Inside The Score - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Kaepora Gaebora's Theme

The wise Owl-knowing one

You cannot spell knowledge without owl.

Fighting against Navi herself and Tingle for the title of most disliked character in the Zelda series due to his bad timing and how he tricks you into listening to him multiple times, this infamous owl, like Navi, had the goal of orienting players in the then under explored world of 3D gaming, so his presence certainly made more sense in 1998 than in the modern gaming landscape.

Because if you thought only Navi would be interrupting you and caring for the quest while you just cut grass, play mini-games and explore the field, you are in for a treat—or likely not—as a father or rather grandfather figure steps in to guide Link at the most inappropriate moments. Just when you are about to explore the openness of a 3D Zelda world for the first time, you first have to receive wisdom from a character out of nowhere. Apparently he has taken an interest in our young boy, appearing throughout the child portion of the adventure to teach him and the player something about the world he apparently has inhabited for quite a long time. According to a Gossip Stone, he is rumored to be the reincarnation of an ancient Sage; and although not explicit in the game, Link later on meets the real sage that took on an animal form to guide him. He also transports Link from time to time with his claws. His forebear was actually the owl that fulfilled the same role in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Nintendo never shies away from using cliches to make a point immediately apparent, and the use of a sage owl to guide the players is stepped firmly on the tradition of seeing these birds as wise and as symbols of knowledge. Could it be because they appear as if they have glasses? Because they have that ancient monk look to them amongst birds (specially when their heads are upside down)? Or because they are silent and mysterious and can see in the dark? Most likely those were some of the traits that lent them their importance in various ancient cultures, especially the Greeks, where the owl was the bird of Athena, the goddess of, among other things, wisdom. Ironically, Athena’s bird was the owl not because the Greeks themselves saw owls as wise, but because Athena’s patron city Athens (and its environs) swarmed with wild little owls.

He is one of the few characters with the honor of having his own theme tune, a playfully mysterious track that captures both his grandfatherly worry for child Link that can also annoy you and his ancientness and propriety.

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Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2

Time Signature: 4/4

Tempo: 80 (Ritardanto at the end of phrases 70-50)

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: G Mixolydian (section 0); C Aeolian/Minor, C harmonic minor (Section 1) ; Eb Ionian/Major (Section 2)

The music choice for our wise owl is possibly self aware of his annoying nature, being playful yet slightly dark in Section 1; having two contrasting main sections, with Section 1 having that mischievously playful melody that you may hear in your head when your grandpa is giving you a boring talk with advice from his times, and Section 2—the parallel major scale of Section 1— with one of those bittersweet melodies that Kondo seems to pull off in his sleep, capturing how grandpa also has genuine intentions and it’s worried about your well being.

The transition between the Hyrule Field theme and the owl theme is smooth due to how Section 0 functions within a G Mixolydian profile, the same as in most of Hyrule Field. The main vamp there being G to F, exactly the intro heard here. As in other intros it also ends in the dominant of the main profile in order to start on the tonic. The playfully sinister tone is brought courtesy of the Harmonic minor scale in C and the emphasis on its main note, the B natural.

The bassoon is appropriate as the instrument of the owl since birds are woodwinds in the musical tradition and the wisest and oldest sounding (as you age your voice gets naturally lower) one is the bassoon.

The strings melody adds counterpoint to the piece, making the owl straight from an even older musical tradition and with a more complex understanding of music; the dual nature of this human/animal hybrid is in full display.

The harmony would be something like:

Section 0

G – F – G

Section 1

Cm – Eb – G

Cm – Fm – G – Cm

Section 2

Eb – Fm – Bb – Eb

Eb – Fm – Bb – Fm – Bb – Eb

The theme marks the owl as a proper well educated character from high society, with his baroque piece and symmetrical melodic phrases where you can differentiate easily question-answer blocks. The melody has a swing feel. In order to give movement to the piece, during Section 2 the harp changes its accompaniment style from stacked intervals to full on arpeggio sice in this part the chord changes are also slower.

Even if you find Kaepora Gaebora annoying, at least he is a character integrated into the story as opposed to impersonal menus appearing on your screen to explain an interface. That is not the Miyamoto style. Any exposition needs to still have some charm to it and Kondo helps with that by making a nostalgic tune. Speaking of Miyamoto’s style, he is quite fond of some Americana, which is why Ocarina of Time forgets for a moment its medieval European roots in order to deliver us a Western saga.

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