An Enduring Legend: The Cultural Effect of Thematic and Interactive Music in The Legend of Zelda
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Abstract
This paper will focus on the world of The Legend of Zelda in particular, one of the oldest and most celebrated video game franchises of all time, beloved by casual gamers and dedicated fans alike, sometimes to the level of cult following. The thematic and interactive music of Zelda plays a significant role in establishing its identity as a major game franchise with an influential cultural effect. To examine this phenomenon, let us explore several principal musical themes and their treatments throughout selected games, primarily: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. These are three of the most recent and popular titles of the franchise. So far, they contain some of the most developed versions of the principal themes and are therefore among the most interesting, musically speaking. Furthermore, by examining aspects of game music such as timbre and colour, orchestration and instrumentation, meter and tempo, harmony and melody, tempo, texture, style, technique and implementation, we can see why these principal themes or leitmotifs are so effective in establishing identity and loosely track their shape end evolution throughout the previously mentioned titles.
Publication Date
7-1-2017
Campus
Valencia (Spain) Campus
Recommended Citation
Wong, Sahlia. “An Enduring Legend: The Cultural Effect of Thematic and Interactive Music in The Legend of Zelda.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2017. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-scoring/88.