"Travelers' Wanderings" — Behind the Scenes of the Music of Fontaine

Published

《原神》枫丹音乐由HOYO-MiX团队作曲，由伦敦交响乐团与民乐演奏家们合作录制。视频讲述了枫丹音乐的设计理念，记录了枫丹音乐制作思路及枫丹交响乐现场幕后等。
"Travelers' Wanderings" — Behind the Scenes of the Music of Fontaine | *Genshin Impact* is out now!
*Genshin Impact*'s Fontaine OST is composed by the HOYO-MiX team, and the songs featured were recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra with special guest folk musicians. This video tells the story of the Fontaine OST's design philosophy, documents the production concepts underlying Fontaine's music, goes behind the scenes of the Fontaine Live Symphony, and loads more!

## Video

苑迪萌：作为水的国度，枫丹与水元素息息相关。这不仅局限于游戏场景中随处可见的水域以及全新的水下玩法。水流动回旋的特性也融入了枫丹的故事与文化之中。如何通过音乐表达出水的特性，将是我们首要考虑的问题。其次，枫丹借鉴了法国、英国、意大利等国家元素。我们会格外注意与蒙德的中世纪风进行区分。在乐器和风格的设计上既要保证有统一连贯的欧洲风情，又需要有鲜明的枫丹特色。
Yuan Dimeng, Music Producer for *Genshin Impact*: Water is at the center of all things in the Nation of Hydro, Fontaine. Not only will you find bodies of water all over the map that you can dive into and explore, but the theme of flowing water is also a key part of the stories and culture of Fontaine. The first challenge we must face, therefore, is how to express this through music. Secondly, Fontaine has taken inspiration and incorporated elements from France, Great Britain, Italy, and other countries; and we've been very careful to differentiate it from the medieval style of Mondstadt. While ensuring that the instrumentation and overall feel of the music is still distinctly European, we also needed it to have its own unique style.

赵鑫：当时面临的最大的困难，主要是时间紧，任务重。需要大家在短期构思出来一个有效的方案，做出突破。
Zhao Xin, HOYO-MiX Member: The biggest challenge we faced was simply the limited time frame and huge amount of work required. In a short period of time, we had to make an effective plan and come up with something outstanding.

姜以君：在进行创作前，IP跟我们分享了枫丹的设定与故事，包括城市的风貌结构，人文氛围与剧情走向。这些素材也激发了我们对音乐的创作灵感。
Jiang Yijun, HOYO-MiX Member: Before we started, the Creative Concept and Writing Team shared some of Fontaine's background, lore, and stories with us. This included its urban landscapes and aesthetics, cultural atmosphere, as well as the storyline. These materials gave us the inspiration to go and create music.

苑迪萌：水，将枫丹分成水上水下两部分。水上部分，我们更多选择经典的欧洲乐器，例如曼陀林、鲁特琴、维奥尔琴等。同时我们也尝试为枫丹注入一些浪漫气息，例如体现都市时尚感的爵士元素，颇具戏剧感的华尔兹元素以及雍容华丽的巴洛克元素。
Yuan Dimeng: Water divides Fontaine into two parts — the surface world, and the underwater world. For the world on the surface, we mainly chose classic European instruments such as the Mandolin, Lute, and Viol. We also tried to give Fontaine a romantic feel by incorporating jazz elements to bring out its more fashionable and metropolitan side, dramatic waltz elements, as well as refined baroque elements.

Robert Ziegler：我是罗伯特·齐格勒，是这次枫丹录音的音乐总监和指挥。据我了解，《原神》此前的版本吸收了世界各地的多元文化。枫丹的音乐在传统的交响乐团之外基础上更加的“西方”，有一些巴洛克音乐，巴洛克乐器、羽管键琴、鲁特琴等等。上次主要是远东和中东地区，我们将非常有异国情调的木管乐器和中东地区的管乐器的搭配起来。真的，你知道你永远不会在交响乐团旁听到这种组合。每次我们录制新的《原神》音乐时，总是有这种非常令人着迷的组合，因为他们正在利用交响乐来融入不同的全球文化。枫丹音乐有非常爵士乐的东西，那真是太棒了，还有卡巴莱，然后还有非常宏伟慷慨的音乐。我很想听听它与游戏结合在一起时听起来是什么样的。
Robert Ziegler: I'm Robert Ziegler and I'm the music director and conductor of this recording session. As I understand it, each version of the game that comes out takes in a different, sort of part of the world, a different culture. So this time it's fairly western. In addition to the symphony orchestra, there's also some baroque music, some baroque instruments, harpsichord, lutes, and things like that, whereas the last time it was centered more around the Far East and the Middle East. So we had a very exotic mixture of woods and Middle Eastern wind instruments and things that, you know, really, you never hear alongside a symphony orchestra. So each time we come to record a new score, there's this really fascinating mix because they're using the symphony orchestra to sort of lean into a different global culture. There's very jazzy stuff, that's really wonderful. There's more cabaret stuff. And then there's just really big, grand, generous sweeping music. So I'm very interested to hear what it sounds like when it's put together with the game.

