I Love You, or Vertigo) and wonderful Japanese music which I was so happy to be introduced to. I also love the game music he used for his shows, mostly for Re_Pray. Again, completely new to me, never heard of it, not even suspected it existed, and it turned out it was sooo good. Gate of Living is such a great tune I sometimes find it difficult to clear it from my head and it just keeps playing silently in the background of my mind for hours.... So does Masquerade with its awesome lyrics. But yes, a lot of modern Japanese music of all genres, really impressive list. And what's also great is that he chooses his own music himself and not just skates to what other people, however professional, find suitable for him!

 

[icewhite]

I think that Lori Nichol has had some out-of-the-box choices. I remember reading an interview with her a while ago where she talked about going to I think it was to some place in Toronto to explore music for programs.

I also think Benoit Richaud and Shae-Lynn Bourne have used some interesting music.

I'm sure it depends on the team whether the music selection is coach driven, choreographer driven, or skater driven -- or some combination.

I have no idea who in which case is/was responsible, I'm just thinking it can't really be the money and someone should intervene/come up with a better idea. Of course it's all no use if the person who has the most say in this has just terrible taste.

(I think Richaud has used interesting music but I'm more attributing that to Cedric Tours actually, although I really have no idea.)

 

[4everchan]

If any skater wants to improve their music list, they can just PM me

 

[icewhite]

Just another proof how different music tastes can be. I'm no "Final Fantasy" expert, but from what I've heard of the soundtracks I prefer those not composed by Uematsu Nobuo (XII, XIII, XV).

Not a Japanese skater, but Kevin Reynolds had a "Final Fantasy" SP in 2018-19:

____________________​

Personally, I appreciate ambient game soundtracks like the one for "Machinarium" by Tomas Dvorak:

Full Machinarium OST

Machinarium (2009) was developed and published by Amanita Design. The soundtrack was composed by Tomas Dvorak.Machinarium - http://store.steampowered.com/app...

www.youtube.com

Or Steven Wilson's soundtrack for "Last day of June", in which case most of the music existed before the game (the game was actually inspired by Wilson's music and the story is based on his sad, but beautiful song "Drive home"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxxA4mekUPY&list=OLAK5uy_l2H6hsG9MJFAzpTtWHrw33yIP8Z0RZENY&index=1

I adore the use of the Koto in the tenth track (originally titled "Insurgentes") from 1:24.




There's great, skateable music in almost any genre (maybe with the exception of extreme stuff like Grindcore or Slam Death Metal ). I tend to be most impressed by skaters, who have a feel for a wide variety of styles (which doesn’t necessarily mean that I like all of the music they’ve ever skated to). In the end it comes down to the overall picture, consisting of music, editing, choreography and interpretation that determines whether it works or not.


Back to the original question: I think the most impressive music list to me would be one entirely consisting of unconventional choices and a wide variety of styles. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any skater fulfilling both criteria. Everybody I can think of has skated to a warhorse/well known piece or two.

Kevin Reynolds had a lot of game soundtracks, right? I think he was/is really into it personally. In general he leaves us a very nice list of music.

By the way my son wants someone to do this one, including a fitting costume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0QPEQxr24
Come on guys... make him a figure skating fan...

 

[4everchan]

By the way my son wants someone to do this one, including a fitting costume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0QPEQxr24
Come on guys... make him a figure skating fan...

This would be a very good program. You'd need a very powerful skater though. The music would easily take precedence to anyone who doesn't glide effortlessly. I think of Adam for men and Kaori or Wakaba for women doing wonders with this.

 

[Mathematician]

Kevin Reynolds had a lot of game soundtracks, right? I think he was/is really into it personally. In general he leaves us a very nice list of music.

By the way my son wants someone to do this one, including a fitting costume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0QPEQxr24
Come on guys... make him a figure skating fan...

That is actually a really good idea for a program.

 

[Wynter]

The great Uematsu Nobuo has produced some of the greatest video game music ever AND is Japanese. You'd think a Japanese skater would have done a Final Fantasy program by now.

I can list dozens of game soundtracks that I think are absolutely on par with or superior to movie/ opera music on the fly.

Yuzuru did 2 programs using Nobuo Uematsu's music for RE_PRAY. One is A Fleeting Dream (Final Fantasy X), the other is The Darkness of Eternity (Final Fantasy IX), titled Messenger of Darkness. There is a complete video of it on Reddit, but since I cannot link it here I'll post the twitter snippets instead.

 

[Mathman]

If any skater wants to improve their music list, they can just PM me

Seriously, you should take this up as a side hustle!

 

[TontoK]

Michelle Kwan had some great music.

I second this. Just the other day, YouTube recommended a fan's compilation of Michelle's Top 10 performances (in the fan's opinion), which I bit on.

What struck me most was the quality and variety of music. Mostly the music was new-to-skating, although there were a few warhorses thrown in, I suppose. None of it was boring - it didn't drone on. Of course in her day, competitive programs didn't have lyrics, so maybe that helped.

I'm waiting for the first skater to use AI generated music. I don't know much about AI, so I wonder if you could have it compose something original... "Give me a cohesive orchestral piece, consisting of a 25 second opening with brass instruments, transitioning to 45 seconds of a slower tempo featuring strings, gradually build over the next minute to a great emotional swell..."