While wading through YouTube content as usual, I struck gold in the form of a beautiful rendition of a musical theme from the Legend of Zelda games. This chance find has since led me on a journey of writing a solo piano arrangement. Score included in this post.
Quick interlude for an administrative update: I’ve ported this site from Jekyll to Hugo, a superior static site framework in my opinion. Thanks to @kakawait for the slick theme.
Now hush… Show’s starting.
Table of Contents
Great Fairy’s Fountain
The video I came across is part of a special symphonic recording of classic themes from Zelda. Specifically, it’s a recurring musical theme, or leitmotif, that introduces players to one of the game’s locations, a Great Fairy’s Fountain.
Headphones recommended.
I was immediately captivated by this sublime performance, and I was certainly not alone in my appreciation; music from the Zelda franchise is often featured in all-time lists. Unfortunately, having never played the games (though maybe I will now), I can’t comment on the sentimental value this music may hold for dedicated Zelda fans. My perspective is that of an arrogant pianist who wants to play it himself 😤
I queried the Internet for a solo piano arrangement of the Fairy’s Fountain theme, looking for two things in particular: interesting variations on the original melody, and an ethereal quality like the harps in the video. After finding nothing quite to my satisfaction, a thought crept into my mind: I could write my own.
My Arrangement
Although I had played the piano for many years, I would usually find myself in the role of reading sheet music, so I was in uncharted territory when it came to music writing. Unsure of how to start, I opted to do some research first. I learned that the Fairy’s Fountain theme is actually presented in dozens of variations throughout various Zelda games, so I had a lot of source material to work with. I decided that my arrangement would still follow the structure of the symphonic recording with an introduction, four variations on the main melody, and a coda of sorts, as I felt that this form is more suited for performance compared to the looping nature of a game soundtrack.
Once the first note was placed, there was no stopping. I drafted and refined my arrangement over a couple days, and here’s the the final score.
Score Breakdown
In the first two variations, I tried to mimic the harp duet in the recording as closely as possible. I liked the counterpoint in the second variation upon first listen, and writing it out note by note helped me understand what’s going on. Even though the higher voice sings the melody, there’s also grace in the chord progressions of the lower voice, and the few local dissonances add a sense of intrigue. Note that the second variation is also similar in style to Ocarina of Time’s version of the theme, though the lower voice uses different notes.
The third variation in the recording introduces a flute, which I knew I couldn’t adequately replicate on a piano, so I decided to go off script. I wanted something that has more drama than the second variation, but still leaves room for the future climax. At one point, I was inspired by one of my favorite pieces I’ve played, Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu, to attempt to write a three-against-four polyrhythm. Just then, I stumbled upon the Breath of the Wild version.
... And I'm the impostorI realized I’d never had an original thought, and that Nintendo composers had written it better than I ever could, and all I could do was faithfully transcribe it.
The fourth and final variation gave me the most room for creativity. In the recording, this is the passage where harps, choir, and orchestra all join forces to build up to the climax, but since I only have two hands, I had to pick what elements to include and how. I went with descending broken chords to continue the melody in a high register, which is a device also used in many in-game arrangements, and arpeggios on the left hand that simulate a harp while echoing the melody. The second half of this variation sees a shift toward drama. The right hand speeds up to sextuplets and swells above the actual melody like the choir, while the left hand transitions to simple, deep octaves that provide harmony akin to the cello section.
Outside the variations, I was particular about reproducing the harp cadenzas found near the beginning, ending, and sprinkled throughout. I found a “cheat” to accomplish this: just play F major scales! Admittedly, playing them lightly and quickly enough to sound like a harp is easier said than done. Time to practice…
Tools
I wrote the score using MuseScore 3, which is released as free and open-source under the GPL license. The user experience was decent; using a keyboard to enter notes was convenient, and most problems I encountered, such as how to create a cadenza and customize notations, were answered by documentation or some forum post. Some less central features like tuplets took some time to figure out, and I got used to deleting and rewriting batches of notes once in a while to fix formatting. Complaints aside, though, I’m just glad that such accessible software exists in the first place.
I’m also lucky to have an upright piano right in my apartment, which lets me to play around with sounds much more freely than with the playback functionality in MuseScore. Dear neighbors, sorry for my mistake-prone and repetitive practicing 🙏
Last Thoughts
Given that this was my first time writing a piece of music of substantial length, I’m pretty happy with the result, and I actually picked up some music theory along the way. Yeah, those big words I used earlier? I just learned some of them too! In the past, I had a simplistic approach to playing the piano: play the notes, and keep playing until it sounds good. This exercise has given me a better appreciation of the structures and nuances in all the music around me.
Throughout this post, I’ve been wary of using the words “compose” and “composition”; my arrangement remixes an amazing composition by the great Koji Kondo, and I must give credit where it’s due. It’d be fun to try to compose an original piece at some point, but that would demand more musical experience and inspiration from me. Until then, I’ll keep practicing or arranging music that I listen to and enjoy.