quote:
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Zelda music is important.
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With a Lynel’s share of iconic game melodies, Zelda soundtracks are hugely popular and deeply
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cherished by fans.
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Music often plays a role in the games’ stories too, and there’s even a worldwide concert
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tour dedicated to the series.
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Whenever a new Zelda game is released, there is an extraordinary expectation from fans
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for its music to be of a certain calibre and sound a particular way: Epic and heroic, with
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rich, memorable melodies full of adventurous spirit.
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So with 2017’s Breath of the Wild promising a new way to experience Zelda and trailers
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boasting an exciting new score.
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Needless to say, the hype was high.
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While the game received no shortage of praise, opinions on the soundtrack were a bit more
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divided.
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Breath of the Wild’s music wasn’t the bombastic, adventurous score that we expected,
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instead it was gentle and quiet, at times even silent.
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Many fans were disappointed, feeling it wasn’t true to the established Zelda sound or spirit.
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I personally love Breath of the Wild’s soundtrack and think it has lots of wonderful melodic
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gems hidden within it.
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But that’s beside the point, because the role of a soundtrack is to score the emotion
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on the screen – if it has a nice, memorable melody then that’s just a bonus.
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I don’t think Nintendo made the wrong decision with Breath of the Wild’s music because
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it perfectly captures the emotion of the game, and further than that, I don’t even think
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it sounds out of place within the series.
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I’d argue that even more famous than Zelda’s sense of adventure is its wildly divergent
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tone.
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Music is so vital to the series because most new Zelda games introduce a new version of
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Hyrule with its own history and character, and the role of the music is to establish
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the unique mood of this world.
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So while Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time may be heroic and adventurous, Twilight Princess
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and Majora’s Mask are much more dark, mysterious and dreadful.
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Then there’s the Wind Waker’s swashbuckling score and the sweeping orchestral romance
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of Skyward Sword.
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These distinct musical approaches all help to cast their respective game’s world and
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characters in entirely different lights.
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Compare this to one of Zelda’s closest relatives Metroid, which has had creepy, atmospheric
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music from the very start and has barely strayed from that style in the thirty years since.
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At least, successfully.
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It shouldn’t be surprising then that Breath of the Wild sounds different to previous entries
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in the Zelda series.
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It may not be adventurous or even dark and dangerous, but the music works just as well
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in establishing its unique setting.
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Most Zelda games will open with a relatively
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peaceful Hyrule being thrown into imminent peril thanks to the rise of an evil power.
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It’s up to Link to prevent this from happening and keep Hyrule safe.
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However in Breath of the Wild, the battle’s already been fought.
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Ganon won and took over Hyrule, Link fell into a deep sleep and it’s been this way
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for a hundred years.
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It’s a post-apocalyptic Hyrule, a broken shadow of its former self.
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This is immediately made clear as the first thing Link sees upon waking up and leaving
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his tomb is the dilapidated ruins of the Temple of Time – still standing, but badly damaged.
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As you approach the destroyed building you’ll occasionally hear this fragile piano separated
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by seconds of just silence.
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It might not be immediately obvious, but this is actually the Song of Time from Ocarina,
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just stripped to the bone and played very slowly and loosely.
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It’s almost like half the notes have been pulled out of the music and we’re just left
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with this skeleton of the Temple of Time.
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The same is true for the Hyrule Field theme.
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It feels like the bones of something greater, the damaged remnants of a once marvellous
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civilization.
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Combining the fragile piano with electronic fragments in tracks like Sheikah Tower highlights
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the ruins of this ancient but technologically-advanced world.
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The music taps into this broken version of Hyrule that you’re exploring by almost sounding
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broken itself.
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A lot of the time though, you won’t even hear any music at all - just the sound of
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the wilderness.
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Breath of the Wild embraces the quiet, because silence is just as important as sound.
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Any intro to music class will teach about John Cage’s 4’33”, a piece of music
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that is four and a half minutes of rests - in other words, pure silence.
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4’33” is a bit of a cheeky way of saying that music isn’t just instruments playing
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notes and chords – it can be any noise you want it to be, even the quiet stillness of
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your environment, if you were to just listen to it.
