Seven Bohemian Rhapsodies

And now for something completely different.

Choir 

Strings and Piano

Crowd

Piano

42 styles

Symphony

Fairground Organ - 

Thaddeus

Fantastical music

The Adventures of Sir Edric came out about a week ago, and The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel is out in six days (pre-order here), so the time is right for a musical interlude.

I don’t always listen to music when writing, but when I do it’s often fantastical stuff. Soundtracks from films and videogames, as well as classical and rock music, and so forth.

One of my favourites, which is also the track for an excellent part of The Fellowship of the Ring, is The Bridge of Khazad Dum.

Dragon Age 2’s best song was saved until the end (Rogue Heart):

Dragon Age: Inquisition has some excellent bard music. One of the best songs is the rather sad Once We Were.

The Witcher 3’s got a great soundtrack, including Leo’s Farewell.

A few tunes spring to mind for Sir Edric (Brahms’ Hungarian Dance number 5, Rossini’s William Tell Overture), but Offenbach’s Can-Can music (technically, Orpheus-Quadrille Op.236), is probably the most fitting.

Other music posts from March 2011 and October 2011. 

Thaddeus

Music: Taylor Davis

Regular readers will know I'm quite into the sounds of videogames, in terms of both voice-acting and music.

There are quite a lot of good covers of themes to be found on Youtube (the piano cover of Skyrim's theme by Taioo stands out, for example) and one of my favourite such artists is Taylor Davis (aka Violin Tay).

 

She's released an album and a number of singles, which can be purchased from a variety of retailers as well as through her own site:

http://www.taylordavisviolin.com/store/

So, if you're a fan of videogame soundtracks and/or violins why not do some downloading? The video below includes some brief samples of the various tracks (from 1:50 in), which should be enough to decide whether or not a track would be to your liking. [On an unrelated note, I'd forgotten how good the Zanarkand theme was, possibly because my overriding memory of FFX is what an annoying little shit Tidus is].

Thaddeus

Skyrim covers

There have been quite a few Skyrim covers and related tracks on Youtube, from the Pianoborn and metal covers to the rap of Dan Bull and the silliness of Harry Partridge.

However, one of the best I’ve heard is a new(ish) one by Malukah (http://www.malukah.com/). She’s also done a cover of one of the bard’s songs, which is also excellent.

She does have a blog, although most of it’s in Spanish. Sounds like she’ll be releasing a few more tracks, and they’re also available as free downloads.

Thaddeus

Music from The Bard’s Tale

A few years ago (for the PS2, I think) there was a slightly unusual game called The Bard’s Tale. It was a comedy with quite a bit of music, as might be expected, given the name. The Bard was a self-interested rogue, and the narrator a dry and sarcastic fellow. It was flawed, but fun, and here are a couple of the musical numbers the game featured:

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Music and Writing

I don’t always listen to music when I’m writing, but quite often I think it helps. Often I’ll go for music without lyrics (usually classical), as lines in songs can sometimes be distracting.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a couple of tracks I’ve been listening to recently. I’ve been making some decent progress writing new stuff (done around 5,000-6,000 words extra since the end of the last full redraft) and although not every daily target’s been hit I’m generally writing something at least.

First of all Für Elise, by Beethoven:

Rondo Alla Turca by Mozart:

Last, and noisiest, Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King (I rather like the Peer Gynt Suites generally):

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Lesser-spotted Queen songs: ‘39

I must admit, of all the songs about faster than light travel leading to the dilation of time, this is my favourite.

It’s a slightly lesser-spotted Queen track, from the fantastic A Night At The Opera album.

Thaddeus

And now for something completely different

I was doing important work yesterday, browsing Youtube, and came across this enjoyable tune by Weird Al Yankovic. It's a damned sight better than Madonna's cover of American Pie.

Thaddeus

Game music

A slightly unusual blog today, on the music in videogames. I love the audio aspect of games, both music and voice acting. Personally, I think the sounds of a game evoke a mood and build an atmosphere more than the graphics.

Voice-acting really took off a generation or two ago, before which RPGs were largely or entirely textual. Generally, this is a good thing, although it is worth pointing out that Vagrant Story (about which I’m going to write a retro-review soonish) was 100% text and is one of my favourite RPGs ever.

Music, however, has been around forever, although the sound quality’s improved dramatically. Likewise, the composition quickly evolved from tinny electronic sounds to some frankly fantastic scores.

I’m a casual gamer, tending to buy a smallish number of games and playing them relatively intensively, rather than buying tons. My first real system was the Megadrive, after which I’ve been in the Playstation camp. [Actually, I did have an Amstrad something or other pre-Megadrive, but cassette games that took 30 minutes to load are not exactly exciting].

I mentioned Vagrant Story above, for good reason. The music is very good throughout, and some of it is excellent. Here’s Lea Monde At Dawn, by Hitoshi Sakimoto:

Metal Gear Solid was and remains one of my favourite games. Along with fantastic voice-acting it featured the brilliant The Best Is Yet To Come, composed by Rika Muranaka and sung by Aoife Ni Fhearraigh.

Final Fantasy is quite often mentioned when people talk about great music. I think it’s usually overrated, but there are some good tracks. My favourite is from the first FF I ever played (VII), which is the boss theme of Sephiroth. One Winged Angel, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, has an original electronic version, and an orchestral one, which I prefer and have embedded.

Music, like storylines, is something that doesn’t necessarily get better as technology progresses. Graphics improve as time goes on, but an excellent plot or well-written piece of music is timeless.

Thaddeus