Musings: A moment of brilliance in Skyward Sword's Wiimote calibration.

I've been playing a bit of Skyward Sword recently, listening for thematic transformation in Groose's theme, which I remember noticing on my first playthrough.  While doing this, I almost noticed the most interesting connection between the startup sound and the main theme.

Here's the Skyward Sword Main theme.  Listen especially to the first four ascending notes at 11 sec.  Notice the pattern of them: long-- short-short-short.

Now give a listen to the first six seconds of this video, the very first four sounds you hear when you start Skyward Sword where the Wii remote is calibrating.  Notice the same first four notes of an ascending minor scale?  The same long-- short-short-short pattern?

Of course, this could've sounded like anything, but how clever to have it sound as the main theme of Skyward Sword?  A very subtle, clever use of the main theme motive!!!

Game Music Online: Skyward Sword Theme Reversed

Recently, while searching on the internet for some information about some Zelda sound effects.  I stumbled upon something that's probably old news to many Skyward Sword fans, but was new to me and may be to some game music lovers.  I'll lay it out here so you can go from a complete zero to understanding the theme's reversal:

Here's Zelda's Lullaby, which to my knowledge was first heard in Ocarina of Time (1998).  This is one of the first melodies you learn to play in the game on your Ocarina:

And here's the Main Theme to Skyward Sword (2011):

Now, what's cool is that the brass melody is literally a reversal of Zelda's Lullaby.  I confirmed this is legitimate by reversing the audio this morning using Audacity.

As a note, the harmonic progression of the theme when set for Skyward Sword allows the reversal to work fairly well.  In Ocarina of Time, the harmonic progression isn't really meant to be played backward, so while you can flip that theme and hear thus hear the Skyward Sword Theme, the harmonic progression underneath the melody sounds pretty bizarre, where as the Skyward Sword reversed still sounds more ok to the ear.  Of the top of my head, I can think of examples by Berg and Hindemith that do much the same thing in classical music-- an "old trick" if you were, but it's clever and captures the musical imagination.

For more explanation on the musical nuts and blots of why this work I suggest checking out an incredible entry I found on Jason Brame's blog: 8-bit Analysis.  In his entry about Skyward Sword, he explains the harmonic progression of the theme and transcribes it in standard music notation which makes it easy to see how the theme is reversed.  His blog is amazing and is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in.  I love that Jason and I are both UNC graduates!  I'm going to spend some time reading the entries and checking it out more in the coming days.

I wonder who first discovered this reversal...  Does anybody know or have a way to check how this was first discovered?  Do folks really sit around and record/reverse audio within days of a gametrailer being released to try to decode secret messages?  (If so, I want to meet you!)  Was this a clever bit of marketing to generate internet buzz for the game?  Skyward Sword does have an incredible sound track and it was the 25th anniversary of The Legend.  I love that there's so much internet buzz about this theme!

Live Performances: The Legend of Zelda Timeline

Tonight, I watched The Legend of Zelda Timeline movie from gametrailers.com.  While there's no specific mention of the game music in the video, it's fun to hear snippets of the game music.  Immediately I realized that most of the soundtrack seems to be from the Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary CD that came with Skyward Sword.  Of course, I've listened to that MANY times already.  The credits list Zelda Reorchestrated and Twilight Symphony as the other sources of music.  These sites are in their infant stage (much like my own blog) and I hope to see them grow over time.

The coolest thing I found as a result of watching this video is this incredible guitar cover of my favorite theme from Skyward Sword, Faron Woods.

Surverying Literature: Zach Wahlen's Play Along-- An Approach to Videogame Music

I'm first and foremost a classically trained, scholarly musician, so the idea of studying anything evokes in me the desire to survey printed literature.  Therefore, as I continue my quest of video game music study, it only makes sense to take note of what's already been written on the subject.  Thus, today I'm introducing a series that will be a staple of this blog: Surveying Literature.  Blogs under this label will follow my study of any printed (and occasionally visual) literature on game music, detailing what I've read and my reaction to it.

I've been perusing scholarly journals for articles on the topic, but sources are limited.  Of course, the modern scholar must scan the internet-- as it's undoubtedly a playground for research.  Perhaps this is even more true in the case of video game music because of the similarities between the internet/computer use and video gaming.  In any case, a google search of "video game music" has a reading list that I'm progressing through.  First on it, Zach Wahlen's article in The International Journal of Computer Game Research, "Play Along--An Approach to Videogame Music."  While this article is particularly scholarly in tone, with an undoubtedly complex lexicon for non-musicians, as well as being lengthy for the casual reader, it's definitely a worthwhile read if you're a nerd about video game music like me!

Though the target audience is not the casual player, Wahlen's article is a good introduction in some ways because it presents presents a formal argument for what to me seems intuitive: the right to compare video game music and film music.  Surely we must, no?  Both involve moving images interplay with music.  That said, video game music possesses unique qualities that make it different from film music, necessitating a different analytical lens... something more to think about.

An interesting point this film music/video game music comparison brings up is a reminder to carry over the distinction found in film music between diegetic and non-diegetic music-- that is, music that only we as audience members are aware of versus music that characters in the game hear.  Similarly, Wahlen also emphasizes a distinction between "sounds" (sound effects) and "music" in video games. 

For me, the most interesting writing is in Wahlen's analyses of different Super Mario Bros and Ocarina of Time video game music and sounds.  These are two games I've played many times and whose soundtracks I can recall on demand.  Here, Wahlen presents his main point: that the aural experience of video games makes them more compelling and helps to draw the player more vividly into them.  He supports this with examples of both music and sounds.  For instance, the mimetics of Super Mario's jump making an octave lower sound when he's large versus the higher octave when he's small Mario.  Or the effect that the "hurry up" music has in the final minute of the level-- a warning siren before the music doubles in tempo-- a sound that can make me feel more anxious just by thinking about it!

In Ocarina of Time, I've felt, but never formed into conscious thought, the effect of hearing the background music playing themes before you learn them on your Ocarina, so that when the game point becomes learning the melody on the Ocarina, "players experience feelings of déjàvu as the melodies they must learn have an eerie familiarity."  On the other hand, even the casual gamer relies on the blatant "danger" music to announce monsters in this game as well as the most recent Zelda game that's still got my arm sore, Skyward Sword.  If I'd played Silent Hill, I'm sure that section would have resonated more with me, but it's not a game I know. 

The bibliography and mentioned authors are people to investigate further.  I've put this info into my reading list and I'll have more on them as I peruse them.