I was so confused as to why the quality dropped so heavily all of a sudden, I’m sorry you have to deal with copyright claims like this. Content creators looking into/discussing media should be allowed to freely use examples to cover the topic in depth, in my opinion. Side note, the icy Kraid’s Lair cover in the section that follows is really good! Unsure if you made that for the video or if it’s from something else.
At a store I worked at, we had to play Christmas music, so most everyone that worked there put on video game music, because we were kind of tired of hearing the more typical Christmas music elsewhere. I appreciate your video.
i dont know jack shit about music theory but my brain is trying to gaslight me into thinking i understand any of this. you're like "this d major chord is tonicized" "then the next measure tonicizes a slightly warmer--" and im like wow! that sure sounds like music! when i hear the clip. love vids like this it feels like exploring a totally untouched land or something
Tonicising basically means making a chord into the "tonic" chord, which is the chord where the music will sound most at rest. You do this (most of the time) by going to the dominant chord, which is 4 steps up from the tonic on the scale, and then resolving the tonic. I hope this helped and didn't just confuse you more lol.
@@SoftBreadSoftThe tonic is the 1st note of the key/scale, so actually the "bottom" (but you can always keep going up/down in further octaves) Any note in the tonic _chord_ would feel similarly restful though (...along with said chord being played) In a C major scale/key, the tonic (note) is C and the tonic chord is C major, made up of C-E-G
@@SoftBreadSoft As said, it is where the music feels most at rest, and so usually the "middle" of the scale would be the farthest away from the rest point if we're oversimplifying.
My favorite is Snowpoint City from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I love the contrast between the main theme and the chords at the beginning in terms of timbre. It reminds me of the warmth felt on my face when I open the door of my house in freezing winter.
You mentioning the Undertale snowy music reminded me of how incredible of a soundtracker Toby Fox is - that's not the right word, but I can't think of it. I mean that he's incredible at composing music that accompanies a story. He's so good at composing exactly the right music for whatever is happening at the current moment or in the current location.
Ice Cavern from Zelda gives me the vibes of something left behind and forgotten. Giving it that isolating factor you mentioned being key to the feeling of emotionless winter. crazy how our brains take all these biases and associations and we can use that to our advantage to invoke very specific feelings of real things
When I wrote the music "Arid Athenaeum", basically a frozen library, for the game Revita, I was trying to avoid leaning too heavily into stereotypes as well. The harmony focuses on upper chord extensions, especially the 9th and #11. Regarding the instrumentation, the main focus are hollow sounding synths, vibraphone, a high register piano (guess you got me there) and a warm and bouncy bass which is meant to symbolize the player. It definitely does give off icy vibes! :D Either way, great video as always! :)
I haven't played the game but I just went and listened to it. I really think you pulled off what you're describing here really well. The bass really does feel like someone trekking through an icy landscape or cave. A single beating heart shuffling through snow in the middle of a blizzard. I really like it.😊
All Zelda ice level music are beautifully done. Honestly, Nintendo knows how to make music! Twilight Princess Snow peak Ruins is my favorite followed by the ice cavern you mentioned, then frozen Hyrule from four swords adventure for the game cube and Minish cap Temple of Droplets.
Even in southern hemisphere, the christmas theme still evokes crispy winter, and a hearth fire inside a cottage. Decorations are standard and its common to find places where fake snow (a white foam) is performed, usually at shopping centers. All the while its probably 30C at night and 95% of people have never touched snow in their lives.
@@rymikai the are none, though I think we should come up with our own christmas decor. We have some of our own unique summer traditions, in Argentina we use fireworks, ear fruit salad, drink lemon-champ (typically during New Year), sometimes eat ice-cakes... But everything else is the same
@@rymikaiNo, but here in Brazil we christianized some secular christmas music like jingle bells and Santa Claus is coming to town. But overall, the celebration in general is literally completely imported from what the north dictates. The main difference is that we traditionally have a big thanksgiving-like dinner on the night of the 24th, with turkey and other foods.
@@rymikai i cant recall an example. In Brazil this holiday has a very similar vibe to thanksgiving with gifts. It is seen as a catholic holiday with pagan elements hence it is not celebrated by the significant not catholic portion. So an alternative aesthethic to music would be some gospel about the birth of Jesus
great analysis as always, i love your distinction between "christmassy" "wintery" and "COLD". it's really helpful as a composer because i never really thought about the difference between them and when writing music it now has me thinking about what exactly im trying to emulate and make the audience feel. GREAT STUFF AS ALWAYS, huge fan keep up the great work :D
As a producer I wanted you to touch on one other thing- most of these instruments have a lot of reaallly long reverb tails, which kinda evokes a winter breeze on a night where other noises don’t interfere or drown out the melody
To me, two of the best winter themes in videogames are definitely snowpoint city theme from pokemon dpp and frostfall from the skyrim soundtrack. the first is just so calming, and it perfectly incarnates the beauty and stillness of snow; the second really is inextricable from the snowy mountains that make up most of the environment in skyrim, it truly feels like the cold wind is blowing on your face and the snow is shimmering all around, and gives the feeling of the life that sleeps in the winter or thrives despite it. really solemn and epic. another one i really like is snowman (winters theme), from earthbound, really cute and christmassy
Pokemon diamond and Skyrim are very nostalgic to me so I feel this to my core. They invoke such a great feeling, makes me feel like I’m actually in the game environment. Very magical indeed!
It gives me physical chills literally every time I go into the Hebra or Lanayru region in BOTW/TOTK. I finally have an explanation for why it literally sounds cold
I feel the best example of this style of season-based music in video games is almost definitely Stardew Valley. Every seasonal song in the game absolutely captures the essence of the experience of the season. Winter feels cold, spring feels like an energetic new beginning, summer feels upbeat and joyous and autumn (fall) feels slower and more relaxed, easing the player into slowing down for the winter. Its such a perfect soundtrack for the relaxing farm somulator. I'd love to see a video on it at some point!
I thought the same thing! That's why I wrote my master's thesis on it! I have a whole chapter on seasonal music in cozy games. I also have a video on my channel of a conference presentation where I talked about seasons in Stardew valley
I have a personal love for the Major -> Relative minor of Fall (The Smell of Mushroom) and Winter (The Wind Can Be Still), where it's like: enjoying the change and novelty of the season but foreboding the darker and colder days to come (fall) and the frigidness and regret that comes with the ending of the year (winter). Also on relation to the topic of this video, Mines (Cloth) I find super interesting in evoking the cold part of the mines. Although it has the characteristics of evoking the abstract qualities of winter with the tempo, reverb and piano, it does so in E major. I liken it to contemplation not dissimilar to what you wish you had done during the year at the end of the year.
By far some of my favorite snow level music would be "Freezing Temple" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and "Blue Blizzard Remix" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (The latter of which is one of my favorite songs ever) Freezing Temple, composed by Jun Ishikawa, goes with the "isolating cold" approach through very satisfying usage of a theremin, building up a surprisingly alien-like feeling Blue Blizzard Remix, arranged by Hirokazu Ando, is a medley that features a very unique take on Freezing Temple; it has an insanely active bassline and some very fun comping with a guitar(?), both of which were done with the mindset of "disregarding human playability" (Paraphrased from the 2018 Forbes article "The Music Of Kirby: Still Tickling Gamers Pink".) This song's second half somehow manages to pick up in energy even more, though it's not an arrangement of a snow theme in specific (It arranges a water theme named "A Stroll on the Ocean Floor"), so I'll hold off on gushing over this song even more
@@CadenceHiraI know!!! Blue Blizzard Remix is so densely packed all the way throughout, it's impressive This kind of extravagantly packed style is pretty common for Modern Kirby music, I'd be happy to compile a selection of songs for you if you're interested
@@joshuahughes8336 I'd love to, but YT is EXTREMELY picky with what I can say without my words being deleted If you look up the exact song titles, you should hopefully be able to find the songs easily If it helps, the exact uploads I use as a reference are uploaded by "Eternal" (for Freezing Temple) and "segafan13" (for Blue Blizzard Remix)
One of my favorite “ice/snow” themes is the one for Snowbelle city in Pokemon X/Y. It manages to use both more traditional “snowy” sounding instruments but also those with a lower sound and they really work well together. The piece sounds both light and harsh at the same time
psa: don't excessively and constantly eat ice, it wears out the enamel on your teeth. if you find yourself eating ice frequently, you may have anemia, go see a doctor. this is just for informative purposes for anyone who is unaware. i know the comment is just a joke.
