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The Legend of Zelda: A Melodic Masterpiece

by Leyou Jiang
written by Leyou Jiang

The Legend of Zelda: A Melodic Masterpiece

The Legend of Zelda series is known for its longevity and success as a video game but also for its iconic and legendary soundtrack. 

The mastermind behind it all? The legendary composer Koji Kondo.

Koji Kondo was hired by Nintendo in 1984 to write video game music for many of their projects, including “Punch-Out” and “Super Mario Bros” – another successful and iconic series of games. However, it would be two years later, in 1986, when Kondo was assigned to create music for the original “The Legend of Zelda” game. This brings us to the first fun fact of the article:

The “The Legend of Zelda Main Theme” song was supposed to be Ravel’s Bolero, but Nintendo found out that the song was still under copyright law. This prompted Koji Kondo to pull an all-nighter to finish a completely new main theme to use for the 1986 game.

Later, Koji Kondo was assigned to create soundtracks for “A Link to the Past”, and “Ocarina of Time”. He is now a supervisor and arranger for the Nintendo Sound Team.

 

Perhaps one of the most iconic Zelda songs, “Zelda’s Lullaby,” is a recurring theme whenever Princess Zelda appears, and first appeared in “A Link to the Past”. Now fast forward to 2011, the release year of the game “Skyward Sword” and the piece “Ballad of the Goddess”, which brings us to the second fact:

The ethereal and otherworldly-sounding “Ballad of the Goddess” is actually “Zelda’s Lullaby” in REVERSE. Well, at least the main melody is.

 

This fact completely blew my mind when I first heard about it. How can one create two beautiful songs from a single melody? Well, you can thank Koji Kondo again, as he is credited for writing “Zelda’s Lullaby”. 

The Legend of Zelda redefined the reason to add music to video games. Not only are they used to immerse you into the world of Zelda — Hyrule, but also as a game mechanic! They were one of the earliest games to include music as a tool you could use on your adventure into the game. In “Ocarina of Time”, music is used as a tool in the form of an ocarina and could do things such as start a storm or even help solve puzzles.

Even if you aren’t a fan of the game series or even video games in general, I guarantee that you will fall in love with the soundtrack. The music of Zelda is a testament to the soul poured into its composition; each note, each melody, and each song showcases the amount of work put into the soundtrack and the game.

 

Credits

https://www.famouscomposers.net/koji-kondo

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