ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "The Imprisoning War" 4:10

"In a realm beyond sight,
The sky shines gold, not blue.
There, the Triforce's might
Makes mortal dreams come true."

-The Book of Mudora

We're BACK from MAGFest and while I was personally bummed to only be able to spend 8 hours total there due to my recently-doubled fatherly baby duties, it was great to see people & share a bit about what we've been up to - and what we've got planned :)

Now it's BACK TO BUSINESS with some more amazing music! From OCR debut artist smartpoetic (Tiara Dees) comes an invigorating, atmospheric symphonic tribute to The Legend of Zelda:

"Hello! Below are the submission details for "The Imprisoning War." I truly hope you enjoy it, and I appreciate any feedback from the Judges panel!

About Me: I've been a composer for years and studied music composition under Craig First and Marvin Johnson for a while at the University of Alabama, and studied with retired Princeton University composer Peter Westergaard for a semester while he was in residence at UA. Though I studied under contemporary composers, I've always loved film and game music, and many know me from my work on Newgrounds.com. I took a long hiatus from music composition, and went to graduate school for marketing. Shortly after graduating from grad school, I moved near Seattle, WA, where I work at a mobile game developer doing customer support for a major iOS/Android app (with some game testing sprinkled in for good measure every now and then).

About this piece: This is an orchestral arrangement based off The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES). I've always been a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda franchise, including its history and the music behind that history. In "The Imprisoning War," I imagine a great war between two sides: those who vowed to protect Hyrule, and Ganon -- the evil beast himself who has taken possession of the entire Triforce. In this piece, those two sides clash against each other in what's known as the Imprisoning War (known to some as the Sear War), which predates A Link to the Past. This war ended in a bloody battle which left Ganon imprisoned by the Seven Sages, and set the stage for the events to come in ALttP.

Creation of the Piece: "The Imprisoning War" is my introduction back into the world of music composition and game scoring, and I'm excited by the outcome of this piece. I used Logic Pro 9 (which is very finicky on a Yosemite OS, mind you), and samples from ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials 1 and 2 (and some samples from Logic Pro that I really liked). I've spent around 25 hours collectively working on this piece. This isn't the first time that I've submitted music to OC ReMix, but I guarantee you that it won't be the last!"

Larry Oji writes:

"If you're paying close attention, the extended original section from :50-1:53 was somewhat disconnected from the rest of the composition, plus I felt the percussion & bowed strings there should have been more impactful to increase the tension and drama of the writing. However, those were minor, more subjective critiques.

For me, the overall structure and transitions did click, and the original section ultimately pieced together well with the Zelda title theme before and the Zelda 3 Overworld theme afterward. The marching feel of the drums did a good job pushing this forward, and the choir sample filled in the denser sections nicely. It almost goes without saying, but the flute lead and bowed string accents at 1:53 followed by the harp accents at 2:20 will be a highlight for everyone with the classic title/overworld theme. For anyone who doesn't normally read artist comments, be sure to check out Tiara's to appreciate the battle imagery.

It's a pleasure to officially welcome Tiara into the fold with a great debut to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda franchise! There's nothing more perfect than relaxing with a variation of the title theme we all know and love. I hope she follows through with more submissions like she mentioned, as this one was smart and poetic in its execution! ;-)"

Larry, I'm ALWAYS paying close attention! To me, the melody at 1'25" actually resembles the intro to DKC2, which I'm a bit more familiar with after arranging it for Serious Monkey Business way back when - almost feels like Krool crashed the Zelda party :) I've actually got the same exact Project SAM libraries that Tiara employs here, and I think she puts them to good use; good energy & use of space, not over-orchestrated, and I like the fast string patterns in particular. It's mixed a little low, and I might have altered some of the pannings & added a bit more verb... when the epicosity cuts away and we get the isolated (and beautiful!) flute line, the space feels a little dry/close... ditto on the snare rolls, when juxtaposed against that big, massive choir and soaring french horns. These are nitpicks tho; I'm loving the overall atmosphere, the comfort in switching from epic to intimate, and the part-writing in general. Great debut from Tiara that I think many will enjoy - definitely hope to see & hear more!