A Legacy in Gaming Soundtracks

Part 1:Introduction

Soundtracks have been a staple of digital media for over a century and a line can even be drawn between the Soundtracks of the modern age and Classical composers writing Absolute and Descriptive Music based on poems (Sorcerer's Apprentice) or plays (Hamlet).

          In the modern age, since the 1980s, one form of Soundtrack that has become word-renowned and warranted study is Video Game Soundtracks; from 8-bit classics like Super Mario Brothers through the technological advances of 16, 32, 64 and finally modern game soundtracks, the music that pumps us up, makes us cry or feel enthralled in the adventure we're a part of has become timeless in our nostalgia-loving brains and I wish to play into this with my project.

 

What my plan for this project was to go from the 8-bit era through the different advances in tech to the modern day and demonstrate each era of Video Game Soundtracks by making arrangements and/or covers of pieces from the classic games many grew up on as well as modern additions to the annals of Classics. I will use new instrumentations and styles to infuse these pieces with new life and energies, except when the song wouldn't suit a change in style or genre. As a bonus objective I planned to try and compose pieces in the style or methodology of the pieces of Game Soundtracks.

 

Parts 2&3: 8-Bit - Zelda II   Overworld Theme

We begin in the 1980s. After the revolution of the video arcade classics Pong and Space Invaders, companies saw a market in the domestic space of home video-gaming. With this leap forward came games that encapsulates the era of what was to be known as 8-bit, from Super Mario Brothers to Bomberman.

Also with this domesticisation of video-games came the concept of Video Game Soundtracks that matched the game it was a part of. However, due to the hardware restrictions of the NES and other 8-bit systems meant that the audio chips could hold a limited number of channels for musical creativity; these being:

· 1 Triangle Wave Channel

· 2 Square Wave Channels

· 1 Noise Channel which was mainly used for percussive lines and instrumentations

· 1 DPCM (Delta Pulse Coded Modulation) Channel which was for 1-bit samples, be that drum samples or small instrumental lines or stabs.

 

Although limited, those who composed for the chips of this era found ways to make these seemingly-primitive pieces of tech sing melodies and pieces that have stood the test of time. One big name of the time is Nintendo’s Koji Kondo, who in his time composed pieces that have, as before mentioned, stood the test of time and are classics including the original Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda.

          In choosing what piece from the era I wanted to arrange and bring into a modern sensibility, I could have easily gone for any of the pieces from Kondo, from the world-renown 1-1 from Super Mario Brothers to the ever-classic Legend of Zelda Theme; however I decided to go for a game that is mildly forgotten about even by the fans of the latter series, that being Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

          This oft-forgotten black sheep of the Zelda franchise is quite like marmalade in the fandom; however I quite like the music composed by Akito Nakatsuka - who was credited as ‘Tsukasan’ - including the quite controversial Overworld Theme, which is the piece I decided to arrange.

In order to bring this piece into the world of orchestral pieces, I decided to arrange the Zelda II Overworld Theme into a Brass Band piece. Why this particular type of ensemble? Because much like it’s more positively-seen older sibling, the Theme fits the march-like qualities found in many Brass Band pieces and I felt like making this arrangement into something that could perceptively be heard played in a parade; hence the instrumentation of two higher brass instruments - originally arranged for Trumpet and Cornet - as well as Euphonium and Tuba and two percussive parts - those being Glockenspiel and a marching kit.

 

Parts 4&5: 16-bit - Angel Island Zone from Sonic 3 & Knuckles

With the arrival of new technologies came the breakthrough of the 16-bit era. Spearheading this trek into new territory was Sega, represented by their mascot and rival to Mario “Jumpman” Mario: Mr Needlemouse... I mean Sonic the Hedgehog.

          With his first two outings, Sonic’s games became known for three main things; those being the gorgeous design, the speed of the processor and game and, of course, the music. This was expanded upon in his second outing, which contains some of the most well-known pieces composed by popstar-turned composer Masato Nakamura.

          It was the third in the series, Sonic 3, that caused a turning point in Sonic’s musical landscape. Nakamura did not return for this installment; instead, at first, Sega commissioned none other than Michael Jackson - the King of Pop - to compose some pieces for the game. This may have been due to Sega and Jackson’s successful outing of Moonwalker, but also Michael was at the height of his popularity at the time. In fact some of the pieces he and his team created for the technically-two-games used parts of unreleased Michael Jackson songs to add Jackson’s established style and groove to the pieces. This in itself would set the stage for Sonic’s future installments’ use of popular music and grooves in the music to keep that signature Sonic style.