Another reason higher pitched music reminds us of the cold might be because instruments made of metal pitch higher in the cold (speaking of experiences btw, flutes already have a problem with aligning their pitch to bands but it is even worse in the cold)
I mean, the association runs deeper I think, cause there's biomechanical reasons for it too. Lower pitches sound warmer cause you let out more of your hot breath while doing so. So by contrast, higher pitches sound colder. Someone did make a comparison between steel and wooden instruments though, and the wooden instruments consistently sound darker/rounder/warmer as a result, so the instrumentation analogy does play out fairly well too I guess.
Honestly it’s a shame not mentioning that soundtrack in this video. There are very well made video about it already, but still it makes no sense to mention the Undertale one (which is massively inspired by it) and not the Mother series one.
something I've always considered about "icy music," is the composition of snow and ice themselves. snowflakes and iceicles are crystaline structures. the 2nd and 4th styles you mentioned in particular have always been something I associated with the cold; sharp staccato notes echoing out against nothing (bells, chimes, etc) are exactly how I imagine crystals to sound. If you've ever witnessed a blizzard, there is something very magical and otherworldly about the emptiness and calmness of the world when the snow finally stops falling. all you are left with is the snow shimmering under a deep violet night sky. It's like you can actually hear the moonlight sing as it refracts through all those tiny crystals twinkling on the ground. this is why to me, style 2 and 4 works so well, and its something ive found myself agreeing with since I was a kid. music like that really does make you feel cold.
On the crystal note, theres an entire show about crystals called Land of the Lustrous that has a soundtrack which does the exact thing you described. So least a couple other people agree with you, lol. Check out the song The End of Winter/Fuyu no Owari for an example
In my opinion Snowy barely sounds "bright" at all but completely desolate and isolative. It almost makes me shiver. Not from the feeling of coldness but from the feeling of loneliness and emptiness. It reminds me of a quote from Nietzsche, "[...] if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
To me it sounds more like... "quaint"? A tad bit "playful", but also "isolated". I feel like a lost child both nervous about and curious/excited about being lost in a pretty wintry forest.
Cozy Cabin from Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a super warm, Christmas-y song that still sticks with me despite not having played the game in years. As for more recent examples I’d say Snowfall from Undertale Yellow does an excellent job of remixing and recontextualizing Snowdin into something even more peaceful and beautiful than the original.
Speaking of Kirby's Epic Yarn, Snowy Fields is the polar (hah) opposite of that, being bombastic and energetic but still incredibly Christmas-y and I love it.
Brilliant breakdown, the format of listing the different ‘levels’ of coldness portrayed through the music really helps put perspective in how these tracks elevate their intended environment. I’ve made numerous compositions for cold environments, many of them ranging between the levels of 5-3. My two most recent being a 5 where it’s very spaced apart; broken up by pan flutes to simulate cold wind, and crystalline synths to help sell the idea of being on an alien ice planet. The other is for the same planet, but deep below the surface where the internal heat of the planet allows for more complex life, and thus; it’s a little less lonely. More complex melodies play and the drums act as a slow heartbeat; showing life; while animalistic and simple, has still found a way to thrive in a hostile environment. Man, ice stuff is so cool.
While I agree that the notes written evoke a certain feeling inherently, I think a lot of the feelings you get from these themes relay on which instruments played them. If a warm-sounding French horn or clarinet ensemble played a lot of these, even just a piano, we might not get that feeling of coldness, especially if we didn't see the video game visuals with it. But that high-pitched, airy flute? The crystalline, chiming synth? Cold for sure! Really cool (lol, pun not originally intended, but here we are) video... love to consider this kind of stuff!! Thanks for sharing!!
"Ice Ruins" from Zelda A Link Between Worlds, while technically "just" another variation on the Lorule dungeon leitmotif, is probably my favourite snow/ice theme. It really makes you feel the isolation and how intensely cold these ruins must be. On the other end of the snow/ice theme "spectrum", I particularly like the very peaceful and serene song "Mt. Vinter" from Pokémon Shuffle.
the 9 in the undertale snow theme makes the whole piece. the Bm9 is a nice touch but that starting chord sets the tone perfectly. i think that's my favorite that i can think of
It's an easy answer, but the three winter themes in Stardew Valley perfectly fit their season as all the Stardew season themes do. Nocturne of Ice and Ancient fall very much in category 2, while The Wind Can Be Still has a much lonelier and inhuman sound to it that really makes it an exemplar of category 3 I think.
Both pikmin winter tracks (this one and pikmin 3s distant tundra) are very much wintery tunes. Really cool to me how they still manage to sound like Pikmin music despite the wildly different atmosphere.
this is a great video but in my mind any description of cold music (even though we're limited to games here) should mention the sibelius violin concerto, which contains all three of the non-christmas feelings (and a fourth one, which is more like the feeling of being warm and cozy inside while it's cold outside). other than that this is a great job thanks for the video (:
oh my god, thank you for helping me find your lovely playlist of video game winter music - i do so love the "contemplative" and "abstract" winter music, and it's really hard to find compilations that focus on that!
I really love "Ice Dungeon" from Skies of Arcadia. I have trouble telling the time of it, but the brush kit, whispers, acoustic bass, electric piano, and vibraphone ostinato are so good as a whole. I think it falls under category 2, but you'd have to judge that for yourself
I like the wistful isolation of "A Wish," which plays over Ice Country in Secret of Mana. The "always winter but never Christmas" vibe of it works well in the context of the story (Santa has been turned into an enemy) and is a disruptive contrast to the playful feel of most of the music up to that point in the game, while still being oddly peaceful.
I’m glad you touched on snowy, it’s my favourite track from undertale for these exact specific reasons. Toby did not have to go into that much detail regarding the music but he did. As someone who likes game music I’m sure you know that undertale has 2 soundtracks depending on the route you choose to take. The pacifist/neutral run will give you the normal soundtrack whereas if you choose genocide you get a more dark and unsettling theme. Snowy perfectly captures the theme of winter and idk about you when I listen to snowy all I wanna do is go hide in a house because it’s so eerie. Yes it captures winter but still manages to convey a sense of unease. something isn’t right and when compared to the FF7 theme the use of timing makes all the difference. The swing plays into that upbeat theme of cheerful winter but snowy juxtaposes that with a more fixed tempo, the use of 4s makes things set along side the dissonance of C and B as well as the fact it doesn’t branch out, it’s a 1 and 7 going back and forth longing for that resolution that will never come. Such a simple theme but yet one that perfectly creates the atmosphere that can’t be replaced.
