Inside The Score - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Bolero of Fire

Burning with a passion

We get another opportunity to see Sheik (from countless angles as the developers get carried away with the cinematic aspects of their new 3D camera), learn one of her warp songs and witness yet another magical, inventive way in which she escapes; now we are playing with power, as the next dungeon is right inside the crater of Death Mountain itself, a place we only saw from afar as a child. Unlike the first game this is not the place of the final battle—even if Spectacle Rock is still here—but the temple of power, the second of the goddesses’ attributes that will help Link to grow more and cement his bond with the Goron race.

At last, after more than ten years, Koji Kondo manages to put the beloved classical piece ‘Bolero’ on a Zelda game after failing to secure it for the original. Well, sorta. He still had to compose a new song and was only able to appropriate its iconic rhythm.

Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 1 / Section 2

Time Signature: 3/4

Tempo: 61 (ritardando to 46)

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: D Aeolian/Minor D Harmonic Minor D Ionian/Major

A bolero is a Spanish dance in 3/4 time popular during the late 18th century. Here, Kondo was clearly referencing the characteristic snare rhythm and the pizzicato patterns of the piece by Maurice Ravel:

The temperature is boiling

The Bolero of Fire continues the question-answer format of the adult ocarina melodies; Sheik plays the question, Link answers it. After that, all the instruments go to a coda that, no matter what, has to end on a major chord—reaching the milestone of getting to a dungeon deserves a happy ending apparently. However this one piece, like the bolero of Ravel, reuses its question motif throughout the entire composition, here using it as the basis for the coda by transposing it to different starting points thus creating new interval relations but maintaining the same rhythmic profile and pattern. For example, the question-answer phrase is played within the D minor scale pattern (D F A) first and then is transposed to E but with a diminished profile (E G Bb) as the third phrase. After this the temperature keeps rising with the notes going higher and higher for more climax. The camera and editing also dances with the music.

The melody of the Bolero of Fire is built around the concept of two alternating notes. This alternating figure is repeated in sequence, moving through the notes outlining the chord; perhaps mimicking undulating flames; first rising and then descending to create the outro of the piece.

The harmony is imbued with tension-filled diminished chords and added sevenths. It might be interpreted as:

Dm – Dm – Edim

Dm – [ A- C#dim – Dm – Aaug ] – D

The combination of the piece, volcanic setting, uber-dramatic camerawork and the dialogues of Shiek about the power of friendship and the heart plays with the cultural connotations of both the element of fire, the sage of fire and the Spanish-Arabian romantic passion; making the bolero an apt piece preambling the Fire Temple, where an old friend of Link awaits, the one whom the dialogue of Sheik alludes to.