It had all the semblances of an ordinary concert. There were the poised musicians of the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble and Orchestra in their black formal clothes, seated in a semicircle around the conductor’s stand. There stood the conductor with his baton glinting under the soft concert lights, and there sat the audience engaged in polite chatter with programs in their hands. Indeed, it was all familiar save for the strange projection screen hanging low above the musicians’ heads and the colorful lights along the back walls of the stage that hinted the Holy Cross Wind Ensemble and Orchestra wasn’t playing a series of classical compositions that night.
The usually static lights at the back of the stage, the lilac lights, begin shifting in sync with the music, from soft pinks to ominous reds, as Holy Cross’ Wind Ensemble then Orchestra play through a medley of dynamic songs that evoke the sounds of a world of imagination. The music glides from the dangers to the thrill of adventure latent within the video games displayed on the projection screen. The audience sits with enraptured silence at the harmony of light and sound, greeting each ending with applause. But video game music has not always been appreciated by concert-goers. The arrangement of multimedia elements in Game On! also celebrates video game music’s rise from being dismissed to being regarded as a legitimate form of art.
When video games began to commonly incorporate music in the 1980s, there was a very obvious limitation: the sound hardware for the video games. Back then, the video games were programmed on 8-bit computer chips, allowing for only a certain number of notes to be played at once. The sound technology could only emit clear, precise notes when they came out in small blips, not unlike Morse code. Due to this limitation, at first the technology was used only for sound effects, like an alien dying under attack from a spaceship. But as competition pushed the gaming companies to explore more, the limits of the technology sparked innovation. The musicians at the time came to call the blips of notes “chips,” leading to the birth of “chiptune.” Remnants of this sound quality can still be heard in the Wind Ensemble’s arrangement of the Super Mario Bros theme song composed by Koji Kondo. Within the chorus of instruments, if one listens closely, one notices that many of the notes are in staccato form: short bursts of notes with simple chords that hold a few notes at once. Yet not only does the quality of chiptune add to the playfulness of the tune, but the Super Mario theme song remains one of the catchiest and most iconic tunes of all time. As such, it has exerted a large influence on future video game music and on Kondo’s later works, such as The Legend of Zelda series.
However, even as technology advanced, it was not obvious that video game music could hold its own. Much like music in film, video game music is complementary. The music is often composed for the visual elements, making it feel secondary. Video game music faces even more of a challenge as it has to not only reflect the themes present within the video game but also sync with the unique gameplay style of each player. In some ways, this initially made it seem implausible that any given pieces of music would gain recognition apart from the gameplay, especially when the score of a game title may shift rapidly to reflect the in-game locations from the peaceful ambiance of Hyrule Castle Town to the intimidating themes of Death Mountain. Even as technology advanced, video game critics also tended to focus more on the improving visual graphics or more tactile gameplay elements than the music, contributing to the sense that the music was more of an added feature rather than an essential part of the game.
What such critics fail to consider, however, is the player-centric reality that video game music contributes as much to the experience as the visuals do. During the Wind Ensemble’s performance of the soundtrack of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the music was accompanied by a video of the conductor’s recorded gameplay of the video game itself, edited to be in sync with the arrangement of the music. If one imagines watching this gameplay video without any of the music, one realizes how much would be lost in the mood and atmosphere of each location, even with the shifting theater lights in the background of the stage. Without the music, one would never realize the wry, quirky persona of the owl in the Lost Forest, or the wistful melancholy of Link as he rides through the open plain of a time he does not belong to.
Why a concert, then, to celebrate video game music? As I experience the musicians glide from title to title, I realize I have never really thought about how much inspiration video game music draws from classical and cinematic music. Indeed, as I listen carefully to what instruments were taking a more central role in each title, I can hear the resemblances between the video game music and its influences. The Halo trilogy theme songs are filled with a combination of vocals by Rhiannon Hurst ’25 and the deep, resonant tones of bass instruments, cluing the audience into its heavy inspiration from the musical traditions of Gregorian chant and medieval music. The theme songs of World of Warcraft give me the impression of a Celtic mead hall with the prominence of trumpets and sweeping movements. Sure enough, World of Warcraft often uses live orchestras to record their music, using the resonance and cinematic complexity to express the vastness of the in-game multiplayer world. It is events like this concert, as Jason Hayes, one of the composers for World of Warcraft, pointed out in an interview with GameSpot, that provide a way for nongamers to realize the level of sophistication that is inherent within video game music and to legitimize the art of video games.
As the credit screen of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time rolls out, the musicians rise for their bows. Applause fills the air, both for the musicians themselves and for the art of video games. With live instruments and visuals combined, the concert celebrates the symbiotic beauty of visuals and music, tradition and innovation, that remain at the heart of video game music. It reminds us of the path video games have taken as well as the future they promise.