![]() True, Medal of Honor derives a lot of its reputation as an orchestral powerhouse from adrenaline-charged pieces like “The Radar Train” and “Rjuken Sabotage”. However, there are two more factors that help Medal of Honor to play just like a first-rate film score.įirstly, there’s Giacchino’s clever use of dynamics. The smart use of various themes is obviously key to this achievement. The score creates gripping narrative arcs both within each composition and throughout the album as a whole. What’s so pivotal to the success of Medal of Honor is how successfully it realises its storytelling ambitions. ![]() That applies both to the music’s intelligent thematic constructs and sheer aural pleasure derived from it. Giacchino manages to write orchestral action music of the same quality as the maestro himself. But in this case, that comparison is actually an enormous compliment. Of course, it’s hard to ignore just how much the Medal of Honor soundtrack sounds like John Williams’ action scoring from the late 1980s and early 1990s. On top of this, Giacchino introduces a new secondary motif on almost every track, builds the respective composition around this motif, and then masterfully weaves in the three major themes. He always uses these melodies judiciously and to further the music’s storytelling capabilities. Giacchino writes no less than three main themes that run through the entire score. What’s more, the score’s thematic sophistication set a new benchmark for live orchestral game music. However, the Medal of Honor soundtrack surpasses them all in terms of both breadth and consistent quality (early Japanese orchestral game scores by the likes of Yoko Kanno, Jun Nagao and Takayuki Hattori are a different story). Its strongest predecessors in the genre of Western live orchestral game music – Heart of Darkness, Total Annihilation, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – had already delivered some outstanding music. But there were a number of powerful factors that turned Medal of Honor into a force that changed the course of game music history – and it wasn’t just the fact that Giacchino’s work was married to an immensely successful game.įirst and foremost, there is the soundtrack’s sheer artistic quality. Sure, the Medal of Honor soundtrack wasn’t the first orchestral game score to convincingly emulate movie scoring conventions. It’s hard to find a historically more significant, more influential Western game score than Michael Giacchino‘s Medal of Honor. ![]() Medal of Honor Soundtrack, Michael Giacchino, 1999 ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |