Jade Empire Music Interview
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Q: Chinese music ranges from region to region; from where did you draw inspiration for the music of Jade Empire?
A: That's a great question! You've obviously done some homework. :) In the beginning, I sat down with Zhiming and discussed this as a way to differentiate themes and areas of the game by breaking instrumentation and style out by geographical regions in China. This proved to be pretty useful for certain pieces of music, but not all. For example, there are 3 or 4 pieces of music that play in the Taverns. These were written with classes of Chinese people in mind. The Emperor and aristocracy would need to incorporate the "golden sound" as Zhiming put it. So, for those we made sure to use Chinese cymbals to accentuate the rhythms. For the rural areas, we would use traditional folk instrumentation to create or utilize an authentic Chinese folk style.