Music Making in Video Games: Ganon Plays the Organ in Ocarina of Time.

Today in class, I asked the students about their favorite scenes that had music making as a part of them. One of the students mentioned the end of Ocarina of Time, where Ganon plays the organ.  You hear the organ play throughout the beginning of this video, but there's a big increase in dynamic once you enter the chamber where he and the cutscene ensues (5:20 in this video).

I'd totally forgotten about this scene.  I love moments in video games like this where music making is a part of the onscreen action!  What are your favorites?  Leave me a note/ link in the comments so I can check them out.

Musings: Music Making in Video Games: Musicians in Video Games (Mainly Edward, FF4)

I just started reading Karen Collins new book today, Playing with Sound, which seems so interesting and right in line with many of the topics I was thinking about in my last Musing about listening to game audio. How cool!  I can tell it's going to be hard to put down despite my busy week.

And that, somehow, got me thinking back to the Music Making in Video Games series on the blog, which I haven't updated in a long time.  I'll definitely update it a few times this week. One of the most interesting playable game characters to me is the musician. Combining this idea a bit with My Gaming Audio History and the opening pages of Collins new book got me thinking about playing games as a musician.  While Manic Mansion probably had the first musician characters I could play as (and did play as) with Razor and Syd-- who, like me, had blond hair, I played FF 4 much more and always thought about Edward as the first game musician I identified with.

I disliked Edward strongly, and probably still do to some degree. Firstly, as a playable character.  His fighting is weak, as is his defense-- leaving him hiding or dead after he's been struck even once, and in the SNES version, his singing ability is severely neutered. Secondly I disliked him, as an emotional character.  He's wimpy in his decision making, wanting to stay and cry with Anna after her death contrasting with Tellah's strong desire for revenge.  I was never impressed with the Dark Elf harp scene as Edward drags himself from bed to play his harp to save the day.  Even the game description listed him as "of frail constitution."  Frankly, he was not an easy character for me to grapple with as I was playing this game around the same time I was really becoming aware of my own same sex attraction and growing up in a very conservative rural NC environment. Edward embodied a weak, unmasculine (effeminate?) energy.  Part of my rejection of him was certainly a mirror of my dislike and fear of similar traits in myself. Was this what it meant to be a musician?

Here's the initial Edward playing scene for SNES:

And here's the DS dark elf battle:

Beyond Manic Mansion and Final Fantasy 4, later I would loves Celes' opera scene in FF6.  In Final Fantasy 7, I played the pianos in Tifa's room and the Shinra Mansion for WAY too long.  Making up my own melody for the Scarecrow song in Zelda 64 almost transformed Link into a musician, though I often opted for the ultilitarian all right button tune so as not to get confused about which melody I'd settled on for it!  In The Sims, I always made my character a gay musician, practicing the piano for hours. Eternal Sonata is absolutely insane for me right now!  I'll keep thinking more about this, and I'm sure there are examples I've forgotten right now, and even more I don't know of, but game character as musician is a cool connection I've always enjoyed in my gaming experience.

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!

Game Music Online: Gametrailers Pop Fiction Fire Temple Music Video

Again, another blog inspired by my partner, Vince, who's in the country for the next few months before he returns to his European opera singing gigs.  He's very into games as well, so while he's here, he inspires me to investigate new avenues of information.

Yesterday, he played me several of the GameTrailers Pop Fiction videos, I've seen a couple of these before, but remember that they mostly focus on glitches and programming inquires.  What was super cool was to find this one that focuses on music, specifically the chanting background music during Ocarina of Time's Fire Temple.  I hadn't heard about this change before but I really appreciate the level of investigation that's done to game audio here.

