Phrygian 2-chords are kind of awesome
For the last couple weeks I've been listening to what must be one of the geekiest podcasts ever. Into the Score is, in its own words, "the only podcast devoted solely to the academic study of video game music". Yeah. Anyway, once you get used to the host's incredible enthusiasm for everything ever and his very didactic style (I think he started teaching high school band recently and it shows), it's pretty rad.
Basically for each show he picks one (awesome) game soundtrack, talks a little bit about its background, and then starts linking it to some concepts from music theory. He's aiming for a wide audience (well, as wide as you can get with this kind of niche), so people who already have some background will spend a little time bored as when he goes over concepts like 6/8 time and rising minor sixths. I didn't mind the refresher on the phrygian mode, though, so there's stuff to interest more advanced folks as well.
Here's some episodes I can recommend particularly:
#03 - Super Metroid, and the use of various modes and intervals to create tension.
#04-06 - A huge treatise on Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, delving into arrangements, themes, and musical references.
#09 - Uncharted Waters, a little-known game scored by our favorite anime composer, Yoko Kanno.
#15 - Castlevania series, in which we chronicle the history of Gothicism, which evidently recurs every 200 years or so.
#17 - Street Fighter II and ethnomusicology.
And I'm just starting on episode 19, on Final Fantasy VI, which is incredibly long and promises not surprisingly to explore leitmotifs. Good stuff.
Basically for each show he picks one (awesome) game soundtrack, talks a little bit about its background, and then starts linking it to some concepts from music theory. He's aiming for a wide audience (well, as wide as you can get with this kind of niche), so people who already have some background will spend a little time bored as when he goes over concepts like 6/8 time and rising minor sixths. I didn't mind the refresher on the phrygian mode, though, so there's stuff to interest more advanced folks as well.
Here's some episodes I can recommend particularly:
#03 - Super Metroid, and the use of various modes and intervals to create tension.
#04-06 - A huge treatise on Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, delving into arrangements, themes, and musical references.
#09 - Uncharted Waters, a little-known game scored by our favorite anime composer, Yoko Kanno.
#15 - Castlevania series, in which we chronicle the history of Gothicism, which evidently recurs every 200 years or so.
#17 - Street Fighter II and ethnomusicology.
And I'm just starting on episode 19, on Final Fantasy VI, which is incredibly long and promises not surprisingly to explore leitmotifs. Good stuff.