How music theory plays a paramount role in The Legend of Zelda games

Whether we realize it or not, The Legend of Zelda music has connected countless people around the world. From heroic ballads to catchy tunes, perilous fights, heartstring tuggers, adventurous marches, and so much more, Hyrule springs to life before our eyes and imaginations with the help of its remarkable sounds. The Legend of Zelda’s iconic music has certainly branded the video game series into a household name. Even in its humble beginnings in 1986, one can’t help but admire the first Zelda game’s epic theme song belting out its 8-bit splendor on the title screen. 

Video game music had its own charms and quirks growing up as a genre. Young players encountered cute or edgy little ditties emanating from the screens that entertained them enough (and unfortunately annoyed their older audiences enough) to pass the time in a waiting room or on a road trip. Long enough to be amused for a little while, then forget about it after the push of a power button.

Indeed, video game music was one thing. Zelda music, however, took things to a whole different level. 

For decades scholars taught us that the understanding of music was confined to the limitations of geographic and cultural borders. Not Zelda music. From Japan to North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and beyond, its melodious legacy has touched the hearts and minds of players in countries everywhere for the past 35 years. In 2019, a team of researchers at Harvard University finally proved what Zelda music had demonstrated all along. Called the Natural History of Song, their study concluded that music is indeed a universal language. Every human culture in existence, they discovered, had music capable of mutual understanding. Every. Single. One. 

Innovative it may be, it is clear that Zelda music has its own signature sound that makes it stand tall from the genre crowd. But why? What makes Zelda music sound like Zelda in the first place? Why does it resonate so well with us? The answers to these questions and more may lie with music theory. 

“What? Music theory!” you may be thinking. “What the heck is that?” Music theory is the fascinating study of what makes music, well, sound like music. It can help us interpret the language of music, and admirably, the musical language of Zelda games. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an opera singer or a music major to get the hang of music theory. In fact, if you’re a musical greenhorn like me, I promise you that music theory will only make you appreciate your favorite Zelda tunes even more. Let’s dive in!

Time signatures

First, let’s talk about time signatures. A time signature is the numbered fraction in sheet music hanging out right next to the clef in the corner. Its job is to help us keep track of the rhythm in a song by telling us the number of beats per measure of the musical piece. The bottom number of the fraction determines the type of note that gets the beat, while the top number tells us how many beats are in a measure. The good news is, you don’t have to read sheet music to understand how awesome time signatures are. That’s because they actually influence the way we think and feel through music. Different time signatures provide fascinating context as to why there are certain “moods” in a song, including Zelda songs.

For example, the most common time signatures are 4/4 time, 3/4 time, and 6/8 time. 4/4 time sounds something like a march, while 3/4 time might resemble a waltz. 6/8 time is a popular choice for contemporary romantic songs. Many songs in Zelda games also use these time signatures. Gerudo Valley is traditionally played in 4/4 time, and if you listen for it, the Song of Storms’s cyclic time signature is 3/4. 

According to 8-bit Music Theory on YouTube, about 90% of the world’s music is written in sets of fourth or eighth fractionated time signatures. That’s because they have a predictable pattern that’s naturally pleasant to the human ear. We can expect what comes next, and it makes us feel comfortable and happy. Not surprisingly, “Gerudo Valley” and “Song of Storms” are extremely popular with Zelda fans. 

Then there’s the peculiar 5/4 time signature. This slightly more complex rhythm catches our attention from the usual humdrum. Notable examples of this time signature include the jazzy “Take Five,” Mission Impossible’s theme, “Hollow Bastion” from Kingdom Hearts, and “Hyrule Castle” from Breath of the Wild. Each of these songs is strikingly different in style, but they all have one trait in common — the extra beat per measure grabs our attention and doesn’t let it go, further heightening a sense of drama and excitement as we venture into the moment.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. As humans, our attention is further heightened the more complicated a time signature’s fraction becomes. Odd time signatures have musical patterns with unusual fractions, such as 3/16, 12/32, and many more. These signatures are meant to take us on an emotional roller coaster ride, and they do a very good job at it. Such pieces include complex piano and classical orchestrations, such as Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Video game music is no stranger to odd time signatures, either. “Forgotten Isle 2” from Super Mario Odyssey has a time signature of 11/16. 

But even these time signatures don’t hold a candle to the “Ganondorf Battle” theme in Ocarina of Time, with the super-rare 23/16 time! 8-Bit Music Theory explains how this time signature actually creates a fight-or-flight response in humans. The unusual 23/16 time is hard to follow for the brain and promotes unpredictability. It puts us in an uneasy and disorienting state. Couple that with tritones that fuel the on-edge feeling, and you’ve got yourself the perfect life-or-death situation of doing battle with the King of Evil. 

By the way, did you know that “Ganondorf Battle” makes a snazzy comeback in The Wind Waker with Phantom Ganon? Only this time, the beat changes to the much-less disorienting 4/4 time, a more fitting beat for a lower-key boss fight.

Rhythm and style

Time signatures are not the end-all to interpreting Zelda music. They are simply the tools in a composer’s toolbox. Music theory examines other musical elements too, including tone, rhythmic changes, instruments, and cultural style. Time signatures often change in Hyrule’s living, breathing world. Sometimes, they change multiple times in a single track. These dynamic shifts in rhythm and tone are commonly heard during real-time enemy fights in Zelda overworlds. The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are great examples. One of my personal favorites is the music in the second battle with Ganon in Twilight Princess. The rhythm doesn’t change, but if you listen carefully, the track’s sudden “jolts” to a darker tone actually help give you clues when to dodge and attack Ganon as he comes out of hiding. Brilliant! 