Great analysis, and I like how you compared and contrasted the different songs with clips. I admit my first thought was "sleigh bells" coming into the video 😅
One of my favourite "snowy" or "winter" level music pieces has to be the music for Route 10 from pokémon sword and sheild. Something about it just gives me chills and it doesn't feel christmasy. It has this weird sense of danger and mystery and i think it fits the area of the game perfectly
Amazing analysis! One piece of music that I think bridges the gap between all four levels you've covered here extremely well is the frostlands' music in Octopath Traveler, which starts sparsely and in the high register in a way very akin to Breath of the Wild's cold temperature theme. While the piano and bells do venture into a lower register and a diatonic progression, the initial instrumentation (bells, reversed piano, and a synth sound with a very present high end that sort of mimics how bells can feel "icy") remains in the background throughout, conforming to the progression in some places and not doing so in others, keeping those sort of sparse, desolate undertones present. To me, it ends up feeling like it's comprised of equal parts of the entire spectrum, and executes this in a way that keeps them all present in the listener's mind. Highly recommend listening :)
Incredible video! OoT’s Ice Cavern’s shimmering sound comes from a sample CD (“Fantasia” from Best Service Gigapack) so my guess is the whole tone structure comes from simply writing the initial quartal and transposing the rest through a sampling keyboard.
If you're looking for more "cold" or wintry music outside of video games that sounds cold, black metal (a subgenre of metal) is a good source, albeit relatively difficult for non-metal listeners to enjoy. Particularly good examples are bands like Burzum, Dark Throne, Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal, and Agalloch. Black metal often sounds like being in a Nordic forest alone at night in the middle of winter. Note that black metal often uses very distorted instrumentation and quite harsh and screamy vocals :P
I think almost all of the non-combat tracks that play in Genshin Impact's snow zone, Dragonspine, fall in these category and I love that I can now finally pinpoint what it is about them! Since you mentioned loneliness and stillness, I'd put forward to check out the tracks that play in two other zones of the game, Enkanomiya and Tsurumi Island, all of which are so completely filled with a cold, melanchic loneliness that I'd love to see a music theory dive on how that comes to be.
I was gonna suggest Dragonspine's tracks as well! The etherealness of their composition really made Dragonspine stand out on first impression compared to the other regions.
Yes! Regardless of how you think of genshin, you just cant deny how good their music is Dragonspine's ost is my favourite along with inazumas theyre just way too good. Dragonspine ost gives off a melancholy and nostalgic winter vibe for me
I'm really looking forward to seeing how the music in Snezhnaya would be done. Obviously, there will be heavy Russian influences, but I am curious which of the four categories of winter music theory will they go for.
@@SilentGlaceon94Agreed. Super intrigued by this region. For some reason I get a feeling mihoyo will rather be going in the direction of classical compositions rather that folk music. Or/and that it won't be influenced by russian music alone, but perhaps polish as well. And it seems so far that the contrast of warmth and coldness is incredibly important in Snezhnaya, so possibly it will also be somehow shown in OST.
Literally yelled “YES!” when you used the Ice Caverns theme from Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m playing it right now and it’s my first Zelda game! Some other ice themes I like: Snow Forest- A Single Flower Blossoms from OMORI SNOWFLAKES from Persona 4 Golden So Happy World- Persona 5 Royal Everwinter from Blinx the Timesweeper
I'm so jealous that you can still play all the Zelda games for the first time! They're pretty much all amazing! Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom are all some of the best games of all time
This is the kind of thing I love about music theory! (musicologist here) Wish people made more stuff like this instead of really abstract fixations or huge leaps.
I absolutely love A Link Between Worlds’ ice dungeon theme. It reminds me of BoTW’s cold theme that you showed, except if it contained an actual melody. Lots of instruments with short quips that make it feel like something truly devoid of warmth or life.
I love the Tantal theme from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The day theme definitely has that incoming storm vibe, while the night theme is a lot cozier, while still very dark.
One of my favorite cold themes is Frozen Rito Village from Zelda TOTK, due to how it took the original and changed the vibe COMPLETELY. The original theme sounds warm and welcoming, but even though the totk version uses the original motifs and instruments, but it just sounds... hollow. It sounds like what you described in level 3, where the music is extremely minimal and instead of a warm rich accompaniment it's replaced with a deep windy atmosphere that only provides the bare minimum harmony, oftentimes omitting parts of the chord. The implied key of the melody provides the majority of information about the progression, with only a skeleton of an accompaniment providing the rest of the details. I didn't go into a really deep analysis but it uses pedal tones and chromatic movement to create a sense of unease and loneliness. During the phrase that plays the dragon roost theme, there's a G pedal and a lot of the harmonies move chromatically to flat 9ths & 13ths. Near the end the DR theme that originally had a Dbma7 C7 Bbmi7 Abma7 progression gets a Db pedal in the bass, and the progression becomes Dbma7 Gø7/Db Db°7 Dbma9, Dbma7 Gø7/Db Gb7#11/Db Dbma7. The use of windy pads and long reverb tails gives it a very desolate sound, and the higher pitched instruments and sparse low end gives it a very cold & icy feel.
"Hollow" was a good description of it. Considering most all of the Rito adults were gone foraging for food leaving only the children in the villiage... it set the mood so well
The way I went looking for a comment like this before I even started the video. BotW/TotK nailed the “c o l d” concept musically, especially with the Rito and rising island chain.
Some of my favorite "Winter"/Snowy themes in video games is the Valak Mountain themes in Xenoblade Chronicles 1. There's a day and night version, and it's very interesting how they evoke VERY different emotions despite being the same place. The daytime theme has a heavy usage of oboe and woodwind instruments, while the night focuses basically entirely on the piano. Daytime's theme feels more hostile and... well "chilling", while nighttime is generally more "lively"
Snowy is the song I thought of immediately at the title of this video, but Twilight Princess's Snowpeak is my favorite example of this. It feels ominous in the way that a harsh, unfriendly environment like a snow-covered mountain in the middle of a blizzard would feel ominous. But it's also eerily serene. There's a beauty in the danger. You have to take it slow or you risk getting lost in the mountain forever. It echoes, as any noise in that environment would. I love it so much.
I love the theme for Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga’s ice area: Joke’s End. The music sets the perfect setting for the giant ice castle the theme appears in. Also “Don’t Preheat your Oven Because if you do the Somg Won’t Play” one of the themes for Pizza tower’s ice level, Refrigerator-Refrigerator-Freezerator, sounds nice too; with the song sounding like your typical ice level song, while still having the sound and uniqueness of the Pizza Tower soundtrack.
YES that’s one of my favorite ice themed tracks. It really embodies the warm feeling that can come along with winter. It sounds very Christmas-y to me as well
Great video! Even though i don't understand music theory, i was able to follow along ok. Thank you for including Phendrana Drifts. That was the first piece of videogame music that really clued me in to the potential of soundtrack music, which i'd say makes up 50% of my music listening habits
I can't explain enough how appreciative I am to see a breakdown including phendrana drifts, what a pleasant surprise. I do think it still does keep the warm of piano which still sets it into the Christmas theme.. maybe without the sleigh bells lol 😅 but I think that is a theme of the archetype of winter.. the warmthnof the piano which is reflective of the heat, light and indoors
Snowy Valak Mountain from the original Xenoblade has to be my favorite snow level music. Both the day and night themes are amazing. The day theme is your more typical "physical winter" theme, but the night theme gives you more "abstract winter" or even "desolation" at times.
Fantastic Video, I love how deeply you analyzed the Theory behind the different themes. My all time favourite is the "In a Snow-Bound Land" from Donkey Kong Country 2.
One of my favorites is "The Warrens" from Final Fantasy 14, which plays in the dungeon Snowcloak. It was the song tbat got me thinking about this music theory in the first place and how it's crazy that some songs literally do sound cold and winter-like.
This helps me realize a major aspect of music that I need to get better at grasping if I want my compositions to LEAD you somwhere: chord progression. Without it, you can have a structure by using themes and variations, but you lack that sense of movement that music can have. You wouldn't know where it is taking you.
