Zelda Exposed

[A Black Falcon]

EGM: I think you're much too humble. I think it's because it's so memorable. [laughs] I know sometimes in Japan there are concerts with full orchestras playing versions of your music. Do you ever go to those, take part in those? And will we ever see that in a game, do you think, where you'll get a full orchestra together and use that kind of music?

KK: It was the days of the Super NES that every year for about five or six years they were having the videogame music concerts. And unfortunately I didn't participate as a musician, but I used to appear at the beginning of the show to introduce myself. Last year we had a concert over one day, playing two times, and there we made the game tunes arranged for the big band, and I was actually playing one song myself, on the electronic organ. We played Mario and we played Zelda music.

[Note: This event was called "Mario and Zelda Big Band Live" and was held on September 14th. They held a concert with a 30s dance-hall kind of sound, and they cut an album version of this as well.]

EGM: So is there a chance that we'll ever see that kind of a music [in a game], with the full orchestrated...

KK: If it's necessary to do that kind of thing, depending on the game, I believe it's going to be possible.

Not a full orchestrated soundtrack, though... one of those other things Nintendo is falling behind on?

EGM: This is an open-ended question, but do you have any stories or funny anecdotes that you remember from the early days, maybe the early Famicom days, about your music or the games?

KK: Yes, as I recall, in the very first Legend of Zelda, in the very opening title screen, we used to use the classical music of "Bolero," because that tempo was perfectly matched with the speed of the opening screen rolling. But I remember it was just before, when we really had to complete the final ROM for reproduction, they told me that unfortunately the copyright of that music hadn't expired yet, so I had to compose a completely new piece of music tthat night. I recall that I did it within one day. You know, "da-da-da-da" -- that was done in just one day.

[Note: "Bolero," by Ravel, is a famous bit of classical music. It's also the name of a really sh--ty movie with Bo Derek in it.]

EGM: You came up with that and recorded it in just one day?

KK: Yeah, but of course, we already had the ground level music figured out, so what I did was just an arrangement to perfectly match with the opening scroll.

The Nintendo building is as plain as ever...