OCR04934 - *YES* Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask "Healing Termina"

[Emunator ⚖️]

I am always fascinated by different musical genres and was recently struck by inspiration after doing a sound bath after a yoga session. I started learning about sound healing and while I don't buy into the 432hz idea, I do find the general approach of meditating to sounds incredibly useful for relaxing the mind and body. I thought that I might be able to tap into that style of sound creation to tell the story of majora's mask using the song of healing as motif. This track is split into 6 sections, representing the different areas of the game: Clocktower, Swamp, Mountains, Ocean, Canyon/Graveyard, Moon. In each section, I tried to create a soundscape using the sounds of natural environments and instruments that symbolize a relationship to that natural environment.

The clocktower features Bell Tree, Gamelan Metallophones, Nipple Gong, Finger Cymbals, Singing Bowls - the metal sounds represent the bells in a clock tower and set the stage for a meditative experience 
The swamp features Log Drum, Frog Guiros, Pangi Seed Shaker, Gamelan Metallophones - the wooden sounds here and seed shaker represent the deku scrubs that inhabit the swamp
The mountain features Glass Pyramids, Peg Chimes, Glockenspiel, Mark Tree, Triangle - the high pitched sounds here represent the freezing cold environment
The ocean features Koshi Chimes, Handpan, Nipple Gong, Finger Cymbals - the wind chimes suggest a gentle breeze and the handpan evokes a similar sound to steel pan drums which have a tropical connotation
The canyon/graveyard features Symphonic Gong, Jacob Collier's Audience Choir, Skiddaw Stones (lithophone), Thunder Tube - this section attempts to establish a spookier mood especially with the use of friction mallets on the gong. the choir aims to represent the ghosts and dead spirits that haunt the canyon, and the scraped lithophone is symbolic of the way those souls want to scrape and climb out of their graves
The moon features Crystal Singing Bowls and Glass Pyramid - the extremely long sustain of the singing bowls makes for a surreal and calm soundscape, similar to the green field on the moon at the end of the game. 

This arrangement is a lot longer than anything I would typically do, but I hope that listeners will find it enjoyable and relaxing.

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Games & Sources

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Track Name: Song of Healing

Composer: Koji Kondo

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with a clock ticking away, and some various struck metals. there's a descending note pattern used here that appears to be a major scale for most of it - i think this is supposed to be the chord pattern but stripped down a bit. this fades into insect and swamp sfx at about 1:50, and we get some mallet work outlining the chord structure from the original. it's a tenuous connection at best as it's a pretty basic bassline that's followed. the later section of this does outline the chords more and is more recognizable.

around 3:53, we transition into some wind sfx, and as part of that we get one of the first recognizable representations of the melodic material, in the glock. this is a very straightforward representation of it. the next transition is at 6:10, and is highlighted by the usage of the hand pan (one of my personal favorite instruments). this is again a fairly basic representation of the material, and isn't really transformed much beyond getting it into the instrument.

next transition is around 8:10, and there's some really fun instruments used here - the lithophone concept is really neat. this version of the melodic material is much more stretched out and patient, and there's a little more interpretation in how it's being represented. the clock comes back at 10:40, for a bit at least, and then explores the long-delay nature of singing bowls (or really any metallophone). the part that is in 'harmony' is interesting due to the intense harmonics that metallophones feature, as well as the long delay to the tone. this is the last section.

as it was going, i was concerned about source usage - the first section didn't use much at all, and the second's was limited to just the descending scalar pattern, which wasn't really enough to count. so the more significant usage on the final four sections is appreciated. i don't have a problem with source usage overall.

so the next question is - does this count as enough arrangement? the sections that feature the original material are played in a very straightforward method, and there's little of what we describe in the standards as arrangement demonstrated here. and past arrangements of LXE have had me asking this question as well. after listening to it a bit, i think that the different sound palettes that are represented here are where the arrangement is - that is, the soundscapes created are the arrangement, not necessarily the notes themselves - similar to how pointillism is just dots until you look at the whole canvas. so, while it's certainly a bit of a stretch, yeah, i think this does enough. and the representation of the instruments and sfx is superb - you feel they're in the room with you - so that element is more than enough.

what a unique concept. i like it more and more.

 

 

YES

[pixelseph ⚖️]

Wow, meditative is exactly the word I would have used to describe this one. It's not often I get to hear a piece shattered and scattered to the winds and hear it reconstructed in almost-real-time by the places it lands. I feel like most of the personalization in here is in the foley and sound design, both of which are handled with lots of care and attention. I agree with proph - this track feels like you're in the space with all these players and sounds, shuffling dreamlike into each environment with every turn.

The hard question for me is: does this feel like 6 versions of the motif stapled together across 14 minutes, or is it a cohesive whole? I think there's a solid argument both ways, and I'm landing more toward "cohesive whole." There could be more embellishment with the melodic phrasing in each section; the moon section's whole-tone passage @ 13:21 is a great example of extending the source while staying within the realm created by the orchestration. I do wish there were more of that across the track, not just at the end, however each section has its own dynamic moments contributing to the whole. The clock tower intro, for example, lays the foundation of the piece's tonal structure without presenting the melody, the swamp section @ 2:08 builds on that with the bass voice on the log drum and harmony voice in the metallophones, the canyon @ 4:14 gives us the melody in the glock, and it expands from there.

This one's just close enough to count for me!

YES

[Hemophiliac ⚖️]

I'm going to start out with a breakdown because this is a long piece with many different sections that are quite varied in terms of feel.

0:00 - 3:00 ambience and atmosphere
3:00-3:50 chord progression from SoH
3:50-4:14 ambience
4:14-5:48 finally some semblance of the source melodic material here. this gets developed and stretched out.
5:48-6:17 ambience
6:17-7:57 more source melody here with melodic development.
7:57-8:28 ambience
8:29-10:28 ghostly faint chimes of the SoH motif in the background while huge singing bowls guide the way.
10:29 - 10:46 ambience
10:47 - 14:22 SoH motif reappears a few more times. With a lot of space in between each phrase.

There's at least 10 seconds of silence at the end. That should be trimmed. Overall the majority of the source usage is in the latter portion of the piece.

Cool to actually hear wood frog guiro in here during the swamp section.

The first 4 minutes really is rough, because each section is very disparate from the previous. If each section had a transition like this they would feel like 6 different songs and be more medley-like. The first four minutes were also tough to piece into being Song of Healing until the melody really comes in earnest. If those first four minutes were removed from the piece the rest of it would still probably work on it's own, and still be saying everything that it set out to. So yes, those opening minutes do align with your concept, did they really serve the greater whole as a piece of music? I'll leave that up to others to decide.

Towards the end I was wishing there was more subtle things going on in the background to fill out the atmosphere more.

What's here is a thought-provoking concept piece that I believe was successful in being enough interpretation for OCR. It will definitely be getting the "meditation" tag when it's posted.

YES