Wow you got a new subscriber from this video. I really appreciate how in depth you go into things - not just through the lens of music theory but also its associated cultural ties
Then you got Return to Oblivion from Shadowbringers' Eden Raid which is just a banger while having delicious hollow synths that I attribute to a winter sound
15:07 🤨 My personal favorite winter theme is Snowman from the Mother series. Earthbound takes a darker approach to the melody, closer to level 2 (though still with sleigh bells,) that pushes the feeling of sneaking out of school. Mother 3, however, ups the tempo a little bit and brightens the instrumentation to bring it to Level 1. Since you have your whole party with you by that point in 3, the isolated feel of Earthbound’s rendition isn’t necessary, and is thus replaced by a theme that is the embodiment of cozying up to the fire on a snowy day.
You should check out composer Keiichi Suzuki's recording of Snowman from 2021 Mother Revisited album. He brings it a slow, meditative air that's really incredible
I've just found your channel! This video was great! More songs to add to my winter playlist (: I'd love to see a video on "shopping" music, so stuff like Pokémart, the Scott Pilgrim store music, the Style Savvy soundtracks, etc. I don't know much about music theory but I'd love to learn more!!
You literally used my 5 favorite "cold" pieces of video game music. Utterly fantastic! ❤ Smb 3 overworld 6 theme was the first one I remember thinking nailed that sound
My favorite wintery theme is probably "mount brrr" from paper jam, it's calming and serene while also creepy thinking about moving through an icy wasteland. As soon as I heard the song for abstract winter, I immediately knew that was where it would be placed. Such beautiful pieces of music in an almost creepy type of way.
One of the best ways someone has encapsulated snow or winter sounds I think is John Mackey in his piece frozen cathedral. It has a lot of glassy sounds and it’s very emotional.
Coincidentally, I just compiled my own winter-y game music playlist last night, so I have suggestions at the ready! Here's some I haven't already seen other people mention in the comments yet: - Crystal Ice from Kirby's Return to Dream Land - My Happy☆Sweet Time♪ from Kirby Planet Robobot (less winter and more giant ice cream factory, but still cold!) - Snowbelle City from Pokémon X and Y - Freezington from Pokémon Sword and Shield - Alabaster Icelands 2 from Pokémon Legends: Arceus
no offense to toby of course, and he does some really neat stuff with the melody and harmonies and the modulations that show up later, but after hearing that track from ff7 i'm pretty confident he deliberately borrowed its basic structure as a point of reference to build on and eventually divert from
8:11 Metroid Prime's soundtrack is legendary. Every area in that game has distinct background music that perfectly encapsulates the vibe, and because the game takes place on a world that was once inhabited by the Chozo, there are elements present throughout the entire soundtrack that give many of the songs that ancient, dead civilization vibe which ties everything together nicely. The general vibe for the music of Tallon Overworld, Chozo Ruins, Magmoor Caverns, and Phendrana Drifts varies a lot, but they all feel ancient and mysterious just like the Chozo. So damn cool.
ape escape snowy mammoth is the best example i can think of a "cold" song. the drums being all high pitched and the pad terada used on it is a master class in sound selection
I'm thankful for the mention of the Ice Cavern. I've been practicing ear training and using Ice Cavern as my main reference for harmonic fourths. I love how cold that interval can feel sometimes.
Maybe this is just because I've been playing Blasphemous but i think it's really interesting how Una Senda de Pasos Blancos and Gelida Expiracion embody that feeling of "it's constant winter and everything sucks and everybody freezes to death out here" even though it doesn't use the typical cold rhythms and high notes as much (although the second one might use one of the highest registers in the blasphemous ost)
I like how the classic Kirby snow themes throw away the conventions with tracks like Rainbow Resort from Adventure and especially Iceberg from Dream Land 3.
Apologies for the Buried in the Snow section at 7:25, it got copyright claimed and I had to mute it. I encourage you to listen to the original!
I was so confused as to why the quality dropped so heavily all of a sudden, I’m sorry you have to deal with copyright claims like this. Content creators looking into/discussing media should be allowed to freely use examples to cover the topic in depth, in my opinion.
Side note, the icy Kraid’s Lair cover in the section that follows is really good! Unsure if you made that for the video or if it’s from something else.
i just got new sennheisers and this scared me so bad for a moment lol
thought my headset broke there for a moment
I don't hear the muted thing, i downloaded this video since I have premium
Also why dknt you just use a cover of it
Well, it sounded like someone walking in the snow!
At a store I worked at, we had to play Christmas music, so most everyone that worked there put on video game music, because we were kind of tired of hearing the more typical Christmas music elsewhere. I appreciate your video.
I'd do the exact same same... XD
THATS SO SMART LOVE IT
Pure genius.
I recommend Lutie city theme and Toy Factory music from Ragnarok Online, its still Christmas but isn't exactly the same.
If you get that opportunity again, I would recommend route 216 from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum!
i dont know jack shit about music theory but my brain is trying to gaslight me into thinking i understand any of this. you're like "this d major chord is tonicized" "then the next measure tonicizes a slightly warmer--" and im like wow! that sure sounds like music! when i hear the clip. love vids like this it feels like exploring a totally untouched land or something
as someone who knows a little, "it almost gives the feel of the phrygian scale"--yeah, it's quite phrygid after all.......
Tonicising basically means making a chord into the "tonic" chord, which is the chord where the music will sound most at rest. You do this (most of the time) by going to the dominant chord, which is 4 steps up from the tonic on the scale, and then resolving the tonic.
I hope this helped and didn't just confuse you more lol.
@@thepotatoportal69so the rest point/tonic is somewhere in the middle of the scale of the melody?
@@SoftBreadSoftThe tonic is the 1st note of the key/scale, so actually the "bottom" (but you can always keep going up/down in further octaves)
Any note in the tonic _chord_ would feel similarly restful though (...along with said chord being played)
In a C major scale/key, the tonic (note) is C and the tonic chord is C major, made up of C-E-G
@@SoftBreadSoft As said, it is where the music feels most at rest, and so usually the "middle" of the scale would be the farthest away from the rest point if we're oversimplifying.
Man.. videos like this really help you realize how incredible music really is.
And you ended up going over all of my favorite winter tracks you got a new sub and patron 😎
My favorite is Snowpoint City from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I love the contrast between the main theme and the chords at the beginning in terms of timbre. It reminds me of the warmth felt on my face when I open the door of my house in freezing winter.
Annistar sounds colder for some reason IMO
its some of the best music!
You mentioning the Undertale snowy music reminded me of how incredible of a soundtracker Toby Fox is - that's not the right word, but I can't think of it. I mean that he's incredible at composing music that accompanies a story. He's so good at composing exactly the right music for whatever is happening at the current moment or in the current location.
Ice Cavern from Zelda gives me the vibes of something left behind and forgotten. Giving it that isolating factor you mentioned being key to the feeling of emotionless winter.
crazy how our brains take all these biases and associations and we can use that to our advantage to invoke very specific feelings of real things
When I wrote the music "Arid Athenaeum", basically a frozen library, for the game Revita, I was trying to avoid leaning too heavily into stereotypes as well. The harmony focuses on upper chord extensions, especially the 9th and #11. Regarding the instrumentation, the main focus are hollow sounding synths, vibraphone, a high register piano (guess you got me there) and a warm and bouncy bass which is meant to symbolize the player. It definitely does give off icy vibes! :D
Either way, great video as always! :)
oh shoot i've seen that game on steam before
haven't played the game but it worked really well in a celeste level inspired by the area. good song
🔥 so dope
I haven't played the game but I just went and listened to it. I really think you pulled off what you're describing here really well. The bass really does feel like someone trekking through an icy landscape or cave. A single beating heart shuffling through snow in the middle of a blizzard. I really like it.😊
@@joepollockbass Thanks! That's pretty much exactly what I was going for with with that tune :D
I’d love more of these! Warm/desert levels, forest levels, beach/water levels, etc !!
