BardicKnowledge

This is in conversation for Shariq's best. I love how much thought he put into the arrangement about connecting Ala Mhigo to India here. The whole thing comes together fantastically well, and I like that it manages to have a little Dad-joke energy with the slightly-forced Prelude sweep in the mix. It just feels right, haha...and it fits the narrative of this piece as a gift / example to his son perfectly.
 

I'm watching this now!
Before seeing it in full, I will note that much like the aesthetic of Wind Waker, there seemed to have been a knee-jerk reaction to BotW's music, and in hindsight many of us are seeing just how smartly the new game's soundtrack is put together.  I feel that with time, the soundtrack will only gain more appreciation in the community.
I'll edit this post with thoughts on your video after seeing it. 
Edit: I feel that -- at least among my friends here -- nobody is complaining about Tarrey Town, Rito Village, the Molduga theme, or (especially) the Hyrule Castle theme.  All of those pieces are wicked good, and for the most part, scored in traditional fashion.  Similarly, few folks hate on Kass' concertina playing.  Worth mention since you analyze Hyrule Castle a bunch: there is also a Ballad of the Wind Fish reference right as the A theme loops back around that really makes me feel as if this is the moment I'd been playing dozens of hours for.
But many folks would say that the drive and melody behind those pieces only serves to emphasize how stark the landscape and shrines feel with only Debussy-inspired piano for much of the grasslands, forests, and snow areas.  Personally I don't mind that, and agree with your argument that the sparseness there makes for a good contrast to the locations that feature more traditional scoring....
...except for the Shrine theme, which at the very least should be different for "reward" shrines, "combat" shrines, and "puzzle" shrines.  The same theme for 120 dungeons is a little ridiculous, and you don't reference this at all.
Now, I think that there are some good arguments in favor of the sparse music without having to say "hey, at least it isn't sparse all the time," even if that is a point worth making.  For instance, the lack of a strong rhythmic pulse (thanks to short phrases with long gaps between them) helps allow the player to feel independent while exploring rather than as if they're being guided through a shared experience.  The gaps also allow for incredibly smooth transitions into and out of variations on the multiple pieces composed in this style -- for instance, approaching the Temple of Time, the piano feels as if it organically integrates the tune into the soundscape rather than loading a separate track.  That's not actually the case -- but because of the way the gaps work, it's easy to be fooled into thinking that's the case.
Overall, I think it's a fantastic score.  The impressionist music fits neatly with the Miyazaki-styled graphics, and the piano lends itself well to the nostalgia that fills the entire narrative of Breath of the Wild.

I'll take a look at this tonight -- thanks for posting here!  We don't get a lot of traffic to this subforum, but I do watch it. 
 
Alright, I have one main thought as I'm watching:  I think that the frame for your analysis could be more consistently expanded to include not merely historic references, but how other media portrays those cultures/periods.  Compare the the Cascade Kingdom's music to the Jurassic Park overture, for instance -- that's much more relevant than ancient bone flutes (which, as you correctly note, we know little about in terms of compositional practice).  Similarly, the Lake music has more to do with the topic of "water levels" than it does any one culture.
You also get right that the Ruins area reference Morricone as much as it does traditional Latin music.  Make sure you apply that type of connection for each area, especially when something clearly doesn't fit your model.

First and foremost, this arrangement is incredible.  Holy smokes, I'm not sure I'm going to have words to give voice to how much I like the solo soprano part, and the Debussy-esque floating just before the three-minute mark at 2:56 or so.  Tremendous work here that everyone needs to experience that reminds me of the vocal stylings of Eric Whitacre and Christopher Tin -- and I don't make comparisons to either of them very often.
I agree with the judges that the production brings it down some, however.  One of the problems of being compared to the great vocal arrangers of our time is that their work demands great vocal performers, and it's apparent that we don't have that in the choir here (save for the excellent soloists).  For me, the bass clef choir voices -- especially the few moments they have to carry us forward -- really stand out as artificial, which brings me out of the experience.  I'm a little surprised none of the judges had anything to say about 2:48 (the worst production moment for me after the initial vocal hold that's been discussed elsewhere), but will assume it's because the aforementioned pause is SO GOOD right after that.
That being said, it's one of the great vocal arrangements on the site, and we have precious few that make full use of a choir (largely for logistical reasons).  Absolutely incredible arranging skills here -- if you ever need voice parts recorded, I imagine that you'll have a number of volunteers (including me, fwiw) happy to step up and help your work shine as brightly as it might.
 
