Anime Why aren't there any game devs who use classical music in soundtracks?

[PeachPlumage]

Ah, the music that makes being killed by wolves an enjoyable experience.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah, Arcanum's soundtrack is awesome. Gaming needs more chamber music in general, the orchestra is getting very banal and cheap, mostly because they can't use it properly and everything is literally the same. In chamber music you can't hide your ineptitude as a composer :p

 

[laclongquan]

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/10-classical-pieces-in-video-games/
Various music by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and more Civilization IV,
“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from The Nutcracker – Pyotr Tchaikovsky Tetris
Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky Kingdom Hearts
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, “Moonlight” – Ludwig van Beethoven Earthworm Jim 2,

Requiem in D minor – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Bioshock Infinite
Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, Hitman: Blood Money,
Various arias by Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti, and Puccini Grand Theft Auto III
Etude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor, “Revolutionary” and others – Frederic Chopin Eternal Sonata
Clair de lune – Claude Debussy The Evil Within

 

[dunno lah]

 

[Makabb]

Fallout 4 got classical radio

 

[ClaviculaZ]

With modern midi software, it would actually be ridiculously simple to just take the sheet and associate it with virtual instruments. It's basically a matter of seconds - I can demonstrate it if anyone's interested.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

I've noticed that some "original" soundtracks for games (and other media) turn out to be imitations of classical music with just enough changed to get that copyright. Why not just cut out the middle men? Most so-called composers are hacks, anyways.

 

[Haraldur]

With modern midi software, it would actually be ridiculously simple to just take the sheet and associate it with virtual instruments. It's basically a matter of seconds - I can demonstrate it if anyone's interested.

Count 1.

 

[Serious_Business]

Most classical music is boring

Hey J_C. I agree with your opinion. I think you're an alright guy. :D And a goddamn piece of shit, shut up and get the fuck back to your damn tribe

 

[Lacrymas]

To say that "classical" music is boring is to show profound ignorance on a lot of levels. To each their own, I guess :p This movement would be interesting to put somewhere, especially the second half (not the best interpretation ever, but it's the only clip with only this movement) -

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

To say that "classical" music is boring is to show profound ignorance on a lot of levels. To each their own, I guess :p This movement would be interesting to put somewhere, especially the second half (not the best interpretation ever, but it's the only clip with only this movement) -

The USSR said that Shostakovich turned the tide of WWII in their favor. What exactly has Taylor Swift accomplished? Why is, "Classical music is boring," even an argument?

 

[Lacrymas]

The USSR said that Shostakovich turned the tide of WWII in their favor. What exactly has Taylor Swift accomplished? Why is, "Classical music is boring," even an argument?

Symphony 7 stands as a monument to humanity, endurance and profound gigantism of thought even to this day. You can't compare the immensity of "classical" music to Taylor Swift in any context :p It's like comparing Kant to Paulo Coelho. Saying that "classical" music is boring really is like being from a tribe, like Serious_Business said :p It's the complete lack of understanding of the tradition of giants whose shoulders we stand on.

 

[J_C]

Hey J_C. I agree with your opinion. I think you're an alright guy. :D And a goddamn piece of shit, shut up and get the fuck back to your damn tribe

Sorry, I went back to my tribe and they said that you already took my place as the leader of piece of shits.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Wow. I remember when Arcanum came out, everyone was writing about how refreshing a change it was that a game was using baroque string quartets instead of classical music like all the other titles.

Same for C&C with its Chemical Brothers electronica soundtrack.

 

[Viata]

There is Catherine. But in this case, Meguro arrange some classical music to fit into the game to have a "Persona-feel". It's still better than all Persona ost:

While the original is way better, this is okayish and a good idea to introduce classical music to some people from any tribe who think "classical music are boring".

 

[Jigawatt]

Most obvious answer - because most game devs are musically uneducated and they don't know what "classical" music is. Most game composers are as well. Even the people who ARE educated, like Jeremy Soule, are one-dimensional and can't seem to get out of Renaissance voice-leading (sometimes not even that) coupled with a skewed understanding of the logic of Romanticism. They also have boring inventions and just aren't creative. "Classical" music also isn't "in" with the cool kids.

I really think that's the extent of the whole problem. Musically uneducated game devs + composers, the unpopularity of "classical" music, and the inability/unwillingness of actually educated game composers to compose in such a manner. Most of their orchestration is abysmal/nonexistent as well.

Sad but true. And yet another reason why Arcanum is such an amazing game. Just look at this and imagine any large studio investing in its music like this today: http://www.benhouge.com/arcanum.html

Spoiler

Comments on the Music
I spent most of the year 2000 working on Arcanum, and it ended up becoming an immensely personal project for me. Since I'm a staff composer and sound designer at Sierra, my involvement with Arcanum was not limited to composing the music; I also designed a lot of the sound effects and helped edit the dialog. This means that I spent a lot more time on the project, almost a full year, than might have been the case if I had only been commissioned to write the score. So it's not surprising that after investing so much of my time into this project, Arcanum is very special to me.