This! ^^
All Zelda ice level music are beautifully done. Honestly, Nintendo knows how to make music!
Twilight Princess Snow peak Ruins is my favorite followed by the ice cavern you mentioned, then frozen Hyrule from four swords adventure for the game cube and Minish cap Temple of Droplets.
also in a link between worlds the ice dungeon is really cold feeling
Even in southern hemisphere, the christmas theme still evokes crispy winter, and a hearth fire inside a cottage. Decorations are standard and its common to find places where fake snow (a white foam) is performed, usually at shopping centers. All the while its probably 30C at night and 95% of people have never touched snow in their lives.
i wonder if there's summer xmas songs for the southern hemisphere
@@rymikai the are none, though I think we should come up with our own christmas decor. We have some of our own unique summer traditions, in Argentina we use fireworks, ear fruit salad, drink lemon-champ (typically during New Year), sometimes eat ice-cakes... But everything else is the same
@rymikai In NZ, we have a few Christmas songs with modified lyrics, but no traditional Christmas song entirely of our own as far as I know.
@@rymikaiNo, but here in Brazil we christianized some secular christmas music like jingle bells and Santa Claus is coming to town. But overall, the celebration in general is literally completely imported from what the north dictates. The main difference is that we traditionally have a big thanksgiving-like dinner on the night of the 24th, with turkey and other foods.
@@rymikai i cant recall an example. In Brazil this holiday has a very similar vibe to thanksgiving with gifts. It is seen as a catholic holiday with pagan elements hence it is not celebrated by the significant not catholic portion. So an alternative aesthethic to music would be some gospel about the birth of Jesus
15:40 The timing of the background visuals with the word “elegant” is… simply immaculate
I was about to comment the same thing lmao
entirely lacking in any sense of humanity…
That ledge in the Ice Cavern is truly elegant
@@Plexplay Truly.
great analysis as always, i love your distinction between "christmassy" "wintery" and "COLD". it's really helpful as a composer because i never really thought about the difference between them and when writing music it now has me thinking about what exactly im trying to emulate and make the audience feel. GREAT STUFF AS ALWAYS, huge fan keep up the great work :D
As a producer I wanted you to touch on one other thing- most of these instruments have a lot of reaallly long reverb tails, which kinda evokes a winter breeze on a night where other noises don’t interfere or drown out the melody
To me, two of the best winter themes in videogames are definitely snowpoint city theme from pokemon dpp and frostfall from the skyrim soundtrack. the first is just so calming, and it perfectly incarnates the beauty and stillness of snow; the second really is inextricable from the snowy mountains that make up most of the environment in skyrim, it truly feels like the cold wind is blowing on your face and the snow is shimmering all around, and gives the feeling of the life that sleeps in the winter or thrives despite it. really solemn and epic.
another one i really like is snowman (winters theme), from earthbound, really cute and christmassy
Pokemon diamond and Skyrim are very nostalgic to me so I feel this to my core. They invoke such a great feeling, makes me feel like I’m actually in the game environment. Very magical indeed!
It gives me physical chills literally every time I go into the Hebra or Lanayru region in BOTW/TOTK. I finally have an explanation for why it literally sounds cold
Yes! My thoughts exactly
I feel the best example of this style of season-based music in video games is almost definitely Stardew Valley. Every seasonal song in the game absolutely captures the essence of the experience of the season. Winter feels cold, spring feels like an energetic new beginning, summer feels upbeat and joyous and autumn (fall) feels slower and more relaxed, easing the player into slowing down for the winter. Its such a perfect soundtrack for the relaxing farm somulator. I'd love to see a video on it at some point!
watch this video: "How I wrote 200+ songs for my game" by youtuber Once Upon A Synth.
I thought the same thing! That's why I wrote my master's thesis on it! I have a whole chapter on seasonal music in cozy games. I also have a video on my channel of a conference presentation where I talked about seasons in Stardew valley
i love the soundtrack of stardew valley and that is a great idea, i'll add it to my list. thanks!
I have a personal love for the Major -> Relative minor of Fall (The Smell of Mushroom) and Winter (The Wind Can Be Still), where it's like: enjoying the change and novelty of the season but foreboding the darker and colder days to come (fall) and the frigidness and regret that comes with the ending of the year (winter).
Also on relation to the topic of this video, Mines (Cloth) I find super interesting in evoking the cold part of the mines. Although it has the characteristics of evoking the abstract qualities of winter with the tempo, reverb and piano, it does so in E major. I liken it to contemplation not dissimilar to what you wish you had done during the year at the end of the year.
Aside from game, Vivaldi cooks it
By far some of my favorite snow level music would be "Freezing Temple" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and "Blue Blizzard Remix" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (The latter of which is one of my favorite songs ever)
Freezing Temple, composed by Jun Ishikawa, goes with the "isolating cold" approach through very satisfying usage of a theremin, building up a surprisingly alien-like feeling
Blue Blizzard Remix, arranged by Hirokazu Ando, is a medley that features a very unique take on Freezing Temple; it has an insanely active bassline and some very fun comping with a guitar(?), both of which were done with the mindset of "disregarding human playability" (Paraphrased from the 2018 Forbes article "The Music Of Kirby: Still Tickling Gamers Pink".) This song's second half somehow manages to pick up in energy even more, though it's not an arrangement of a snow theme in specific (It arranges a water theme named "A Stroll on the Ocean Floor"), so I'll hold off on gushing over this song even more
the sound design on that intro theremin in freezing temple is so cool!! so howling
also the remix is INSANE wtf
@@CadenceHiraI know!!! Blue Blizzard Remix is so densely packed all the way throughout, it's impressive
This kind of extravagantly packed style is pretty common for Modern Kirby music, I'd be happy to compile a selection of songs for you if you're interested
@@ChristopherMoom YOU AGAIN!!! dude i see you everywhere
Sorry for the trouble but could you provide links to the songs?
@@joshuahughes8336 I'd love to, but YT is EXTREMELY picky with what I can say without my words being deleted
If you look up the exact song titles, you should hopefully be able to find the songs easily
If it helps, the exact uploads I use as a reference are uploaded by "Eternal" (for Freezing Temple) and "segafan13" (for Blue Blizzard Remix)
One of my favorite “ice/snow” themes is the one for Snowbelle city in Pokemon X/Y. It manages to use both more traditional “snowy” sounding instruments but also those with a lower sound and they really work well together. The piece sounds both light and harsh at the same time
I was hoping for Snowpeak from Twilight Princess, happy to see it at least got a cameo. Great video!
As an ice eater, I wanna eat the music
Edit: GUYS, I’M NOT ANEMIC I JUST LOVE ICE 😭 but ty for the info
Ok Baatar Jr.
ice eater coz you love ice or ice eater coz you're paid biweekly?
Ice cubes are like glass that is edible
psa: don't excessively and constantly eat ice, it wears out the enamel on your teeth. if you find yourself eating ice frequently, you may have anemia, go see a doctor.
this is just for informative purposes for anyone who is unaware. i know the comment is just a joke.
Cronch
Another reason higher pitched music reminds us of the cold might be because instruments made of metal pitch higher in the cold (speaking of experiences btw, flutes already have a problem with aligning their pitch to bands but it is even worse in the cold)
that's a really interesting observation! i didn't think of that but that's true
I mean, the association runs deeper I think, cause there's biomechanical reasons for it too. Lower pitches sound warmer cause you let out more of your hot breath while doing so. So by contrast, higher pitches sound colder. Someone did make a comparison between steel and wooden instruments though, and the wooden instruments consistently sound darker/rounder/warmer as a result, so the instrumentation analogy does play out fairly well too I guess.
