Continues With Wings Yuzuru Hanyu Download
The World of "Figure Skating Music" Spun by Sound Designer Keiichi Yano (Part 1)
After a brief take on mama Hanyu yesterday, here's an intimate look into the audio aspect of figure skating. Yamane Ito interviews Keiichi Yano (beside Yuzu at his Sochi celebration party in Tokyo in the picture above), FS venue audio PA and sound designer who has worked on iconic programs with the likes of Hanyu (SEIMEI, Hope & Legacy), Arakawa (Turandot) and so forth.
The vignettes on the making of SEIMEI and Hope & Legacy respectively––what a story! Audio-obsessed Hanyu at his best, and how, through everyone's good grace and mind-boggling hard work both in the team and surrounding, these programs came into fruition. - gladi.
Translated by gladi. Feel free to repost text in entirety with source. Images belong to Keiichi Yano (#1), Getty Images (#2, #3, #4), and joehisaishi.com (#5, not part of the article).
Original source: https://victorysportsnews.com/articles/4441/original (July 03, 2017)
There is a person called Keiichi Yano in the world of figure skating in Japan. Both in competitions and at ice shows, he deals with everything related to sound at the venue. And that is not all. He also sound-edits for top skaters such as Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno. Depending on the situation, he has even compiled the music for entire programs from scratch. In a place closest by the skaters' side––supporting their performance through "sound"––we cover [Yano-san] on his work and philosophy [as a sound designer in this article].
Text by Yamane Ito.
From acoustics to sound editing
His main gig until the very end is venue acoustics as a PA, says Keiichi Yano. Having been a part of figure skating for more than 30 years, when comes time for the world championship, he manages the audio for more than 300 programs from 100 entries. Prior adjustment, final rehearsals and practice, and detailed tasks during the actual event… Everyone concerned––especially the skaters and their coaches––places full trust in his work.
The first time he was directly in touch with program audio sources was through Midori Ito, silver medalist of the Albertville Olympics. At the time, he was responsible for the recording and remastering of the original audio sources as engineer at Yamaha. It was large-scale work transforming electric organ work by music school students into a full orchestral piece and re-recording it.
Although he continued work related to figure skating after that, the audio sources played over the PA systems at venue bothered him. The sound quality, the volume, the transition of music…all of that––production was too crudely done. Just when he was wondering if he couldn't do something about it, word came from Shizuka Arakawa-senshu (at the time). She wanted to increase the volume of the beginning part of her free program.
"Turandot" at Turin Olympics was the work of Yano-san. It goes without saying how delighted he was about Arakawa-senshu's gold medal above all. It was a rewarding moment that made the adjustment, done in a hurry despite insufficient time, worth it.
"Recently, the pattern of producing completely from scratch seemed to be on the rise. Where to jump, or where to spin, things like that can be discussed later. If [we] don't start from getting out the entire piece, it seems to be that choreography can't be settled."
Although [he] starts from creating the so-called "draft," the final program music is completed through back and forth with the choreographer and the skaters themselves. Those are all part of the job. In competitive figure skating, the outcome is decided by the total combined score from both the short program (SP) and the free skating (FS) section. As a rule, the SP is 2m50s, and as for FS, men's is 4m30s, ladies' is 4m. The thing is to edit the original tracks and integrate them within the canvas of the time requirements.
There is an unending stream of music editing commissions from skaters and their coaches for Yano-san. Occasionally, skaters visit his studio at home as well. The audio for "Respeto y orgullo," performed by Takahashi Kozuka-senshu (at the time), too, was completed at Yano-san's study.
"We can create something [the skaters themselves can best grasp | most agreeable to the skaters themselves], so on the contrary, it's easy to do if they come [to my place]."
Seven pieces combined––Yuzuru Hanyu's SEIMEI
It's well known among skating fans that Yano-san edited Hanyu-senshu's program "SEIMEI" using the soundtrack from the movie Onmyoji. And it was said that Yano had been sending demo tracks for his consideration for a while.
He received a simple request from Hanyu, "I absolutely want to use the main theme from Onmyoji and the dragon flute tracks. I'm leaving everything else up to you." So, he chose pieces from the two albums that seemed to fit well with skating and put them together into one. While visualizing Hanyu's skating, he combined seven songs characteristic of [him].
"In [Hanyu's] case, he is awfully particular about music. He said, 'I will work with this as a basis for now' and from this point on, went to work on building the full-fledged program alongside his choreographer in Canada."
The email exchanges continued even after that. "I want this bit moved back 5 seconds" and "I would like the tempo at the end imperceptibly increased and bring it all to a close within the time limit" and so forth. As training progressed, "I want taiko for the conclusion," "I'd like some 'gap' or 'space' put in right here," et cetera. In the end, 33 versions of "SEIMEI" were made. Yano-san laughed as he reminisced about [the experience].
