{"id":860,"date":"2017-04-24T23:46:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T04:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rcveeder.net\/blog\/?p=860"},"modified":"2017-07-30T11:05:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T16:05:02","slug":"links-awakening-the-compass-motif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rcveeder.net\/blog\/2017\/04\/24\/links-awakening-the-compass-motif\/","title":{"rendered":"Link’s Awakening: The Compass Motif"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found something in the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening! It seems like the kind of thing I should have noticed earlier, and maybe it’s not news to you\u2014but maybe it is.<\/p>\n

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I’m going to assume you’ve played Link’s Awakening, but for the first part of this essay I’m going to act like you never paid much attention to the music. I just want to establish some background regarding the way the game uses leitmotif. If you have a basic understanding of this stuff then you can scroll down to the good part.<\/p>\n

If you’ve played Link’s Awakening, you can probably remember two main motifs in its soundtrack. The first is the classic Legend of Zelda theme.<\/p>\n

The Legend of Zelda Theme (you can skip this part)<\/span><\/h2>\n

My favorite instance of this theme in this particular game (and also, in any game ever) is the Tal Tal Heights music. I know you remember this, but let’s listen to it now\u2014for fun.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the part where you hear that theme come in (in the lower staff):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The above score, like all the others I’ll be showing you, is from an arrangement at NinSheetMusic<\/a>, where folks like Bespinben, V.E. Norman, Seeker, and jake3343 have done the hard work of transcribing\/arranging this music for the benefit of lazy people like me. The soundtrack itself (I’m using the files from here<\/a>) was composed by\u00a0Kazumi Totaka, Minako Hamano, and Kozue Ishikawa, and I really wish I knew which of them wrote which tunes, but I don’t. Anyway.<\/p>\n

The first place you hear the Legend of Zelda theme in Link’s Awakening is\u00a0immediately,<\/em> as in\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0after you turn the game on.\u00a0<\/em>Here’s the introductory sequence, which, again, I know you have memorized, but still:<\/p>\n

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