“–it brings back the game so beautifully when you play that soundtrack.”

September 3, 2018 9:00 AM

How video game music waltzed its way on to Classic FM [The Guardian] “Gamers have really enjoyed hearing the music that they hold so close to their hearts, and it’s also drawn in an entirely new audience of non-gamers who have been impressed and surprised by the quality and variety of the music that is available in the genre. What’s been lovely is that other Classic FM presenters have played music that they’ve heard on High Score on their own shows. There is definitely not only an acceptance of video game music but, I would say, an increasing sense of celebration and pride.”

• Video game music is just as good an introduction to classical music for children as a concert, arts chief says [The Telegraph]

““This is a very big industry now, all the major gaming companies commission their own music and they often have their own in house composers,” Mr Williams told The Daily Telegraph. “The church and the royal court were the two major sponsors of music hundreds of years ago. Now music is being created in different enterprises and genres.” He explained how orchestras are “adjusting” their live concert programmes to reflect the “changing tastes” of the younger generation. Earlier this year, the RPO worked with Play Station to create a concert programme dedicated to popular computer game music. “That attracted a fascinating audience, many of whom had never been to a live concert before,” he said. “There is a whole spectrum of new opportunities for orchestras.””

• Why classical purists should start taking video game music seriously [New Statesman]

“The image of the repertoire as elitist and contemporary compositions as inaccessible lingers despite diversity and access initiatives. It’s no surprise that headlines regularly surface asking the depressing question “is classical music dead?”. Yet millions of people are listening to hours of contemporary classical music every week, and they might not even know it. They do it while they play video games. In the past two decades, as video game production has become yet more sophisticated, the games industry has increasingly looked to contemporary composers to write its soundtracks. Just as Hollywood film studio executives turned to established composers like Aaron Copland and Dmitri Shostakovich in the early twentieth century, today’s games designers are using the best composition talent to augment the experience of playing their titles. There is plenty of crossover between the film and games music worlds, too – Hans Zimmer, who wrote the music for Gladiator and Dunkirk, also works for games like Modern Warfare, for instance. The best games music stays with you long after you finish playing.”

• In San Francisco, Video Games Are Classical Music's New Frontier [KQED]

“While technology plays a relatively small role at more traditional music schools like Julliard and the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory’s Technology and Applied Composition program answers a growing need for composers who specialize in writing for media — and for the Bay Area in particular, that means video games. TAC students take many of the same courses one might expect from a classical composition major — like ear training and music theory — but they also study game audio, and do mock commissions for Sony and the Walt Disney Family Museum. [...] As tech companies vie to make gaming a mainstream form of entertainment — and court demographics outside of the stereotypical gamer bro — there’s a growing demand for composers who can create music that deepens games’ emotional content and makes their interactive aspects more sensory and vivid.”

• Nico Muhly: Gaming One's Way Into Classical Music [NPR]

“I've always felt that early exposure to music is never purposeful and arrives in strange bursts. I think other people can articulate the joys and wonders of academic or community-based classical music programs — high-school programs run through conservatories, et cetera. I want to offer a slightly more obscure but, I think, much more popular (in terms of numbers) counterexample. Although my parents had classical music on LP's in the house, the childhood music I remember the most vividly is fragments from either live performances or, strangely, video games at my friends' houses. For me, living in the country, playing a video game was sort of like music minus one: The actions of my hands informed, in a strange way, the things I heard. Collect a coin, and a delighted glockenspiel sounds. Move from navigating a level above ground to one below ground, and the eager French chromaticism of the score changes to a spare, beat-driven minimal texture. Hit a star, and suddenly the score does a metric modulation.”

posted by Fizz (60 comments total)

That reminds me I haven't listened to the London Philharmonic Orchestra version of Adventure from Fez in a while. BRB
posted by Molesome at 9:11 AM on September 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

That sneaky Nobuo keeps using Latin in his songs to fool them.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:15 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've been listening to a local classical music station off and on for a while and there has been a notable increase of orchestral performances of video game music from legend of zelda, skyrim, etc.. being played. Having grown up with this music, playing these games, it's really something to hear a full orchestra playing it. I approve of this trend and hope it continues.
posted by some loser at 9:17 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

For a sec I thought Classic FM referred to a chip like the OPL3.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:20 AM on September 3, 2018 [12 favorites]

Listening to the Total Annihilation Soundtrack right now in honor of this post.
posted by octothorpe at 9:24 AM on September 3, 2018 [5 favorites]

The Endless Space 2 Original Soundtrack by FlybyNo [bandcamp] is one of the most repeated things in my Spotify account. It's so phenomenal. Definitely give FlybyNo a listen, you will not regret it.
posted by Fizz at 9:29 AM on September 3, 2018

For a sec I thought Classic FM referred to a chip like the OPL3.