"The requests ballooned quickly. But, I cannot say it is impossible as a pro!"
There was a part in the middle of the program that became a hot topic amongst fans. Edited such that two tracks from two different albums were overlaid and combined into one, it came from the suggestion of choreographer Shae-lynn Bourne. The piano and the dragon flute playing the same melody were of completely differing pitch and tempo, so actually, they weren't something that could be easily overlaid and synced. After much struggle and difficulty, Yano-san completed that beautiful part.
As a standalone "piece" that differed from the original
As program music are based on original pieces, of course there are also their composers. For Chopin or Puccini, there is no need to be particularly worried. The problem is in the case of currently active composers. By the way, Onmyoji is the work of Shigeru Umebayashi-san. So I tried to get some answers about what I've always been curious about:
Is there anything to talk and go over with the original composer?
"Not in particular. I may receive complaints if [the program piece] is musically ridiculous or odd, but if it stands as a piece of music, usually there are no problems. I am grateful if it may be comprehended as 'one figure skating piece.'"
Up until this point, if [Yano] is to say which is it, favorable voices have been more frequent. For example, when Daisuke Takahashi-senshu (at the time) used the music from accordionist COBA, he had edited quite some parts in it.
"I thought he would be offended, but because the download counts increased even for the original track, I was actually thanked in reverse. Afterwards, a dialogue was planned between Takahashi-kun and COBA-san, and collaborations on shows, et cetera. They had a very good relationship.
Joe Hisaishi's great kindness––Hope and Legacy
When Hanyu-senshu brought Joe Hisaishi's music over, [Yano's side] got flustered. Speaking of Hisaishi-san, he is a leading musician in Japan, also famous for the music of animation works produced by Studio Ghibli.
"Although I am fine with doing it, I told the team on Hanyu-kun's side, 'Please at least get permission.' We started by editing in parallel [as they sought permission]."
There was a reason why Yano-san brought this up. In the past, Kozuka-senshu wasn't granted permission to use Ghibli music for the program piece when he edited it himself, leading to a whole sequence of events where they eventually went through the pains of re-recording in order to use the music in the program. For that reason, [Yano-san] paid careful attention to Hanyu-senshu's request. As it was, when Hanyu-senshu's team got into contact, they hadn't been able to obtain approval yet.
The biggest problem was in connecting and using two separate pieces. It is inconsistent with the composer's original thought and intent to marry pieces that are quite different from the circumstances of composition to musical concept. It's not impossible to overlook if [he] were to edit and use either one of the two pieces. However, from the simple viewpoint of cherishing the music, connecting the two pieces was not something one can easily grant permission to do.
It was convincing explanation for someone involved in music. Nevertheless, [Yano-san] sought for courses of action to somehow obtain consent. This time, with a go-between from the television industry and several parties involved in figure skating in tow, Yano-san went to approach the Hisaishi office once again with their request.
"Although [Hisaishi] was not present, Hisaishi's side listened to the actual piece that I had edited for the program on the spot. And [I brought up the fact] that figure skating isn't for commercial purposes but is purely done for sports. That I hoped to be allowed to use Hisaishi-san's music for a competitive program in this sport. That I would like to obtain permission to edit [the music] based on the competitive time requirements, demands of the performance, so forth. I requested everything formally. That it seems like Hanyu-senshu already has an image in mind; if somehow we could receive permission and talk with Hisaishi-san…"
Afterwards, Hisaishi decided to grant permission. However, this was a special exception for one time only, granted because of Hisaishi-san's kind generosity. With that, the program music, "Hope & Legacy", took shape with exotic "Asian Dream Song" inserted between "View of Silence," a beautiful piano piece. Only one such gem of a program exists in this world, and it became a representative performance of Yuzuru Hanyu.
Shortly after that, the team involved in the creation of "Hope & Legacy" was invited to [Hisaishi's] concert in Tokyo. There, Yano-san greeted Hisaishi-san himself directly for the first time.
Interviewee: Keiichi Yano
Sound Designer/ Music Editor-Programmer. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1957. Started working as Audio Technician since 1975. In charge of audio at YAMAHA Tokyo branch in 1978. Currently works freelance as Figure Skating Sound and Audio Producer.
Writer: Yamane Ito
Creative Director turned Copywriter/ Football Researcher. Published various sports-related books, mostly specializing in football, and one about figure skating––『フィギュアスケート・プログラムに秘められた物語』
t/n: On September 14, 2016, Hisaishi announced on his official website that Hanyu would be using Hisaishi's music for his free program. The theme is "Hope & Legacy". September 13, 2016 was "media day" at TCC :))
Source: https://wherespacepooh.tumblr.com/post/162588835769/the-world-of-figure-skating-music-spun-by-sound
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