The Journey of a Hero: Musical Evocations of the Hero’s Experience in The Legend of Zelda

Abstract

The research in this study explores concepts in the music from select games in The Legend of Zelda franchise. The paper utilizes topic theory and Schenkerian analysis to form connections between concepts such as adventure in the overworld, the fight or flight response in an enemy encounter, lament at the loss of a companion, and heroism by overcoming evil. The article identifies and discusses how Koji Kondo’s compositions evoke these concepts, and briefly questions the reasoning. The musical excerpts consist of (but are not limited to): The Great Sea (Windwaker; adventure), Ganondorf Battle (Ocarina of Time; fight or flight), Midna’s Lament (Twilight Princess; lament), and Hyrule Field (Twilight Princess; heroism). The article aims to encourage readers to explore music of different genres and acknowledge that conventional analysis tools prove useful to video game music. Additionally, the results in this study find patterns in Koji Kondo’s work such as (to identify a select few) modal mixture, military topic, and lament bass to perpetuate an in-game concept. The most significant aspect of this study suggests that the music in The Legend of Zelda reflects in-game ideas and pushes a musical concept to correspond with what happens on screen while in gameplay.