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The silence of Breath of the Wild not only lends itself to the game’s emotional tone,
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but serves functional purposes as well.
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For one, it prevents the themes from getting repetitive and annoying across the dozens
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of hours you’ll spend traversing Hyrule’s landscape.
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It also allows the music to better elevate dramatic moments important to the story, such
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as Link’s memories revealed along the way, or the Divine Beast dungeons.
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Sometimes though, these moments are much more subtle.
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Storms are awful – you can’t climb, you can’t see, you can’t build a fire so no
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resting or cooking food, you risk being struck by lightning and you can’t use any metal
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items.
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Worst of all, unless you’re in a specific area no music plays during a storm.
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But when the sun finally breaks through the clouds and the storm subsides, the music will
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fade in to signal the return of safety.
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Other times the music will start playing for
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no apparent reason at all, scoring a nothing moment like chopping down a tree or scaling
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a cliff face.
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To me this kind of harkens back to those bigger moments, turning something menial into something
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meaningful.
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It’s a reminder that everything you do is important and working towards your greater
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goal of defeating Ganon and restoring Hyrule to its former glory.
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Silence also enables the music to pull you closer to the world, making it feel smaller.
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Kass might be a single bird, but you can hear his accordion in a greater area around him,
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drawing you towards him.
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It’s the same with the stables or villages peppered throughout the map – the slow fade-in
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of the music guides you to them.
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Battles too, though this does sometimes have the opposite effect.
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This gentle tugging of the ear can also be felt in the music’s recording.
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Following the precedent set with Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild’s soundtrack is full
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of real, live-recorded instruments, adding a nice physicality to the score.
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There’s a strong emphasis on solo performances, creating an air of intimacy, and the timbre
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of some of these instruments, such as the shakuhachi in the Kakariko Village theme,
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have a real airy and organic texture.
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If you listen carefully, you can sometimes even hear the performer breathing.
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This pulls you closer to the music itself, tuning your ear to its intricacies.
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It’s little touches like these that give Breath of the Wild’s score its intimate
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feeling.
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All of this lends itself to an overarching feeling of sorrow.
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The contemplative space found within the silence.
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The intimate and tender instrument solos.
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The damaged piano tracks, an instrument which to me feels very introspective and melancholic.
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These three feelings – brokenness, intimacy and sorrow – when combined, they result
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in burden.
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When you are deeply upset about something that is wrong, you feel a personal weight
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of responsibility to make it right.
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This is presumably the burden that Link feels.
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100 years ago he was Princess Zelda’s knight in the fight against Ganon and he failed.
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While many of Hyrule’s citizens are optimistic about Link’s return, others are angry and
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still blame him for what happened.
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I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say that our silent protagonist probably blames
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himself too and feels a little ashamed.
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We do see this much more clearly in Zelda.
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It wasn’t so much Link’s responsibility to protect Hyrule as much as it was the Princess’s.
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She was born with the burden of Hyrule placed on her shoulders and dedicates her whole life
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trying to live up to this duty, but is unable to achieve what is required of her.
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Zelda is haunted by her past failures and resents her perceived inability to protect
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Hyrule.
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To me, Breath of the Wild isn’t a game about having lofty adventures through a fantastic
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world – Link isn’t Bilbo Baggins leaving the Shire for the sake of the adventure and
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Zelda isn’t a kidnapped Princess in need of rescue; it’s a more personal tale of
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redemption, for Zelda, Link and Hyrule, steeped in brokenness and failure, but with just a
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touch of hope.
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The music perfectly captures this emotional core of the game, in a way that catchy earworms
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and rousing, heroic fanfares just can’t do.
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Thank you to my Patreon family for actually making this video possible.
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With their support I was able to purchase a game capture card and make this video that
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I’ve wanted to for months.
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I am so incredibly grateful for the kindness that is extended to me, it means so much.
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Super special thanks to my top-tier supporters: Chris Chapman, Mike TK, Nanalew, David Shternberg,
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Gregarwolf, Jedrej Wilinski, PhantomMiG, Neil, Bifbof, Kevin Rampf, Furtherproof, Luigi Piccoli,
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Fredi Garcia, Jared Williams, Darby Bohde, Tabitha, Emma Smith and Jordan Hoxsie.