The music of Snowhead Temple, the second dungeon of Majora’s Mask, has always stuck with me. However, while it enters my head often, it isn’t really a piece I find myself humming along to. In fact, that would be rather difficult to do. What is it about this song that makes it so unique?
If you know a thing or two about music, your first instinct might be to ask, “What key is this in?” only to find that answering the question doesn’t really help to understand the piece that much. The bass line’s lowest note is C, and it’s repeating that C over and over, but it’s always accompanied by the D right next to it to make an unsettling dissonance. Furthermore, there are several black-key notes in the melody, often similarly clustered, which is a solid refutation for it being in C. However, with all these different notes, which key would be the best choice to represent what the song is going for?
Perhaps a better way to describe the Snowhead Temple theme would be that it’s atonal, which is a fancy music theory term for a piece of music which doesn’t have a key at all. The closest thing to a key this piece uses is what’s called a whole-tone scale, which consists of six notes that are each a whole step apart. As each note is equally apart, it doesn’t really make a difference which note you start the scale with. Even then, the song doesn’t shy away from using notes outside of this scale, as seen with the vocal pad near the end of the loop.
All of this is to say, if the Snowhead Temple theme tells a story, it is definitely not a harmonic or melodic one. Instead, think back to those note clusters and the driving rhythm they make that really gives a sense of urgency that is unique to music styles like this. Perhaps this is why it’s so hard to hum along to. Link is in a cold, hostile environment, and this piece does well to back that up, key or no key.
Since this is a Zelda game though, there are still several keys to be found in Snowhead Temple. Just of the small and boss kind.
