45 - Southern Face Shrine / Truth of the Island - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral

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I have been thinking of this moment in the game since I first started arranging. Thanks to this year's Thanksgiving sale (Happy Thanksgiving!) I was able to get some new expressive string samples and immediately put them to use here. This track is actually composed of three different cues.

I - Ambience
Generally, cavern and great hall music seems to sound really eerie when it consists of nothing more than deep lows and soft highs, which the original version already does fairly well. For some weird reason, I could have sworn I remember hearing a wailing female vocal in the original version, even though that couldn't have been possible. That is a testament to how effective the 8-bit Game Boy game was in setting the atmosphere.

II - Revelation
Here is where I divert drastically from my usual instrument palette for Link's Awakening. As Link discovers the truth, the reality that is the island momentarily strips away from his vision, to be replaced by his true identity, the Hero of Hyrule. My music calls back to the grand moments of A Link to the Past, and the Zelda theme motif features heavily in the forefront. I'm sure many can relate to this somehow. You may be living a lie, but there may come a moment of clarity that allows you to examine your own situation, to see it as how it really is. You are faced with the decision to accept what you must do to escape your circumstance. Or, you can continue living in self-delusion

III - Consolation
What better way to cheer the player up than to tease the music of most people's favorite music of the game, Tal Tal Mountain range! This is not without reason, because that is the area you will eventually get to in the game. The owl comforts you by sharing some Schrodinger logic on you, but knowing the outcome, that seemed kind of pointless. Nevertheless the lingering gloom from the shrine continues to hang. That's why I ended it with the Ballad of the Wind Fish in a minor key. That theme is so versatile, considering how many different harmonies I was able to use on it. I drew influences from many places, including the Fellowship of the Ring theme, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 3 2nd Movement, and Shadow of the Colossus.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Orchestral Arrangement
Arrangement and fan art by Jeremiah Sun

Original Composers
Kazumi Totaka
Minako Hamano
Kozue Ishikawa

Original Theme by Koji Kondo

You can buy this game for 3DS from the Nintendo eShop