Context Xenogears entered development in 1996 and was released in 1998. The game's soundtrack was Yasunori Mitsuda's first major solo work, as his previous soundtracks were collaborations with other composers with the exception of the score to
Radical Dreamers, which never saw an album release. Mitsuda worked closely with
Masato Kato, the event planner and script writer of
Xenogears, to compose the score. Mitsuda considered it hard at times to maintain his motivation throughout the whole two-year period, especially since he had to wait for the end to see the most dramatic tracks implemented. The development team wanted to have a
Western singer contribute to the score. Mitsuda initially had difficulties finding an artist that matched his vision, but eventually chose
Joanne Hogg from the
Celtic band
Iona after stumbling upon their album
The Book of Kells in a CD store and listening to the song "Chi-Rho". Hogg was enthusiastic in contributing as it was her first video game-related recording. She did not play the game for the project, however. "Stars of Tears", one of the songs included on the soundtrack album, did not appear in the final version of the game. It was originally intended to play in a
cut scene at the start of the game along with the main staff credits. The scene, however, was removed for pacing issues, as it would have made the combined opening movie and introduction scenes last roughly ten minutes. Another song on the soundtrack, "Small Two of Pieces ~Broken Shards~", was the first ending theme with sung lyrics to ever appear in a game developed by
Square. Mitsuda felt that composing for the game was very difficult due to the unfamiliarity of most Japanese with foreign traditionals, but expressed his wish for listeners of the soundtrack to open up to music from all over the world. rather than making either "dense" Celtic music or simple
background music. Other influences on the soundtrack include
Arabic music on the desert town theme "Dazil, Town of Scorching Sands", and
religious music, in keeping with the game's storyline. Mitsuda explained that he wanted music that "felt religious, but from a different angle". The choral track, titled "The Beginning and the End", was performed by a 41-voice choir named The Great Voices of Bulgaria and features lyrics written by Tetsuya Takahashi.
Recording The instrumental tracks of the score were programmed with the
PlayStation sound module in
Tokyo, Japan, while "The Beginning and the End" was recorded live in
Sofia, Bulgaria. Hogg's songs were recorded in two days in
Dublin, Ireland in 1996; they featured the Riverdance musician
Davy Spillane on
low whistle. The composer collapsed during the soundtrack mastering process due to exhaustion, and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. The score involved in total nearly a hundred people. == Reception ==