 

I rarely post reviews -- something that I should definitely do more often -- but holy smokes, this is the best channeling of Debussy I have heard in a very long time, without limiting that qualification to fan-made material.  I also love that it tackles what is a very short source, demonstrating that there is a mountain of potential for almost anything given enough talent....
...and "enough" doesn't even begin to describe what's going on here.  The ending is particularly well-executed, giving us the source melody clearly in a way that doesn't feel contrived in the slightest.  I'm going to be gushing about this for some time to come.

Pretty much everything after the first half of the first level in Comix Zone. I acknowledge that it was among the better games to come out at the end of the Genesis's run but it is a classic rage game .  You only get one life, you die if you fall, and hitting obstacles to get through the level hurts you.  wtf.
 
 

Wanted to chime in and say that this is a great analysis.  That it doesn't contain specific jargon I could care less about -- I'm motivated to track down the relevant stages and listen for myself after reading since I missed out on Super Monkey Ball.  From this, I'm reminded a little of the final stage of Katamari Damacy in which the music is particularly less upbeat compared to the euphoric whimsy (visually and aurally) on display in the opening stages.

My bad DarkeSword. Didn't even notice these threads were under the music history forum. Just assumed this was the general music forum. Still no excuse for lazy posting on my part.
Anyhoo, to dive a bit deeper into why I enjoy the Super Monkey Ball 2 soundtrack in context of the game. Besides sounding good, the juxtaposition between these bright environments and characters with music that becomes increasingly more ambient and darker by the time you reach the last two boss worlds gives a unique feel to the game. Maybe if I had a little more music knowledge and experience I could dig into why that is, but just as someone who enjoys games and music the soundtrack did an excellent job of matching the environments, and in a game where you're dying frequently and having to replay stages countless times over, the last thing the music should do is become a nuisance. Perhaps that's why the music becomes more ambient as the game progresses: to not needlessly draw the player's attention as the difficulty of each stage ramps up. May not have been the intention, but definitely an interesting coincedence.

It's on Twitch at twitch.tv/bardicknowledge Thursday nights when enough of us are free.  Like this Thursday, at 9 PM EST!

Me, Drumultima, and two scholars not on OCR (Dana Plank and Michael Harris) have begun playing through Final Fantasy VI while we talk about what's interesting in the music as we go along.  The first quarter or so of the game is done and posted to YouTube here -- join us Thursday, 2/9, at 9:00 PM EST for the next session (likely to include the opera scene).
Any particular things you're interested in hearing us muse over between leaving Narshe after Terra flies off and departing for Thamasa (as far as we're likely to get next time)?  Let us know!
EDIT: Our second session is up on both YouTube and Twitch -- we got as far as the escape from the Magitek Research Facility.  Doug couldn't make it (thanks to the Northeast weather) so we called upon Julianne Grasso to sub for him.

https://www.patreon.com/GeoffreyTaucer
I have a Patreon! This has nothing whatsoever to do with games or music; I'll be making juggling videos. These will be highlight reels, tutorials, and blooper reels.
So if you want to watch me play with my balls and perhaps learn to play with your own balls, swing by, check it out, and possibly throw me a few bucks. My first video (a highlight reel of some of my recent practice sessions) should be going up in the next day or two.

Because sometimes that kind of thing, depending on the Release of the most prominent sound(s), can bleed through the loop point and clash with the note at the beginning of the loop, even though one might expect it to turn out fine. Depends on context!

Me, Drumultima, and two scholars not on OCR (Dana Plank and Michael Harris) have begun playing through Final Fantasy VI while we talk about what's interesting in the music as we go along.  The first quarter or so of the game is done and posted to YouTube here -- join us Thursday, 2/9, at 9:00 PM EST for the next session (likely to include the opera scene).
Any particular things you're interested in hearing us muse over between leaving Narshe after Terra flies off and departing for Thamasa (as far as we're likely to get next time)?  Let us know!
EDIT: Our second session is up on both YouTube and Twitch -- we got as far as the escape from the Magitek Research Facility.  Doug couldn't make it (thanks to the Northeast weather) so we called upon Julianne Grasso to sub for him.

