 Mitsuda claims to compose by " just fool [ ing ] around on my keyboard " and letting the melodies come to him . He also sometimes comes up with songs while asleep , including the ending theme to Chrono Trigger and " Bonds of Sea and Fire " from Xenogears , though his main inspiration is visual items , " paintings or other things " . His music is frequently minimalistic , and he has cited Minimalism as an influence . His final battle themes for Chrono Trigger and Xenogears are based on only a few chords each , with the latter containing only two . Mitsuda has listened to a great number of musical genres throughout his life , which he learned from his father , and is especially inspired by jazz music . He is also inspired by Celtic music , and has created two albums of music in that style . His soundtrack for Chrono Trigger also shows the influence of Asian music , including the sounds of Japanese shakuhachi flutes , Indian tabla drums and the sitar . He has cited Maurice Ravel , J.S. Bach , Pyotr Tchaikovsky , Claude Debussy , Robert Schumann , Antonín Dvořák , and Gustav Holst as his favorite Classical composers , claiming that his modern influences are too numerous to name as he listens to so much music . 
