Land of the hero, twisted theme of the hero
By popular demand we have the return of the main theme of the Zelda series; but as we will see, it is not spared of the uncanniness of Majora’s Mask. It returns in a slightly distorted fashion to let us know we are not at home anymore.
The land of Termina, a land that the Hero of Time needed to find and also a land that needs the Hero of Time. It serves as a literal terminal in a terminal state from which you get to the four stages of awakening Link must complete in order to fulfill his destiny. it is only appropriate that his theme plays once again.
An iconic piece of music across the medium of video games, the Zelda Overworld Theme, originally composed by Koji Kondo for the first ever The Legend of Zelda game for the NES in 1986, has dictated the music sensibilities of the entire franchise for more than thirty years. Its leitmotifs are all over different compositions and moments across the games, signaling heroic instances and transcendental narrative beats. Even if after so many years and iterations the theme has become more of a piece of identity than music for most listeners, it is truly the best representative piece of the series, creating the sense of adventure and exploring different melodic-harmonic profiles just as Link explores diverse lands; the core mechanics of the series is in full display. It also introduced the Andalusian cadence to the series, the sense of danger and the sense of not sounding overtly major or overtly minor, all core characteristics of the character of Zelda music.
Musical Analysis
Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2 / Section 3 / Section 4 / Section 5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 100 (ritardando to 80 Sunrise cue);145
Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: G Ionian/Major; G Mixolydian (Sunrise cue); G Aeolian Dominant; G Aeolian/Minor; G Phrygian; G Lydian; G Ionian/Major; G Harmonic Minor; G Diminished; G Chromatic
The theme was inspired by one of Koji Kondo’s favorite bands growing up, its Spanish influence co-opted from the song April by the English rock band Deep Purple:
The chord progression was combined with the percussion marching rhythm from pieces like Maurice Ravel’s Bolero and the Adventures of Robin Hood; a classic video game tune was born:
Kondo certainly had the influence of Spanish music on his sleeve since he originally planned to open the game with an 8-bit rendition of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, which was itself based on a Spanish dance. There is a misconception saying that Koji composed the Zelda theme in just one day; in truth the theme that took one day was the Title Theme of the game which had to be replaced by a rearrangement of the normal Overworld Theme due to copyright reasons.
Its appearance here in Majora’s Mask can possibly be mean to represent Link, the only character left as ambassador of the kingdom of Hyrule, who is on a personal journey. Or perhaps it is meant to represent the parallel, twisted nature of Termina with respect to Hyrule; both using the same Overworld song but with different accompaniment—An even more probable option is that Kondo noticed people were asking for the return of the main theme of the series since they missed it in Ocarina of Time and he didn’t want to bother again with the complicated dynamic music implemented on said game since there was not even that much time to begin with. Termina Field’ is indeed way less complicated than ‘Hyrule Field’, just a linear arrangement of the Zelda series main theme that repeats on loop as opposed to changing depending of the state of the player; doing it this way helped to cut development time and hassle for the composer. It was just a matter of injecting Majora’s Maskness into it.
And there is no better candidate to pinpoint this madness than the string accompaniment to the cue, a completely dissonant pattern that is far removed from the adventurous pizzicatos heard across Hyrule Field. As it is typical of some tracks from Majora’s it contrasts with the triumphant melodies, giving the uncanny sensation of a person that stays positive only on the surface; what other overworld theme from an adventure game would dare to use a minor add 9 chord as the bedrock of its accompaniment? As a matter of fact, some of these clustered, dissonant chords will find their way back to the minor sounding overworld theme from Twilight Princess.
The classic Zelda harmony progression barely survives buried within the dissonances and strange chords formed by the strings; the dissonance is not as apparent since the strings play on the upbeats and are at a low volume.
It can be gathered that the Zelda theme here is on a G tonality in order to match the G tonality from Ocarina of Time’s overworld.
Just hear what is accompanying poor Link’s adventure in Termina:
A twisted version of his own theme song, the Hero of Time is in serious need of help.
Section 1
Gmadd9 – Fadd 9 – Ebmaj7 Bbmaj7 Abmaj7 – Gm – A7 – D7
[ Aeolian / Aeolian Dominant ]-[ Phrygian ] – [Lydian/Ionian]
The first chord clashes with the melody, which maintains the major profile of the original theme. As can be seen, the music itself is an adventure throughout different harmony landscapes.
Don’t get fooled by the presence of the romantic maj7 chords, this is just an approximation of the intended harmony and they sound at their most dissonant version, the one featuring a minor second and omitting the fifth; not to mention the diminished chords that end the piece at its most unnerving point.
Section 2 repeats the same phrase but instead of going to the Bbmaj7 it decides to inject the dose of danger courtesy of the harmonic minor profile (this danger was already part of the original) which since 1986 has reminded players that they have to be on their toes if they hope to conquer the quest ahead. It is a detour that ends up again with the Abmaj7 – Gm – A7 – D7 ending.
A shell of its former assured progression from the NES days. Just like Majora’s Mask Itself, these chords sit under the colorful surface of the music, giving an atmosphere of unsettledness to the package.
A la Banjo-Kazzoie, the tuba is here in charge of the bass line, giving a sense of whimsy and an offbeat tone to the piece; it is playing descending fourth intervals of each chord as opposed to the perfect fifths found on the traditional arrangement of this main theme.
Another new addition to the theme that functions to balance the gloominess is a countermelody played by horns first and then the bassoon giving hope and encouraging the hero—it still doesn’t take long for both to get themselves corrupted at the end though. in similar fashion to the Clock Town cue and the themes of the four regions, this song incorporates the three diminished chords of doom ( here they are E dim – Db dim – Bb dim), three descending diminished chords that will unnerve players throughout their entire adventure.
Contrasting with Toru Minegishi, Kondo usually stays with a fixed drum patter, driving the cue and changing it minimally only to produce accents to his melodies. The snare loses almost all its volume and power by the end of the piece; another victim consumed by dissonances.
The main theme of the series continues to be unbeatable for traversing an overworld; a musical composition that travels through notes from different profiles in the same way Link travels to new lands of the world. There are comforting places, magical places, desolate places, and dangerous places, and this applies to both the music composition and The Legend of Zelda as a whole. A hero’s journey in its truest sense.
So Kondo did fulfill the promise of returning to the classic Zelda theme but in a version that sounds off and on its way to degeneration; the Majora’s Mask school. The piece morphs into an unrecognizable mess of dissonant chords by the end of the loop. Termina is just the central land, the terminal from which Link can reach the four lands of the world, lands that are all contaminated by the spirit of Majora. It is Link’s destiny to purify the lands of Termina from its influence. A land as contaminated as the theme that accompanies it.
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