[Article] The Music

This article has absolutely nothing to do with the timeline, it deals with the music of Zelda, concentrating on composers other than Koji Kondo. This is because I feel that his work has been dealt with enough already. Though, one simply cannot write about Zelda music without talking about Kondo, so you'll get a good share of him as well. If you wish to listen to the songs I'm talking about I suggest you go here. I'm not going to talk about the music of Four Swords because I haven't heard any of it and couldn't find any of it on the net.


The Musican article by Uncle Meat

Contrary to the common belief, the Zelda series has featured music from various different composers, not just Koji Kondo. The others have been standing in Kondo's shadow for decades without the recognition they deserve. In this article I aim to cover the lesser known Zelda composers and their impact on the series. They weren't all great, but most of them did well and certainly brought some variety and perspective to the musical aspect of The Legend of Zelda.


The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link

The score for the original Legend of Zelda was written solely by Koji Kondo. He was most likely selected for job because of his highly popular Super Mario Bros. soundtrack which was released the previous year. However, Kondo didn't write a single note for the follow up of the original Zelda game, The Adventure of Link. This is interesting, because the father of the series, Shigeru Miyamoto, wasn't heavily involved in the game either. The game was basically made by a different team altogether with Miyamoto only acting as a producer and advisor.

The music for Adventure of Link was composed by a lesser known composer Akito Nakatsuka who had previously worked on the music of Ice Climbers, an arcade classic made by Nintendo. Nakatsuka borrowed parts from Kondo's Zelda themes but created mostly an original soundtrack. Unlike Kondo's work, his music has not been reused in any Zelda game to date. The only rework of his tunes can be heard in Super Smash Bros. Melee's Hyrule castle. SSBM also features the theme from Ice Climbers.

This is rather strange seeing as how many of the Zelda themes have been used over and over, eventually becoming fan favorites over the years where as Akito Nakatsuka's work hasn't been touched upon at all. This might have something to do with the fact that Adventure of Link is often considered to be the black sheep of the series and is rarely referred to in any way at all.

The soundtrack of AoL was your typical NES composition consisting of less than 20 songs altogether. It is usually only remembered from the Palace Theme (thanks to SSBM) and naturally the title screen music. The overworld music makes an attempt to remix the original Zelda theme which in my opinion does not work too well. Some of the frequently repeated melodies are somewhat simple and do not have the catchy Zelda feel to them.

As I listen to AoL's soundtrack, while writing this article, I'm beginning to realize why it hasn't been reused in the other games. It's just a mediocre NES composition that doesn't stay with you when turn off the console. Some of the songs are also haunted by my childhood trauma of what this notoriously difficult game put me through. Though there are a couple of gems that would deserve to be heard again. The Village Theme is a nice tune that offers a break from the overworld music. Then there is the the Palace Theme which is easily the best track of the lot, hearing it in SSBM might have something to do with it's popularity, but to me it was the one thing that kept me playing the game. So far only fan-made remixes of these melodies exist.

At least two songs in the japanese version were modified for the american and european releases. These tracks are the title music and the battle theme. To me the title music sounds like it was just improved rather than re-arranged to suit the musical taste of western players. The battle theme however is completely different. The japanese one sounds a lot more like a Zelda piece, where as the one we have come to know sounds like it could be from just any NES game.


A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening

The next released game was A Link to the Past which saw the return of Kondo's familiar style. The soundtrack featured countless tracks which have stayed with the series ever since. One could say that this was the soundtrack that shaped the music of Zelda. Koji Kondo created a powerful and memorable soundtrack that utilized the Super Nintendo's maximum capabilities, only to step aside and give room for the sound team of Link's Awakening.

The reason why Kondo was not chosen to work on the next Zelda title might have been because at the time he didn't have any experience of composing music for the Gameboy. The team that took his place consisted of four Nintendo composers: Yuichi Ozaki, Kazumi Totaka, Minako Hamano and Kazue Ishikawa. They created a different sound, again borrowing the main theme from Kondo, to create one of the most memorable Gameboy soundtracks out there.

If you download the soundtrack (go ahead, it was never released on CD) the first thing you notice is that there are nearly 80 tracks of music! Some of them are short fanfares you hear when you obtain a special item, but mostly it's just music. This game was the first to introduce individual dungeon themes and multiple songs to play with your ocarina. There was a lot of diversity in music and lots of tunes composed exclusively for cutscenes, something which was also pretty new in Zelda back in the day.