I know it's not the OPL3 but fuck me Yuzo Koshiro could make the OPN2 sing.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:33 AM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Then there's ambience being driven forward by David Wise. The tracks are amazing enough but it took him five weeks to sequence Aquatic Ambience!

I think Aquatic Ambiance was a turning point. I was technically striving to emulate the Korg Wavestation’s ‘wave-sequencing’ technique to circumnavigate the 64k limit of the SNES. Aquatic Ambiance took 5 weeks of programming, and re-programming to get it to work, but the results were definitely worth the experimentation.

These people were crazy motherfuckers on the edge. Limitation breeds creativity? Fucking oath it does.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:46 AM on September 3, 2018 [11 favorites]

@Definitely Not Sean Spicer, I feel like we could do a whole post about Donkey Kong music/OST for various games.
posted by Fizz at 9:56 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

i haven't even read the article yet and i'm already crying abt ezio's family
posted by poffin boffin at 10:05 AM on September 3, 2018

i haven't even read the article yet and i'm already crying abt ezio's family

Just in case anyone wants to give this a listen. [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 10:14 AM on September 3, 2018

Keep the recommendations coming, my dears!
posted by bigendian at 10:27 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Fizz,

Oh, it is on, like it is Donkey Kong.

posted by effugas at 10:35 AM on September 3, 2018

This is my favorite battle music from Final Fantasy XV, also known as Gay Goth Boy Band Bachelor Party Road Trip.

Up For The Challenge
posted by panhopticon at 10:43 AM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh man, Assassin's Creed Blackflag sent me down a wormhole of shanties and old folk music I've never fully left. There's something wonderful about a game turning people onto 100 year working songs.
posted by Damienmce at 10:45 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Keep the recommendations coming, my dears!

Keeping the focus on classical, by which I guess we mean orchestral, music: in no particular order,
- Shadow of the Colossus. Swift Horse is a personal favorite, but the entire soundtrack is incredible.
- Neir: Automata. Runs the range from ethereal to visceral.
- The high points of the Halo series, most notably Reach (The Winter Contingency) and Halo 3 (Keep What You Steal). My personal favorite from that series is the moodier, jazz-inflected (though often indulgent) ODST soundtrack (No Stone Unturned), but Martin O'Donnell's work consistently excellent.
- The various projects to remake or remix music from the Zelda series - the ZREO project was very uneven but the good bits are far better than just good. Eric Bucholz has moved on to make other stuff in that vein, like the Time's End album of orchestral music re-arranged from Majora's Mask.
posted by mhoye at 10:57 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bigendian,

Aight.

Amazingly and gloriously, OCRemix continues producing. Some of their better albums:

Secret of Mana
Final Fantasy VI

Unsurprisingly, there's a huge bias towards epic Squaresoft reproductions. Materia Collective has some particularly notable ones -- Successor comes to mind. But, uh, do make sure to check out the various selections from Distant Worlds and Nobuo's own Black Mages.

(Side note: I didn't know there was a new Distant World's album and IT IS LIFE).

But there is lots of music besides Squaresoft, and genres other than classical even.

Bastion OST
Minibosses (NES Rock)
The *SUPREMELY ENTERTAINING* Mariachi Entertainment System. Their entire Megaman album is amazing, it's on the streaming services.
posted by effugas at 11:00 AM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Speaking of, Nier Gestalt's OST was the first I heard of the series and that is when I knew there was a cultural force COMING that had SOMETHING to SAY.
posted by effugas at 11:02 AM on September 3, 2018

Oooh, the Bastion OST is a lovely set of tunes to get stuck in your head.
posted by Fizz at 11:05 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Since I'm cataloging, it's worth mentioning the Melancholy Tribute series. Spent quite a bit of time listening to these:

Memoria (FF9)
Without A Trace (Secret of Mana)
Fragments of Memories (FF8)
Melancholy Mix of Boss Music (oddly good)

Also, I really enjoyed Xeno Cross, which mixed Chrono Cross and Xenogears.
posted by effugas at 11:13 AM on September 3, 2018

Fizz, yep, Bastion is one of my favorite games in years, pretty much ends the debate about games as art.
posted by effugas at 11:14 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Fizz, yep, Bastion is one of my favorite games in years, pretty much ends the debate about games as art.

