3-11 Dragon God

[Mitchr90]

Im listening to the song that plays for the battle against the dragon god right now and i have a question
is the woman singing in japanese or just some sort of gibberish to make the melody?
and if it is japanese, what is she saying?

[Chrono'99]

It's Noriko Mitose, the same woman who sings the ending theme Radical Dreamers. I think it's just some choral vocals, not Japanese.

[FaustWolf]

Has anyone checked the liner notes (which may be in Japanese)? I could have sworn that it was sung in an obscure tribal language, but that could be just a figment of my imagination.

[Jormungand]

Liner notes from Chudah's Corner:

This piece makes use of Yoik vocals and string quartet, on top of which I added a sizeable amount of percussion. To better frame the introductory Yoik vocal, I kept the strings and brass arrangements in the middle simple. I tried playing this battle before there was any music, and thought "what an easy going last boss", but when I put the music in, it became an incredibly up-tempo battle.

"Yoik" is a general term for the traditional folksong and chant of the Sami, northern Europe's indigenous peoples.

The sample used in Dragon God is from a sample CD, not Mitose. You hear vocal samples like this all the time in Mitsuda's scores, and they all originate from ethnic-based CD compilations.

[FaustWolf]

YEAH!! Thanks for looking that up Jormungand!

Wow though, I would have thought it was an East Asian or Australian Aborigine chant or something and not an indigenous European language. Sweet. I think Mitsuda used a vocal sample for Xenosaga's "Song of Nephilim" as well.

[Jormungand]

I think Mitsuda used a vocal sample for Xenosaga's "Song of Nephilim" as well.

Yup. I've heard the same sample used in some pretty random places, though I can't cite specifically where from memory.  The first three notes (two eights and quarter) are one sample and stay the same, while the second note seems to change depending on the source. Sometimes it's omitted altogether (check Xenosaga II's movie scene tracks by Yuki Kajiura). All it is is a sample of a boy soprano singing.

Finding the sources of the vocal samples employed by Mitsuda across his discography would be a study in itself. Considering his fondness of ethnic music from all sorts of cultures, we'd be facing quite a challenge.

[ZeaLitY]

Courtesy of JCE3000GT:

chronofan.com/Black/Other/Chrono%20Cross%20[PSX].rar

Just hit the choral samples.

Chanting: Tower of Stars
Singing 1-4: Dragon God

[Chrono'99]

So it's actually a vocal sample? I've read somewhere that the exact same percussion sequence as the one in Chronopolis can be heard in some unrelated movie... I suppose it's because Mitsuda and the movie used the same sample.

[Jormungand]

So it's actually a vocal sample? I've read somewhere that the exact same percussion sequence as the one in Chronopolis can be heard in some unrelated movie... I suppose it's because Mitsuda and the movie used the same sample.

Correct. The same sample is also used by Hideonori Iwasaki in the opening of Front Mission 4.

[ZeaLitY]

Aha, thanks. I'll add that to the Chronopolis song entry.

[Jormungand]

So it's actually a vocal sample? I've read somewhere that the exact same percussion sequence as the one in Chronopolis can be heard in some unrelated movie... I suppose it's because Mitsuda and the movie used the same sample.

Correct. The same sample is also used by Hideonori Iwasaki in the opening of Front Mission 4.

Sorry guys, I goofed on this one. The sample I'm thinking of appears in "Opening" from Xenosaga Episode I; that is the one that's also used in the FM4 opening.

However, it is still true that the Chronopolis sample is a percussive loop from a sample CD. I still can't remember what film specifically it's used in, but there's probably several anyway.