Fabian Del Priore
Encyclopedia
Fabian Del Priore is a composer
, arranger
and sound designer
. He started composing on the Commodore C64
home computer
, collected synthesizers since he was 14 and took private piano lessons for ten years. Also, he has become an established tracker musician, known as "Rapture".
It was not before the age of 16 until his career as a professional game musician started. After sending a demo tape to Chris Hülsbeck
, Fabian became a freelancing
composer, arranger and sound designer at Chris' company Synsoniq Records for computer- and video games.
In the same year, still being 16 Fabian experienced his breakthrough as a professional composer. He made music for his first computer game soundtrack
which was over 60 Minutes of CD audio- and midi Music for Blue Byte's
Extreme Assault
, a first-person shooter
/ helicopter action game for PC
DOS / Windows
platforms. Fabian produced the biggest part of the soundtrack in co-operation with Chris Huelsbeck. Being one of the most well-known computer games 1997 in Europe, it gained positive reviews in printmags, with high music ratings too, which gave Fabian further motivation to pursue his career.
Fabian was gradually involved in numerous video and computer games and produced soundtracks for games like Menateus, the official computer game for the Expo 2000
World Exhibition, Cultures 2: The Gates of Asgard by Funatics Development, Cold Zero by JoWood Productions, Hotel Giant or Chicago 1930
by Spellbound
. Since then, he build up a professional midi / audio production studio
where he is still working on game soundtracks and music for multimedia, television and other productions.
In 1999, producer Thomas Böcker
and Fabian had the idea to create Merregnon
, a world wide project where renowned composers from the computer games and the demo music scene were asked to compose music for the adventures and the surroundings of the characters in orchestral music style. The result of their work has been put together on an exclusive CD which gained international success. In spring 2004, the second part of the Merregnon CD trilogy was released. During his work, Fabian gained his first knowledge and experience in orchestration and in writing scores for Symphony Orchestras
. During the production of Merregnon Vol. 2, he worked together with members of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
).
Furthermore, Fabian was musically involved in the first symphonic game music concert
in the world (outside of Japan), which was the opening concert of the Games Convention
2003, the biggest trade show for computer and video games in Europe, and took place on August 20, 2003 in the famous Gewandhaus
in Leipzig, Germany. Over 2,000 People visited the concert and gave it positive reviews. Fabian composed and arranged two music pieces for the concert, parts of the Merregnon
2 Suite and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker by Nintendo written by Koji Kondo
. The concert has been performed live by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra
. In the following year, the second symphonic game music concert took place in Leipzig as part of the "Games Convention 2004" opening ceremony, performed by the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra, where Fabian produced three music pieces: The Secret of Monkey Island
, Turrican
and Metal Gear Solid
and worked as synthesizer programmer for the concert.
In August 2005, the third Games Convention concert was held, again in the Gewandhaus
in Leipzig, where Fabian was responsible for the musical arrangement of the piano part of Chrono Cross
.
In January 2006, four school concerts, titled "Helden unserer Phantasie" ("Heroes of our Imagination"), featuring video game music were held in Germany, performed by the Neue Elbland Philharmonie Orchestra. The "Merregnon Soundtrack - Volume 2 - Suite" (as performed at the GC Games Convention Concert 2003) with 4 minutes of music composed by Fabian was played at all four concerts.
Also in 2006, the first worldwide video game concert tour, titled PLAY! A Video Game Symphony
was announced where Fabian works as music arranger. The concert tour was successful in 2007 as well and has been extended to 2008 with concerts all over the world.
Since 2006, Fabian also works together with Dynamedion, Germany's biggest label for game music, as composer and sound designer especially for handheld video games.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
and sound designer
Foley artist
Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to...
. He started composing on the Commodore C64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
, collected synthesizers since he was 14 and took private piano lessons for ten years. Also, he has become an established tracker musician, known as "Rapture".
It was not before the age of 16 until his career as a professional game musician started. After sending a demo tape to Chris Hülsbeck
Chris Hülsbeck
Chris Hülsbeck is a video game music composer from Germany.He has written soundtracks for more than 70 titles, the latest being Star Wars: Rebel Strike for Nintendo GameCube. Many of his scores for the Commodore 64 are regarded as classics among enthusiasts today, most notably The Great Giana...
, Fabian became a freelancing
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
composer, arranger and sound designer at Chris' company Synsoniq Records for computer- and video games.
