Music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, part six

September 16, 2008

[Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five | Part six]

I’m back! Let’s talk about video games and music, shall we?

First, some housekeeping. I’ve fixed a couple of typos and other minor issues in my earlier Ocarina of Time transcriptions — namely, “Zelda’s Lullaby” from part two, and “Prelude of Light,” “”Nocturne of Shadow,” and “Requiem of Spirit” from part three. Thanks to commenters Newcomer and Kyle for catching my mistakes, and please do let me know if you find any more!

Meanwhile, commenter Jeff has taken issue with my assertion in part four that the melody from “Sun’s Song” is never harmonized — as he rightly points out, it’s featured in the short theme that precedes the Hyrule Field music at dawn. Take a look (excuse the lazy rhythmic transcription of the flute part):

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And here’s “Sun’s Song” again for reference:

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As you can see, the F in the “Sun’s Song” motive has been demoted to a grace note in the “sunrise” theme, removing any suggestion of minor tonality from the Dm triad. The fragmented, fluttering, and irregular flute part does little to function as a melody, but instead floats over the top of the harmony like birdsong.

Meanwhile, the accompaniment features an arpeggiated ostinato of the tonic chord (G major) over a descending I-♭VII-VI-♭VI bassline. Beatles fans may recognize this move from “Dear Prudence,” which does the same thing in D major:

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Was the homage intentional? Probably not; I-♭VII-VI-♭VI is a very common move. Then again, you never know: “The sun is up / The sky is blue / It’s beautiful / And so are you”…there is a reasonable thematic connection.

Finally, the “sunrise” theme concludes with a dominant gesture that leads directly into the G major Hyrule Field music — and also the G minor Termina Field music, as the same theme appears in Majora’s Mask. Those pieces, however, are for another day.

Thanks again to everyone who has commented on this project so far. More to come!

[Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five | Part six]

31 comments

Hmm. So what you’re saying is… Kondo ripped off The Beatles? =P

by Ben Abraham on September 16, 2008 at 11:07 pm #

Hmph. :-P

Actually, according to the Wikipedia page (which cites a dead link), Paul McCartney is a fan of Koji Kondo’s. Who’s to say who ripped off whom? ;-)

by Dan Bruno on September 16, 2008 at 11:25 pm #

If you’ll excuse a small tangent, that “Dear Prudence” sample illustrates what has always bugged me about listening to The Beatles on headphones: the stereo is never well balanced. I don’t know if this was present in the original recordings or if it only turned up in the digital remaster… but it’s really hard on the ears sometimes.

by Matthew Gallant on September 17, 2008 at 12:24 am #

Well, The Beatles were making albums when stereo recording was still a new technique — they’re experimenting with the technology as much as anything else. There’s a lot of good discussion about stereo separation here, if you’re interested.

by Dan Bruno on September 17, 2008 at 12:44 am #

I’m so glad to see the return of your Zelda music posts!

I’m a relative rube on the piano–I’ve only been playing for about eight months!–and I know nothing about music theory. But I’ve always been a huge fan of Kondo’s music. Your posts are very interesting, if a little over my head. I’m trying to absorb as much information as I can.

You just keeping confirming my belief that even the simplest of things–say, snippets of video game music–can unlock the ideas behind grand thoughts (like those of music theory).

Excellent work. Please continue! :)

by Jes on September 22, 2008 at 11:48 pm #

Thanks, Jes! I think there’s another post or two yet in Ocarina of Time, so you won’t be disappointed.

If you’re looking for a primer on music theory, you could do worse than Ricci Adams’ Musictheory.net. You’ll have a leg up with your piano experience, and it makes this sort of in-depth analysis much more fun (and less enigmatic)!

by Dan Bruno on September 24, 2008 at 8:12 pm #

I can’t wait to read a harmonic analysis of the ‘wolf’ songs in ‘Twilight Princess’… The orchestral versions surprised me to the tears when I played the game.

by trez on February 10, 2009 at 3:02 pm #

Wow. This is amazing. I (gratefully) killed a perfectly good morning listening and reading through your blog and it’s spectacular. I appreciate the work you put into looking through and taking apart these games.

