Millions of children – and adults – around the world have experienced the joy of Joe Hisaishi’s music through his nine film scores for Studio Ghibli, and he holds a special place in my own soul because his melodies comprise some of my first memories of symphonic music as a child. Hisaishi’s compositions are memorable because they tell stories, and his empathetic understanding of characters’ emotions allows him to amplify, through music, even the most simple situations. His highly melodic, polystylistic scores – with influences from Western classical, Japanese classical, and electropop-minimalism – have pioneered new levels of nostalgia, ennui, childlike wonderment, and cinematic tone painting while exploring the profound themes put forward by director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
We’re going to start the journey by cheating, because Hisaishi technically began collaborating with Miyazaki on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1983 before the formation of Studio Ghibli. However, Nausicaä happens to be one of Hisaishi’s most epic scores and is emblematic of all the compositional techniques he commonly employs. The film opens with credit slides decorated with bizarre art, ancient cave paintings and mysterious symbols, to introduce the world’s implied history. Hisaishi’s prelude features a timpani roll and brass fanfare which is answered by insect-like skittering in the strings, painting the giant bug-creatures who defend their forest from human armies. Within a minute into the film, the solo piano enters on an authentic Hisaishi melody before drifting to the strings which tonally depict the young princess Nausicaä flying above the deadly pollen spores of the Toxic Jungle after the apocalyptic Seven Days of Fire. I love Miyazaki, but Hisaishi can often say in 2 minutes what it takes Miyazaki to develop in 2 hours. The full score was later worked into a three-movement symphonic poem, and – without spoiling the plot – the end of the first movement accompanies the most intense moment of the film (following the Bachian counterpoint at 4’30” in the video below). Here, the incredible anti-legato restraint – reminiscent of Beethoven’s slow march from his Seventh – pounds the scene passionately into the soul.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
The first official Studio Ghibli film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, captures Miyazaki’s fascination with flight and his spirit of adventure when Sheeta, the girl who fell from the sky, and the young miner Pazu set off in search of a floating island. Pazu, a skilled trumpeter, plays a fanfare at sunrise every morning to wake his mining town. This subtle moment, along with the Laputa theme, was orchestrated into a Haydn-esque concerto in 2004 for Tim Morrison, principal trumpet of the Boston Pops, in a concert conducted by Hisaishi with the New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra.
My Neighbor Tortoro (1988)
The most definitive character of the Ghibli universe has to be Totoro, and as such he has his own theme song. Hisaishi wrote Totoro’s “Stroll” (“sanpo” in Japanese) as a children’s march, with lyrics by Rieko Nakagawa, in fantastic, pop-song kind of way. Throughout the film, sisters Satsuki and Mei remain optimistic as their mother recovers from a life-threatening illness, and throughout My Neighbor Totoro one can hear the joy that exists not only in Hisaishi’s written notes, but also in his approach to performing. In a 2003 concert titled “A Wish to the Moon”, Hisaishi gestures his musicians to smile before signaling the downbeat for an arrangement of “Totoro” for nine cellos and piano.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Kiki’s Delivery Service was the first box office success for Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki said in an interview: “Many of my movies have strong female leads – brave, self-sufficient girls who don't think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart. They'll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man.” Kiki is just that example of a brave, self-sufficient young girl (who also happens to be a witch) who comes of age in a whimsical pan-European seaside town with her sassy cat Jiji. Hisaishi conjures the magic of everyday life through one of his most elaborately orchestrated scores. Hisaishi conducted the piece in the 2008 concert “Joe Hisaishi in Budokan” which commemorated 25 years of Studio Ghibli with over 600 orchestral musicians and choristers.
Porco Rosso (1992)
This comedy-noir tale of an Italian man-pig and his engineer’s daughter Fio in the post-World War I Adriatic is told through Pino Donaggio-esque slow-rag jazz which occasionally morphs into a piano concerto that could hinge the gap between Prokofiev and Shostakovich. A movement from the score, “Madness,” portrays the maniacal minds of the embattled government pilots and rouge pirates. Hisaishi conducted the piece from the piano at the Budokan concert.