ReMix: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 'Epona's Pastorale'

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Before I begin, two unrelated cool things: Video Game Cakes and a cool OCR music video that syncs up Star's Robot mix with in-game footage quite well. Abadoss returns with his second mix, sticking with his orchestral approach but switching from CT over to Zelda 64. He writes:

"I came across the idea of arranging Epona's Song at work, actually. I was pretty bored one day and started fiddling with the melody a little (with improvised lyrics, of course) and came up with the nuances for it that are currently in the piece. Before starting, I had thought about actually using the lyrics I had come up with for it, but I liked it better without. The name, "Epona's Pastorale", is somewhat of a play on words (pasture/pastorale)."

This is a relatively tricky piece to mix; for some reason it always sounded like a pleasant theme from a Western, like Ma and Pa sitting on the porch at the ranch, while little Jimmy tends the horses. Or something. Whatever it is that goes on in the Midwest... with animals, and work, and stuff. Mr. Keyn's done a sweet job turning it into a lullabying orchestral composition, with strings, flute, bells, piano, and yes... bassoon. The children cry out for bassoon, and Kenneth Edward Keyn is there to sate their palates. So to speak. Ojisez:

"The samples were a bit exposed and rigidly sequenced with the piano from :22-:39 but that was a minor snag. Even until :59, the samples were a bit too exposed, a bigger than usual drawback when going for such an intimate, purposefully sparse soundscape. Otherwise though, the arrangement was nothing short of excellent IMO, and the production was solid enough despite the samples sounding weak in spots. I loved the several emotive variations on the source tune. The changeup at 1:55 with the strings moving toward the close was beautiful stuff and a strong resolution. A brief mix but with excellent dynamics, it says a lot in a little time. Nice work, Kenneth."

With zyko lowercasedly chiming in:

"on one hand, i'm a sucker for zelda music and especially epona's theme. this is very cinematic in that early 20th century sort of way. i feel as though i'm watching a cecil b. demille film... epic and deeply moving. the arrangement is killer - it is intelligently interpreted and skillfully altered. very easy to run out of ideas with a short source material - not the case here."

Tricky source material and satisfying arrangement. Production isn't squeaky clean; there's still room for improvement on both samples and sample usage, and I think tempo variation could be utilized for more ebb and flow, but even if it weren't difficult source material, this would still be a very compelling arrangement, and its challenge only adds to the appeal.

― djpretzel