The DX version brought back a remixed version classic dungeon theme from the first Zelda, the music can be heard in the bonus dungeon of the game. There was also a secret song which was different for the japanese and western versions. In the original version Kazumi Totaka had included his trademark melody which is hidden in every soundtrack he has worked on. In the western version the secret melody was replaced by groovy remix of the Zelda theme. It can be heard by inserting "ZELDA" as the player's name.


Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask

Mixing old with new, Ozaki, Totaka, Hamano and Ishikawa created a marvelous soundtrack for one of the more diverse Zelda games. Which ended an era in Zelda. The next game to come out five long years after the release of LA was The Ocarina of Time. Zelda jumped to 3D and the capabilities of the Nintendo 64 opened new worlds for Koji Kondo to explore with his biggest work yet. The soundtrack of Ocarina of Time was and still is the most loved of the bunch. It has been remixed and orchestrated countless times, there are altogether three different Nintendo-approved soundtrack CDs of Ocarina of Time. It's impact on the music of Zelda was enormous, many classic tracks from A Link to the Past were reworked for the game sustaining their position as official themes for characters and places.

What Kondo started in A Link to the Past he ended with Ocarina of Time. Together these two games define the music of The Legend of Zelda. Following the success of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo created the weirdest and most original entry to the franchise yet, The Majora's Mask. Kondo was once again chosen to compose the soundtrack with the assistance of Toru Minegishi who would later work on other Zelda titles as well. Minegishi created only three tracks for the game, but these were very important for the soundtrack, for they were the battle themes of the game. Each time you face an enemy or fight a boss (big or small) you can hear Minegishi taking his first steps into the world of Zelda.

Majora's soundtrack isn't your average collection of game tunes. It's actually a really tough album to listen to. Never the less it stands as an unmissable collection of Kondo at his most radical. Some of the tracks were borrowed directly from Ocarina of Time, just like many of the sprites that were reused in MM. The sound is at times gloomy and almost depressive, Kondo's typical cheerfulness is completely absent. The music fits the game perfectly, but on it's own it's hard to enjoy from time to time.


The Oracle games

Soon after Majora's release The Oracle of Seasons and The Oracle of Ages saw the light of day on the Gameboy Color. This soundtrack was put together by a duo working under the aliases Kyopi and M-Adachi. The true identities of these people are unknown as are the identities of the sound effect people Yokopo and M-Aoki. The music and sound effects are also credited to Pure Sound Inc., a mysterious corporation that has to my knowledge disappeared after the games release. Japanese game music composers sometimes worked under aliases for some reason. This was very common especially during the 1980's but wasn't at all usual in the 21st century.

The duo's take on the Oracles was a step back to the more traditional Zelda music which was a good choice for these type of games. The music in these games is all round good, one can hardly find anything to complain about. There's plenty of variety and lots of memorable themes. As was the case with Link's Awakening, the Gameboy's sound system doesn't allow much creativity, but then again the tunes that these guys put together are just what the doctor ordered, so there wasn't really any need to go nuts with the soundtrack.

Speaking of Link's Awakening, one can definitely hear lots of connections between the two soundtracks, even matching melodies. However the game does not mention the composers of LA's music even though it gives special thanks to Koji Kondo. Could it be that Kyopi, M-adachi, M-aoki and Yokopo are actually Ozaki, Totaka, Hamano and Ishikawa? We will never know for sure, but I like to think so.

Some tracks were even borrowed from Ocarina of Time, just like some of the characters. It was obviously an attempt to cash in on Ocarina's success, which is sort of sad, but since the rest of the soundtrack was so awesome, I'm willing to forgive these guys, whoever they are. When compared to other gameboy soundtracks of the time, this one was exceptionally good, and was well received among critics even though the speakers of Gameboy Color didn't do the music justice.


The Wind Waker

The next entry to the Zelda sound library was for the longest of time my absolute favorite. Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo are the geniuses behind the soundtrack of The Wind Waker, the disputed 3D follow up that we all thought would have been Ocarina of Time 2. We were so very wrong and for that I am forever grateful. The Wind Waker and it's music were a breath of fresh air in every sense of the word.

Recently I have learned that Koji Kondo had wanted to make an orchestral soundtrack for Zelda before Twilight Princess. TWW was released on the GameCube so there were no hardware limitations for an orchestral soundtrack, but still all we hear in the game is midi instruments. In some ways this type of music is keeping true to the tradition of game music, and Zelda is a very traditional series. Still I can't help wondering what the music would have sounded like being played by a whole orchestra or a smaller band.

