Tôru Minegishi
Games | ||
Position | Composer | |
Toru Minegishi is the Japanese video game composer. He is best known for his work on Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. After he had gained experience with projects such as Animal Crossing, he was assigned to create the startup sound for the Nintendo GameCube video game console, and became the main composer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Minegishi cites the suite Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky and the works of video game composer Koji Kondo as his biggest influences.
History
Minegishi grew up in a very musical family and his parents were especially fond of Latin and tango music. He became interested in video games at the age of 10, when he saw a commercial for the original The Legend of Zelda, and was impressed with the quality of its music and sound effects. As he kept his promise of improving his performance in swimming school, his parents gave him a Family Computer Disk System with The Legend of Zelda as a present. One year later, he listened to Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for the first time, which is a suite of ten movements based on paintings by Viktor Hartmann. The suite's composition technique, which focused on matching music to visuals, had a big influence on Minegishi, and furthered his interest in video game music. Unlike other composers and professional musicians, he received no special musical education, and took no piano lessons when he was young; instead, Minegishi became interested in music by himself. He was percussionist of a school band in junior high, and later played drums in a band he had formed with his friends at college.
Minegishi kept pursuing his dream of becoming a video game sound designer and applied at Nintendo. After he had passed a composition examination and a written music test, he obtained a job at the sound group of the Entertainment Analysis and Development or EAD division. Minegishi often listens to music at home to make himself familiar with a variety of musical styles. He prefers to create melodies in his head, but composes on the keyboard and the guitar as well. The startup sound for the Nintendo GameCube is one of the musical pieces he had conceived without instruments. Minegishi cites the development of sound effects for Super Mario Sunshine and the creation of 50 compositions from different musical genres for Animal Crossing as some of his greatest learning experiences. He considers video game composer Koji Kondo, the manager of the EAD sound group, as big inspiration and a master of video game sound. Minegishi's first involvement in the Legend of Zelda series was with the composition of three battle themes for Majora's Mask.[3] Later, he was assigned as the main composer for Twilight Princess.