作者：Jeriaska

今年初，Christopher Tin成为首个凭借电子游戏音乐作品获得格莱美奖的音乐人。他依靠《初音晨曲》（游戏邦注：该曲是Sid Meier《文明IV》的配乐）获得“最佳器乐编曲伴唱”奖项（Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists）。

tin from gamasutra.com

Tin还凭借专辑《Calling All Dawns》获得格莱美“最佳古典跨界专辑”。这张专辑融入多国语言，作品已授权Firaxi和2K Games，将充当其多人Facebook游戏《Civilization World》的背景音乐。

通过邀请好友在具有延展性的历史空间中互动，《Civ World》延续《Calling All Dawns》的多文化主题。从《初音晨曲》到《Mado Kara Mieru》，再到《Hym Do Trojcy Swietej》，歌曲无不在向各地区和文化的音乐传统表达敬意。

以下是Christopher Tin接受媒体采访的相关内容。

civ 5 from civilization5.indews.com

就如你之前提到的，你玩《文明》已很多年。是否从没想过自己会凭《文明IV》配乐获得格莱美奖？

感觉很特别。这算是完美句点，尤其是《Civ World》如今也采用我专辑的音乐。我从小就是这款游戏的粉丝，有次恰好同该游戏的设计师碰面，他邀请我加入他们，给《文明 IV》配乐。音乐因《文明 IV》一炮而红。从某种程度上讲，这款游戏帮我找到自己的粉丝。

《文明》在我的生活扮演重要角色，我从小就是这款游戏的粉丝，而现在我的事业同这款游戏息息相关。能通过给游戏争取荣誉，回馈游戏，感觉很特别。现在他们又在《Civ World》植入我的音乐，更是深化我们的合作关系。有人问我：我在游戏领域梦想取得的成就是什么，从某种意义上讲，我已实现。那就是《文明》。

《Calling All Dawns》反映世界各地的音乐传统。你关心的是不是在《Civilization World》这样的在线游戏中，玩家能够沿着你专辑设想的路线分享跨文化经历？

当然。就像《文明》游戏融入历史和文化事件一样，我希望《Calling All Dawns》也走相同路线。所有曲目相互贯通，围绕相同主题发展。从某种意义上讲，这是《文明》系列精神在音乐领域的延续。

此时能否透露些许有关你在《Civilization World》项目的参与内容？

根本来讲，整个《Calling All Dawns》专辑都授权给这款游戏。融入多少内容目前尚未确定（游戏邦注：虽然授权协议有规定那些内容不能体现）。例如，音乐不能直接下载，会充当背景音乐，或某些活动的配乐。我也希望了解更多内容。

civ world from 2kgames.com

制作《Calling All Dawns》是个漫长过程，其中遇到许多阻碍因素。其目标是否会显得有些不切实际？

《Calling All Dawns》是从未做过专辑的人才会尝试的类型。专辑在制作方面非常复杂。现在回头看，我怀疑自己是否还会制作类似内容，至少近期不会，整个过程令我筋疲力尽。

整个过程我都在想，这或许会是我唯一一张专辑。如果已经下定决心，最好还是从一而终。我制作这张专辑的原因是我有点厌倦表演形式，我希望制作自己的作品，表达自己的创意。

在确保专辑往正确方向发展这期间你遇到哪些巨大阻碍？

其中挑战在于那些令我措手不及的事件。例如，同唱片公司沟通。从中我学到很多。我想如果现在我重新制作一张类似专辑，我的速度会更快，成本会更少。我犯下许多高代价的错误。这是学习过程的一部分。

作为学习过程，这也能够实现的最佳水平。从中我学到很多，其中包括格莱美音乐领域，之前我对此一无所知。制作《Calling All Dawns》是个辅助学习的过程。

你谈到在这个过程中，你现在更懂得如何阅读合同。对于那些刚接触游戏合同的音乐人，你有什么好的建议？

在音乐业务领域，建立稳定基础非常重要。获悉如何发行以及自己享有多少权利非常重要。就我而言，我对音乐领域的商业运作非常感兴趣。大学没毕业的我甚至还考虑研究法律。

刚开始的时候，你会签下他人递给你的所有文件。但从某种角度看，这常会涉及商业利益，特别是如果你的音乐从某领域跨至另一领域，或从某平台跨至另一平台。把握其中态势，能够以不同方式发挥作品影响非常重要。

从某种角度看，这正是我所采取的策略。我把《初音晨曲》在《文明IV》取得的成就扩展至整个专辑。在当今这个时代，把握选择机会非常重要。

你在格莱美颁奖典礼的获奖感言中说了什么？

我感谢学会，父母，女友，还有电子游戏玩家群体。我说明为什么自己觉得这是个历史性成就，我希望其他电子游戏作曲者也能取得同我一样的成绩。

这也促使格莱美开始考虑专门就视频游戏设立奖项，但我不觉得这会实现，特别是就目前学会开始逐步减少大会奖项情况来看。我觉得游戏作曲者取得非游戏奖项会更有意义。《初音晨曲》获奖过程令人兴奋的一点是，每个音乐类型都有300多个参赛作品。从某种程度看，电子游戏音乐在众多爵士、古典、摇滚和流行音乐作品中脱颖而出是个更大肯定。