          So why isn’t Jackson credited as a music producer in the game? Well that was due to the massive controversy that then came out and is still discussed to this day; such a controversy that Sega practically fired Michael and tried as best they could to cover-up as much of his influence as possible as to not be included in the controversy. This may have been a bad time in Sega’s history, but they still latched onto the subgenre of New-Jack-Swing - pioneered by Michael himself but pioneered by Janet Jackson - and used this to create some of Sonic’s best-known pieces to this day... including the piece I decided to make a cover of - Angel Island Zone.

          In making my cover of this iconic piece, I decided to go for a more tuned-percussion-based piece, also including a Woodwind Quintet, replacing the traditional Horn for a Trumpet, as well as a Euphonium and Drumkit. This timbre matches the jungle-like set the levels take place in and the woodwinds are akin to birds and animals of all shapes and sizes.

          The structure I used was an Intro consisting of Marimba and Xylophone, Oboe and Clarinet, Euphonium and Bassoon building up in that order until the high point of the intro where the drums and Bass instruments (Euph. and Bsn.), as well as the Percussion (Xyl. and Mrm.), begin their parts of the main section, interjected by Oboes and Clarinet; before the main melody comes in played by Flute and Glockenspiel. They are then joined by a Trumpet which I believe adds a punch to the melody. This continues until the intro is played again as the Coda, with all instruments playing together; the Glock playing the same parts as the other Perussions and the Flute and Trumpets playing the same as the Oboe and Clarinet respectively.

 

 

 

Parts 6&7: 64-bit - DK Island Swing from Donkey Kong 64

With the birth of 3D with games and consoles such as the Sega Saturn’s Virtua Fighter and the Virtual Boy, the gaming industry took a great leap in a new drection and now the in-thing was to bring famous and beloved 2D characters into this new paradigm.

          One of the big players in this new market was Nintendo’s Nintendo 64, so named because it was Nintendo’s 64-bit console. On this console, classic games were birthed and any are still played and enjoyed to this day including Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time.

          One of Nintendo’s greatest allies at the time was video-game developer Rare. Their outings on Nintendo’s previous consoles had proved fruitful and successful and so would their other outings on Nintendo’s 64-bit console including Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Banjo-Kazooie.

          So why have I chosen DK Island Swing? Wasn’t that made for Donkey Kong Country for the SNES? Well...yes; however the pieces has become synonymous with Donkey and Diddy Kong and thus the piece has been found in many of the DK Crew’s adventures, including Rare’s Donkey Kong 64. This gives me the freedom to make an arrangement of this classic piece and so I did.

          For my arrangement I tried to lean-in into main component of this piece and part of the name of the piece itself - Swing - by arranging it for a Jazz/Swing Band; including the Rythm Section consisting of Piano, Double Bass and Drumkit, Brass Section consiting of Trumpets and a Trombone, and a Wind Section consisting of a Saxophone.

          The arrangement begins with the signature drumline and bassline, followed by a buildup consisting of all parts from the Saxophone to the Trumpets and Trombone to the Bass and Drumset as well as the Piano. The main melodic line is played primarily by the Piano, with the Saxophone joining for the second section. The Double Bass plays a sticcatto bassline throughout except for the breakdowns of drums which start with a short part but then is extended later on.

          The Piano line starts off with just the one melodic line, but then for each repeat of the part an octave is added onto it starting with the octave below, then the one above. This was done as a way of spicing up the line as the same line played monotonously would have made the line more stale and less interesting to listen to.

          The piano and Saxophone also trade the solo section, with the piano playing it first folowed by a repeat of the line from the saxophone in an almost call-and-response. The choruses are then played repeatedly with a fadeout both as a way to harken back to the way pieces in old games would be made to continuously repeat until something new happened, as well as the fact a fadeout is a time-honoured tradition in not just Swing and Jazz songs, but in popular music in general.

 

 

 

 

Parts 8&9: 128-bit - City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2

Following of the coat-tails of the soundtrack to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, as discussed before, Sega leaped into the new dimension with Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast. This game’s soundtrack, headed by Jun Senoue, Kenichi Tokoi and Fumie Kumatani, went hard-in on Jen Senoue’s specialty: Rock; almost every second there is a guitar of some kind in the soundtrack, be that rocking out in an intense piece ot just lazing about in the style of a lap-steel.

