Inside The Score - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly

The culmination of the organic dungeons

First there was inside a giant tree as the less visceral botanical counterpart, then carved into a mountain and within the giant skeleton of an Emperor Dodongo. From the same creators of these keyless dungeons we get the natural conclusion to the organic set of dungeons that accompany the child era; They are the culminations of their respective tribes’ elemental motif. So be prepared to suspend disbelief and come to terms that a relatively small whale on the outside has within himself a puzzle driven dungeon with equivalent elements for doors, buttons, lifts and any other complete disregard for anatomy. All in the service of one characteristic trope in media: being swallowed whole by a whale or an equivalent gargantuan monster and live to cause shenanigans inside. This is our womb level, time to get nasty.

Ocarina of Time stretched the idea of what a dungeon in Zelda could be; before Ocarina, the dungeons in Zelda were exactly that: Caves, ancient man-made structures and underground buildings. This 3D adventure showed that dungeons could be basically…anything. Nothing would be too absurd or outlandish anymore after having literal puzzles and enemies inside a whale. From then on, dungeons would appear on the sky, on another dimension, on mansions, boats or technology infused facilities.

Stories of whales or other aquatic creatures swallowing humans are recurring features in the mythologies of many cultures since they are the biggest creature we still have around; they don’t chew, they don’t rip the body, they just swallow the victim whole in one or two gulps— Scarily, it can actually happen in real life, but they are mostly accidents where whales were trying to eat something else, and large prey such as humans are expelled almost immediately.

Lord Jabu-Jabu takes the organic component to extreme lengths. The combination of the breathing visuals, claustrophobic setting and music that mimics sounds that are characteristic of living organisms creates the coarse atmosphere that would make the Metroid series proud because of how it straddles the line between sound effects and music. Like the other patron deity, the Great Deku Tree, this fish has been cursed with a parasite that needs to be removed.

Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 1

Time Signature: 4/4

Tempo: 76

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: D Octatonic, D Diminished

As with the previous dungeons, Kondo uses few “instruments” to create the ambience of this fish deity. There is only one traditionally pitched instrument and this is the only dungeon track from the child portion of the game that has a drum beat; but not any beat, remember that this is a full red blooded mammal, which means that the cajon is the representation of the heartbeat of a beast that is currently alive—and not feeling very well since it has all those monster inside— The growling noises we hear are pretty much self explanatory, complementing the unsavory imagery with the sonic space Link is currently hearing coming from the stomach of the animal. The constant, pulsating ambience track supplements the claustrophobic sensation of this dungeon.

The use of this specific, eerie synth pad—a synth which would go on to be promoted to a major role on Majora’s Mask, owing to the special connection it shares with one of the game’s main inspirations— seems to parallel the use of its counterpart pad for the Zora’s Domain, cementing the connection of this place with the Zora and the princess Ruto; possibly implying that the ethereal mermaid choir from before has been corrupted inside the Lord Jabu-Jabu—it also could have sprouted from the electricity the dungeon is based around and the ties this element has to modern sounds.

This string pad is playing one-measure chords in a parallel motion that are reaching for a resolution that never seems to come; they move mostly in chromatic fashion. At first glance, it could be said that the chords are playing dominant seventh chords, however, from a musical intention point of view, it is better to classify the chords with the unconventional Sus2 (b5) suffix, seeing how the tritone is their main emphasis—in fact, the spirit of the piece would basically be unchanged if we remove the major second from the chord, its only function being softening the harmony and making it more mysterious than diabolical. The volume of all the instruments is undulating, creating a pulsating sonic landscape akin to the breathing sounds found on the scores of the Metroid series. Yet it is still significantly more musical than the previous dungeon tracks mainly due to its constant rhythm.

Samples used on this track:

Cajon = Trip Hopping; from the ‘Spectrasonics Distorted Reality’ library:

Quite the trip

Underwater Pressure = Cricket Choir; from the ‘Spectrasonics Distorted Reality’ library:

This same thing but way lower in pitch creates the warm wetness of biological life of huge proportions

Growl = Breaths/moans/screams – Crunch Roar; from the ‘A Poke in the Ear with a Sharp Stick II’ library:

Sometimes you have to play it straight as a sound designer. You are inside a whale, you put intestine sounds.

Ethereal Strings = JX Lo Strings Right; from the Digidesign SampleCell Factory Library or basically any emulation of the iconic Roland D-50 string pad.