Point of departure:
The first thing I was told about Arcanum was the central conflict of the game: magic versus technology. This idea was so interesting and unique that I considered carefully how to best reflect it in the music. I presented a couple of ideas to the guys at Troika, and we finally settled on a sort of musical anachronism: a score centered around the styles and textures of Renaissance, medieval, and early music, but performed by a characteristic ensemble of the Victorian era, the string quartet. This dichotomy is most evident in the main Arcanum theme, but it shows up more obliquely in the chant-like melodies and motives that recur throughout the score, as well as in the texture and motion of the individual parts. (For example, notice the main theme of "The Caladon Catacombs" and the "Towns" music.) In my writing, I've avoided the virtuosic ornamentation and extremes of tessitura that characterize much Romantic-era string quartet literature, turning instead to the counterpoint and phrasing of early polyphony. Obviously, some of the pieces stray from this original conception, usually for dramatic reasons, but it served as a fruitful point of departure.

The Arcanum score is indebted to the Kronos Quartet's Early Music album, which includes early music transcribed for string quartet alongside contemporary compositions that share an esthetic kinship with early music. I also remember being inspired by some of Philip Glass' comments regarding his new score to the classic 1931 film Dracula, in which he stated that he chose a string quartet to evoke the film's close, Gothic environments. A small ensemble can be appropriately moody, intimate, unobtrusive, and ambiguous; and strings are capable of a wide range of delicate instrumental colors. It might even be argued that a small ensemble works better for the personal, one-on-one experience of a computer game, contrasting with an orchestral score in the large, public space of a movie theater. It didn't hurt that hiring a string quartet is significantly cheaper than hiring a full orchestra, while the warmth resulting from an acoustic recording is vastly preferable, in my opinion, to another MIDI orchestra soundtrack.

Themes:
A typical computer game contains about the same amount of music as a feature film. However, in a game as large as Arcanum, you hear much more of that music than you would in a film, because the same 45 minutes of music now underscore 60 hours of drama instead of two. As a result, a game often requires writing a greater number of unique themes, rather than reworking just a few main ideas. (This is not to imply that coming up with new ideas is more difficult than creatively developing existing themes; indeed, the opposite is probably true.) In any case, there are some recurring themes in Arcanum, which I'll now point out.

The main Arcanum theme masquerades as a waltz in the opening blimp movie ("The Demise of the Zephyr"), and shows up again at the beginning of the banishment movie ("Battle at Vendigroth"). It also underscores Preston Radcliffe's final words as he commits his ring to your care ("Radcliffe's Commission"). The Vendigroth theme, heard during the banishment movie ("Battle at Vendigroth") recurs as the main theme of the "Vendigroth Wastes" when you visit the site of the battle centuries later. The plodding, cyclic, mechanical music for "Tarant," Arcanum's largest city, is not literally reused anywhere, but it's similar in texture to the "Cities" theme, heard in lesser cities. The music for Caladon combines this "cities" texture with a more rural theme, evoking the "Villages" music, to reflect the fact that Caladon, while a large city, still retains elements of its old feudal government.

One very important aspect of Arcanum is that the player may choose to follow a path of good or evil. For this reason, I purposefully avoided writing a sweeping, heroic title theme. Instead, I tried to make the theme morally ambiguous, almost tragic (for Arcanum can be a world of hardship), yet epic (which truly describes the vast scope of Arcanum). I've tried to suggest several things without committing to a single interpretation. I also think a slower, more pensive theme is appropriate to the thoughtful nature and pace of a role-playing game.

Favorite moments:
In writing over 50 minutes of music for Arcanum, I do have some favorite moments. In addition to the main theme, I'm fond of the music for the opening blimp movie ("The Demise of the Zephyr") and the restatement of the main theme when Radcliffe gives you his ring ("Radcliffe's Commission"). I also like the ambient, contemplative pacing of the "Wilderness" music; getting the timings of the silences just right was harder than writing the individual phrases! It may interest some gamers to observe that the music for Tarant is bi-modal; for most of the piece, the cello and viola are in A phrygian (with B flats), while the violins play in A aolean mode (with B naturals). I enjoy Tulla for its change of texture, allowing each instrument to take a solo turn. I'm also fond of the "Villages" theme and the battle music ("Battle at Vendigroth").

