Inside The Score - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Calling the Four Giants

One last plea for help

The ending is near, literally.

The moment Link has been fighting for after failing time and time again to save his land of Termina. The last carnival of time the hero will experience is about to begin.

After teasing and playing around with the arrangement of the Giants’ Theme throughout our encounters with each of the four deities of the land, Kondo finally unleashes the definitive version of their theme just in time for when the dreaded apocalypse of Termina is dawning. This is it; the last change to avert catastrophe.

As befitting of a theme for saving everyone and everything, it sounds as if the voices of all the people join in prayer to chant to their protector gods. They promised that they would be here, that they would arrive to help when they are needed the most and, as the storybook read to us by the grandmother predicted, they indeed are summoned when we called with the Oath to Order, the word oath meaning a solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one’s future action or behavior. Link is that divine witness, himself having become a protector guardian. In fact, his own land is none other than Clock Town itself, a place based around time for the Hero of Time.

It’s a well earned climax after being entirely powerless atop the clock tower as a Deku scrub at the beginning of the story and hiding countess times behind the Song of Time in order to exhort another chance, another life. But now, Termina is prepaid to fight back, no longer cowardly resigned to move backwards but now a land made complete, full of hope and meaning by the deeds of the hero of time. Like all cutscenes involving the carnival of time with the moon against a red sky, it’s pretty impressive and monumental.

Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2 / Section 3 / Section 4

Time Signature: 4/4

Tempo: 67

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: D Phrygian; D Aeolian/Minor; D Harmonic Minor; D Dorian

The music itself is grander, sublimer and containing more hope than previous iterations thanks to the revamped orchestration. The tempo manages to capture the movements of these giant beings, all reuniting at the center of the world in an epic cutscene; so there is a possibility that this is the original composition and then it was reused for each of the giants’ own land. The sense of optimism is given by the harp arpeggios going up. The main difference with the first version heard of this theme is that now we got an extended, loftier intro with a long crescendo and added male choirs to signal that all people from all corners of Termina are clamoring for their protector gods; you can picture all people just outside Clock Town on their knees, some praying, some wavering their eyes in disbelief of the moment. Some just embracing their families and some just with their hands up in the air full of bliss celebrating the coming of the giants.

Horns and tuba are also added to the proceedings playing intervals to complement the chords and creating a stronger low end; it has to feel powerful amidst all the destruction. And now, similarly to having an intro, the piece also has a cadence to the D, giving a sense of finality not only to the music but also to our mission. The male choir is slightly ahead of the beat, making the performance more imperfect and authentic; this is truly all the people from Termina trying to coordinate their pleas. It’s, overall, one of the most cinematic pieces from Koji Kondo.

By this point in the adventure it feels surreal to see the moon just stop. There is a huge sense of relief helped by none other than the love theme (‘Reunion’) giving a sense of finality to the affairs. Skull kid is down and everyone is happy, or are they?

Will the four protector gods of Termina be able to avert the tragedy by themselves? Turns out Majora has one last card up its sleeve and we will need the intervention of a fifth protector god, a fiercer god who smashes to pieces any obstacle toward salvation. This is the fifth giant of Termina. He must hurry up since the real enemy has gone berserk and four giants are not enough. It’s all or nothing. The dawn of a new day rest entirely on our shoulders, the goddess of time and the gods of Termina delivered as promised, now it’s up to Link. He also fulfilled his promises to all the people of the land and is about to be rewarded for doing so. It appears that only the Happy Mask Salesman, a skull kid and himself are left as the ones still in need of healing.