你的作品已在Video Games Live的巡回表演中（游戏邦注：这是个电玩音乐会，会在世界各地巡演）现场演奏。洛杉矶E3 2011是你首次表演《初音晨曲》。亲自指挥自己的成名曲是否是你期待已久的事情？

虽然每次上台前总免不了紧张不安，但Video Games Live对音乐人来说是个非常安全的环境。我希望指挥更多曲目，因为自我投身音乐领域以来，我一直都在权衡自己的作曲和指挥事业。

我在大学学过一点指挥，但只在作曲方面有所起色，我发现我发现自己后来开始逐步脱离指挥角色。想要维持我的指挥生涯，我就得找到指挥对象。机会不会自己出现。近来我大概每年只指挥1次，但每次我都非常享受。

你在自己的Facebook页面举办比赛，邀请大家给《初音晨曲》填写歌词。是什么促使你决定同粉丝进行此互动？

我的助理鼓励我通过社交网络多举办些比赛，这似乎颇有趣味趣。我是受到Brentalfloss模仿的启发，我至今依然非常佩服他的作品。近来每当我在脑中清唱《初音晨曲》，总会浮现brentalfloss的歌词。我最喜欢的一段是“Be immortal, rule as you see fit. Just one click you can decree shit”。每次想到这个我都会忍不住大笑。

你如何选出赢家？

我们真的颁发了奖品。Brentalfloss是嘉宾裁判，他选出其中获胜者。我们还选出最受观众喜爱的选手（游戏邦注：这由Christopher Tin自己挑选）。第4名是个小女孩，她完全不符合这些标准，但她在自己的创造中投入很多。她的作品是围绕《哈利·波特》主题，视频中的所有人物都穿上霍格华兹学校的长袍。我不确定自己近期会不会再举办类似活动，但这是个有趣尝试。

现在回头看，有没有哪个《Calling All Dawns》合作伙伴具有特殊意义？

其中有个音乐人是非常棒的合作伙伴，她是Frederica von Stade，她演唱波兰歌曲《Hymn Do Trojcy Swiete》，简直就是个神话。我的专辑是她退休前演唱的最后一个作品。

她从事音乐40年，曾被格莱美奖提名多次，曾在全球众多大型舞台表演。和她合作后，我发现她非常可爱，很有礼貌，而且非常配合。她曾很礼貌地问我，“你喜欢我演唱的方式吗？你希望我进行调整吗？”整个过程我都不敢相信她是在征求我的意见。

她是个非常棒的合作伙伴。一点都没有歌剧红伶的架子。我从中学到的重要一点是，不论你的事业多么成功，保持良好品格才是真正成就所在。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Interview: Christopher Tin – From Grammy Awards to Civilization World

by Jeriaska

Earlier this year, composer Christopher Tin became the first musician to receive a Grammy for music written for a video game. He won the award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for his song “Baba Yetu,” which appears in Sid Meier’s Civilization IV.

An additional Grammy Award was given to Tin for his album Calling All Dawns, in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album. The music collection, featuring songs in multiple languages, has been licensed by Firaxis and 2K Games to appear in the massively-multiplayer Facebook game Civilization World.

By inviting players from around the world to interact in a malleable history-building environment, Civ World reflects the multicultural themes of Calling All Dawns. Songs from “Baba Yetu” to “Mado Kara Mieru” and “Hym Do Trojcy Swietej” pay homage to the musical traditions of many disparate language regions and cultures.

We last had the chance to talk to the musician for a Gamasutra interview following the release of Calling All Dawns in 2009. Here, we catch up with the composer following his unprecedented distinction as a Grammy-award winner for a piece of game music.

As you mentioned previously, you are someone who has played the Civilization games for years now. Is it at all hard to fathom that you would then go on to be recognized at the Grammy Awards for your music for Civilization IV?

Christopher Tin: It feels very special. It’s been this great way of going full circle, especially with Civ World using my album. I was a fan of the game growing up, roomed with one of the game’s designers, and he brought me on board to write music for Civ IV. That music took off and became a hit because of Civ IV. In a way, Civ is the game that found me my audience.

It’s a franchise that has played such an important part of my life, growing up as a fan of the game, but also as someone whose career was essentially made through the game. To be able to give back by lending the game this particular recognition was a special thing for me. And now for them to include my music in Civ World, it’s a further step in this partnership. Some people ask me what my dream job for scoring a game would be, and in a sense I already had it. It was Civilization.

Calling All Dawns reflects on artistic traditions from around the world. Does it interest you that through an online game like Civilization World, people can potentially share a cross-cultural experience along the lines of what you envisioned for the album?

Absolutely. Much in the same way that all of the Civilization games interweave historical and cultural events, I tried to do the same thing with Calling All Dawns. All the songs are interconnected musically and revolve around common themes. In a sense, it was a manifestation of the spirit of the Civilization series in musical form.

What are you able to reveal at this point about your participation in Civilization World?