Fez was one of those games that did this for me.
posted by Fizz at 11:25 AM on September 3, 2018

Just in case anyone wants to give this a listen.

the part in origins where they throw in the remix origins theme featuring ezio's family made me throw myself dramatically to the ground and wail
posted by poffin boffin at 11:35 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh! People know about Distant Worlds, but there's also A New World and it's pretty great!
posted by effugas at 11:47 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Classical forms are alive enough in videogame and movie music that they occasionally write new music for dances that almost nobody is doing any more. Sometimes it's not perfectly danceable -- big changes in tempo without signalling and at uneven intervals -- but every so often it's dead-on.

Dance music developed in tandem with physical effort and display, so it's well suited to be soundtrack music for images of the same, so this might be accidental. But one of my favorites is the soundtrack to Braid, and the composer played for Shakespeare theaters and punters on the reg, IIRC, and surely knew what the forms were originally for. So maybe there are more cases of that than I know. Either way, it's a baton toss from the past, I'm grateful.
posted by clew at 12:01 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Michael Curran's theme to Civ V: Brave New World is absolutely gorgeous.
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 12:05 PM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Once regarded as inferior to film and TV soundtracks, games scores…

I credit my years spent as classical director at my university radio station for getting me to notice just how wildly talented the composer(s) Blizzard hired for World of Warcraft were.  I can still remember playing and suddenly noticing just how good the Teldrassil/Night Elf theme was.  It's unobtrusive when playing, but if you pay attention to it, it is extremely well crafted, with themes and motifs popping up all over other related zone's own music.

 And they've got the most amazing music just everywhere in the game, and all at a very high quality.  The Storm Peaks zone had a very haunting theme as well.  Blizzard's entire sound design team is astounding; playing with headphones and just paying attention to all the sound both musical and ambient is very rewarding.  I'm pleased others are noticing the talent game designers have on tap.  So much game music is just light-years beyond what you might expect in quality if you sniffily dismiss it as only game music.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 12:14 PM on September 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

ooh.

BASStion (yes. Bastion covers. YESSSSSSSS. He's got more gaming mixes at Soundcloud, and his SMB2 is good.)
posted by effugas at 12:22 PM on September 3, 2018

los pantalones del muerte (lol)--

I forgot about the Blizzard concerts at Gamescom! 2017 was actually recorded pretty well.

The Swedish Radio Symphony orchestra has done some great work:

Mega Man 2 & 3
Final Fantasy 9
Full Concert

Worth mentioning Symphonic Fantasies as notable.
posted by effugas at 1:01 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thank you all for your recommendations - it will take a while to get through all of them, but I'm very much looking forward to it. :)
posted by bigendian at 1:17 PM on September 3, 2018

I go on discovery dives from time to time. It ain't all great, it ain't all bad. Results from this run:

James Chin is making some good stuff.
Blake Robinson does a mean Metroid and zelda.
Jillian Aversa, notably one of the few arrangers that can sing over these tracks and make them better.
Fawzi Allouache

Oh, so as mentioned earlier with Forgot about K.Rool, there's a video game mashup sub-subgenre.

Snoop Dog vs. Orchestral Pokemon by Zvaari *chefs kiss*
posted by effugas at 2:16 PM on September 3, 2018

Also notable, God of War.

God of War 1
God of War 2
God of War 3
God of War PS4
God of War Symphonic Suite
posted by effugas at 2:40 PM on September 3, 2018

I was astounded by the music for Candy Crush Soda. The soundtrack was ludicrously lovely, and more addictive to me than the game. There's an interesting mini-doc here from it's recording by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.
posted by freya_lamb at 2:53 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

One thing a lot of people either don’t know or disregard is that even in its time, classical music was largely meant as soundtrack. The famous “can-can” song is the overture from Orpheus in the Underworld, for example.

One thing game music did for me was introduce me to really weird time signatures. I dare anyone not extremely musically inclined to try to figure out the time signatures on the underground music in Super Mario Bros. or Sagat’s theme in Street Fighter II.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:08 PM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

The game music made for Sunless Sea is darkly beautiful, and it's a great one for putting on while working for me. The same composer, Maribeth Solomon, made music for Fallen London too, and I'm excited for Sunless Skies...