I'm going to maintain this list of resources for game audio for everyone's use.  In order to prevent the thread from becoming de-railed over time, please don't respond here.  Instead, if you know of a resource that I should add, please PM me and I will add it to this post.
 
Qualifications for being listed here:
 
-Books (including edited collections) must be dedicated to game audio specifically (generic game studies don't qualify, as there are so many that we would lose focus on our specialty).  They should be written by either a scholar with a degree in some field of music or an industry professional with credits on multiple video games.  
 
-Conferences must have a reasonable percentage of papers dedicated to game audio.  Just because there happens to be a game audio panel at AMS this year doesn't mean that the AMS writ large is focused on game audio, for example.  On the flip side, NYU's Music and the Moving Image features a significant number of game papers every year -- certainly enough that attending would be worth your while if all you care about is games.
 
With that aside, here's the list!  Again, PM me to have something added.
 
Books (In order of publication)
 
The Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks, published 2001.
 
The Fat Man on Game Audio: Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness by George Alistair Sanger, published 2004.
  Game Sound by Karen Collins, published 2008.   From Pac-Man to Pop Music: Interactive Audio in Games and New Media.  Edited by Karen Collins, published 2008.   Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance by Kiri Miller, published 2012.   Playing With Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games by Karen Collins, published 2013.   Sound Play by William Cheng, published 2014.   Music in Video Games: Studying Play.  Edited by K.J. Donnelly, William Gibbons, and Neil Lerner, published 2014.   A Composer's Guide to Game Music by Winifred Phillips, published 2014.   Composing Music for Games: The Art, Technology and Business of Video Game Scoring by Chance Thomas, published 2015.   Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack (33 1/3) by Andrew Schartmann, published 2015.   Ludomusicology: Approaches to Video Game Music.  Edited by Michiel Kemp, Tim Summers, and Mark Sweeney, published 2016   Understanding Video Game Music. Tim Summers, published 2016.    
Conferences
 
Ludomusicology, held annually at a travelling location in Europe.
 
North American Conference on Video Game Music, held annually at a travelling location in the United States.
 
Music and the Moving Image, held annually at New York University.

Me, Drumultima, and two scholars not on OCR (Dana Plank and Michael Harris) have begun playing through Final Fantasy VI while we talk about what's interesting in the music as we go along.  The first quarter or so of the game is done and posted to YouTube here -- join us Thursday, 2/9, at 9:00 PM EST for the next session (likely to include the opera scene).
Any particular things you're interested in hearing us muse over between leaving Narshe after Terra flies off and departing for Thamasa (as far as we're likely to get next time)?  Let us know!
EDIT: Our second session is up on both YouTube and Twitch -- we got as far as the escape from the Magitek Research Facility.  Doug couldn't make it (thanks to the Northeast weather) so we called upon Julianne Grasso to sub for him.

Me, Drumultima, and two scholars not on OCR (Dana Plank and Michael Harris) have begun playing through Final Fantasy VI while we talk about what's interesting in the music as we go along.  The first quarter or so of the game is done and posted to YouTube here -- join us Thursday, 2/9, at 9:00 PM EST for the next session (likely to include the opera scene).
Any particular things you're interested in hearing us muse over between leaving Narshe after Terra flies off and departing for Thamasa (as far as we're likely to get next time)?  Let us know!
EDIT: Our second session is up on both YouTube and Twitch -- we got as far as the escape from the Magitek Research Facility.  Doug couldn't make it (thanks to the Northeast weather) so we called upon Julianne Grasso to sub for him.

Me, Drumultima, and two scholars not on OCR (Dana Plank and Michael Harris) have begun playing through Final Fantasy VI while we talk about what's interesting in the music as we go along.  The first quarter or so of the game is done and posted to YouTube here -- join us Thursday, 2/9, at 9:00 PM EST for the next session (likely to include the opera scene).
Any particular things you're interested in hearing us muse over between leaving Narshe after Terra flies off and departing for Thamasa (as far as we're likely to get next time)?  Let us know!
EDIT: Our second session is up on both YouTube and Twitch -- we got as far as the escape from the Magitek Research Facility.  Doug couldn't make it (thanks to the Northeast weather) so we called upon Julianne Grasso to sub for him.