The soundtrack is just brilliant because it references Kondo's earlier work in ways that you might not notice at first. Many of the themes are actually re-arranged versions of songs from Ocarina of time and A Link to the Past. The game sounds the way it looks and feels, making it a very characteristic experience. Nagata, Wakai and Minegishi were already familiar names from successful Nintendo titles such as F Zero X, Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars), Pokémon Stadium and Pikmin. Their style is very similar to Kondo's and retains the Zelda feel flawlessly.

The music is very playful and catchy, offering a sharp contrast to Minegishi's and Kondo's earlier team effort with Majora's Mask. Despite the many references to ALttP and OoT there are plenty of new tracks that you'll find playing in your head by the end of the day. Only time will tell whether we hear them reworked in Phantom Hourglass as well.


Four Swords Adventures

The Four Swords Adventures returns Zelda music to it's roots. At times the soundtrack actually sounds like it was made 10 years ago, which is not a bad thing at all. The score was written by Koji Kondo and Asuka Ota. Unlike all the other composers, Ota is a fairly young composer, having made only one soundtrack for the Nintendo DS, prior to his work with FSA.

As I said, the soundtrack is bursting with adventure from days gone by. The samples sound better and there are more channels in the sound engine, allowing more complex melodies and harmonies. Still the spirit of the old games stays intact. Could a Zelda fan ask for more?

FSA also features many familiar themes from ALttP, that sound very close to their original counterparts. Actually the whole game resembles ALttP in more than one ways, it was made by the same team, that apparently wanted to pay a tribute to the SNES classic from 12 years ago. For a senior fan this either comes as a pleasant trip down the memory lane or as an annoying recycling of old ideas.

Some of the themes were a bit stale but once again the amount of good pieces easily outweighs the bad.


The Minish Cap

The Minish Cap's soundtrack was composed entirely by Mitsuhiko Takano, another new composer to the Zelda series. His music is at times very atmospheric and at times really gives the listener the GBA's sound at it's best, take the Wind Ruins music for an example. It's too bad that half of the soundtrack doesn't sound as good at all.

The parts that hurt my ears the most are where Takano uses non-midi sounds as a part of the composition. The sound is just so crude when compared to the sophisticated harmonies he creates with the midi. In case you're wondering just what I mean I suggest you listen to two songs and see if you can spot the difference. First, listen to the Intro Story music, which to my knowledge is nothing but midi all the way. Next find a song called House, and concentrate on the bass line.

The soundtrack would have been a classic if Takano had just stuck to the midi instruments. In some cases he does make the combination work but those are too few and far between. Despite this flaw, the music is very impressive at times and makes for a good GBA soundtrack.


Twilight Princess

Koji Kondo finally achieved his dream of creating an orchestral soundtrack for the highly anticipated Twilight Princess. The soundtrack of TP is every Zelda fanatic's every wet dream put together. The soundtrack is a brilliant mix of synthetic music and traditional film score. Most of the major cutscenes and important locations received an orchestrated suite which will hopefully released soon on CD.

The masterminds behind the soundtrack are Koji Kondo, Asuka Ota and Toru Minegishi. Together they have created a soundtrack so great I can hardly find words to describe it.

The most ingenious achievement is the musical contrast between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm. Hyrule is filled with adventurous uplifting themes and exiting songs, along with long time fan favorites, creating a sense of great enthusiasm. Hyrule's music has it's relaxing side to it as well, making the place feel secure and familiar yet fresh and exiting.

Once you enter the Twilight Realm you no longer hear the pleasant sounds of Hyrule, instead you are confronted with a bizarre set of compositions that create an air of uneasiness and discomfort. This playing with the players emotions is what made the score a genuine masterpiece. Some of tracks take a very experimental direction which hasn't been done since Majora's Mask.

The musical references aren't as subtle as they were in The Wind Waker, but they are there. Musically, Twilight Princess refers mostly to Ocarina of Time, borrowing a couple of tracks from other games as well.

Altogether the soundtrack is darker than your typical Zelda soundtrack. It also borrows heavily from film scores, which seems to be the trend with game music these days.

I would complain that by imitating film music the video game composers are killing a musical genre they created, but how can I when it sounds so good? Twilight Princess' soundtrack does include a couple of "old school" songs which were done the same way as The Wind Waker soundtrack - with midi instruments. These tracks feel slightly out of place, because they are clearly artificial and don't even try to hide it.

Right now this is the Zelda music dream team, that I hope will be involved in the upcoming Zelda for the Wii.

The music has come a long way from the bleeps and bloops of the early games. Each game represents it's time, without breaking ties with the past. It really brings a smile to my face to see mr. Kondo still involved in Zelda without leaving the new talents behind. If I had to guess, I think we'll be hearing from him again, if not in Phantom Hourglass, then at least by the time of the next big 3D Zelda.