A Brief History of Early Video Game Music

In the beginning, mankind created video games. And it was good. But it wasn't great.

Back in the early days of games, programmers were having enough trouble creating a working product, putting all of their work (and processing power) into gameplay and graphical output. From the earliest, Tennis for Two, to more sophisticated early games like Galaga, there was either very little music (usually in the form of title screen jingles) or no music at all. It makes sense; this was back when the limits of gaming technology mandated that designers carefully choose how each bit of data was consumed. They just didn't have the space to worry about music when they were having enough trouble getting the game to run.

As shocking as that may seem now.

Songs to Grow On: Birdfeather Nebula

It's been quite a while since we've seen the dynamic duo of Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegull, but no one can forget the catchy tunes that accompanied them through Grunty's Tower and beyond. This is a really cool take on the styles of Grant Kirkhope in the Banjo-Kazooie games as envisioned by Soundcloud user jdmoser. Check it out!


http://soundcloud.com/jdmoser/birdfeather-nebula

Interview: "Video Game Music Choir" Founder Julia Seeholzer

As a Northwestern student, I know a thing or two about a cappella groups. With about seventeen different groups, the college is never at a shortage of entirely vocalized music. However, one thing about which Northwestern cannot boast is having a group that sings only video game music, unlike Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, a student by the name of Julia Seeholzer created a group in Sepetember of 2009 where members arrange, rehearse, and perform different video game tunes, usually with little to no instrumental accompaniment. In a school devoted entirely to music, this yields some very impressive results. The following is an interview I conducted with Julia about the choir, her musical background, and her gaming background.

Julia Seeholzer

Eternal Sonata, or, Chopin in Wonderland

Japan is known for many interesting game ideas, with anything from homoerotic shoot-'em-ups to all-female acting troupes who also defend the earth with giant robots. Many of these games don't make it to foreign shores, but every so often, one finds its way to the U.S. Eternal Sonata (known in Japan as Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream) is a Japanese RPG with an unconventional plot: as the Japanese title suggests, the game centers around a dream that Frédéric Chopin (yes, THAT Frédéric Chopin) has while in a comatose state on the evening of his death. It's a strange concept, to be sure; however, when you're running around the battle field with a top hat-wearing Chopin and bludgeoning enemies with a conductor's baton, you stop questioning these details.

Chopin, as envisioned by Japan.

Although the game garnered predominantly positive reviews, some reviewers complained about its use of overdone JRPG cliches and simultaneously confusing and over-simplified plot. One thing that was universally agreed upon, though, was the fact that Eternal Sonata's music was some of the best that the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 had to offer.

Songs to Grow On: World 3 Map (as performed by Aivi Tran)

I just had to share this before I went to bed. This is Aivi Tran's rendition of the third world map theme in Super Mario Galaxy 2. She adds some very interesting flourish and really fleshes out the tune on the piano. I hope you enjoy!

"World 3 Map" - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (as performed by Aivi Tran)

Songs to Grow On: Cutting Edge of Notion

Getting to watch a video game music composer perform his own pieces live is a unique and wonderful experience. Nobuo Uematsu performs for an audience periodically, as does Koji Kondo. This is a video of Motoi Sakuraba performing the battle theme from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. This performance shows how comfortable Sakuraba is when in front of a piano synthesizer (and how much he loves to include rock organ in his compositions). Enjoy!

 "Cutting Edge of Notion" - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (written and performed by Motoi Sakuraba)

Composer Spotlight: Motoi Sakuraba

With some of gaming's most famous RPG series under his belt, Motoi Sakuraba is one of the finest and most prolific video game composers in the field today. He's composed the music for the Tales series, the Star Ocean series, the Baten Kaitos games, the Golden Sun series, both Mario Tennis and Mario Golf, and a host of others. He transcends not only genre boundaries, mixing pastoral, orchestral sounds with a rock fusion sound, but also company boundaries, as he has worked for as many as ten different developers thus far. But what is it that makes his music so great?

Motoi Sakuraba