          This focus on Rock continued to Sonic’s next 3D adventure: Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast, Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360. In fact the type of Rock found in these two, and later, installments into the Sonic franchise - headed by Japanese-American band Crush-40 and especially its lead vocalist Johnny Gioeli - would become known as Butt-Rock. This style is thrown into the player’s face when they begin Sonic’s first level in the Game, which also gave its name to the piece featured in the level, City Escape (AKA Escape from the City).

          For my arrangement, I chose to go for a genre that, at least to me, sounds like a perfect fit for both this piece in general and Crush-40’s creations for this game as a whole... Polka, characterised by an Accordion, Piano lines, Double Bass, Oboe and Kit; with the additions of a Melodica and Haronica for the Melody lines.

          At first, hearing that I made a Polka version of an intense Rock song sounds a bit odd, but listening both to the original and to the covers I found on Youtube and Musescore’s website, for some reason I thought that it would fit and, after arranging this piece in the style of a Polka, I still believe that City Escape fits almost perfectly in this genre.

          My arrangement includes the main parts one would expect in the song, the bassline and intro, the lyrical lines - now played by the aforementione Melodica and Harmonica - , the two main sections and a big, bombastic ending.

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Parts 10&11: 2000s - Halo Theme from the Halo Franchise

 

At the turn of the Millenium, many game companies were striving to be the next-best-thing and to start trends in gaming that would define that generation and the start of the new Millenium as a landmark time.

          Bungie wasn’t that; they were just a small company that were verging on the brink of bankruptcy. Their latest game had a bug that when one deleted the game from their computers, it would wipe the entire hard-drive. Not the best thing to do. This caused them to recall all copies of the game and lose a very large amount of money.

           Luckily Microsoft swooped in and made a deal with the struggling company: make a flagship game for their new console, the Xbox. No biggie. Except not many people, especially Bungie, knew how to make a game for this new machine... and they only had a concept demo for a third-person shooter they couldn’t even define a name for.

          Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori were approached to compose the theme and pieces for this game, and developed a theme over the course of three days, asked to on a Thursday to be ready with one by the following Tuesday for the then-upcoming Halo MacWorld premiere demo; and what they created has gone on to become one of the most recognisable Video-Game themes in the medium’s history.

          Just that beginning chorus is enough to get the attention of any person who grew up with Microsoft’s consoles, and it has jokingly been dubbed the theme of Gamers. These two in themselves should demonstrate why I chose this piece to arrange and represent the 2000s.

          For my arrangement I chose to stick more closely to the highly-regarded Mjolnir Mix that was released for Halo 2’s Soundtrack, with the addition of an electric guitar and more Rock-oriented instruments. Much like the previous arrangements I was sure to include the key moments of the piece including the intro lines, played on the Electric Guitar and Bass accompanied by the Vocals in my version, as well as the drum lines and basslines that are the signaure of this piece, and thesolo-like lines played on the E.Guitar and Violin in my version.

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Parts 12-15: 2010s - Travelers

from Outer Wilds and

Flight

from Sky:Children of the Light

The 2010s became an amazing decade for Indie Developers and especially for me, Indie Composers, to find an audience and renown; from Lena Raine’s work on Celeste (2018), to ConcernedApe’s work on Stardew Valley (2015), to C418’s work on Minecraft (2010). However, as much as I’d have loved to have made my own versions of Anxiety or Ressurections from Celeste, or Sweden or Mellohi from Minecraft, I decided to go with two of my favourite pieces from the last year of the Decade, those being Travlers from Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds and Flight from Thatgamecompany’s Sky: Children of the Light, released in May and July of 2019 respectively.

          So, first off, why Travelers? Well , even though I loved every piece of this (The Outer Wilds) Soundtrack composed by Andrew Prahlow, as well as how cosmic and grand many of them sound, it was this part of the game and this piece in particular that made me cry whilst watching Nerdcubed play it. The emotional hourney of the Soundtrack all leading to this scene where you are lost in a forest outside of time and space and must find your companions by only their instruments, the way they each compliment and yet layer onto one another, the way the piece builds slowly and slowly until you take that final step into the unknown encouraged by your fellow travelers... It brings a tear to the eye just writing this. That is why I chose to arrange this piece.

