Grant Kirkhope

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Grant Kirkhope

Grant Kirkhope is a former music composer for Rare. He was the primary music composer for the Banjo-Kazooie series, also providing the voice of Mumbo Jumbo in the series.

Grant Kirkhope announced in July 2008 that he would be leaving Rare, and Friday July 18, 2008 marked Grant's final day at the company. His final soundtrack before leaving was that of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. He is currently employed at Big Huge Games as an audio director.

On March 17, 2009, it was announced that Big Huge Games was in danger of being closed,[1] however it was later announced on May 27, 2009 that Big Huge Games had finally been bought by 38 Studios, saving it from closure.[2]

Contents

Biography

Grant Kirkhope was raised in Knaresborough in North Yorkshire where he attended King James' School with another trumpet player and close friend Tim Kellett - most notable from his performance in simply red. After leaving the Royal Northern College of Music, Grant played in several bands with his trumpet, and finally at the age of 33, Grant was hired at Rare in October of 1995. Working at Rare, Grant worked as the Video Games Composer and Audio Designer - starting work on Donkey Kong 2: Diddy Kong's Quest, converting it from the SNES, to the Gameboy. After this, Grant went on to work on the soundtrack for Goldeneye 64, being one of the only games where the Monty Norman theme was allowed in the soundtrack. Afterwards, Grant joined the Donkey Kong team to work on the mysteriously titled Project Dream. However, after many changes, Dream was transformed into Banjo-Kazooie, another platformer, with hopes to become as big as the Donkey Kong franchise. Grant worked on all of the audio design and and composed all of the game's music. It was announced in 2008 that Grant would be resigning from Rare, and from there he went on to work as an audio director at Big Huge Games.

Composing Techniques

In general, but most notably in the Banjo-Kazooie Series, Kirkhope tried to write his music into a corner, then find an unorthodox way of getting back to the melody. As an augmented fourth is the biggest interval from any note, a recurring C natural to F sharp pattern occurs commonly throughout his Banjo-Kazooie music.

Nominations

Kirkhope was also nominated for several awards during for his music whilst at rare. The list is as follows:

  • 2004 - Outstanding Achievement In Original Music Composition at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Wards Ceremony. This nomination was for Grant's work on Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
  • 2004 - Best Interactive Score at the 2nd Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards Ceremony, again, for his work on Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
  • 2008 - Best Original Score at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, this time for his work on Viva Piñata.

Trivia

  • The Springtime version of the Click Clock Wood theme from Banjo-Kazooie was the first piece of music he wrote for the series.[1]
  • Nabnut's squirrel theme was written in less than ten minutes.
  • Grant wrote 107 tunes for the unfinished Project Dream.[1]
  • The beta theme to Mumbo's mountain was scrapped from the final product after it was decided it didn't fit the level's atmosphere. However, you can still hear a portion of the song in Ticker's Tower.

Soundtracks

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Grant Kirkhope.com - Dream Music Compositions
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