Music in the Role-Playing Game
Heroes & Harmonies
Routledge Music and Screen Media Series

Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies offers the first scholarly approach focusing on music in the broad class of video games known as role-playing games, or RPGs. Known for their narrative sophistication and long playtimes, RPGs have long been celebrated by players for the quality of their cinematic musical scores, which have taken on a life of their own, drawing large audiences to live orchestral performances.

The chapters in this volume address the role of music in popular RPGs such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, delving into how music interacts with the gaming environment to shape players? perceptions and engagement. The contributors apply a range of methodologies to the study of music in this genre, exploring topics such as genre conventions around music, differences between music in Japanese and Western role-playing games, cultural representation, nostalgia, and how music can shape deeply personal game experiences.

Music in the Role-Playing Game expands the growing field of studies of music in video games, detailing the considerable role that music plays in this modern storytelling medium, and breaking new ground in considering the role of genre. Combining deep analysis with accessible personal accounts of authors? experiences as players, it will be of interest to students and scholars of music, gaming, and media studies.

List of Figures, Tables, and Musical Examples. Series Foreword.
Prologue: The Journey Begins.
Part I: Magical Melodies 1. Song and the Transition to “Part-Talkie” Japanese Role-Playing Games. 2. “The Things I Do for Lust …”: Humor and Subversion in The Bard’s Tale. 3.Mother/EarthBound Zero and the Power of the Naïve Aesthetic: No Crying Until the Ending.

Part II: Mystical Metaphors 4. Alien Waves: Sonic Reverberations of the RPG Interface in Lagrange Point. 5. The Penultimate Fantasy: Nobuo Uematsu’s Score for Cleopatra no Ma Takara. 6. Music in the Time of Video Games: Spelunking Final Fantasy IV. 7. Operatic Conventions and Expectations in Final Fantasy VI.

Part III: Meaningful Memories 8. Ludomusical Dissonance in Diablo III. 9. A Hidden Harmony: Music Theory Pedagogy and Role-Playing Games. 10. Soundwalking and the Aurality of Stardew Valley: An Ethnography of Listening to and Interacting with Environmental Game Audio. 11. Musical Landscapes in Skyrim. 12. Barriers to Listening in World of Warcraft.Notes on Contributors. Index of Video Games. General Index.

William Gibbons is Associate Professor of Musicology and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Texas Christian University.

Steven Reale is Associate Professor of Music Theory at Youngstown State University.