(The track names are pretty good all on their own! From Submergio Viol to Why We Wear Faces)
posted by Cheerwell Maker at 3:10 PM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

DoctorFedora,

I had no idea there were weird signatures there, and it *totally* makes sense in retrospect.
posted by effugas at 3:23 PM on September 3, 2018

The Soundtrack Show, a podcast that you should be subscribed to, did a deep dive on Super Mario Bros. for one of it's early episodes and if you want to get deep into the woods with some of the more technical/composing elements of the tune, check it out. [Super Mario Bros.]

*Bonus: It's not related to video games, but the episode on Jaws [Part 1][Part 2] is also super interesting.*
posted by Fizz at 3:31 PM on September 3, 2018

Ohhh I really like videogame music!

I really enjoy Floex, The Samorost 3 soundtrack is great, but they all are.

Where the water tastes like wine is also a great soundtrack

Subnautica's soundtrack is great moody ambient.

I don't mind The Torchlight 2 soundtrack either

I'm playing it, so I'm not sure how it would stand up by itself, but I really like the Pillars of Eternity 2 soundtrack as I'm playing it.

I listen to more game soundtracks than I do play games!
posted by smoke at 5:37 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

An incomplete selection of the best game soundtracks of all time, in no particular order:

Mechwarrior 2
The Orange Box
House of the Dying Sun
Transistor
Civilization: Beyond Earth
posted by tobascodagama at 5:48 PM on September 3, 2018

I've recently been listening to the soundtrack for Enderal, and it absolutely blows my mind that there is an amazing seven-hour through-composed soundtrack, complete with moody piano music and heart-pounding battle music and sweeping orchestrals and a substantial repertory of bard song (in two languages)—for a free Skyrim mod!
posted by Syllepsis at 7:25 PM on September 3, 2018

Building on los pantalones's comment, WoW is replete with amazing tracks. Some of them get me more emotional than any other piece of classical music, I suppose because of the memories and associations I have of these pieces. "Totems of the Grizzlemaw", for instance, to this day gets me misty-eyed, thinking back to those fine days in Wrath and the people I played with then. Another is "Jaina's Theme", which has more relevance in current content, and has been repurposed with a couple different motifs. And for someone who played WCIII and raided ICC, "Invincible" (live version, btw) is like a dagger in the heart with all the feels.

I'd be remiss not to include some favorites of mine from other MMOs: "Tarir, The Forgotten City" from the Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns OST is my absolute beloved piece from that game, though like Blizzard, Arenanet puts a lot of effort into their soundtrack. The company's Soundcloud page has tons of tracks, including the iconic "Fear Not This Night".

Even CCP can produce memorable tracks for Eve, though they tend to be synth-heavy, as befits the theme: "Below the Asteroids" is probably best known, though I'm quite partial to the theme from the Ascension update in 2016 as well as "The Luminous Eye" from the May 2017 update. (It's kind of a shame that "Eve has a soundtrack?" is a joke within that community.)
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 7:28 PM on September 3, 2018

(C)Hip Tanaka or GTFO
posted by gusandrews at 7:48 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Anybody who raided during the Burning Crusade expansion for WoW is going to have the soundtrack to Karazhan embedded as deeply into their skull as their parents' voices.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:53 PM on September 3, 2018

Aw man, Karazhan's music was just divine.  They were really hitting on all six cylinders music-wise those first two expansions.  I always liked that they revisited that Haunted Mansion aesthetic when they revamped the Darkmoon Faire.

Come to think of it, both pieces of music would be great to pipe through hidden speakers for trick-or-treaters at Halloween like we always did with that old Haunted Mansion record Disney put out way back when, only less spooky and more amusing.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 8:24 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I listen to a lot of video game music and as well as a lot of music that could be in video games.
However I do have to be careful. As much I absolutely love love love certain games music I can't listen to it on the regular because I get emotional and overwhelmed. The emotional connection and nostalgia for the games is tight. Its not the same as hearing music from a beloved movies or tv show. I find it much more intense and feels like I'm be sucked back into the game.

Examples (in no particular order) Assassins Creed (Ezio ones), Mass Effect, Eve Online, Dragon Age, some World of Warcraft and Witcher 3. Though with Witcher music that's changing to represent DnD because people use it so much in games.
posted by Jalliah at 9:10 PM on September 3, 2018

Lots of great recommendations here, with the usual square bias (not that I'm complaining!)

My 2c: 2018's Battletech has an incredible soundtrack, the entirety of which is available to listen for free on YouTube. It is a mix of live recorded soloists, orchestras, and choir, enhanced with synth and percussion. Harebrain's composer Jon Everist did the Shadowrun games' OSTs as well but his Battletech OST really sets a new high bar for game soundtracks. Longtime mechwarrior videogame fans will also be able to pick out some easter eggs in the soundtrack. Here's a making of video of one of the tracks from the composer's YouTube channel.