I rarely post reviews -- something that I should definitely do more often -- but holy smokes, this is the best channeling of Debussy I have heard in a very long time, without limiting that qualification to fan-made material.  I also love that it tackles what is a very short source, demonstrating that there is a mountain of potential for almost anything given enough talent....
...and "enough" doesn't even begin to describe what's going on here.  The ending is particularly well-executed, giving us the source melody clearly in a way that doesn't feel contrived in the slightest.  I'm going to be gushing about this for some time to come.

I rarely post reviews -- something that I should definitely do more often -- but holy smokes, this is the best channeling of Debussy I have heard in a very long time, without limiting that qualification to fan-made material.  I also love that it tackles what is a very short source, demonstrating that there is a mountain of potential for almost anything given enough talent....
...and "enough" doesn't even begin to describe what's going on here.  The ending is particularly well-executed, giving us the source melody clearly in a way that doesn't feel contrived in the slightest.  I'm going to be gushing about this for some time to come.

Everyone, Karen Cook -- one of my ludomusicology colleagues -- is putting together a database of games that include chant, or music close enough to be thought of as chant (e.g. Halo's iconic opening moments).  I thought the community might be able to help her out, so I'm going to throw the list down here and see what we all come up with.
After the thread starts to die down, I'll send along all of everyone's additions to Karen, who will put it to good use.
I'll start off by including the first additions: Final Fantasy X and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon should have been on here.
Games Including Chant or “Chant-Like” Music: A Partial Inventory:
(Suggestions and Additions heartily welcomed!)
1. Halo (series)
2. Sid Meier’s Civilization IV
3. Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
4. Sid Meier’s Civilization V
5. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies
6. Assassin’s Creed
7. Skyrim
8. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
9. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
10. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
11. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
12. The Hobbit
13. Pandora’s Tower
14. Dante’s Inferno
15. The Da Vinci Code
16. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
17. Medieval II: Total War
18. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition
19. Reign of Kings
20. Bloodborne
21. Phantasmagoria
22. Final Fantasy VII
23. Final Fantasy IX
24. Final Fantasy XIII
25. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
26. Resident Evil
27. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
28. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
29. Heroes of Might and Magic III
30. Heroes of Might and Magic V
31. Warcraft II
32. 7th Guest
33. The Talos Principle
34. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
35. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
36. Age of Empires III
37. The Binding of Isaac
38. MediEvil
39. MediEvil II
40. Van Helsing
41. God of War 3
42. Slain
43. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
44. Gabriel Knight 3
45. Hexen
46. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
47. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
48. Gauntlet Legends
49. Sam and Max, Season 2

You could play constantly from now until Christmas and you wouldn't have a chance in hell against Wes or Jeremy, I hate to tell you.

Note: I post these here largely for people's information, so that folks can see how the academy does business.  That being said, if you have a submission, we'd love to hear from you!  I am on the program committee for this, so this isn't just me passing along other people's stuff -- this is what I do, alongside my own research and (hopefully soon) teaching.
-----------
Call for Papers
Ludomusicology Study Group of the American Musicological Society
AMS Vancouver, 3-6 November 2016
Submission Deadline: April 25, 2016.

The new AMS Ludomusicology Study Group will host a session at AMS/SMT Vancouver 2016. This year, we welcome abstracts (250 words max) for 20-minute presentations on any aspect of ludomusicology within or beyond digital games. All AMS members, regardless of familiarity with (or previous research of) video games, are welcome to submit and assist us in broadening the scope of ludomusicology. Critical inquiries might include:

- What makes play musical, and music playful?
- How do the meanings and stakes of performances, choreographies, bodies, and screens play out via sounds and other sensations?
- What is ludomusicology anyway, and how can it interface with current ideas in music theory, ethnomusicology, music education, and music therapy?

Please send submissions (as Word docs) to gamemusicstudies -at- gmail.com by April 25, 2016. Do not include your name/identifying information in the submission itself. The program committee will send out decisions by May 10, 2016.

I'll quote music theory professor Frank Lehman here, who after noting that the YT channel this comes from is excellent, notes:

"...they bizarrely gloss over the most glaring issue with these franchises -- the lack of firmly defined or hummable themes. (Exceptions, IMHO, w/ Capt. America leitmotif and maybe the Avengers theme--not accidentally both from Silvestri). And they further claim that the music is not evoking an emotional response, when that's pretty much all it's doing: pure affect"
That pretty much sums up my thoughts.  Get Silvestri to do more, haha