Music of the Night II - Further Perambulations into the Sound of Games

To pick up where I left off regarding music in games... since Phantom of the Opera, music has occupied a fair chunk of my concentration. I watched a bonus clip about the musicology, or study of music, in the musical on the DVD of the movie (starring Gerard Butler).

I'm working on something different to a game, yet maybe not so different. It's a script, a sequel of sorts to Phantom. I've discovered (through that ever-nonreliable source Wikipedia), that a game of the book was in fact made. Pah, bet it was a PC-game. I really have a problem with PC-games. They annoy me. Give me a console game anyday. I work at my computer, I'll play away from it.

But I digress. The themes that recurr through the music in Phantom intrigue me. Each character has his or her own melodic injection that announces their arrival or presence. I've noticed this with certain video games. When fighting Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts, there was a uniquely composed piece that isn't heard anywhere else in the game (and I should know. I've spent hours playing the gummi routes so I could finish at 100% completion).

I've also noticed a correlation between musical composers. In Phantom, Andrew Lloyd Webber allows the Phantom's theme to encroach on other musical pieces, giving the impression of his invasive presence. This is also apparent in the Star Wars films, when Anakin Skywalker is growing up. The Darth Vader theme is there, but muted. It becomes more pronounced throughout the series of films. In games, possibly the most foremost in my mind is the gentle theme that plays whenever Sora comes close to finding either his friends Riku and Kairi or King Mickey in Kingdom Hearts.

Themes in game music tend to become iconic. The Super Mario Bros. theme is known across the world, even the songs featured in games like Final Fantasy X-2. Similarly in Phantom, the crashing chords that play in the titular song The Phantom of the Opera are iconic, as is the line that is repeated sung and said throughout the performance:

The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind.

Which could mean a number of things. The Phantom could exist, in which case he is able to read and manipulate minds. If he doesn't exist, the power he expends is all in the mind, something to be believed in to be real. Or maybe it's a combination of the two, or neither. Such is the nature of the character.

We give things power by believing in them. A lesson learnt from the master works of Terry Pratchett.

Maybe it's the same with video games. We believe in certain characters, they become real to us. A certain theme played at a certain time evokes emotion, causes belief.

Just like Phantom of the Opera.