车子玉：在水下，我们以电子元素和人声吟唱为主。电子元素更多体现水下的奇幻色彩，人声吟唱使得水下世界更加安静美好，强调「美」和「幻」。我们也想避免玩家在水下体验的过程中有幽闭感，所以在创作时也会注意适当地让音乐轻快悠扬，而不只是神秘。
Che Ziyu, HOYO-MiX Member: Underwater, we mainly used electronic and choral elements. Electronic elements convey the feeling of magical wonder that pervades the underwater world while choral elements express its serene beauty — so together, they impart a sense of wonder and beauty. We wanted to avoid making Travelers feel claustrophobic as they explore underwater, so we tried to retain light-hearted and melodious themes rather than making it purely mysterious.

陈子敏：在人文点与大世界音乐的创作中，我们的风格呈现多元化特征。我基于枫丹整体泛欧洲的风格基调，参考了上至文艺复兴、下至浪漫主义时期的德奥音乐风格，也包含了圣桑、加布里埃尔-弗雷、莫里斯-拉威尔这一谱系的法国音乐风格。枫丹黄昏的原野和天空让我想起《库普兰之墓》中描绘的景色。我也效法拉威尔，在枫丹大世界和人文点中仿写的各类古代音乐风格与体裁，包括文艺复兴时期的牧歌（“Madrigal”）、里切尔卡（Ricercar）以及琉特琴作品。在创作主城音乐时，除了使用近代欧洲的乐器体现城市白天的朝气蓬勃以外，在夜晚音乐中，我也通过模仿复调（Imitation）的手法让音乐在此起彼伏后回归孤寂之中。
Chen Zimin, HOYO-MiX Member: When creating music for cultural contexts and the open world, we went for a diverse and cosmopolitan style. Building on Fontaine's European-style foundations, I referred to German and Austrian music from the renaissance era right up to the period of romanticism, as well as the music of French composers such as Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, and Maurice Ravel. The plains and skies of Fontaine at dusk bring to mind the scenery that Ravel depicts in Le Tombeau de Couperin. I also followed Ravel's example by paying homage to various kinds of even older musical styles and genres, including the madrigals, ricercars, and lute pieces of the renaissance. When creating music for the Main City, aside from using modern European instruments to reflect the city's vitality during the day. I also used imitative polyphony. As a way of bringing the music back down to a lonely ebb at nighttime

苑迪萌：枫丹主题曲比起场景音乐会更加着重叙事。在音乐动机上，我们进行了一些调整。《足迹》中的枫丹旋律与愚人众的主题区分度不太高。再三讨论后我们决定把那段主题给到仆人相关的内容，重新创作枫丹的主题。我选择了三拍子圆舞曲的节奏，让主题听起来更加有名贵的、高雅的气质。
Yuan Dimeng: Compared to the scenic music, Fontaine's main theme required a stronger sense of narrative. As such, we made some adjustments to the leitmotifs. Fontaine's melody in "Travail" was very similar to the Fatui theme, so after careful consideration we decided to reserve it for content related to Arlecchino and create a brand new theme for Fontaine. I chose a triple meter waltz rhythm to give it a refined, elegant quality.

Kate Conway：我参与演奏的《原神》音乐可以说是「新」与「旧」之间真正的碰撞。我们将传统经典的乐器和新乐器结合在一起，创造一个令人兴奋的声音新世界。我认为对我们所有人来说都是崭新的。
Kate Conway, Viola Da Gamba Player: The music for *Genshin Impact* that I've been working on has been a real collision between the old and the new. So we've had old instruments and new instruments coming together, to provide a really exciting new sound world. I think [it's] new for all of us.