          Originally I wanted to arrange it for a small group of instruments that I could play, that way I can add a piece of myself into it and be able to symbolically build upon myself and seemingly encourage myself to keep going till the end; however things quickly went out of hand when I kept thinking “I bet x and y would sound great together and as part of this” and thus, a small group of around four or five instruments quickly grew to a 13-strong ensemble including instruments I can play - Piano, Ocarina, Congas, Vibraphone, Harmonica and Glockenspiel - as well as ones I can’t - every other instrument. I followed the idea of buildup and emptiness, tension and release, in the way I arranged this piece to build up from Guitars to Pianos, Ocarinas, Conga and Frame Drums, Harmonica, Glockenspiel, Glass Harmonica and Vibraphone, only to go back down to minimal instruments for another buildup which now includes those instruments not included in the first buildup excpet for the Tin Whistle. Then the addition of said Tin Whistle to sound like the whistling found in the original piece begins the final diminuendo until just the Whistle, Guitar and Harmonica remain, the latter also falling away for the finale of just the Whistle and Guitar.

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Before I explain my process with Flight, some may wonder why I chose to do two pieces from this decade, especially two from the same year, and no other decade or part has two. That was because, truth be told, I had already made my arrangement of Travelers a while ago. It can even be found in one of my previous Composition Collections - specifically in the collection named A Travelling Hero - on my Bandcamp (www.embervalkyrie.bandcamp.com). So why did I not just stick with the one? The reason is after playing Sky:Children of the Light myself I was in love with the soundtrack and vowed to make an arrangement of one of the pieces. When I had the idea for this project I thought it was the perfect time to make said arrangement and so I decided I would do it of my favourite piece of the soundtrack, composed by Vincent Diamante, that being Flight. It wasn’t until I was bringing the collection of pieces I wanted to arrange and put in the album together that I found I couldn’t choose between Flight and Travelers, and so decided to include it.

          My composition sticks very closely to Diamante’s original piece, but repeats the main line associated with both this piece and many other pieces in the soundtrack. Begining with it played on a solo Piano, it is then passed to a Brass trio - the Melody played by Cornet, the Harmony by Horn and the Bassline by Tuba - before it is passed on once again to a Woodwind trio - Melody played by Piccolo, Harmony by Flute and Bassline by Bassoon - before both trios play the lines together and pass them back and forth. The addition of a small amount of percussions keeps the spirit of the original whilst also not overcomplicating the piece and keeping things simplistic.

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Parts 16&17: 2020s - Big Shot from Deltarune Chapter 2
I would be remiss to mention Indie Developers and Composers without bringing up the powerhouse that is
known as Toby Fox who created the smash-indie hit Undertale in 2015 solely without anyone else, apart
from art by Temmie. This includes him making the music for the game, many of the pieces being break-out
hits in their own right including SAVE The World, Hopes and Dreams and, of course, Megalovania.
It was 3 years later Fox released the pseudo-sequel/reboot that is Deltarune Chapter 1, known at the
time only as Deltarune. With this game he produced even more smash hits including Field of Hopes and
Dreams, Attack of the Killer Queen and Rude Buster. Once again, Toby Fox single-handedly composed the
pieces for this and the first two mentioned have become even more hits for Fox.
3 years later, in September of 2021, Toby Fox released Deltarune Chapter 2, a direct sequel to
Chapter 1, and with it came even more bangers including Pandora Palace, A CYBER’S WORLD? and, the
piece that became a meme and the one I chose to arrange, BIG SHOT.
When deciding what to do when planning my arrangement of this piece, my brain suddenly had the
idea of making it into a Reggae-type song which, at first, started as a small comical idea in my mind; that
was until I looked up arrangements to help with notation on Musescore, when the idea festered and I decided
to just try it out.
Using the instrumentation of a Brass Section, Honky Tonk Piano, Hammond Organ and Drumkit I
started with the intro being just Honky Tonk before bringing in the low Brass and then the rest of the Brass
and Drumkit to start the syncopated harmony and it was at this point that I realised that I was definitly onto
something. It was here that I slowed the tempo and added a more stuttered Treble Piano line. I then arranged
the rest to fit more into a traditional song structure of Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus
and so that is what I did.
When thinking of what instrument should play the Melody line added in the second verse, I decided
to go with a Saw Synthesiser as it sounded the closest to an almost 8-bit Synth which both the Undertale and
Deltarune soundtracks are known to include and so whis would include the spirit of the original piece and
soundtracks.