Snowman from the Mother series is one of my favorites, especially the slower rendition in Earthbound
Honestly it’s a shame not mentioning that soundtrack in this video. There are very well made video about it already, but still it makes no sense to mention the Undertale one (which is massively inspired by it) and not the Mother series one.
The brawl rendition is so good
Snowman from Mother ❤️❤️❤️
something I've always considered about "icy music," is the composition of snow and ice themselves. snowflakes and iceicles are crystaline structures. the 2nd and 4th styles you mentioned in particular have always been something I associated with the cold; sharp staccato notes echoing out against nothing (bells, chimes, etc) are exactly how I imagine crystals to sound.
If you've ever witnessed a blizzard, there is something very magical and otherworldly about the emptiness and calmness of the world when the snow finally stops falling. all you are left with is the snow shimmering under a deep violet night sky. It's like you can actually hear the moonlight sing as it refracts through all those tiny crystals twinkling on the ground.
this is why to me, style 2 and 4 works so well, and its something ive found myself agreeing with since I was a kid. music like that really does make you feel cold.
That ambient echo, bouncing of cold thick air in a cave sound.
@subdynoman yes, exactly that too. always makes me think of the one track from the first Donkey Kong Country
On the crystal note, theres an entire show about crystals called Land of the Lustrous that has a soundtrack which does the exact thing you described. So least a couple other people agree with you, lol. Check out the song The End of Winter/Fuyu no Owari for an example
As someone who has a winter themed playlist for myself this video was great to see and I think I’m putting this on the permanent list now
In my opinion Snowy barely sounds "bright" at all but completely desolate and isolative. It almost makes me shiver. Not from the feeling of coldness but from the feeling of loneliness and emptiness. It reminds me of a quote from Nietzsche, "[...] if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
To me it sounds more like... "quaint"? A tad bit "playful", but also "isolated". I feel like a lost child both nervous about and curious/excited about being lost in a pretty wintry forest.
Smash
@@ozenvrwhat?
Gay
To me in feels melancholic, like looking back on the good times
She thought she could get away with 15:07
I thought I was going insane
It sounds EPIC!
It sounds like the lick, but I’m not too sure…
@@retsam6264 IT IS!!! I KNEW SOMEONE WOULD SAY SOMETHING
was bout to comment this
Cozy Cabin from Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a super warm, Christmas-y song that still sticks with me despite not having played the game in years. As for more recent examples I’d say Snowfall from Undertale Yellow does an excellent job of remixing and recontextualizing Snowdin into something even more peaceful and beautiful than the original.
Yes and Cool Cave! That whole soundtrack was top tier
is that a mother fucking gd reference
Speaking of Kirby's Epic Yarn, Snowy Fields is the polar (hah) opposite of that, being bombastic and energetic but still incredibly Christmas-y and I love it.
This entire comment is so based
Brilliant breakdown, the format of listing the different ‘levels’ of coldness portrayed through the music really helps put perspective in how these tracks elevate their intended environment.
I’ve made numerous compositions for cold environments, many of them ranging between the levels of 5-3. My two most recent being a 5 where it’s very spaced apart; broken up by pan flutes to simulate cold wind, and crystalline synths to help sell the idea of being on an alien ice planet.
The other is for the same planet, but deep below the surface where the internal heat of the planet allows for more complex life, and thus; it’s a little less lonely. More complex melodies play and the drums act as a slow heartbeat; showing life; while animalistic and simple, has still found a way to thrive in a hostile environment.
Man, ice stuff is so cool.
While I agree that the notes written evoke a certain feeling inherently, I think a lot of the feelings you get from these themes relay on which instruments played them. If a warm-sounding French horn or clarinet ensemble played a lot of these, even just a piano, we might not get that feeling of coldness, especially if we didn't see the video game visuals with it. But that high-pitched, airy flute? The crystalline, chiming synth? Cold for sure! Really cool (lol, pun not originally intended, but here we are) video... love to consider this kind of stuff!! Thanks for sharing!!
15:07
Your tongue'll get stuck if you do that!
*your
I went to the comments as fast as I could when I heard the lick
@@moonl1314frrrr
LMAO nice
@@fishguylmfao holy shit how did i miss that lol
"Ice Ruins" from Zelda A Link Between Worlds, while technically "just" another variation on the Lorule dungeon leitmotif, is probably my favourite snow/ice theme. It really makes you feel the isolation and how intensely cold these ruins must be. On the other end of the snow/ice theme "spectrum", I particularly like the very peaceful and serene song "Mt. Vinter" from Pokémon Shuffle.
I love the music and sound design in both games so much!! I'm happy to see someone mentioning them here
0:41 Yapdollar caught me so off guard
XIAO HONG SHUUUUUUU
Why are you like the only person who noticed
It was a nice chuckle
Yapdollar my beloved
I would also note that I think the high pitch works well with winter themed music because ice is very similar in look and feel to glass
the 9 in the undertale snow theme makes the whole piece. the Bm9 is a nice touch but that starting chord sets the tone perfectly. i think that's my favorite that i can think of
It's an easy answer, but the three winter themes in Stardew Valley perfectly fit their season as all the Stardew season themes do. Nocturne of Ice and Ancient fall very much in category 2, while The Wind Can Be Still has a much lonelier and inhuman sound to it that really makes it an exemplar of category 3 I think.
The best part is the glitchy gameplay while the ice theme is playing 15:41. Really takes me back to my childhood!
0:22 no because i was literally thinking about the terraria ice theme and how much i love its cold feel lmao
I think Terraria's ice theme might fit into category one.
makes me wish I paid more attention to music theory when I was learning the Piano. Great video! loved the descriptive writing
the ice caves music from terraria is an indescribable vibe that i absolutely love
A song that's unbelievably wintery in its odd sound and vibe is Pikmin 2's Valley of Repose theme, really colorful and unique tune
Both pikmin winter tracks (this one and pikmin 3s distant tundra) are very much wintery tunes. Really cool to me how they still manage to sound like Pikmin music despite the wildly different atmosphere.
this is a great video but in my mind any description of cold music (even though we're limited to games here) should mention the sibelius violin concerto, which contains all three of the non-christmas feelings (and a fourth one, which is more like the feeling of being warm and cozy inside while it's cold outside). other than that this is a great job thanks for the video (:
Damn, you had an opportunity to reference THE winter RPG, I Am Setsuna. Literally a whole piano OST dedicated to snow and winter!
oh my god, thank you for helping me find your lovely playlist of video game winter music - i do so love the "contemplative" and "abstract" winter music, and it's really hard to find compilations that focus on that!
I really love "Ice Dungeon" from Skies of Arcadia. I have trouble telling the time of it, but the brush kit, whispers, acoustic bass, electric piano, and vibraphone ostinato are so good as a whole. I think it falls under category 2, but you'd have to judge that for yourself
I like the wistful isolation of "A Wish," which plays over Ice Country in Secret of Mana. The "always winter but never Christmas" vibe of it works well in the context of the story (Santa has been turned into an enemy) and is a disruptive contrast to the playful feel of most of the music up to that point in the game, while still being oddly peaceful.
I was really hoping this one was gonna show up.
I’m glad you touched on snowy, it’s my favourite track from undertale for these exact specific reasons. Toby did not have to go into that much detail regarding the music but he did. As someone who likes game music I’m sure you know that undertale has 2 soundtracks depending on the route you choose to take. The pacifist/neutral run will give you the normal soundtrack whereas if you choose genocide you get a more dark and unsettling theme. Snowy perfectly captures the theme of winter and idk about you when I listen to snowy all I wanna do is go hide in a house because it’s so eerie. Yes it captures winter but still manages to convey a sense of unease. something isn’t right and when compared to the FF7 theme the use of timing makes all the difference. The swing plays into that upbeat theme of cheerful winter but snowy juxtaposes that with a more fixed tempo, the use of 4s makes things set along side the dissonance of C and B as well as the fact it doesn’t branch out, it’s a 1 and 7 going back and forth longing for that resolution that will never come. Such a simple theme but yet one that perfectly creates the atmosphere that can’t be replaced.