Inspirations:
I listened to and derived inspiration from a wide range of music in the course of this project. If you enjoy the music from Arcanum, you may also appreciate some of the following pieces, which were influential either directly or obliquely:

• Kronos Quartet, Early Music
• John Corigliano's soundtrack to The Red Violin
• Franz Schubert, Death and the Maiden (as performed by the Brodsky Quartet)
• George Crumb, Black Angels (also by Brodsky, on the same CD as the Schubert)
• Beethoven, the complete string quartets (as performed by the Emerson Quartet)
• Both of Aaron Jay Kernis' string quartets (as performed by the Lark Quartet)
• Philip Glass' new score to the original 1931 Dracula film (performed by Kronos)
• Béla Bartók, the complete quartets (performed by Emerson)
• Thomas Tallis, The Lamentations of Jeremiah (as performed by the Hillliard Ensemble)
• James Newton Howard's soundtrack to The Sixth Sense
• Josquin Desprez, L'Homme armé Masses (as performed by the Tallis Scholars)
• John Cage, Litany for the Whale (as performed by Theater of Voices)
• The Dale Warland Singers, Cathedral Classics and December Stillness
• Claude Debussy, String Quartet in G minor, op. 10 (performed by Emerson)
• Maurice Ravel, String Quartet in F major (also by Emerson, same CD as the Debussy)
• Tod Machover & Joel Cohen, Angels: Voices From Eternity
• Perotin, Viderunt omnes and other works (as performed by the Hilliard Ensemble)
• Eyvind Kang, Theater of Mineral NADEs
• Steve Reich, Proverb (on the City Life CD)
• Arvo Pärt, Te Deum, Silouans Song, and other pieces
• Anton Webern, Sechs Bagatellen, op. 9 (as performed by the Juilliard String Quartet)
• John Adams, John's Book of Alleged Dances (Kronos again)
• Ned Rorem, String Quartet No. 4 (Emerson again)

Thanks:
Writing and realizing the score for Arcanum has been immensely gratifying for me, a true career highlight. I'm grateful to everyone who worked on it with me, particularly to Jeff Pobst, Arcanum's original producer at Sierra, whose indulgence, feedback, patience, and shared vision allowed the concept for this soundtrack to actually become a reality. Thanks also to Don Wilkins, who took over from Jeff towards the end of 2000 and saw the project through to completion. Thanks to everyone at Troika for coming up with such a wonderfully original game in the first place, and for granting me so much musical latitude. Thanks to all the wonderfully talented musicians and engineers who contributed to the sessions; it was thrilling to hear my music brought to life in their hands. Additional thanks to cellist Eric Lenz, my good friend who also served as string consultant as I was striving to write idiomatic music. I'm also very grateful to my audio colleagues at Sierra who contributed their talents and input: Mike Caviezel, Evan Buehler, Craig Utterback, Mark Seibert, and David Henry. In addition to Mike and Evan's help on the soundtrack, Mike recorded all the dialog in Arcanum, and Evan contributed some great additional sound effects. Finally, I'd like to thank Patricia Thompson; not only did she lend her beautiful voice to the spells of the mental college, but without her support and encouragement I never would have finished this music.

• —Ben Houge, Seattle, September 19, 2001

 

[Lacrymas]

Sad but true. And yet another reason why Arcanum is such an amazing game. Just look at this and imagine any large studio investing in its music like this today: http://www.benhouge.com/arcanum.html

Arcanum's soundtrack is a curious case in general. The choice of a string quartet already brings associations with the most experimental music of the old masters - Haydn (who is the "father" of the quartet) used his late quartets as a kind of lab for some of his more progressive ideas. Mozart as well, but Beethoven's quartets are the high point of the classical period. His late quartets are unfathomably complex music (Grosse Fuge; Opus 135 etc.). Shostakovich used his quartets as an escape from the tyranny of the Soviet regime, in which he could compose without having to mask his music in propaganda and without being accused of "formalism". You can't compose for a quartet without feeling the pressure of centuries' worth of genius. This background of the quartet really gives Arcanum an air of genuine sophistication and culture.

 

[Zarniwoop]

There are, you faggets just don't notice it . Civ Iv (and V) are good examples, is is Arcanum. But actually it's in some games you wouldn't expect.

 

[Delbaeth]

 

[Siveon]

There's always this :

 

[Eirikur]

Anitra's Dance by Edvard Grieg, as played at the Hotel Mordavia.

 

[Jack Dandy]

 

[vonAchdorf]

 

[Saber-Scorpion]

 

[Dev_Anj]

Copyright protects any ORIGINAL work of authorship for a period of time. Performing Beethoven's 5th is not original.

I get that it is actually protected by law, but it's fucking nonsense that it is.

What is so wrong about protecting the actual audio recordings someone has performed out of a music sheet? The music sheet may be free for all, but whenever someone performs it, they end up putting their own interpretations into it, consciously or not. As such you can get many different sounding music pieces out of one music sheet. So people should have a right on their performance of a musical sheet.

As for the topic, the problem with using classical music in a game stems from a multitude of factors, including needing to hire musicians to play out the music sheets, making sure the music fits the scene and doesn't distract players from the level/scene, and sometimes needing to remix the music without sounding awkward. As such often it's more interesting for musicians to make music they want rather than play out something from a music sheet.