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Music Media Entertainment Games

Symphony Orchestras and Video Games 45

Posted by Zonk from the two-great-tastes dept.
robi2106 writes "The BBC is running an article regarding the cooperation between video game composers and top symphony orchestras, like the recent Los Angeles Philharmonic concert entitled Video Games Live. The VGL event contained orchestral productions of video game music, a live video game match between audience members on jumbo screens behind the orchestra, and pre-recorded game footage accompanied by the orchestra. Such productions are becoming more and more popular." From the BBC article: "With the emergence of machines like the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences. When Mr Wall composed the score for Myst III, he used a full symphony orchestra and choir. "
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Symphony Orchestras and Video Games

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  • I'd give anything to hear a full orchestra performing the Super Mario Bros. theme song.

    • CD called "Orchestral Game Concert #4" has it - no idea which orchestra did it. I think this is the file that has been wAr3d quite widely - if you start googling for orchestral SMB, you'll probably find it sooner or later. Or try ed2k. Good luck trying to find the actual CD, I think it's wayyy out of print.

      Other highlights of the CD include Super Metroid opening and end, and the entirety of Final Fantasy 3/6j's opera scene (lyrics in Japanese, though - I prefer the Grande Finale version, it's more comfort

    • There was a concert in Tokyo performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring themes from Super Smash Brothers, including Yoshi's Story, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and a couple of others. Mario themes appear in the medleys, I think. See http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/mania/ssbmsl.sht m l [classicgaming.com] and http://www.gametrax.net/albums/084846/ [gametrax.net]. Unfortunately, it looks like the cd isn't for sale, but look around for it.

      Also of interest may be Mario and Zelda Big Band. The name should be all you need to know. htt [classicgaming.com]
    • I remember visiting Stockholm some years ago. I watched the changing of the guard at noon in front of the royal castle. Imagine the scene: Several dozens trained soldiers in ceremonial uniforms in rank and file, some even on horseback, a full-size military orchestra, the whole shebang. They started out playing the national anthem, several marches and for the grand finale - the Indiana Jones Theme Song ! It was just soooo bloody cool ! (and not even OT as the Indy Games also have that song in it ;-) ) .
  • The RPG Xenosaga featured orchestrated music, performed by the London Philaharmonic Orchestra, right in the game, and it was great. The choice for music use in the game was very different though, it was primarily used for cutscenes while the actual dungeon crawl moments were mostly sound effects and ambience.

    In the end I kind of liked it, especially after Xenosaga 2 brought back cheesy electronic bgm for the environments, it left me begging for silence.

    I've played Myst III too, and if anything deserves a

  • Halo (Score:2, Funny)

    by pyro17 ( 748571 )
    Has the best musical score for any video game I'v ever played.
    • I, for one, agree with you. I own the Halo soundtrack and have loved it ever since I got it. Don't judge me!!
  • I should thank the editors for actually including the link to the BBC article since a brain fart left me forgetting to include the link.

    Any how. Crazy. First submission accepted for me!

    But abotu the article.... there have been a couple of games I remember that I actually wanted the soundtrack. Starsiege: Tribes [planettribes.com] had some fun techno tracks that could be assigned to a level based on the map designer's settings. Also, and even better, is the Evil Genius [howevilareyou.com] music, which is a symphonic score straight from Aust
  • I had some friends down in the SoCal area who were really excited for the Video Games Live concert. But unfortunately, they told me it was extremely disappointing, and didn't even hold a candle to the previous Final Fantasy concerts.

  • Really Cool (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 1967mustangman ( 883255 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:36PM (#13058609)
    I got a chance to hear a little of the concert on NPR and it sounded great. I really enjoy classical music so I think this is great. It is funny people have been saying for decades that classical music is going to die, but if this kind of thing keeps up there will be many future generations of classical music listeners...................thanks to Microsoft,Sony, and Nintendo.

  • Hitman 2: Silent Assassian... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...had music by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, composed by Jesper Kyd. [jesperkyd.com] While not up to the level of some of the other soundtracks mentioned here, it did fit the bullet opera mood of the game perfectly. The right combination of music, slow motion and visual effects can make a character's death by gunplay seem less like a whoops-annoyance-main menu-reload and more like the inevitable consequence of his chosen profession. Good show.

  • Appeal's game "Outcast".... (Score:3, Informative)

    by tcopeland ( 32225 ) <tom AT thomasleecopeland DOT com> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:45PM (#13058666) Homepage
    ...had a sound track performed by the Moscow Symphony [pandora.be]. Pretty impressive...
  • ...this isn't the first time that an orchestra has performed VG music. Final Fantasy holds that honor. You can hear the entire event by purchasing, (or torrenting, if you are poor and/or evil) the 02202002 soundtrack.
  • Imagine PacMan or Tetris set to Philip Glass's compositions. You'd be in a trance for days :)

  • Not quite anything (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @11:05PM (#13060061)
    anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences

    There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.

