the legend of zelda symphony

8/9/2019 The Legend of Zelda Symphony

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One of the most beloved video game series of all time, The Legend of Zelda

continues to captivate fans with its gameplay, story, and music. So much so it was

decided to arrange a symphony based on the soundtrack, The Symphony of the

Goddesses. t is a four movement suite where each movement takes music from a

speci!c game. The games"movements are The Legend of Zelda# Ocarina of Time,

$ind $aker, Twilight %rincess, and & Link to the %ast. The Legend of Zelda#

Symphony of the Goddesses incorporates already e'isting compositional techni(ues

along with a new approach to how music is written.

Symphony of the Goddesses in calls back to a very old compositional

techni(ue known as the leitmotif. The leitmotif is a method in which places, ideas,

or characters in a story are connected to a musical idea. This theme can then return

later to signify a bigger meaning to the overall e)ect. n Symphony of the

Goddesses, we can see leitmotifs throughout the whole piece. The biggest e'amples

would be Zelda*s Lullaby, +#-#/0 Ganon*s theme +1#2/0, and the 3ero*s theme

+#45#6-0. &ll three of these melodies are played amidst other musical ideas. This is

done to show how throughout all four games these three characters are connected

and involved in the story*s plot. 7or e'ample in $ind $aker, when Link is on the

pirate ship you can hear the pirates theme played but at one point we brie8y hear

Zelda*s Lullaby. This is to foreshadow that the captain of the ship, %etra, is really

%rincess Zelda.

This connection between the three themes can also be related to the game

lore in that the three characters the themes are based o) of contain part of the

Triforce of %ower. Thus they are all !ght each other and di)erent incarnations of

each other throughout time which is represented by the presence of all three

themes in all four movements.


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The Symphony of the Goddesses is unlike any other symphonic work in that it

takes music that was meant solely for a video game background and turns it into a

symphony meant to be heard for the sake of the music. The soundtrack of the

games is meant to set the atmosphere and general mood of a scene. &s such, a

ma9ority of the music is designed to loop upon itself, never really resolving

anywhere strong. One melody that does this is the Lost $oods theme +2-#40, which

resolves it*s : chord at the end of the phrase to an arpeggio in a tritone. The way

the composer solves this problem is by writing variations of the melodies to show a

stronger resolution. Sometimes, though, he 9ust puts in a small pause after the end

of the phrase. n this way, the listener is treated as a player and sometimes the

player would move between areas with no transition and the music would abruptly

shift.

This Symphony also plays with the idea of nostalgia for the listener. Someone

that would go to this concert would have already heard all of this music so they

would recogni;e themes. &t the same time though, someone who never would have

heard of this music could still go to the concert and en9oy the performance. The

audience is very di)erent from your typical orchestra audience. $hen the hero*s

theme was heard, they applauded in the middle of the piece because they were

e'cited to hear what was once only in ou can hear

people crying during the opening theme of Ocarina of Time because they are

overwhelmed with nostalgia for their childhood game. The reason this is signi!cant

is because this work of music was not made for music*s own sake but rather what

the music represented in the games. The music enriched the gaming e'perience, so

much so that by 9ust listening to the soundtrack, the listener could replay the game

in his or her mind.


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The Legend of Zelda series is not the !rst to have done this. $e can see other

video game and movie franchises doing something similar. 3oward Shore arranged

a symphony based o) of his soundtrack to Lord of the ?ings and many orchestras

around the world are playing more soundtrack performances. The reason is because

this is the new music of present. There is so much music being created for video

games and people want to hear it live. There even has been a branch of musicology

being studied now called Ludomusicology that focuses speci!cally on video game

soundtracks.

the legend of zelda symphony

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