苑迪萌：我参考了奏鸣曲式的结构来展现叙事感。奏鸣曲分为呈示部、展开部、再现部三个部分，而展开部作为奏鸣曲最有特色的部分，一般通过旋律的不断变形、展开来推动音乐的叙事。而创作中，我有意强调了展开部的作用，让不同的乐器接连登场，试图描绘出具有悬疑和戏剧感的画面，用蒙太奇的方式将故事推至高潮。
Yuan Dimeng: To heighten the sense of narrative, I decided to go for a sonata form structure. Sonatas are generally composed of three sections — exposition, development, and recapitulation. As the most characteristic section of a sonata, the development relies upon constant changes in melody to carry the musical narrative forward. While writing it, I consciously emphasized the role of the development by introducing different instruments one after another. By doing so, I wanted to generate a feeling of suspense and drama, bringing the story to its climax through an instrumental montage.

Milos Milivojevic：基于我演奏录制的旋律和曲目来看，我认为这是一段非常神秘的音乐。我猜测角色们正在寻找一些特别的东西，有时旋律是欢快的，有时又是悲伤的。有几段旋律真的很令人回味和神秘。
Milos Milivojevic, Accordion Player: Based on the melodies and on [the] tracks that I've been playing and recording, I feel that it's very mysterious music, and I feel that all those characters in the game are really searching for something special. At times, it is very happy. At times, it's also sad. And perhaps even certain melodies are really evocative and mysterious.

苑迪萌：《花与剑的轮舞》这首战斗音乐，用简单的三和弦上行、下行的动机，来象征枫丹「芒性」和「荒性」两种全新的战斗属性。它也是一个贯穿版本任务线的主题。
Yuan Dimeng: The battle theme "Rondeau des fleurs et des rapieres" has a simple motif with triads of ascending and descending notes which represent the two new combat elements in Fontaine, "Pneuma" and "Ousia." It's also a theme that runs through the version questline.

丁谦：在战斗曲《咏歌与凯旋》的构思中，我尝试了几种风格的小样，但最终还是选择了这一首较为欢快、明亮的版本，也是希望能够展现较为流行与现代风格的枫丹音乐。较多的装饰音可以让旋律听起来更加的婉转。三把吉他、铜管组和较多的色彩乐器，让音乐具有「幻想欧洲」的曲风。节奏上的一些变拍处理可以让律动切换得更加频繁，这样不仅能够增加张力且能维持住旋律的新鲜感。这也是区别于以往将主题与动机贯穿音乐慢慢发展的思路，结合了对枫丹地区音乐风格的考量。
Ding Qian, HOYO-MiX Member: For the battle theme "Lamentation et Triomphe," I initially tried sampling different styles but eventually settled on a version which is lively and brisk. I hope that it's able to demonstrate the more popular, modern side of Fontaine's music. The addition of plentiful embellishments keeps the melody gentle while three guitars, a brass section, and a variety of other supplementary instruments give the music a fantasy European feeling. Multimeter elements ensure frequent changes in rhythm which in turn heighten the tension while also keeping the melody fresh. This also marks a departure from our previous approach, where we would allow themes and motifs to run through the music and develop slowly and reflects the unique musical style of Fontaine.

车子玉：我们的录制是远程进行，乐手会在录音前根据谱子给我们一些反馈，比如哪些音超出音域无法演奏，或者演奏效果会不尽人意。他们会推荐同类型的其他乐器演奏。这些讯息对我们来说很有帮助，我们也在调整曲谱的阶段花了很多时间去研究。这些反馈使乐器的录音表现尽善尽美。
Che Ziyu: Our recordings are done remotely at long distance. Before they begin, the musicians will give us feedback about the score. For instance, if there are any notes that exceed their range or the final results are highly likely to be unsatisfactory, they might recommend that we use different instruments of the same type instead. This feedback is very helpful, and we put a lot of time and effort into making adjustments to ensure that the recordings sound as good as they possibly can.

苑迪萌：Glass harmonica在全英国据说仅存两台，其中一台还在博物馆里。玻璃类的乐器演奏难度极大，在录音中不可控地出现了像划玻璃一样的刺耳噪音。对于我们和录音师而言是很难受，却也是蛮新奇的。
Yuan Dimeng: Apparently there are only two glass harmonicas in the whole of the United Kingdom, and one of them is still in a museum. Glass instruments are extremely difficult to play, and during recording they'd often make a harsh noise that sounded like someone was scratching a pane of glass. It was excruciatingly painful to hear for both the recording engineers and ourselves, but it was also quite a novelty.

