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The Legend of Koji Kondo: Computer Game Music On Tour

Photo credit: Doug Kline

This October, The Bridgewater Hall (Manchester, UK) will be hosting a one-night event: Symphony of Goddesses. This concert will feature a four-movement symphony, recounting the classic storylines from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, A Link to the Past and many more, including the recently released TriForce Heroes and brand new arrangements of music from Skyward Sword. Along with music from the Legend of Zelda franchise, the performance will also feature a giant screen showing moments from the beloved video game series.

Koji Kondo, the video game music composer, has created the music for other iconic games such as Super Mario Bros. Since he started working on Nintendo games in the mid 1980s, his process of composing music has changed drastically from using synthesizers to create things like the Super Mario Bros. theme, to full orchestral pieces used in the Legend of Zelda games. Kondo has done work in both composition and music supervision for Nintendo since he was recruited to work for the company in 1984.

 

In an interview with Kondo via GameSpot, the composer talks about how writing for video games has changed for him over the years:

“With the advance in computer technology and hardware evolution, we're seeing a shift from what we maybe consider very computer-esqe music back in the day to being able to use actual instrumentation and create music that's performed by whole orchestras.

"That used to be a solo gig where I'd compose the music and create all the sound effects that we were going to use. And now we're actually hiring professional musicians, bands, or orchestras to come in and perform the music.”

The Legend of Zelda, the Symphony of the Goddesses will be held on Thursday, October 13 at Bridgewater Hall. Event details and tickets can be found on the Bridgewater Hall website.