Video Game Symphony

Posted by Sarah Canice Funke Nov 21, 2006

According to the BBC, a London symphony orchestra is scheduled to perform what might constitute a milestone in both video game music and classical concerts. Video Games Live will feature the music of games such as the Mario Brothers, Zelda, Warcraft, and Halo 2 in a multi-media presentation that transmits the multi-sensory experiences of video gaming to the concert hall. Of course, the integration of sight and sound is nothing new in classical music: the composer Tommy Tallarico compares the upcoming concert to the advent of opera. And the integration of technology, or computer-generated sound, has given some avant-garde composers plenty of material for experimentation. What makes video game music in concert so unique, perhaps, is the level of complexity that video game music has attained. Music to video games now even sells outside the gaming experience, as separate soundtracks.