Toru Minegishi

Toru Minegishi (峰岸 透, Minegishi Tōru) is a Japanese video game composer, best known for his work on Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. He was raised in a very musical family, and developed an interest in video games and their music from an early age. Minegishi did not receive any special education, but he gained experience as a musician during his school and college years. He later applied at Nintendo, where he became a member of the Entertainment Analysis and Development division's sound group. After he had gained experience with projects such as Animal Crossing, he was assigned to create the startup sound for the GameCube video game console, and became the main composer for the action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Minegishi cites the suite Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky and the works of his fellow co-worker Koji Kondo as his biggest influences.

Biography

Early life

Minegishi grew up in a very musical family; 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 action-adventure 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.^[1]

Career

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 (EAD) division.^[1][2] Minegishi often listens to music at home to make himself familiar with a variety of musical styles.^[1] He prefers to create melodies in his head, but composes on the keyboard and the guitar as well.^[1] The startup sound for the GameCube game console is one of the musical pieces he had conceived without instruments.^[1] 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.^[1] He considers video game composer Koji Kondo, the manager of the EAD sound group, as big inspiration and a master of video game sound.^[1] 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.^[2] Several of his compositions for Twilight Princess were arranged for orchestra by Jonne Valtonen, and performed at the concert Symphonic Legends in September 2010.^[4]

Works

References

External links

• Toru Minegishi at MobyGames
• Toru Minegishi at the Internet Movie Database

The Legend of Zelda series
Main series	Console games The Legend of Zelda The Adventure of Link A Link to the Past Ocarina of Time Majora's Mask The Wind Waker HD Four Swords Adventures Twilight Princess HD Skyward Sword Breath of the Wild Handheld games Link's Awakening Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages Four Swords The Minish Cap Phantom Hourglass Spirit Tracks Ocarina of Time 3D A Link Between Worlds Majora's Mask 3D Tri Force Heroes
Spin-offs	LCD games CD-i games Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon Zelda's Adventure Satellaview games Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland Link's Crossbow Training Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip Hyrule Warriors
Universe	Characters Link Princess Zelda Ganon Navi Epona Tingle Midna Recurring enemies Triforce I am Error It's dangerous to go alone!
Media	Cartoon Comics Gamebooks Hyrule Historia Symphony of the Goddesses
People	Eiji Aonuma Hidemaro Fujibayashi Yoshiaki Koizumi Koji Kondo Yōichi Kotabe Toru Minegishi Shigeru Miyamoto Tadashi Sugiyama Kensuke Tanabe Takashi Tezuka
Companies	Nintendo Animation Magic Capcom DIC Entertainment Flagship Grezzo Tantalus Media Team Ninja Vanpool
Book Category Portal