Basically, the entire Calling All Dawns album has been licensed to appear in the game. It’s not been decided how much will be in there, though there were stipulations in the licensing agreement about how the music cannot appear. For instance, it will not be directly downloadable. Other than that, it could be running in the background or synched to certain gameplay events. I’m curious to find out.

The creation of Calling All Dawns was a very lengthy process with a number of obstacles encountered along the way. Was it at all unrealistic in its ambitions?

Calling All Dawns was the type of album that only a person who’s never done an album before would attempt to do. Logistically, it’s so complex. Even looking back on it now I’m hesitant to do another album like it, at least any time real soon, because it was so exhausting.

The entire time I was thinking that this would probably be my only album. If you’re going to do that, you’d might as well go all the way. Not to mention, at the time the reason I started the album was because I was tired of the scoring gigs and needed something that was my own project and my own creative expression.

What were some of the major obstacles that you managed to overcome in order to steer the development of the album in the right direction?

The challenges came in the things that I was not prepared to do… for example, negotiating with record labels. But I learned a lot by doing it. I think that if I were to go back and do a similar album, it would go a lot faster and I could do it for cheaper. I made a lot of expensive mistakes. It’s part of the learning process.

As a learning experience, it was as good as one could possibly ask for. It exposed me to so many things, not the least of which was the whole Grammy world, which was something I knew nothing about. It was therapeutic to work on Calling All Dawns.

You have mentioned that having gone through this experience, you are now much more comfortable reading over contracts. What advice would you give to musicians who are starting out and are insecure when it comes to contracting for a game score?

Having a good grounding in music business is essential. Knowing how publishing works and what rights you can retain is very important. For myself, I am sort of fascinated by the business side of the music industry, and as an undergad I had actually considered going into law.

When you’re starting out, you’re going to sign anything that people hand you. At a certain point, though, the business aspect becomes very relevant, especially if your music can jump from one industry to another, or from one platform to another. Knowing what’s out there and knowing ways of leveraging what you’ve done in different capacities is very important.

To a certain extent, that’s exactly what I’ve done. I have leveraged the success I’ve had with “Baba Yetu” in Civilization IV into success with a record. In this day and age, knowing what options there are is very important.

What did you say in your acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards?

I thanked the Academy, my parents, my girlfriend, and also the video game community. I talked about how it was a historic win and expressed my hope that other video game composers would get to experience what I experienced.

There has been a big push for the Grammys to start their own category specifically for video games, but I don’t see that realistically happening, especially since recently they’ve been cutting Grammy categories. To me, it’s better if a game composer wins the Grammy in a non-game category. What was exciting about the win for “Baba Yetu” was that there were over 300 submissions across every genre. In a way, for a video game piece to receive the prize over these submissions in categories of jazz, classical, rock and pop is a bigger validation.

On various occasions, your music has appeared at Video Games Live during concert tours. The E3 2011 performance in Los Angeles was the first time you have conducted “Baba Yetu” in this setting. Is conducting performances of your famous composition something you find you can look forward to?

Although there’s always a moment of nervous panic a couple minutes before I have to take the stage, Video Games Live is a very safe environment for a musician. I would like to be doing more conducting, because when I started out in music I was trying to balance both a composition and conducting career.

All through college, I studied quite a bit of conducting, but as the composing side took off, I found I had less and less time to really be involved as a conductor. To actively maintain a conducting career, you have to have someone to conduct. Those opportunities did not present themselves to me. These days I only get to conduct maybe once a year, but I always enjoy it.

On your Facebook page there was a contest inviting people to write their own lyrics to “Baba Yetu.” What made you decide to share this idea with your fanbase?

I had been urged by one of my assistants to do more contests through social media, and it seemed like a fun thing to try. I was inspired by Brentalfloss’s parody, which I still think is genius. These days, whenever I’m singing “Baba Yetu” back to myself in my mind, it’s with brentalfloss’s lyrics. One of my favorite lines is, “Be immortal, rule as you see fit. Just one click you can decree shit.” That cracks me up every time I think about it.

How did you choose the winner?

We actually gave out four awards. Brentalfloss was a guest judge, and he picked one of the winners. Another was chosen for having the most likes on the Facebook page for their entry. One was someone I chose. The fourth was a girl who didn’t fit into any of these criteria, but she put so much into her production. It was Harry Potter-themed, and she filmed a video with everyone dressed up in Hogwarts robes. I don’t know if I’ll do anything like this again any time soon, but it was fun to try.

Are there any collaborations on Calling All Dawns that looking back have had a special significance?

There was one artist in particular that was amazing to work with. That was Frederica von Stade. She sings the Polish song “Hymn Do Trojcy Swiete” and is a legend. My album is the very last recording she made before retiring.

Her career has spanned 40 years, and she has been nominated for many Grammy Awards, performing on many of the world’s biggest stages. At the same time, when it came time to work with her, she was so sweet and so polite, very deferential. She asked me very politely, “Did you like the way I sound? Do you want me to do it differently?” Of course, the whole time I could hardly believe that she was asking me what I thought.

She was amazing to work with. The whole idea of an opera diva does not apply to her. It was a wonderful lesson that no matter how great a career you have, staying a good person is the real achievement.（Source：gamasutra）