I would love if you did something similar with Majora’s Mask, but as of now, I just enjoy reading whatever you put out. Again thank you.

by Marceux on April 14, 2009 at 1:18 pm #

on page five you said you would be showing the Gerudo Valley tune. Well, where is it?

by Gerudo playa on June 1, 2009 at 6:59 pm #

great work so far, i love zelda music, but where is the gerudo valley analysis? its my favorite! i would also love if you did the same sort of thing for majora’s Mask, (its my favorite game ever lol) anyway great work!

Harley

by Harley on July 10, 2009 at 8:45 am #

Heh. “Where is Gerudo Valley?” has definitely become my most-asked question. :-)

I’ve been trying to avoid putting up songs for their own sake; I’d like to have some analysis as well, and I don’t have an angle on Gerudo Valley, yet. I could just throw up an MP3 and transcribe a part, but that’s not really what this site is about for me.

In other words, I’ll put up Gerudo Valley as soon as I have something interesting to say about it!

by Dan Bruno on July 14, 2009 at 8:44 pm #

umm yeah im an orch dork but i play the cello so could someone put the music in treble clef also

by Tarisha on July 17, 2009 at 5:24 pm #

@Tarisha
As a cellist, isn’t your music traditionally in bass clef? Though, as a cellist, it’s pretty useful to learn both treble and bass (and tenor while you’re at it). Given the instrument’s range, it’s not surprisingly to find music that freely switches between clefs.

@Dan
Despite everyone’s love for the Gerudo Valley theme (I too enjoy it), I’m not sure how much there is to comment on the piece. It’s pretty straightforward harmonically in f#, and likely the catchiness lies in its rhythm (accents, syncopation), but even that’s pretty cut and dry. It might be worth transcribing just to observe how rarely the main theme falls on the downbeat, but that’s probably about it. Good luck coming up with an angle.

by Rafi on July 18, 2009 at 12:24 am #

I just wanted to say I love how you analyzed these songs. I really think you should analyze the main hyrule field theme because it seems like it’s pretty complex. I may be wrong, but it’s just a suggestion.

by Brandon on July 18, 2009 at 9:42 am #

Hey Dan,
I’ve read all of your Zelda posts and am very impressed by the sophistication of the transcriptions. Very in depth analysis, too. I love it! I have played Zelda since it came out and have always been captivated by the music. Can’t wait for the Twilight Princess blog! haha.
In what I think is measure 11 of your Song of Storms transcription, there is a conflict between the numeral and chord analysis. The V should be A, not F. Not a big deal, but thought you might want to know! I guess the Kyles are all about the typos…

by different Kyle on July 21, 2009 at 11:01 am #

Wow, love the site, and this article series in particular. I can’t tell you how many times I stared at the transcriptions and came to these ridiculous realizations about how complex the chords and harmony involved actually were. Great job!

One thing, though. In the Sun’s Song/Hyrule Field section, you mention that “the D in the ‘Sun’s Song’ motive has been demoted to a grace note”. Isn’t it actually the F in that figure which is now a grace note? Just a little typo.

by Aeolian on July 22, 2009 at 4:31 pm #

different Kyle and Aeolian: You’re both absolutely right. Good catches! I’ll fix them up.

by Dan Bruno on July 26, 2009 at 4:41 pm #

Hi Dan,

It so happens that in the past few days I’ve been trying to work out the snare/shake rhythm from Gerudo Valley, and came here after searching Google for “gerudo valley” musical analysis. If nothing else I’d be interested to see how that is transcribed.

I am not very well versed in music theory (though am trying to pick up bits here and there) but what interests me about Gerudo valley is that it is, for me at least, the most catchy and enjoyable music from OOT but I can’t put my finger on why. Saria’s song is also up there, and musically I really enjoy listening to the windmill theme, but Gerudo valley left the biggest impression.

I agree with Rafi that it has a lot to do with the rhythm, though I don’t see how its melody/harmony couldn’t be a big part of its catchiness (even if straightforward, though I am not really qualified to determine that).