丁谦：古典吉他是很常见的乐器，但事实上因为我们的曲目难度非常大，加上吉他在按弦的时候需要乐手很强的控制力去控制句法和手指演奏带来的噪音，所以实际在录制和后期编辑上花了非常多的时间。
Ding Qian: The classical guitar is a common instrument, but our pieces are very difficult to play, combined with the fact that the guitarist must exercise precise control when fingering the strings to prevent unwanted noise. This meant that the actual recording process and subsequent editing took a very long time.

赵鑫：这次枫丹OST的制作，HOYO-MiX的一些小伙伴赶赴到了伦敦的Abbey Road线下参与了混音的调整与沟通。
Zhao Xin: During the production of this Fontaine OST album, some of HOYO-MiX's team made their way to Abbey Road in London to participate in the mixing and communication process.

车子玉：混音中，我们主要对一些演奏中乐器无法完美呈现的部分进行修正，比如音高、节奏，细节上的一些调整，往往需要大量的时间。比如我们希望水下的音乐更需要广阔的声场和流动感，或者想要曲子听上去更梦幻更悠扬。面对面的交流会更高效准确。
Che Ziyu: During mixing, we focus on fixing parts where the instruments haven't achieved the optimal effect such as making adjustments to the pitch, rhythm, and other details. This usually takes a very long time. For example, we might want to give the underwater music a wider sound field along with a sense of flow or to make certain tracks sound more dreamlike and melodious. In this kind of situation, face-to-face communication is much more efficient and allows you to pinpoint the things you want changed.

姜以君：同时音乐宣发的同学也在同步推动着枫丹交响乐的现场和MV的拍摄。
Jiang Yijun: Meanwhile, our music publicity team also shot the Fontaine Live Symphony Performance and the music video.

Matt Parkin：所有音乐家们能够最终聚集在这个空间一起演奏让我非常激动。对于枫丹交响音乐现场而言，大家经过数周的音乐录制，在录音棚分声部和小组完成录音后，最终所有人在这里相聚。这实际上是这些音乐家们第一次听到这两首曲子被演奏出来。你可以从音乐家们的表情中发现，当他们听到不同乐器同时演奏时是多么兴奋。
Matt Parkin, Stagecast CEO: I'm really excited that this is the occasion where finally all the musicians come together in one space. And for this concert film, after weeks and weeks recording the music, part-by-part separately in studios with very small groups of players, finally we have them all in one space together. So it's actually the first time these pieces have been heard in their entirety. And you can see that on the musicians' faces actually that they're so excited to hear the sound of all the different instruments playing together.

丁谦：我们还一起参与了音乐宣发同学负责的MV拍摄现场。音乐视觉化呈现给大家之前也经过了一系列的选景勘景、分镜撰写，以及拍摄后期等等复杂的过程。我们和宣发同学都认为，展现交响乐的画面，更加有利于大家理解音乐的全貌。希望大家能够喜欢。
Ding Qian: We also participated in the shooting of the music video led by our colleagues from the publicity team. Before it can be released, it has to go through a complex process of scenery selection, storyboard and script writing, post-production, and so on, together with our colleagues from the publicity team. We think that providing a visual representation of the symphony helps everyone understand the music better. So we hope you all like it.

姜以君：这次去英国的经历对大家而言也非常特别。音乐创作很多时候需要亲身体验才能有所感知。
Jiang Yijun: This trip to the United Kingdom was a very special experience for us all. When creating music, you often have to experience things for yourself to really grasp the essence of what you're going for.

赵鑫：是的，包括当地的音乐，也包括当地的美食。
Zhao Xin: Yes, and that's true for both local music, and local food.

苑迪萌：原神大部分创作是比较传统的管弦乐。因此每个人的创作特色反而会显得更加重要一些，让大家发挥各自的特点，然后融入到我们构想好的大方向中，反而可能会起到意想不到的效果。我们也和旅行者一样，未来还有太多迎接冒险的机会。
Yuan Dimeng: Most of *Genshin Impact*'s creations to date count as somewhat traditional symphony music. That's why everyone's unique creative input is so important. Each of us brings our own individual flair to the table, and when we integrate this with the big picture that we already have in mind. It can have some pretty unexpected results. Just like the Traveler, we still have many opportunities for adventure waiting for us in the future.