Name: 薩爾達傳說--歷代音樂分析與回顧（The Music of Zelda's Overworld: a Historical Retrospective and Analysis）
Uploaded: 2021-05-06T13:25:22.000Z
Duration: 15 min 22 s
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[Remix of The Legend of Zelda's overworld theme plays]

Everybody knows the overworld theme from the original Legend of Zelda.

It's iconic and it perfectly captures the sense of epic adventure you get from exploring Hyrule.

As the series progresses, each new entry maintains the same core gameplay elements...

while contrasting them with different styles, settings and stories.

In this video, I want to show you how the overworld theme of each game does the exact same thing

and what the differences between them say about their game.

First, let's talk about the original overworld theme.

This theme is constructed using just a handful of motifs so let's quickly look at what those are.

First, we have the I-♭VII-♭VI-V  [1 - flat 7 - flat 6 - 5] chord progression.

This song is built around this descending chord progression and it's established clearly in the first four bars of the piece.

What's interesting about it is that it's in a major key (B♭),

but borrows the ♭VII and ♭VI chords (A♭ and G♭) from the parallel minor key of B♭ minor.

This is called "mode mixture" and is a common technique found in music,

but this specific kind of mode mixture — where you borrow major chords from the minor key — is used primarily in adventure, fantasy or superhero music.

Secondly, the rhythmic dissonance between the triplet and straight sixteenth note rhythms.

These rhythms don't line up in a satisfying way and yet the theme constantly throws them on top of each other, which creates a really distinct flavor.

Lastly, we have the three melodic motifs:

and the bridge's 1 to ♭3 - 2 - 7 melody.

The whole melody of the tune is based on these three motifs (mostly the second one),

and this gives it a cohesiveness that makes it so compelling and memorable.

So, now that we're aware of these, let's look at how the overworld themes of the other console Zelda games compare.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is kind of a bad theme to start off with because, like the game itself,

the overworld theme probably shares the least in common with its fellow entries.

The intro to the theme is the same as in the first game,

except for the fact that it's in the key of F instead of B♭.

the game totally subverts your expectations and goes somewhere completely different —

which is a pretty apt metaphor for the game itself.

Some characteristics are kept: the marching triplet rhythms, the counter melody...

The whole theme is a lot brighter than the original.

Where the original borrowed more and more from the key's parallel minor scale as the piece went on,

this song stays pretty bright and chipper all the way through.

It moves to the G minor chord for the latter half, but there aren't any out of key notes to really strengthen this resolution so it doesn't feel that dark.

It does feature the first theme's brand of rhythmic dissonance in this one amazing arpeggiated riff that I just can't get enough of.

Overall, I'd say this theme perfectly encapsulates just how much of a black sheep in the series this game is.

Not only is it very different from the others,

but no one really knows this theme that well because no one really plays this game anymore.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's overworld theme takes the original theme everyone knows and loves

and updates it with MIDI brass and string sounds replacing the old square and triangle waves to breath some new life and character into the piece.

For the game that really defined the basic formula the series has held onto for last 25 years,

it seems appropriate for the overworld theme to rearrange this classic theme,

making full use of the Super Nintendo's hardware and bringing it up to a modern standard.

The existence of the Dark World in the game, of course, facilitates the existence of the Dark World theme.

Besides the obvious compositional choice to write this theme in a minor key (to reflect the Light World theme's major key),

this piece uses the original in a couple cool ways.

One of the main motifs is a leap down from 5 to 1 where the original featured an iconic leap down from 1 to 5.

Where the main theme takes a major key and immediately adds notes from the minor key to add some flavor,

the Dark World theme starts in a minor key and borrows from the parallel major key to keep it from getting too dark.

The chord progression features a walk-up from ♭VI-♭VII-I,

whereas the original had the reversal: a walk-down from I-♭VII-♭VI.

If you haven't already, I'd definitely check out the soundtrack for A Link Between Worlds for an excellent orchestration of these two themes.

You can see just how good instrument samples have gotten since 1991.

[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field theme starts playing, with the Sun's Song introduction]

Now here's a really big one: the Ocarina of Time Hyrule Field theme.

This game also featured a new field theme,

but, unlike Zelda II, it borrowed heavily from the original theme, both harmonically and melodically, as well as just in general tone.

Just like how the game added many ideas that have become must-have staples of the series,

the Hyrule Field theme added a bunch of ideas to the original music that have been used plenty in the series' subsequent games.

First thing you'll notice when listening to this theme is the morning intro that has been used in basically every console Zelda since this game

to represent the sun rising and the start of a new day.

[The morning intro (AKA the "Sun's Song") plays]

It starts off with a synth flute playing a quick sun song before we hear the strings and a horn trading statements of a completely new melodic motif

Well, I say completely new, but the original theme's leap down of a fourth has been preserved, just in a totally new way.

The descending harmony calls back to the original theme's intro without totally succumbing to it.

we get a slow G-F-E minor-E♭ major7(♯5)-Dsus[4]-D7

That extra VI chord, as well as the augmented ♭VI and the sustain on the V chord,

immediately make this much less musically straightforward and a little more emotional.

There's more nuance here than we've seen in past Zelda music.

Once the melody starts you'll notice that descending harmony from the original theme has been shortened to a punchy I-♭VII vamp.

Loping off the last two chords of that iconic progression keeps the adventurous spirit while making it more quick and light-hearted.

but lose a little bit of the drama present in the first theme in exchange for a more energetic and upbeat feel.

We do hear the whole chord progression at certain points in the Hyrule Field theme, usually when we're moving to a new section,

and this strengthens even more solidly the bond between this theme and the original.

We hear this bond melodically as early as the first bar of the melody, which takes that opening 1 to 5 leitmotif and runs with it.

[Hyrule Field theme plays, shown here on screen]

The original theme used this leap effectively as a hook to draw us in,

but left it completely undeveloped over the theme's runtime.

Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field theme takes this idea and develops it, showing us the full potential of a small motif,

much like the way Ocarina of Time shows the potential to bring Zelda into a 3D world

and give us a close rendition of the vision Shigeru Miyamoto had when constructing the original Legend of Zelda.

Something important that is easy to overlook from the splendor of our futuristic society is the sheer length of this overworld theme.

This game blew away audiences at the time with the size of its world alone.

Hyrule Field may not compare nowadays to Skyrim or Lordran or even the overworld of newer Zelda games, but for the time it was huge.

This is the first overworld theme in the series that isn't a simple AB form that endlessly repeats.