    For example, Halo famous musical score is only present in the single-player game, when the game knows that certain events will happen sooner or later. The multiplayer game is devoid of any music, because the important events - a bomb being planted, a flag being stolen, a large battle in one spot, whatever - are impossible to schedule and cue ahead of time. The point is that recording high-quality orchestral scores is well and good, but the next crucial step is for the music to be generated on the fly (possibly from prerecorded snippets).
    • "There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score."

      Maybe not to the extent you're thinking, but steps have been taken in this direction. Zelda: Wind Waker included orchestral riffs that sounded after every blow with the sword. In Burnout 2, the guitars in the background music became much more predominant when you were boosting. I he
      • Metroid Prime also had music that would fade in and out when you happened to get near an enemy. It's often how I would know one of those damn invisible space pirates was lurking about. And oh god, the Chozo Ghosts. The music for the Chozo Ghosts still freaks me the hell out.
        • IIRC, they were able to do this because the entire soundtrack was in MIDI (with really good samples, of course). This let them make dynamic changes to the music like tempo and pitch shifting (major to minor, etc.). cool stuff
    • There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.
      Lucasarts [lucasarts.com] has been using iMuse [mixnmojo.com] for a long time in their games.

    • Re:Not quite anything (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      X-Wing and TIE Fighter had a dynamic music system that did basically what you describe. Sure, it was only MIDI, but it was impressive by the standards of the time. Pretty quickly, though, you got to recognise which sorts of in-game events would produce which musical cues. So, for example, a squadron of TIE Fighters launching would give a few bars of the Imperial March, a Star Destroyer entering the battle would give a snippet of the emperor's theme and so on. You could actually pick up a lot about the flow
      • I have X-Wing Alliance installed, and it uses dynamic music. Partly it seems to be scripted (when certain ships arrive or mission goals are achieved) and partly it chooses music depending on your current state (fighting, loosing, winning, ...).

        Just my 0,02
        • Isn't it awesome when the "losing" music turns around to the "winning" music?

          XW-A wasn't the first game to use though though, Wing Commander (I-V) did the same thing.
          • Indeed it is. I like it even more, when the silent music comes in after you have killed all hostiles. You are right, WC did the same thing. But X-Wing did it as well as Tie Fighter (my favorite of the whole series).
    • There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.

      The Lithtech engine did this. It has a variety of musicial motifs which can be shifted depending on the current action. I understand it was used in NOLF & sequal; I know it was used to pretty good effect in Tron 2.0, 'cause I actually played that one. I'm sure other engines do that

    • There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.

      While not quite as impressive as some of the other examples, the boss battle music in Skies of Arcadia switched between three variations depending on the condition of yor party. If your parties health got below a certain point the song would become darker and more urgent and if you w
      • Spiffy. That is just neat. I can see myself trying that out if only I would recognize the changes. Now I don't have SoA so I cannot tell, but after reading these comments I'll be paying more attention to the music in my current game, Deus Ex II.

        jason
    • I totally disagree, music can do that...even in your examples. Just change the music as the bomb apporaches the bomb site to something more tense. Once it is planted, change it again. If it is defused, happy music for the cts...if not, sad music. The reason why this isn't on multiplayer is so you can hear the footsteps of your enemies and the environment. You get more emersion because there isn't any music...like I'd really be fighting people with my IPod blaring Hollaback girl. I really don't think i
  • Quake had friggen Nine Inch Nails. Please tell me you go to the Symphony enough to actually care if the music is in your video game or not? Nine inch fucking nails! C'mon!

    HJ
  • Videogame music is one of my favourite genres of music. Well at least I think it's a genre. Nobuo Uematsu [nobuouematsu.com] is just one of the people that come to mind when I think of videogame music. It's just that videogame music comes with a lot of emotion. You remember playing a part of the game, something important happening, and the music that was playing during. It's more interactive that normal music. I don't think I'm the only one that thinks that way either, check out VGMusic [vgmusic.com].
  • Red Alert (hell, all of the C&C games) have really good scores, with C&C and RA standing out.
    Total Annihilation is another good qne, the game cues music based on action (a battle theme reves up when shots are fired, a "defeat" theme after you lost, a "victory" or "building" theme, etc...)

    Starcraft was also great, in its own little musical way.

  • Whee. (Score:1)

    by WWWWolf ( 2428 )

    Warcraft musics getting the respect they deserve. Finally. Long live Glenn Stafford and Tracy W. Bush. =)

    The extra stuff they seem to have planned sounds very cool. Soundtracks are often great except they frequently need the picture to support them. Myself, I came to the conclusion that video from games would probably *not* work (too much distraction in my opinion); if I ran the concert, I'd probably do something more somber like still slides from the game. (Which is why I probably won't run these things.

  • Games Convention Concert (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MadMoses ( 151207 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @06:00AM (#13061490) Homepage
    The 2000 tickets for the game music symphony concert of the FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague at the Games Convention [gc-germany.de] in Leipzig were sold out in under two hours, according to heise.de [heise.de].
  • I've really wanted to go to one of the For Friends concerts, featuring Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy scores. I'd really like to see The Black Mages and The Minibosses also.

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