In the same year, still being 16 Fabian experienced his breakthrough as a professional composer. He made music for his first computer game soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
which was over 60 Minutes of CD audio- and midi Music for Blue Byte's
Blue Byte Software
Ubisoft Blue Byte is a video game developer based in Düsseldorf, Germany, founded in 1988. The company has produced popular titles like Battle Isle and The Settlers. In 2001, the company was purchased by Ubisoft.-History:...
Extreme Assault
Extreme Assault
Extreme Assault was a personal computer game developed by Blue Byte Software. It was released in 1997. The games revolves around the player assuming control of the fictitious Sioux AH-23 helicopter to battle space aliens....
, a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
/ helicopter action game for PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
DOS / Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms. Fabian produced the biggest part of the soundtrack in co-operation with Chris Huelsbeck. Being one of the most well-known computer games 1997 in Europe, it gained positive reviews in printmags, with high music ratings too, which gave Fabian further motivation to pursue his career.
Fabian was gradually involved in numerous video and computer games and produced soundtracks for games like Menateus, the official computer game for the Expo 2000
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
World Exhibition, Cultures 2: The Gates of Asgard by Funatics Development, Cold Zero by JoWood Productions, Hotel Giant or Chicago 1930
Chicago 1930
Chicago 1930 is a 2003 video game developed by Spellbound Entertainment and published by Wanadoo Edition.The game is based in the American city of Chicago in the 1930s, an era heavily associated with gangsters...
by Spellbound
Spellbound (computer game)
Spellbound is a computer game that was designed and programmed by David Jones with music by Rob Hubbard and released in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC home computers...
. Since then, he build up a professional midi / audio production studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
where he is still working on game soundtracks and music for multimedia, television and other productions.
In 1999, producer Thomas Böcker
Thomas Böcker
Thomas Böcker is an award winning German producer notable for his innovative works on numerous orchestral concerts, game scores, and album releases...
and Fabian had the idea to create Merregnon
Merregnon
Merregnon is a soundtrack CD project for which video game music composers contribute new titles. By writing orchestral music the artists tell a story taking place in a newly created fantasy-universe....
, a world wide project where renowned composers from the computer games and the demo music scene were asked to compose music for the adventures and the surroundings of the characters in orchestral music style. The result of their work has been put together on an exclusive CD which gained international success. In spring 2004, the second part of the Merregnon CD trilogy was released. During his work, Fabian gained his first knowledge and experience in orchestration and in writing scores for Symphony Orchestras
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. During the production of Merregnon Vol. 2, he worked together with members of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
).
Furthermore, Fabian was musically involved in the first symphonic game music concert
Symphonic Game Music Concert
The Symphonic Game Music Concerts are a series of award-winning, annual German video game music concerts initiated in 2003, notable for being the longest running and the first of their kind outside of Japan...
in the world (outside of Japan), which was the opening concert of the Games Convention
Games Convention
The Games Convention, sometimes called the Leipzig Games Convention and abbreviated as GC, was an annual video game event held in Leipzig, Germany, first held in 2002. Besides video games, the event also covers Infotainment, Hardware, and Edutainment...
2003, the biggest trade show for computer and video games in Europe, and took place on August 20, 2003 in the famous Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
in Leipzig, Germany. Over 2,000 People visited the concert and gave it positive reviews. Fabian composed and arranged two music pieces for the concert, parts of the Merregnon
Merregnon
Merregnon is a soundtrack CD project for which video game music composers contribute new titles. By writing orchestral music the artists tell a story taking place in a newly created fantasy-universe....
2 Suite and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker by Nintendo written by Koji Kondo
Koji Kondo
is a Japanese video game composer and sound director who has been employed at Nintendo since 1984. He is best known for scoring numerous titles in the Mario and The Legend of Zelda series.-Early life:...
. The concert has been performed live by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
The Česká filharmonie is a symphony orchestra based in Prague and is the best-known and most respected orchestra in the Czech Republic.- History :...
. In the following year, the second symphonic game music concert took place in Leipzig as part of the "Games Convention 2004" opening ceremony, performed by the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra, where Fabian produced three music pieces: The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series...
, Turrican
Turrican
Turrican is a 1989 video game programmed and designed by Manfred Trenz. It was first developed for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts, but was ported to other systems later. In addition to concept design and character creation, Trenz personally programmed Turrican on the Commodore 64...
and Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
and worked as synthesizer programmer for the concert.
In August 2005, the third Games Convention concert was held, again in the Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
in Leipzig, where Fabian was responsible for the musical arrangement of the piano part of Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...
