WORDS: Chris Rooke
That time in their life becomes encapsulated in those games, and one of the greatest memory triggers is music.
It’s the end of May in the Hammersmith Apollo in London as over 3,500 people take their seats in the auditorium. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir are already in place when the lights go down. Onstage, a smiling and excited woman walks out from the wings to huge cheers from the assembled audience members. Orchestras do not normally get “whoops.” Then again, this is no normal concert.
“Our [audience] average is 3,500 people,” explained Eímear Noone, conductor of the Symphony of the Goddesses concert. “We had about 8,000 people at the Mann centre [in Philadelphia], and Wolf Trap in Washington, DC was around the same.” But the fans are only half of the success story. “It’s really significant that some of the orchestras we’ve worked with so far: the Royal Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony, the National Symphony in the United States. We’re about to work with the Philadelphia Orchestra which is historically one of the most significant cultural music groups in the United States — all these great orchestras want to be a part of it!”
The Symphony of the Goddesses concert is one of an increasing number of live gaming music events around the globe. Celebrating the music of The Legend of Zelda franchise, the concerts began in 2011 as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the series. But this tour also possesses an unusual advantage: the blessing of its originator. “While I was developing the idea for Symphony of the Goddesses with Chad [Seiter, composer of the Symphony of the Goddesses], unbeknownst to us Koji Kondo [composer for The Legend of Zelda game series] and the guys at Nintendo in Japan were making their own plans for the 25th anniversary,” recalled Jeron Moore, Lead Creative of the concert. Those plans included concerts in three cities and a recording of an orchestrated soundtrack album, from which the current tour grew.
The Symphony of the Goddesses is not the first concert of its kind. Video Games Live, created by Tommy Tallarico, and Play! A Video Game Symphony both took America by storm when they began in the mid-2000s, with VGL continuing to tour America and planning to come to Europe in 2014. VGL have also just successfully completed raising $250,000 for their third album through a Kickstarter campaign. Other more narrowly-focused events have also taken place, such as Square–Enix’s Distant Worlds concerts to celebrate the Final Fantasy series.
What is particularly notable is the immediate success of such tours and events. With few comparable tours encompassing film or television scores, it seems that gaming soundtracks spark more excitement. This could also be due to a different approach taken by the creators of gaming music shows: one that treats gaming music as belonging to the players and the audience as much as it belongs to the creators or the musicians. “I think today’s youth and our generation of entertainers have grown up playing video games,” Moore explained. “These games have become more and more engrossing as time has gone on, and we assign our own emotions and experiences to what’s happening when we play them.”
Noone concurred: “One of the things that makes it special that I’ve discovered, is that people play games at a particular time in their lives, and that time in their life becomes encapsulated in those games, and one of the greatest memory triggers is music.” She explained, “People have come to me and said ‘I cried during the Twilight Princess movement because I used to play Twilight Princess with my dad and then he passed away,’ or ‘I used to take refuge from my parents getting a divorce in such a game.’ The themes bring back those memories.”
It’s easy to see the care that goes into the creation of such a show, as a result of their awareness of the importance of the music to many people. Moore explained that one of their primary objectives is to remain faithful to the original works, as well as structuring the show in such a way that it invokes the most emotional response possible from the audience. “The Zelda show is fuelled by nostalgia, and it’s really powerful. I think by presenting it the way that we do, by making it bigger and better, and presenting it in a thoughtful way that pulls at the heartstrings and gets the blood pumping, it really gets you re-involved in the story and looking at aspects of the story that you hadn’t considered before.”
Noone thinks it’s this unique nature of gaming that ensures the music has an impact: “It’s amazing because it’s not like a movie or music where if you love it you’ll watch it again, and if you love the score you’ll buy the score, this is music that people live with every day while they’re playing the game,” she explained, “so it becomes so special to them, and the sonority of the orchestra becomes imprinted on their psyche, which is fantastic — it’s the first time in music history that I know of that a young audience is listening to an orchestra that much.”
“It’s not a foreign, elitist thing for their grandmother’s generation, it’s part of a modern medium that belongs to them, and I think it’s really fun to be at the centre of something that’s pushing that forward,” she went on. It’s clear from speaking to Noone that she doesn’t see the orchestration of game scores as simply a means to create a more involved and immersive gaming atmosphere or experience, but as a gateway or entry point to introduce young people to the world of the orchestra and to a wide variety of music. “That is their music, and the orchestra is their band that is playing their music.”
Eímear Noone’s first EP, Hibernian, is available on the iTunes Store. More information about the Symphony of the Goddesses can be found at www.zelda-symphony.com.
