Ganon's Tower & Castle Organ - Zelda: Ocarina Soundtrack 🎶

Music: Ganon's Tower / Ganon's Castle Organ
Composers: Koji Kondo
Platform: Nintendo 64 / Nintendo 3DS

Music theory analysis and piano cover visualization project made with the actual samples intended for the original Nintendo 64 game. We can now dig inside the score for the first time; offering us a glimpse for how each instrument contributes to the whole.

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Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2 / Section 3 / Section 4 / Section 5 / Section 6 / Section 7 / Section 8
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 120 (accelerando on sections 2,4,6 and 8 to 135)
Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: Bb Diminished; Db Diminished; Bb Chromatic

This is what occurs when the cinematic sensibilities, use of diegetic music, and use of dynamic music; motifs that have been present all over Ocarina of Time since its very first frame, come together in one of the most stunning uses of audio from the game; gameplay, story and sound dancing in perfect sync. The buildup to the grand finale finds the development team firing on all cylinders, curving the exponential curve of tension to its absolute limit, and the audio carries most of the weight.

Link ascends the staircase, battling his way to the top of the castle while the music grows in volume and complexity alongside the enemies; by itself, it would still be a very effective use of the audio to enhance the sense of tension and anxiety, the game even prolonging the last segment of the staircase just for the sake of dramatic effect. But this music also packs one last surprise.

Turns out It was there not only hyping the player but also Link himself; there is in fact a real pipe organ at the very last floor and it’s played by none other than Ganondorf, the antagonist of the game and possessor of the triforce of power; completing also the triangle of instrumentalists on this game of operatic proportions; all of its three protagonists are musicians. It is a track that synthesizes all of the musical motifs from the game.

The ominous pipe organ has been consolidated as a staple of drama. Organ music, grandeur, sophistication and villainy go hand in hand due to its powerful sound, usually heard amplified and magnified through reverberant cathedrals—some organs are as big as a church, symbiotically attached to all of the church walls in a series of interconnected tunnels—. Its engulfing, complex sound, which can even be felt on the body, lends itself to end of the world settings and sinister settings alike, one last resort to give weight and gravitas to any situation or character; It's the power of a full orchestra built into the architecture of a building.

Even in its conventionality and at the expense of risking caricatured portrayals of the instrument as evil in a similar fashion to the harpsichord, Kondo simply could not pass the opportunity to employ its sonority and connotations, there is no other instrument that could symbolize power that compares to the pipe organ, it simply works on many different levels. Playing his own theme, it is essentially a musical statement of how Ganondorf sees himself as a god. From the Phantom of the Opera to count Dracula, the figure of the solitary, desperate man playing the organ on the depths of his lair has enthralled audiences and become a trope in horror and gothic stories.

Unlike the standard Ganondorf’s Theme, this reprisal includes an intro; three seventh sus4 chords in parallel motion played with commanding authority to indicate that the escalation, both literally and metaphorically has begun.

C7sus4 - B7sus4 - C7sus4 - B7sus4 - C7sus4 - B7sus4 - Bb7sus4

After this, the Ganondorf Theme begins with its slowly ascending chromaticism. The cue has four variations that are activated depending on how far ahead Link is on the staircase; each with progressively more intricate rhythms, like this lurking beast is getting bigger and bigger, hungrily craving the triforce. The bass first alternates between the pitches C and G. Then, this sequence is repeated transposed a minor third; this adds an even more menacing quality to the original composition; Ganondorf is not as calm and composed anymore.

As always, the ending of each sequence is created from sustained, progressively accelerating minor chords that convey the hopelessness of even trying to match this powerful being. The horn is retained with an exaggerated vibrato effect that gives it an other worldly sound.

The organ playing villain may have lost some of it power due to overuse and parody. Nevertheless, the employment of dynamic music tied to the musical motif present throughout Ocarina of Time, makes this segment a well earned moment where the team was not afraid of going over the top in order to thrill and surprise players.

#ZeldaMusic #GanonCastle #OcarinaofTime