.
In January 2006, four school concerts, titled "Helden unserer Phantasie" ("Heroes of our Imagination"), featuring video game music were held in Germany, performed by the Neue Elbland Philharmonie Orchestra. The "Merregnon Soundtrack - Volume 2 - Suite" (as performed at the GC Games Convention Concert 2003) with 4 minutes of music composed by Fabian was played at all four concerts.
Also in 2006, the first worldwide video game concert tour, titled PLAY! A Video Game Symphony
Play! A Video Game Symphony
PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is a concert series that features music from video games performed by a live orchestra. The concerts from 2006 to 2010 were conducted by Arnie Roth...
was announced where Fabian works as music arranger. The concert tour was successful in 2007 as well and has been extended to 2008 with concerts all over the world.
Since 2006, Fabian also works together with Dynamedion, Germany's biggest label for game music, as composer and sound designer especially for handheld video games.
Video Game References
Excerpts of Fabian Del Priore's Video Game Projects:- Giana Sisters DS
- Cultures 2: The Gates of Asgard
- Extreme AssaultExtreme AssaultExtreme Assault was a personal computer game developed by Blue Byte Software. It was released in 1997. The games revolves around the player assuming control of the fictitious Sioux AH-23 helicopter to battle space aliens....
- Chicago 1930
- Cold Zero: No Mercy
- Hotel Giant
- Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Crazy Maze
- Northland
- 8th Wonder of the World
- Menateus (EXPO 2000)
- Elkware (30 mobile games)
- Emergency: Fighters For Life
- Perry Rhodan: Operation Eastside
- Stealth Combat
- UPIXO In Action: Mission in SnowdriftlandUPIXO In Action: Mission in SnowdriftlandUPIXO In Action: Mission in Snowdriftland was a Flash-based platforming game created by Extra Toxic, with help from Nintendo. Doubling as a game and an advent calendar advertising different Nintendo products, every day from December 1 to December 24, 2006, an extra level was added to the game...
(Online Nintendo game) - Chick Chick BoomChick Chick BoomChick Chick Boom was an online Flash game created for Easter 2007 by Extra Toxic and sponsored by Nintendo of Europe. The game launched on April 3, 2007 and was only playable through the month of April...
(Online Nintendo game) - THINK Logik Trainer (Nintendo DS)
- CrossworDS (Nintendo DS)
- Viper
- WarGames
- X: Beyond the FrontierX: Beyond the FrontierX-Tension was released as an expansion to X:BTF; however, many gamers and reviewers consider it more a "sequel" than an "add-on". It follows on after the story in X: BTF, with "the evil Xenon vanquished" and the player "still stranded light years from home." The player once again takes control of...
- X-Tension
- X-Gold
Discography
Excerpts of Fabian Del Priore's CD Discography:- 1997: Extreme Assault Soundtrack
- 1997: Incubation Soundtrack
- 1997: Frankfurt Beat (Yellow Box)
- 1997: Worms 2 Soundtrack
- 2000: Merregnon Soundtrack Vol. 1
- 2000: Interstellar Harmony Vol. 2
- 2001: Back in Time 3 – A Space Odyssey
- 2002: Remix 64 Vol. 1
- 2002: Immortal 2
- 2004: Merregnon Soundtrack Vol. 2
- 2005: Revival ST
- 2005: Merregnon Soundtrack Vol. 2 Japanese Edition
- 2006: Immortal 3
- 2006: Rapture Of The Deep - Essentials (iTunes Album)
- 2007: Tunnel Chill Zone Part 2 (Sony BMG)
- 2007: Chris Hülsbeck - Number Nine
- 2008: Jogeir Liljedahl - Out of Silence
- 2009: PLAY! A Video Game Symphony Live!
- 2011: Immortal 4
Concert Events
- GC - Games Convention Game Music Concerts 2003, 2004 and 2005
- Four school concerts featuring video game music titled "Heroes of Imagination" (2006)
- Play! A Video Game SymphonyPlay! A Video Game SymphonyPLAY! A Video Game Symphony is a concert series that features music from video games performed by a live orchestra. The concerts from 2006 to 2010 were conducted by Arnie Roth...
(first worldwide Video Game Concert Tour), 2006, 2007 and 2008
External links
- Del Priore Sounddesign
- Rapturemusic
- Merregnon Studios
- VGM Concerts
- Remix64 Interview Carr, Neil (Jan. 20, 2001)