Great analysis, and I like how you compared and contrasted the different songs with clips.
I admit my first thought was "sleigh bells" coming into the video 😅
One of my favourite "snowy" or "winter" level music pieces has to be the music for Route 10 from pokémon sword and sheild. Something about it just gives me chills and it doesn't feel christmasy. It has this weird sense of danger and mystery and i think it fits the area of the game perfectly
The Snowpeak theme from Twilight Princess makes me want to put on a jacket lmao
So lonely and cold...
We might need a fifth category for "winter survival horror movie"
@LimeyLassen lmao
Amazing analysis! One piece of music that I think bridges the gap between all four levels you've covered here extremely well is the frostlands' music in Octopath Traveler, which starts sparsely and in the high register in a way very akin to Breath of the Wild's cold temperature theme. While the piano and bells do venture into a lower register and a diatonic progression, the initial instrumentation (bells, reversed piano, and a synth sound with a very present high end that sort of mimics how bells can feel "icy") remains in the background throughout, conforming to the progression in some places and not doing so in others, keeping those sort of sparse, desolate undertones present. To me, it ends up feeling like it's comprised of equal parts of the entire spectrum, and executes this in a way that keeps them all present in the listener's mind. Highly recommend listening :)
Incredible video!
OoT’s Ice Cavern’s shimmering sound comes from a sample CD (“Fantasia” from Best Service Gigapack) so my guess is the whole tone structure comes from simply writing the initial quartal and transposing the rest through a sampling keyboard.
Oh, a sampling keyboard! That's clever. If you're right the low chords should have longer duration than the high ones.
If you're looking for more "cold" or wintry music outside of video games that sounds cold, black metal (a subgenre of metal) is a good source, albeit relatively difficult for non-metal listeners to enjoy. Particularly good examples are bands like Burzum, Dark Throne, Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal, and Agalloch. Black metal often sounds like being in a Nordic forest alone at night in the middle of winter. Note that black metal often uses very distorted instrumentation and quite harsh and screamy vocals :P
I think almost all of the non-combat tracks that play in Genshin Impact's snow zone, Dragonspine, fall in these category and I love that I can now finally pinpoint what it is about them! Since you mentioned loneliness and stillness, I'd put forward to check out the tracks that play in two other zones of the game, Enkanomiya and Tsurumi Island, all of which are so completely filled with a cold, melanchic loneliness that I'd love to see a music theory dive on how that comes to be.
I was gonna suggest Dragonspine's tracks as well! The etherealness of their composition really made Dragonspine stand out on first impression compared to the other regions.
I love Genshin's music so much, there literally isn't a song in the entire soundtrack that I dislike
Yes! Regardless of how you think of genshin, you just cant deny how good their music is
Dragonspine's ost is my favourite along with inazumas theyre just way too good. Dragonspine ost gives off a melancholy and nostalgic winter vibe for me
I'm really looking forward to seeing how the music in Snezhnaya would be done. Obviously, there will be heavy Russian influences, but I am curious which of the four categories of winter music theory will they go for.
@@SilentGlaceon94Agreed. Super intrigued by this region.
For some reason I get a feeling mihoyo will rather be going in the direction of classical compositions rather that folk music. Or/and that it won't be influenced by russian music alone, but perhaps polish as well.
And it seems so far that the contrast of warmth and coldness is incredibly important in Snezhnaya, so possibly it will also be somehow shown in OST.
Literally yelled “YES!” when you used the Ice Caverns theme from Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m playing it right now and it’s my first Zelda game!
Some other ice themes I like:
Snow Forest- A Single Flower Blossoms from OMORI
SNOWFLAKES from Persona 4 Golden
So Happy World- Persona 5 Royal
Everwinter from Blinx the Timesweeper
Ocarina of time is a great game, after you beat it, if you have a Switch, I recommend you play Breath of the Wild. It’s one of my favorite games ever
I'm so jealous that you can still play all the Zelda games for the first time! They're pretty much all amazing! Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom are all some of the best games of all time
This is the kind of thing I love about music theory! (musicologist here)
Wish people made more stuff like this instead of really abstract fixations or huge leaps.
Wow! What a BANGER of a video Sis!
I’ll be studying this for a sec to create some future Winter level Music! ❄️❄️
THANK YOU
I absolutely love A Link Between Worlds’ ice dungeon theme. It reminds me of BoTW’s cold theme that you showed, except if it contained an actual melody. Lots of instruments with short quips that make it feel like something truly devoid of warmth or life.
I love the Tantal theme from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The day theme definitely has that incoming storm vibe, while the night theme is a lot cozier, while still very dark.
One of my favorite cold themes is Frozen Rito Village from Zelda TOTK, due to how it took the original and changed the vibe COMPLETELY.
The original theme sounds warm and welcoming, but even though the totk version uses the original motifs and instruments, but it just sounds... hollow. It sounds like what you described in level 3, where the music is extremely minimal and instead of a warm rich accompaniment it's replaced with a deep windy atmosphere that only provides the bare minimum harmony, oftentimes omitting parts of the chord. The implied key of the melody provides the majority of information about the progression, with only a skeleton of an accompaniment providing the rest of the details.
I didn't go into a really deep analysis but it uses pedal tones and chromatic movement to create a sense of unease and loneliness. During the phrase that plays the dragon roost theme, there's a G pedal and a lot of the harmonies move chromatically to flat 9ths & 13ths. Near the end the DR theme that originally had a Dbma7 C7 Bbmi7 Abma7 progression gets a Db pedal in the bass, and the progression becomes Dbma7 Gø7/Db Db°7 Dbma9, Dbma7 Gø7/Db Gb7#11/Db Dbma7. The use of windy pads and long reverb tails gives it a very desolate sound, and the higher pitched instruments and sparse low end gives it a very cold & icy feel.
YES!!!
"Hollow" was a good description of it. Considering most all of the Rito adults were gone foraging for food leaving only the children in the villiage... it set the mood so well
The way I went looking for a comment like this before I even started the video. BotW/TotK nailed the “c o l d” concept musically, especially with the Rito and rising island chain.
Some of my favorite "Winter"/Snowy themes in video games is the Valak Mountain themes in Xenoblade Chronicles 1. There's a day and night version, and it's very interesting how they evoke VERY different emotions despite being the same place. The daytime theme has a heavy usage of oboe and woodwind instruments, while the night focuses basically entirely on the piano. Daytime's theme feels more hostile and... well "chilling", while nighttime is generally more "lively"
Snowy is the song I thought of immediately at the title of this video, but Twilight Princess's Snowpeak is my favorite example of this.
It feels ominous in the way that a harsh, unfriendly environment like a snow-covered mountain in the middle of a blizzard would feel ominous. But it's also eerily serene. There's a beauty in the danger. You have to take it slow or you risk getting lost in the mountain forever. It echoes, as any noise in that environment would.
I love it so much.
i literally dont know anything abt music theory or anything like that but for some strange reason im very intrigued
I love the theme for Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga’s ice area: Joke’s End. The music sets the perfect setting for the giant ice castle the theme appears in.
Also “Don’t Preheat your Oven Because if you do the Somg Won’t Play” one of the themes for Pizza tower’s ice level, Refrigerator-Refrigerator-Freezerator, sounds nice too; with the song sounding like your typical ice level song, while still having the sound and uniqueness of the Pizza Tower soundtrack.
I think DKC has some pretty great ice themed music. Specially DKC2’s In a Snow-bound-land.
