Author: Mark Sweeney

Thank you for a wonderful #ludo2016!

Another year is over, and it has gone by very quickly! We are so grateful to be part of this (still-growing) community; 55 individuals attended the conference – a record number, and we also had a record number of submissions. The quality and diversity of the papers has been staggering, from the first session on Japan, two sessions on chips & chiptunes, a session on representation, ethnicity & national identity, and music ‘beyond games’. There will be a fuller (less biased!) review published in due course, but my personal highlights included ,  (I wonder how many of us have been frequenting eBay looking to replicate his gear…),  which was immediately followed by , ), and . And who will ever forget Tim’s efforts to demonstrate the death music in … We cannot thank the speakers and delegates enough for their amazing presentations and contributions.

Special thanks must also go to our keynote speakers, Neil Lerner and Andrew Barnabas. Neil’s keynote address was entitled ‘Hearing Death in VGM’s Silent Era: PacMan’s Failure Sound’ and reminded us of the importance of understanding the technical (software & hardware) aspects of VGM/S production. The audio code is a form of music notation and we would all do well to improve our literacy! Barn gave us unique insights into the industry, covering topics from composition and technology to business and client management. Barn also participated in a fascinating roundtable with Stephen Baysted.

Our sincerest thanks go to Kevin Donnelly for inviting us to Southampton and being such a welcoming and accommodating host. We’re fortunate to say that everywhere we’ve held the conference has been a great venue and location, but this year the atmosphere was really special. Of course, that is in no small part thanks to our wonderful local team who did so much of the behind-the-scenes work – thank you Alex Glyde-Bates, Geena Brown, Joe Manghan & Beth Carroll for your invaluable help in planning and running Ludo2016.

Finally, thank you also to Music & Letters and ThinkSpace Education for their sponsorship, without which Ludo2016 would not have been possible. We’d also like to thank the ThinkSpace Education team for attending, filming and participating – you were at once delegates, media & education professionals, and speakers; your knowledge and involvement throughout the conference was an important part of making Ludo2016 the success it was and we look forward to collaborating on future events and projects together!

We hope everybody who attended were suitably intellectually stimulated and that you all had as wonderful a time as we did. We forward to seeing you again in the near future.

Mark, Tim & Michiel

Steven B. Reale wins Inaugural Prize for Excellence in Game Audio Research

We are delighted to announce that Steven B. Reale (Associate Professor of Music at Youngstown State University) has been awarded the inaugural Prize for Excellence in Game Audio Research for his recent paper ‘A Musical Atlas of Hyrule: Video Games and Spatial Listening’, delivered at the 2015 conference of the Society for Music Theory.

Steven’s paper was judged by the panel to be outstanding in three areas – the significance and future implications of the findings, the quality of communication, and the quality of methodological practice. The full abstract from the conference is below.

A Musical Atlas of Hyrule: Video Games and Spatial Listening

Steven Beverburg Reale (Youngstown State University)

Abstract

Lewin’s “transformational attitude” posits a first-person agent moving through a musical composition with an analytical network serving as a map. In this view, transformational listening relies on a metaphor conceptualizing in spatial and often achronological terms the temporal, linear logic under which music is commonly understood to unfold. But in video games, interactivity creates possibilities for indeterminate storytelling; as a result, nonlinear musical experiences are common. Moreover, many video games establish virtual worlds with internally-consistent geographies that promote highly spatial gameplay experiences; by associating specific musical cues with specific game-world locations, composers can promote a spatial listening experience for the player.

The music from Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise has received considerable attention from game sound scholars. The Ocarina of Time (1998) introduced to the franchise the now-standard conceit of an in-game instrument on which the player “performs” melodies that influence the game world, Hyrule. The game’s titular ocarina provides a limited set of pitches from which many of the game’s principle melodies are derived, creating both a kind of “tonic sonority” as well as a “pivot set” for much of the game’s score. Since specific regions have specific musical accompaniments, a transformational network exists that is isographic to the geography of Hyrule. The score thus articulates a musical geography through which players traverse while directing Link through the game world, collapsing the metaphorical space between the music and the analytical network describing it.

Full Presentation

With kind permission from the Society for Music Theory, you can view a recording of Steven’s presentation below.

Full citation:

Reale, Steven B. ‘A Musical Atlas of Hyrule: Video Games and Spatial Listening,’ paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, St. Louis, MO, October 29-November 1, 2015.

Ludo2016 Registration Open!

southampton-aerial-pic.0.1711.3508.1885.633.341.cWe’re excited to announce that registration for Ludo2016 is now open! Please find event details and the registration form here. Do email us (ludomusicology@gmail.org) if you have any questions or problems registering.

Registration will close on Monday 4th April.

 

Further programme details will follow in due course. Please also continue to send in your Ludo Prize nominations – the deadline for these is 31st March 2016.