The Zelda series is not shy in incorporating musical styles from all over the world to tell its epic story, such as Celtic, Andean, African, European medieval, and more. At one point, the development staff had even used Shigeru Miyamoto’s personal mandolin to capture the Old-World feel in The Wind Waker’s prologue. The next time you play a Zelda game, try to identify the styles of its musical tracks. Experts in music theory know that certain styles create different mental states in humans, such as these examples below:

• Military horns and drums — Provokes a sense of adventure, moving forward, and victory. Also used in battle scenes. 
• Classical piano — Induces a calm state. May depict softer upbeat scenes of delight, or sadness if the rhythm is slow. 
• Pop and Rock — Energizes the listener and encourages movement in action scenes.
• Metal — Self-identifying, culture-specific, often used in industrial settings. 

I’m sure you’ve encountered these styles and more experiencing Zelda music at some point or another. I would even go as far as to say that music styles are so important in the Zelda series, the development team made a point to incorporate musical nods into the gameplay. For example, the main characters Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf all know how to play a musical instrument. Let’s not forget the side characters Makar and Medli from The Wind Waker and Kass from Breath of the Wild, either. Another example is that many of the game mechanic songs in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker are named after a song genre, such as a bolero, serenade, or ballad. Heck, the games themselves are named after a musical instrument! These nuggets of information don’t have to do with music theory itself, but it’s neat to realize how ingrained the study of music is to the entire series.

Leitmotifs

Last but not least, it is irresistible to mention the leitmotif when talking about music theory in Zelda games. A leitmotif, or “leading motive” in the German language, is a melodic phrase that is associated with a specific place, character, or idea. Believe it or not, leitmotifs have been around for a few centuries. Whenever the same music track follows a person, place, or thing in any kind of dramatic production, it is most likely a leitmotif. In other words, it’s a theme song.

And guess what? Leitmotifs are everywhere in Zelda. From classic horns belting over the grand view of Hyrule Field to Princess Zelda’s gentle lullaby, players experience these theme songs on a constant basis. There are several good reasons why. Leitmotifs do an excellent job at using music to communicate what’s going on with the players. Leitmotifs serve two main purposes:

• They provide allusion to, or pronounce, dramatic events. (“Enter Ganondorf,” “The Pirates’ Theme,” “Legend of Zelda Theme,” etc.)
• They transform the theme to tell an additional message. (“Midna’s Lament,” “Farewell Hyrule King,” “Lorule Castle,” etc.)

How do you tell the difference? Let me show you what I mean. Because this discovery is too much fun not to share (and because I’m a geek for incessantly pointing out Ganon songs), I’ll use Ganondorf’s theme as an example. Most people associate it with Link’s infamous encounter with Ganondorf at the drawbridge in Ocarina of Time. This leitmotif is an obvious allusion. But Ganondorf’s theme also evolves throughout the franchise. It actually wasn’t introduced in Ocarina of Time. It first appeared in A Link to the Past!

Don’t believe me? Look up “Priest of the Dark Order” and listen for yourself. I’ll wait.

Now that you’ve picked up your jaw off the floor, it’s a good time to point out that Ganondorf’s theme continues to evolve in The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild, and so on. Ganondorf’s theme might sound more ornate in Twilight Princess, or menacing in The Wind Waker. It may even blend into another track such as “Hyrule Castle” in Breath of the Wild. Each instance is a little different than the other, further transforming the theme to tell a precise narrative context surrounding Link’s archnemesis in each title. It’s the perfect tool for dramatic continuity.

Speaking of perfect, did you know that a perfect fourth may be the reason why Ganondorf’s theme sounds so ominous? In music theory, a perfect fourth is a musical interval with a group of four notes played together. Perfect fourths are not found in nature, so they can sound unsettling to our human ears. By themselves, the notes in Ganondorf’s theme aren’t necessarily creepy. But the slow, foreboding pattern they are played in is what gives it the unsettling sound we are familiar with. Many dungeon tracks have perfect fourths, too. It seems that Koji Kondo was onto something when he wanted to emphasize a spooky, challenging experience for players!

The Wonderful Musical Heritage of Hyrule

The hills of Hyrule (and literally everywhere else in it) are certainly alive with the sound of music. For the past 35 years, Zelda’s award-winning tunes have connected us to its sweeping fantasy stories and beloved characters in a powerful way like no other. We’ve laughed, gasped, danced, and even cried our way through Link’s epic adventures, all the while appreciating the series’s family-friendly entertainment and artistry. The fact that we can actually interpret our favorite Zelda music with the complexities of music theory is noteworthy. To this day Hyrule’s musical heritage continues to charge forward, from symphony orchestras to game remakes and more. The 2019 hit indie crossover Cadence of Hyrule is an entire homage to the appreciation of Zelda game music. Now with orchestrations being implemented into newer titles like Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and its anticipated sequel, The Legend of Zelda may be the pioneer that finally moves video game music out of its narrow genre into the marvelous professional sphere.