The idea of sound effects being used for other games is one that's been on my mind since I saw a tv commercial recently that used the Final Fantasy 6/ Chrono Trigger wind sound as the background effect of the commercial.  (Update: Thanks to a comment below from Kevin, here's a link to the Walsh college commercial.) Interesting that a non-melodic sound effect can become so iconic: of course, the Super Mario 1-Up sound is iconic, but the sound of wind being ingrained in memory?  Well, it is in mine!  The GameTrailers video describes this chanting being used in several different games, each offensive to Muslims and needing to be changed, so reusing sound effects is probably a much more common happening than I know of at this time.  

Do you know of games that re-use sound effects?  If so, leave me a note in the comment section as this is something I want to investigate more.  

Game Music Online: Game Music Mashups: Chrono Jigga and Ocarina of Rhyme

My partner sent me a link to 2Mello's mashup of Jay-Z and the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, Chrono Jigga.  My daily work has me firmly in the classical music scene and I don't really follow pop music very much at all, so while I like all styles of music, I have to rely on others to keep me in touch with pop music and especially rap, which lies outside of my normal musical radar.  If you like game music and you like rap, you should check this out because it's really well done.  My favorite track is unquestionably An Encore in Time.  Not only do I love Mitsuda's Corridor of Time, but the rapping seems to fit so seemlessly with the music.  And then there are tracks like Masamune Problems, where the game music is quite altered to make it fit with the rap-- significantly less clever for me, but still interesting to hear.  

This album was eye opening to me because I'm not familiar with the idea of a "mashup." At least, not that word, although the idea is definitely one that I've worked with, but under the guise as a "multiple piece arrangement" or a "medley."  I just heard similar techniques on Glee last night with Bye Bye Bye and I Want it That Way Mash-Up.

I also found an Ocarina of Time Remix by Team Teamwork when I was looking for more information about this kind of music.  Perhaps for a game music audience, coming at game music from a more popular vantage point, this kind of music is already known or expected.  For me, though, it's very creative, new, and interesting.  While I haven't ever made a piece like this, I understand the principles of how it's done with audio software.  Very cool.

Do you know of other mashups involving Video Game Music?  If so, let me know about them so I can give them a listen!

Game Music Online: Audio mentioned in G4 Top 100 Video Games: Part 5

And the final of the best of the best list.  The top games of all time whose music was worthy of being highlighted in G4's series.  I've learned a lot from this process and will reflect on it in a journal follow up next.  Enjoy!



13 Portal:  GLaDOS-- computer female voice-- a "you're being taunted by HAL's sarcastic sister with her very pleasant speaking voice and her passive aggressive nature."  -Todd Stashwick  This is the highest spoken game audio highlight.  Not a game I know, but one I definitely think I should check out.

12 Doom II:  One of the members of Soundgarden mentions dreaming about the audio effects in Doom II.  I've dreamed about all kinds of music-- definitely game audio as well-- but never thought about the importance of this level of musical engagement with game music.  As a classical musician, I regularly dream about operas/musicals/chamber music/ songs that I'm studying.  I've definitely done it with game music before, but interesting to really consider how deeply this sound event enters our consciousness.

11 Zelda 64 (Ocarina of Time):  "Adding to the Legend were the music moments made possible by the Ocarina."  "They completely integrated this thing where you actually got to play the music in Zelda."  "So to call your horse, you actually play its song."  Music is such a central part of the Zelda series and why I love it so much.  I'm interested to consider some of the newer additions to the series-- I think Skyward Sword has incredible music.

6 Legend of Zelda  "LoZ mixed a high fantasy adventure with some of the most memorable music and sound effects in gaming history."  "The whole Zelda series is one of the most powerful pavolvian audio experiences you can have in terms of the sound effects you hear that trigger crazy reactions in your body." --Tim Schafer

5 Tetris  "most obnoxious get stuck in your head music ever"  -Claire Grant.  I love this music-- and as I know it, a Russian folk song.

1 Super Mario Bros:  Introduced by nearly all the hosts singing a part of the theme song put together in a montage.  I used to play this game at the local Pizza Hut growing up.  The audio was life changing.  Incredible.  An article about this game audio inspired me, in part, to start this blog!

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.