When i played this in the remake i was expecting the boss to be scarier

One of the best arrangement I've ever listened to. I wish the new zelda games have musics of this quality again.

It's incredible how you managed to turn an annoying song in to a beautiful piece.

I love how eerie and ominous this theme is, great job!

A collection of tracks from across the Zelda series; including arrangements and covers based on dungeon music and other unsettling tracks.

Dread of the Hero

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 - 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

Argorok boss music

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

Update 3/20/15 - Re EQ'ed

The original version features a juxtaposition of loud ominous phrases and light staccato bells. I interpreted that to be the atmospheric "cavern" part contrasted with the jingling "key" sounds. In my version, I basically stuck to the same format, using heavy brass for the cavern, and a variety of metal percussion instruments for the key. In addition, I experimented with a lot of changing articulations in each section. This, along with the tense chord progressions, makes the song altogether unpredictable and creepy.

Key Cavern - 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 3/20/15 - Re EQ'ed

I had to control myself here lengthwise, as the dream shrine in the game is only four screens large, and the player only needs to come here once. In keeping with the tone of the original, I kept the instruments mostly in the higher registers. I also experimented with various reverbs and panning automations to move the instruments around in the physical space of the chamber. This leaves the listener a bit disoriented. For maximum effect, listen to this piece with headphones!

Dream Shrine - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

Get Small Item - The Legend Of Zelda Skyward Sword

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

Update 3/20/15 - Added an extra drum in the beginning.

Since the original version is just a faster version of the caves music, I gave myself more flexibility in arranging it. Again I mostly kept to the higher registers, but I used softer instruments to carry that feeling of wetness throughout. For the piano articulations I borrowed heavily from the piano piece, "Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este" by Franz Liszt, which roughly translates to "Water Games at Villa d'Este." I could never figure this stuff out on my own. That, combined with the other instruments allow me to portray various aspects of water: dripping water, water running down the walls, light splashes, ripples, footsteps on wet ground.

Angler's Tunnel - 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 3/20/15 - Adjusted piano level, changed notes on some background ostinatos so it sounds more harmonic

Merry Christmas! I used a similar set of instrumentation as Kanalet Castle because just like the castle, the Eagle's Tower is one of the few dungeons that exists above ground. I imagine the interior of the tower has high ceilings and long corridors, which is why I increased the reverb a whole lot. I also used a lot of wind sound to really sell the echo-y elevated atmosphere. This dungeon is my favorite in the game, with the fantastic multi-tiered, dynamically changing level design. The penultimate locations seem to always be better than the final ones. I added a soaring romantic melody in the middle just to provide an extreme contrast to the creepy tone of the rest of the song. When the harmonies don't resolve at the end, it makes the listener feel even more unease. The long notes are reminiscent of Jeremy Soule's style in his Guild Wars 2 soundtrack, which I am a fan of.

Eagle's Tower - 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 3/20/15 - Raised the level of the chirimia oboe in the beginning so it doesn't sound unnaturally quiet, re worked the latter epic portion so it doesn't sound overblown

I did not know about the loud and epic second half of the music until just a couple months ago, nearly 20 years after I first played the game. I was never in the labyrinth long enough for the music to reach that section. What's even more amazing is that the motifs used here don't appear anywhere else in the game (not including the flattened Ballad tones).  This kind of reminds me of some of the great songs in the Final Fantasy games, where Nobuo Uematsu composes beautiful tracks that are much longer than the time you are in the area, that you have to literally stop playing so you can listen to all of it.

The first thing I did was restructure the sections of the song. In the original version, there's the quiet section (I), loud section (II), quiet section again (I) and then it repeats, so it goes: I-II-I-I-II-I. I shifted everything to the right, so the intense section appears at the tail end of the piece instead.

For the first section I placed the instruments very close to the listener with almost no reverb, and had them played softly. This increases the claustrophobic atmosphere, as Link has no idea what to expect. When entering for the first time, you might think perhaps this is a new dungeon with puzzles and other enemies, but really there is absolutely nothing. The music seems repetitive, until when the reed instrument appears, you wonder if the nightmares are suddenly going to materialize. But they don't. You continue down whatever corridor you choose, but it's always the same screen. Are you really progressing anywhere?

When the music hits the thunderous second act, I imagine this is the point where Link or the player starts to freak out. You can't see the nightmare, but perhaps it is right behind you, ready to strike anytime. So you run as fast as you can, trying to escape the impending doom. The nightmare is slowly gaining on you, until you glance behind you and see that there's still nothing. What is going on?!

I tried my best to imitate Hans Zimmer with his use of horns and a warehouse full of percussion. I still need to learn how to better mix so many loud instruments together without it sounding muddy.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Orchestral Arrangement
Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah Sun

Original Composers
Kazumi Totaka
Minako Hamano
Kozue Ishikawa

Original Theme by Koji Kondo

You can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop

The Wind Fish's Egg - 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 3/20/15 - changed the organ sound during the Song of Awakening, reworked the Ascension scene

The album will be released April 1. More details at http://goo.gl/1i2CfI
Today marks exactly one year from the day I uploaded the very first track. It is also Zelda's anniversary, as well as my own birthday! What a journey it has been.

There's not much to talk about the music in the end scenes. They are all pretty straightforward. However, for the part where Link is cast out of the dream, I added a new music cue there. Yes, it is pretty much ripped straight from Hans Zimmer's Interstellar soundtrack. I thought the instrumentation for that part of the movie was very appropriate in this sequence, so I made my own spin with the three opening notes of the Ballad theme.

The credits music was very difficult for me to figure out. I knew I did not want it to be identical in having the full section repeated three times. That would have been too boring. By the second loop, I was burned out trying to come up with different instrumentations. So instead, I decided to add a slow section with the piano to replace the third loop. This provided a nice break from the fast paced rhythm, and also made the overall piece sound like a medley.

Ending / Credits - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Orchestral Arrangement

A journey that begins in tranquil solitude and blossoms into a grand choral and orchestral statement.

Requiem

Eclipse

Download:
http://zreomusic.com/2011/09/21/hey-listen

This is an eerie atmospheric song transcribed from a video of gameplay footage at Gamespot of what was then called 'Sky Temple' with the sound effects too which was then made into an orchestral arrangement.
This was a challenge but it's the kind of challenge I'm familiar and confident with as a transcriber and arranger maintaining the feel of the orignal track with self-implemented original ideas.

YouTube quotes:

This sounds like it's being performed in a concert hall by a bigger orchestra rather﻿ than the small 50 piece orchestra that's used in the studio mastered soundtrack recording. Ironically, the synthesized orchestra here sounds better than the real one on the soundtrack.
BlazerBaller87

This made my day. The ambience is﻿ really lovable, and a lot of creativity was introduced in this one arrangement. Thank you, ZREO. You're amazing. <3
Posby95

Skyview Temple

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Original Soundtrack

Midna's Theme

Game-rip of the Twilight Princess soundtrack

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

1-06 - Meet Ilia

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

Eagle's Tower - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

The Second Narrator

Recent comments

JUMPMAN JAYLIN

The Fallen Guardian

Vicente Errazuriz Quiroga

Aliceron

Related tracks