200 !!Chapter 11
- As mentioned earlier in the chapter, some composers begin the com-
positional process by writing multiple themes. - Some composers write individual themes for the main characters.
When a character appears, there might be various arrangements of
that character’s theme. If a character is in a frightening situation, the
‘‘frightening’’ arrangement of the theme is selected; if the character
has a love scene, the ‘‘love’’ arrangement is played. (This is a com-
mon technique in motion picture scoring.) - Some composers write pieces and assign an emotion to each piece.
For instance, a title of a series of pieces could be ‘‘Heroic,’’ ‘‘Sad,’’
‘‘Love,’’ ‘‘Fear,’’ and so on. In essence, the composer creates a music
library for the game. Each category might have 10 compositions that
will fit a specific mood.
Portions of the following section are based on an interview with composer
Christopher Lennertz. He has composed music for the following games:
‘‘Medal of Honor: Rising Sun,’’ ‘‘Pacific Assault,’’ ‘‘European Assault
Gun,’’ ‘‘James Bond: From Russia with Love,’’ ‘‘Warhawk,’’ and ‘‘The
Simpsons.’’
The average composition is written in a linear design but not music for
video games. Because the game player has a choice of what path the game
takes, the music must be written so that the A musical section can work
not only with the B section but also with the C, D, or E sections of the
music. If the game player goes left, the A section might go to the D musical
section; if the game player goes right, the B section might go to the E musi-
cal section. This is a complex compositional challenge and is unique to
writing music for games. As mentioned earlier, the key plays an important
role in this compositional technique. The composer usually remains in one
key when these potential situations can occur in a specific section of a
game. Essentially, the music must be composed so that each section
sounds like a completed piece of music; it should not sound as if it has a
direct relationship to other sections of the composition.
Composers’ Instructions
Since, in most instances, game music composers do not see the game
before composing the music, they are given written directions that include
a description of the scenes, the timings, the musical mood, the intensity
of music, and the possible scenes that the game player might enter. The
instructions for a scene might be described as Mood: Fear; Music Intensity:
Level 2–3 (level settings 1–5, 5 being the highest); and Music Length: 20
seconds. There might be arrows pointing to descriptions of different
scenes that the game player may enter. Therefore, the music must