But yeah, OOT’s ice cave is really great!
YES that’s one of my favorite ice themed tracks. It really embodies the warm feeling that can come along with winter. It sounds very Christmas-y to me as well
DKC2 Snow-bound-land is strongly inspired by Vangelis Antarctica.
Some of my favorite cold themes are Mt. Lanakila, Snowbelle City, and Snowpoint City from Pokémon Sun and Moon, X & Y, and DPPt.
W picks. Also would you consider Anistar City from Pokemon X & Y as wintery
Great video! Even though i don't understand music theory, i was able to follow along ok. Thank you for including Phendrana Drifts. That was the first piece of videogame music that really clued me in to the potential of soundtrack music, which i'd say makes up 50% of my music listening habits
I can't explain enough how appreciative I am to see a breakdown including phendrana drifts, what a pleasant surprise. I do think it still does keep the warm of piano which still sets it into the Christmas theme.. maybe without the sleigh bells lol 😅 but I think that is a theme of the archetype of winter.. the warmthnof the piano which is reflective of the heat, light and indoors
I love the Northeast Frost Street theme from Kirby TFL. The strings in that theme are just perfect
i love that song.... also, the metro on ice!
Snowy Valak Mountain from the original Xenoblade has to be my favorite snow level music. Both the day and night themes are amazing. The day theme is your more typical "physical winter" theme, but the night theme gives you more "abstract winter" or even "desolation" at times.
10:58 Something, something, sus Among Us.
The piano line for the first phase of the Sister Friede fight from the Dark Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel DLC is one of my favourite cold melodies.
Fantastic Video, I love how deeply you analyzed the Theory behind the different themes.
My all time favourite is the "In a Snow-Bound Land" from Donkey Kong Country 2.
One of my favorites is "The Warrens" from Final Fantasy 14, which plays in the dungeon Snowcloak. It was the song tbat got me thinking about this music theory in the first place and how it's crazy that some songs literally do sound cold and winter-like.
The most unique ice level theme in any game has to be Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3, it has a feeling I cant describe.
Came here to mention this, it’s the ice goat for me
@@youngwt1 the fact that it's based off a Jetzons song called Hard Times is crazy to me.
It has a very "winter sports" vibe which doesn't fit in any of her levels.
Agreed
Ice Cap Zone needs a whole ass video in itself
When the sleigh bells
Yes queen sleigh
When the jolly theme
This helps me realize a major aspect of music that I need to get better at grasping if I want my compositions to LEAD you somwhere: chord progression. Without it, you can have a structure by using themes and variations, but you lack that sense of movement that music can have. You wouldn't know where it is taking you.
Wow you got a new subscriber from this video. I really appreciate how in depth you go into things - not just through the lens of music theory but also its associated cultural ties
final Fantasy 14 also has VERY good wintery music, Footsteps in the Snow, the Ishgard theme, the Garlemald theme.
Was thinking about snowcloak too!
Then you got Return to Oblivion from Shadowbringers' Eden Raid which is just a banger while having delicious hollow synths that I attribute to a winter sound
11:49 megalovania jumpscare
15:07 🤨
My personal favorite winter theme is Snowman from the Mother series. Earthbound takes a darker approach to the melody, closer to level 2 (though still with sleigh bells,) that pushes the feeling of sneaking out of school. Mother 3, however, ups the tempo a little bit and brightens the instrumentation to bring it to Level 1. Since you have your whole party with you by that point in 3, the isolated feel of Earthbound’s rendition isn’t necessary, and is thus replaced by a theme that is the embodiment of cozying up to the fire on a snowy day.
Mother 4's snowman is peake
Yeah EPIC
You should check out composer Keiichi Suzuki's recording of Snowman from 2021 Mother Revisited album. He brings it a slow, meditative air that's really incredible
I've just found your channel! This video was great! More songs to add to my winter playlist (:
I'd love to see a video on "shopping" music, so stuff like Pokémart, the Scott Pilgrim store music, the Style Savvy soundtracks, etc. I don't know much about music theory but I'd love to learn more!!
You literally used my 5 favorite "cold" pieces of video game music. Utterly fantastic! ❤ Smb 3 overworld 6 theme was the first one I remember thinking nailed that sound
2:49 Dr katz: oh, you know what that means! Our time is up.
Awesome niche comment/reference
@@bigbadbyrnesim glad someone got the reference ^^
Level 5 World Map 6: Ice Land Theme from Super Mario Bros 3
SNOWFLAKES from Persona 4 G just feels so heartwarming and Christmassy yet completely fits the nostalgia and the thematics of the game.
My favorite wintery theme is probably "mount brrr" from paper jam, it's calming and serene while also creepy thinking about moving through an icy wasteland. As soon as I heard the song for abstract winter, I immediately knew that was where it would be placed. Such beautiful pieces of music in an almost creepy type of way.
One of the best ways someone has encapsulated snow or winter sounds I think is John Mackey in his piece frozen cathedral. It has a lot of glassy sounds and it’s very emotional.
Coincidentally, I just compiled my own winter-y game music playlist last night, so I have suggestions at the ready! Here's some I haven't already seen other people mention in the comments yet:
- Crystal Ice from Kirby's Return to Dream Land
- My Happy☆Sweet Time♪ from Kirby Planet Robobot (less winter and more giant ice cream factory, but still cold!)
- Snowbelle City from Pokémon X and Y
- Freezington from Pokémon Sword and Shield
- Alabaster Icelands 2 from Pokémon Legends: Arceus
POKÉMON LEGENDS ARCEUS OST MENTIONED RAGGGGHHH
Freezington is in my playlist too! These songs will make a fine addition to my collection.
THIS IS AMAZING
no offense to toby of course, and he does some really neat stuff with the melody and harmonies and the modulations that show up later, but after hearing that track from ff7 i'm pretty confident he deliberately borrowed its basic structure as a point of reference to build on and eventually divert from
He's gone on record referring to the soundtracks of Final Fantasy VI and VII as "must-listens," so it makes sense.
8:11 Metroid Prime's soundtrack is legendary. Every area in that game has distinct background music that perfectly encapsulates the vibe, and because the game takes place on a world that was once inhabited by the Chozo, there are elements present throughout the entire soundtrack that give many of the songs that ancient, dead civilization vibe which ties everything together nicely. The general vibe for the music of Tallon Overworld, Chozo Ruins, Magmoor Caverns, and Phendrana Drifts varies a lot, but they all feel ancient and mysterious just like the Chozo. So damn cool.
ape escape snowy mammoth is the best example i can think of a "cold" song. the drums being all high pitched and the pad terada used on it is a master class in sound selection
Yet, one of the best winter levels in game I've ever played has next to no music. Just wind and dogs barking in the distance.
The game is MOH:AA, the beginning of the level relied more on atmosphere than tone
I'm thankful for the mention of the Ice Cavern. I've been practicing ear training and using Ice Cavern as my main reference for harmonic fourths. I love how cold that interval can feel sometimes.
YEAHHAH THE WINTER HOLIDAY EPISODE !!!!!!!!1!!1!
Maybe this is just because I've been playing Blasphemous but i think it's really interesting how Una Senda de Pasos Blancos and Gelida Expiracion embody that feeling of "it's constant winter and everything sucks and everybody freezes to death out here" even though it doesn't use the typical cold rhythms and high notes as much (although the second one might use one of the highest registers in the blasphemous ost)
I like how the classic Kirby snow themes throw away the conventions with tracks like Rainbow Resort from Adventure and especially Iceberg from Dream Land 3.
0:21 oh! They mentioned the thing! 🌳
Rari
15:07 AHHHH I HEAR IT, IT FOLLOWS ME EVERYWHERE AHHHH
sounds EPIC
The lick…