For a taste of how the music feels, watch the opening cinematic.
posted by theony at 11:35 PM on September 3, 2018

Aieee I forgot to say. Speaking of square orchestral music, one of the most enjoyable but rarely mentioned CDs is a collection of piano and orchestral music for saga frontier 2 called Piano Pieces Saga Frontier 2. It has solo piano, duet piano, and piano + orchestra pieces. Give it a listen.
posted by theony at 11:49 PM on September 3, 2018

The thing that's interesting about video games is that music is really part of the heritage of the medium. Film and TV composition is very mood based - TV music is trying to tie together the identity of the show and provide subtle emotional cues, while film music literally rips cues from previous works.

Game music, meanwhile, has a culture where original compositions are seen as worthwhile and legitimate, where big, showy pieces are seen as part of the work rather than distracting from it, and even the smallest developers will consider hiring a composer, even going as far as allowing the composer to keep the copyright so long as they can have an original piece of music for a price they can afford. Not to mention the opportunity for composers who want to explore how interactivity can change the context of the piece.

Composition was a hard field to break into, because the big studios would always hire the same handful of people to score every movie. Video games have made that a lot easier - there's a huge demand for composition, the briefs are more creative, and composers can build name recognition and followers in a way composers in other fields rarely get to.
posted by Merus at 1:05 AM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

effugas, that Mega Man 2&3 symphony is a spectacular find, thank you!

Not classical but this remains my favorite piece of game music reinterpretation: The Freedom of Zero from original F-Zero
posted by Molesome at 1:44 AM on September 4, 2018

Skyrim has an excellent score. Here's a rendition of the Dragonborn theme by the Swedish State Radio symphony orchestra with Sabina Zweiacker on vocals. Backing by the Katarina Kammarkör choir.
posted by Harald74 at 3:14 AM on September 4, 2018

If we're talking about classical-style music in games, there's one game that really stands out for me: Bloodborne. Its score is all amazing, and was all recorded orchestrally (unlike From's other games, which use synthesisers).

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos (Yuka Kitamura: "While composing the music for Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, I sensed themes of the universe, of finality, of something godly, and I was filled with visions of the end of the world as I worked on that song")
The First Hunter (Tsukasa Saitoh)
Video of Cleric Beast being recorded (Tsukasa Saitoh)
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 4:28 AM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh man, so many good recommendations in here. My YouTube playlist is going to be clogged for the next month. Keep them coming.
posted by Fizz at 5:13 AM on September 4, 2018

Not strictly classical, but I'll just say that the Katamari Damacy OST is often on loop while I'm getting things done at work. Awesome game, awesome music, super great for keeping me focused and getting things done.

(later games in the series also have excellent music that's worth listening to even if you've never played)
posted by tocts at 6:14 AM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

No one's mentioned Super Smash Bros' Ultimate yet? It's not out until December, but among a huge range of selling points they've literally made three of them 800 music tracks from taken from the various series Smash represents, 28 hours worth of music, and that you can use the whole thing as the world's largest ipod. (They've also put some of the music online)
posted by Francis at 7:38 AM on September 4, 2018

So far, in my day to day life, I have been surprised by the Skyrim theme (choir festival), the Civ 4 theme (Montreal jazz festival), and the Battlefield theme (on the classical radio station) in serious music contexts. I like it.
posted by 256 at 7:46 AM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Chrono Trigger (Live at Symphony Hall)
posted by roystgnr at 11:38 AM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seems like movies and videogames are the only primary source people will hear "classical" music these days, I'm not even sure where I'd look if I wanted non-videogame or movie orchestral compositions.
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:58 AM on September 4, 2018

Random addition that I can't believe I did not mention, also not classical: The Pink Album, by Kirby's Dream Band. Super great synth/rock versions of NES music that's peppy as all get out.
posted by tocts at 1:41 PM on September 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Paul Romero composed all the music for the Heroes of Might and Magic series -- here's him playing a bunch of the themes on piano. One of my favorites of his is the Necropolis theme from Heroes 3 -- it's based on the old hymn Dies Irae!
posted by gold-in-green at 3:57 PM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Worth mentioning his opera tracks for Heroes of might and magic 2 back in the heady days of 1996.
posted by ersatz at 4:26 AM on September 7, 2018