Aside from that, I think Kotake & Koume (Twinrova)’s theme could also have a very interesting analysis (particularly the harmony where the two melodies are overlapped). What do you think?

codebeard.

by codebeard on October 7, 2009 at 10:03 am #

I play clarinet, these notes are too high for me to play

HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by annahay on October 24, 2009 at 2:42 pm #

Hey, just wanted to drop in and thank you for writing these articles. I’m a first-year music student, and reading stuff like this reminds me of the real reason why we study music theory: because it can be absolutely fascinating.

by Chris McGee on December 2, 2009 at 7:03 pm #

Just read through all of your posts about Ocarina of Time and wanted to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed them. I’ve always loved the music from that game – I’m especially fond of IV-i chord progressions, and the dorian mode used in a number of the songs lends itself to them rather nicely – and I had a lot of fun reading your analyses and playing the scores on my piano. The comments were helpful, too; like Ben B., I always heard Saria’s song as being in F lydian mode, but was convinced by your argument to the contrary.

I don’t know how big the audience is for the kind of technical analysis you’ve done on these scores, but as a long-time video game player/musician/amateur theorist, I felt like these posts were written just for me. Thanks!

by Dan K. on October 7, 2010 at 11:21 pm #

Hi there!
I finally decided to write music, as a free-time, and for level up my knowledge of music. I’ve been always a fan of the Zelda music, of master Koji Kondo’s music in general. I was dedicate lot of time hearing and writing the music from the soundtrack, and find this site interesting to me, because in the progress of the writing task, I was giving count of many thing puts on the score, but never understood till read this. Even when this post have made many time ago, still have comments, and I’m counting me, as another one. Congratulation for this work that you’ve made. I hope you’ll continue with it!

by Luis on December 17, 2010 at 1:04 am #

I love this entire blog. I’ve recently enrolled in a Music Theory class and have had I great time reading through some of your pieces. As a kid, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask were my favorite games. Hell, they probably still are.

I hope that you haven’t abandoned this series. I would still love to see your interpretations of Gerudo Valley and maybe a few of the pieces from other games in the series.

Thank you for the articles. Very interesting!

by Burleigh on February 23, 2011 at 1:36 am #

I love your writing, please keep it up. As an avid Zelda AND Theory nerd, I find your articles vastly interesting. I’ve always been a fan of Kondo’s compositions, and I definitely think he peaked with his pieces in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.

by Sam on March 8, 2011 at 1:54 pm #

This comment is for the first two comments on this page… Touche…. (The french word)

by Martin aka Darunia on March 19, 2011 at 11:15 pm #

And SAM, thanks for the comment u posted. Im a major Zelda fan and kind of a nerd two and I agree that ocarina and majoras was the peak, period.

by Martin aka Darunia on March 19, 2011 at 11:17 pm #

Thanks so much for this great series! I’m a musician myself, and I really appreciated some of the great insights you had on these pieces. A very worthwhile read!

by Nick Exler on May 1, 2011 at 7:28 pm #

Wow. I discovered this series and site about a week ago, and as both a Composition major and a gamer-for-life who wants to compose background music in Japan or Korea, I am ever so glad to have found another person who actually gives proper credit to video game music and ANALYZES it :D

I do enjoy some of the Zelda games, but I am not that much of an “enthusiast” of the series. (Rather, I’m more of a “rhythm game fanatic,” such as Beatmania, DJ Max, etc. Xp) But I am currently playing through Ocarina, and this series has been very fun to read :D (Yes, I never owned anything beyond a second-hand SNES with only 4 second-hand games, console-wise)

I was wondering if you could look into the music of Chrono Trigger (Yasunori Mitsuda is a genius, period), Suikoden Tierkreis, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2, and the Touhou games. As I have just completed my freshman year, I don’t think I’m good enough yet to start analyzing to give my own thoughts, and I would love to see an actual music-theoretical analysis on them.

Once again, thanks for the great read :D

by Pakken on July 26, 2011 at 10:04 pm #

I play viola, but of course, no one cares to translate into alto clef…

by Jaxcheese on August 21, 2011 at 9:19 am #

“Next up: Gerudo Valley.”

That was a little disappointing. Getting promised Gerudo Valley and getting Sun Song. :/

Besides that, I do like your work! (I’m a rookie when it comes to music theory and how good composition works, and something like LoZ music, which interests me, really helps.)

by Josef on October 1, 2011 at 10:10 pm #

I still love this long ass blog as much as when I first read it (march 2011) and I love playing the notes on a piano. Thanks so much for blogging this (who ever did it). I really appreciate it. This is why I love music so much. Thanks again!

by Martin aka Darunia on October 3, 2011 at 5:09 am #