I also like that when you learn these 3-note-motif songs you are Kid Link, and when you learn the other songs which has more complex melodies you are Adult Link, kinda like when you just got your instrument you learn simple songs first but as you practice and grow you learn more complex songs

Daily reminder that The Song of Healing from Majora's Mask is just Saria's Song backwards - It's truly crazy how different the two songs feel while utilizing the exact same melodic notes

I'm like 99% sure playing this game as an 8 year old planted the seeds of wanting to become a musician. These songs will be in my brain until I die.

Calling the initial notes a 'question' and the remainder of the section an 'answer' is genius because it even makes sense considering the Ocarina as a magic conduit : you, as the player, ask for a certain power through the ocarina, but only play the question: then, in response, power is granted through playing the Answer

The cool thing about the Serenade of Water is just how malleable its chord structure can be, regardless of whether it's being used as a i-IV or vi-II. How malleable? Well, it is the first two chords in the Smash Ultimate theme song, but it's also the first two chords of "Mad World"'s chorus.

Me: “Wow! These Ocarina songs are so iconic! I wonder if I could write something cool with these five notes!”
Scarecrow’s Song
Me: ⬅️➡️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️

8-Bit Music Theory: Teaches us about the genius of Ocarina music.
Background: Absolutely getting wrecked by Moblins in the deep forest maze.

Exposure to the works of Koji Kondo at such a young age is legitimately why I'm a musician today. Around maybe five or so, I sat at my grandmother's piano and figured out so many songs from OoT, and it only grew from there. My friends and fellow musicians always tell me that the music I write sounds like it belongs in a Zelda game, and it makes me feel so proud to have been influenced by such a great composer as Kondo. I got a tattoo of the treble clef from this game on my right wrist; that's where it feels like the music flows, and I like to remember where that love for and connection to it came from.

I always thought this would be a cool idea for a video - you definitely didn’t disappoint! Zelda’s Lullaby is really interesting because it predates this game mechanic - it was used in Link to the Past. I would assume Kondo started with that and expanded his pitch set from there - by adding the tritone and octave you mention in the video.

There's no doubt about it, Koji Kondo is the greatest game composer. There's always been something so masterful about those early Zelda games' soundtracks, and Ocarina of Time has always stuck to me in a way almost no other game soundtrack has (as someone who really enjoys prioritizing melodies and such lol). Great video, loved hearing this get talked about

He didn't mention that Zelda's Lullaby predates Ocarina of Time. It was in Link to the Past! So in order to use it in OoT, Kondo already had three of the five notes set in stone, giving him even less flexibility for the other songs.

What I found most fascinating is how he was able to the herculean effort of composing these songs with only 5 notes. Leaving oneself to think that he made every possible song possible with those 5 notes. But then he just one ups himself and does it all over again for Majoras Mask, that makes it even crazier

This was awesome! I'd never transcribed these pieces and I hadn't touched the game since before I went to music school so I always just sort of assumed the notes were some form of pentatonic, but in retrospect, you're right, that really wouldn't make all that much sense.

What's interesting to me is that Zelda's Lullaby actually wasn't composed with these specific limitations in mind; it's actually reused from A Link to the Past. Was it just a happy accident that this song fit into the patterns of the ocarina songs in Ocarina of Time, or did Koji Kondo choose the notes and patterns for Ocarina's music based on this already-existing piece?

It’s worth mentioning that Zelda’s lullaby wasn’t composed for Ocarina of Time but was already an established song from A Link to the Past, which may have acted as a jumping-off point in Kondo’s process for picking the 5 different notes

Edit: and of course someone else already made almost this exact same comment lol. Guess it means it’s a strong theory!

Something that didn't get mentioned, Zelda's Lullaby didn't actually debut in Ocarina of Time. It was already firmly solidified as Zelda's theme in A Link to the Past.

That means that Koji Kondo had even more of a restriction on what notes he could choose because he had to make sure Zelda's Lullaby could fit. He had inadvertently chosen three of his five allotted notes in the previous game!

Not only that, but the songs you learn as young Link have a series of three notes that repeat once before automatically flowing into the "answer" of the song, whereas the songs you learn as adult Link follow no such pattern. This was almost certainly a deliberate design choice in order to make the first songs in the game the easiest to learn. Again, Zelda's Lullaby was already following that 3x2 pattern in its initial composition, which means that once again, he had already set up one of his restrictions many years prior.

Many pieces of the Zelda series fit together like a long since scattered puzzle, and the music is absolutely no exception.

I can not put into words how freaking perfect and beautiful the sound track for Ocarina of Time is, as well as the whole.
I spent my entire childhood playing this game, so much that I get intense nostalgia from it that I literally cry when I here the opening menu music!

Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu are my two favorite. Everything they’ve done is memorable, nostalgic, and iconic.

Something that makes the ocarina songs even more impressive to me is that Zelda's Lullaby wasn't introduced in Ocarina of Time, it first appeared in Link to the Past.
Not only did Koji Kondo do such a phenomenal job with making the ocarina songs distinct and memorable and all that with only five notes, he did so while only actually getting to choose two new notes. Three of them were already set in stone.

I've always thought the N64 Zelda games have such a different vibe than the rest of the series. Partially due to their comparatively darker themes as well as their heavy draw from real world cultures. Whenever I think of video game music it doesn't take long for OOT or MM to come up, especially the dungeon themes.