The Legend of Zelda

Intro theme from the original Legend of Zelda on the NES.

(NES) Legend of Zelda - Intro

Overworld theme from the original Legend of Zelda on the NES.

(NES) Legend of Zelda - Overworld

Dungeon theme music from the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. 

(NES) Legend of Zelda - Dungeon

The Death Mountain theme song from the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. 

(NES) Legend of Zelda - Death Mountain

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - Re EQ'ed for fuller bass in the boss section

This is an extremely basic idea of creating modular phrases of music that you stitch together depending on the action on screen. There are only three cues here. The first is for the beginning in the village where I stick closely to the original version. Second is when you storm the moblin hideout. I just pile on the instruments playing the frantic rhythm in unison. Last is a more subdued but still tense cue for when you fight the big moblin. You can tell in this simplified implementation, that you can time the next cue to play at the end of the next measure so you get a seamless transition. You can choose to repeat the cue, or jump to another one. When my skills improve, I hope to make a true orchestral modular piece with subtle transitions but still sound like it has a logical progression.

BowWow's Rescue - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - adjusted the EQ on the piano, fixed some of the tempo so it sounds smoother.

This is highly experimental. As a pianist turned composer, I was looking forward to a piano-centric piece to do. The articulations I settled on using are in many cases too fast for me to play, but if you are a world renown pianist, feel free to have fun with it. Nevertheless I thought it was important to preserve as much of the "performance" as I could, so for parts too hard for me, I would play the left and right hand parts separately, and in other cases, I would record the midi notes at slightly slower tempo then speed it up. A lot of the rhythms and riffs came from previous piano pieces I enjoyed playing and are far superior to this track. Check these out.

La Campanella "Little Bell" - Franz List (for the crazy high note trills)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - Franz List (for the insane single note repetition)
Grande Valse Brillante in Eb Major - Frederick Chopin (for the repetetive notes leading to arppegios)
Polanaise in Ab Major - Frederick Chopin (the octave ostanatos that will destroy your left arm)

My interpretation is accomplished by creating three main versions of the original track. I imagine as the bottle level, there might be a factory somewhere or massive warehouse to deal with all the bottles coming in and out. That's where the orchestral middle section would fit. The beginning pure piano translation would be used for rooms and areas surrounding it. The final piano cadenza section was where I went crazy and just added whatever came to mind. Remember that one room where you're supposed to kill the enemies in a certain order? During my very first playthrough I was stuck in that room for weeks before I figured it out. The piano cadenza in some ways portrays the frustration I felt.

Bottle Grotto - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - Re EQ'ed

This is a combination of an English horn and a sampled conch shell. The conch shell sample I got was way too wet, so I added the English horn on top for expression.

Conch Horn - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - Re EQ'ed

I really disliked the original version when it appears in the game, and I know many share my sentiment. There's always an unskippable dialogue that appears, the sound effect when you pick up the acorn or piece of power is so high pitched, and the musical cue itself is so frantic and repetitive. It's a very jarring transition from the calmer overworld theme or pretty much any other piece of music in the game. Because of this, I feel less guilty in changing the music however I see fit.

Whether you pick up the guardian acorn or the piece of power, I am guessing Link would feel some kind of powerful sensation flow through his veins as he absorbs such incredible energy. What does it physically feel like when you are suddenly able to deal twice the amount of energy or take only half the amount of damage? In addition, Link must feel really excited and impatient to try out his temporary power. That was the feeling I was trying to capture.



Guardian Acorn & Piece of Power - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - Re EQ'ed

Come celebrate the joy of the claw machine! I made two cues for this song. The first is when Link is not yet playing the game, the simple translation of the original theme is like the background music that you might hear from such an arcade machine. Then, when Link fires up the controls, the game comes to life with lights and sounds and dreams to catch. I played with a bunch of percussion instruments to add to the playfulness of the song. Hopefully, the player will have successfully nabbed a prize, and that's when the music bursts forth with celebration and we share in Link's elation!

Also, this track marks 1 full hour of arrangements, and I am only 1/3 done! By comparison the entire original soundtrack is a mere 45 minutes long! This is shaping up to be one colossal album!

Trendy Game! - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/2015 - Reworked the finale portion. Adjusted the trumpet levels, added some counter-phrasing in the horns.

I felt Kanalet Castle deserved a more romantic and grand theme than just four repeating arpeggios. You have this king Richard who was ousted from his castle and forced to hid in his villa. Did the moblins just show up and push him out? No, it was much worse! All his soldiers fell in battle, his family and friends were massacred, and the grand history of his kingdom was destroyed. I imagined Link roaming through the hallways while glancing at the paintings and statues, imagining what was once a proud legacy. I haven't given the brass section much love in recent tracks, so I tried to use them here in grand fashion. I pulled phrases from various tracks from the soundtrack of "For the Frog the Bell Tolls" and used them in constructing the noble melody. The theme swells in a crescendo until the very end, where it hangs unresolved. Link's eyes snap back into reality as he realizes the past glory is over.

Of course, this is just a dream island, so probably none of that happened.

Kanalet Castle - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

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I am a developer as well as a self-taught composer. My style is creating narratives in music through the use of strong melodies and unique instrumentation.

Primary DAW used: Presonus Studio One

I play Nintendo, so I only have playlists of Nintendo games, got it?

Conch Horn - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

The Second Narrator

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