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Symphony Orchestras and Video Games
robi2106 writes "The BBC is running an article regarding the cooperation between video game composers and top symphony orchestras, like the recent Los Angeles Philharmonic concert entitled Video Games Live. The VGL event contained orchestral productions of video game music, a live video game match between audience members on jumbo screens behind the orchestra, and pre-recorded game footage accompanied by the orchestra. Such productions are becoming more and more popular." From the BBC article: "With the emergence of machines like the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences. When Mr Wall composed the score for Myst III, he used a full symphony orchestra and choir. "
Has the best musical score for any video game I'v ever played.
I got a chance to hear a little of the concert on NPR and it sounded great. I really enjoy classical music so I think this is great. It is funny people have been saying for decades that classical music is going to die, but if this kind of thing keeps up there will be many future generations of classical music listeners...................thanks to Microsoft,Sony, and Nintendo.
Madre de Dios! Es El Pollo Diablo! -- Captain Blondebeard
...had music by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, composed by Jesper Kyd. While not up to the level of some of the other soundtracks mentioned here, it did fit the bullet opera mood of the game perfectly. The right combination of music, slow motion and visual effects can make a character's death by gunplay seem less like a whoops-annoyance-main menu-reload and more like the inevitable consequence of his chosen profession. Good show.
...had a sound track performed by the Moscow Symphony. Pretty impressive...
The Army reading list
No.
More than a decade earlier, Orchestral Game Concert was a full orchestra event of video game music. The CD of that was released on November 18, 1991. There was four more OGCs afterwards.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
anything became possible musically, and sound became a fundamental part of gaming experiences
There's still one thing music can't yet do in video games: change styles in synchronization with the player's actions. Sure, music comes at important points, but it starts or stops then. You still can't have a dynamic score.
For example, Halo famous musical score is only present in the single-player game, when the game knows that certain events will happen sooner or later. The multiplayer game is devoid of any music, because the important events - a bomb being planted, a flag being stolen, a large battle in one spot, whatever - are impossible to schedule and cue ahead of time. The point is that recording high-quality orchestral scores is well and good, but the next crucial step is for the music to be generated on the fly (possibly from prerecorded snippets).
The 2000 tickets for the game music symphony concert of the FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague at the Games Convention in Leipzig were sold out in under two hours, according to heise.de.
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