Musical Musings: The Eerie Ambiance of Breath of the Wild’s Temple of Time

Music is a defining feature of The Legend of Zelda series, so much so that it becomes its own character. The soundscape molds Hyrule around Link and his friends, giving character to those he interacts with and helps the player connect with them on an emotional level. The awe-striking music from The Legend of Zelda played a significant role in why I chose to pursue Bachelor’s Degree in music, and it is why I have decided to take an in-depth look at different tracks throughout the scores that inspire me as a musician. I thought a good starting point would be Breath of the Wild, one of the soundtracks that I am least familiar with. Now, seeing as Breath of the Wild has a little over 4 hours worth of music (that’s 211 tracks, wow!), I figured I would start with working my way through the Sound Selection CD included in all limited editions of Breath of the Wild’s original release.

Breath of the Wild sets itself apart from the newer releases in the series by being full of empty space. But every now and then, the player will come across an enemy encampment, or set of ancient ruins. Many of the latter are familiar locations to seasoned Zelda players, and it was the job of Yasuaki Iwata, one of the associate composers for Breath of the Wild, to fill them with a soundscape fit for the location.

Introducing the Piece

The 8th track, ‘The Temple of Time’ is one of the first location specific themes that most fresh players will experience, as it is directly linked with the first quest the player is naturally given. Iwata creates an atmosphere for the ruins that gives the player a strange sense of familiarity, while still showing the antiquity of the environment.

General Analysis

This theme combines many nuances of the previous tracks we have already covered. It is composed for solo piano, which we have established as the voice of exploration in Breath of the Wild. It is also quite sparse in its composition, leaving lots of space, allowing the player to really drink in the world around them. The gentle right hand gives some semblance of a melody that interests your ear. Its something that gets your head into understanding there is something new. The melody itself is broken up into what seems like separate chunks, just like the once proud Temple of Time is now broken. Only a memory of what it once was.

And just look and listen how disjointed the first bars are. It is difficult for even trained ears to get around what is going on. The sparsity spreads out the theme, straining the listeners ears, something that is not helped by the many distracting notes. Many of the notes have several unfriendly notes that don’t quite clash with the main sound, but certainly make it even more difficult on the ears. It really gives this era’s Temple of Time an eerie, uncomfortable feeling, like something bad has certainly happened, but may happen again any time soon.

Theoretical Analysis

This piece is incredibly short (running only about one minute before looping), and incredibly simple at first glance. It is written in C-Major, a grounding key signature, and in 4/4 time, a similarly grounding time signature. Iwata has done his absolute best to not draw focus immediately. Instead, this piece is littered with nuggets of pure musical gold that, just like the shiny metal, attract our senses in a very subtle way. Nugget number one is the impressive use of those annoying cluster of chords, known properly as “bichords,” I alluded to earlier:

Bichords are when two different chords are played on top of each other

These bichords are what give the piece such a “dissonant” (tense and inharmonious) feel, mainly because they are mostly all just a half-step (one sharp or flat away) from being harmonious. These bichords are what contribute to building that tension, thus the feeling of alerting the player that something different is about to happen. The second nugget is in line with the recently occurring theme of augmentation/diminution (lengthening/shortening) of a familiar motif, or in this case leitmotif. Take a look at the right hand’s tune after being diminuted:

A leitmotif is a motif, or recurring theme, throughout a larger work that is representative of a person, place, or thing.

Still don’t recognize it? Perhaps if I showcased it in a slightly more familiar notation:

That’s right, if you accelerate the pace of the entire track, you will begin to hear the ever familiar Song of Time, which debuted in Ocarina of Time, and has since become a staple of The Legend of Zelda series as a whole. This really helps to drive in that this is indeed the once proud Temple of Time we remember from previous games, but it is now old and decrepit, only a shadow of its former self.

Matt’s Musings

This track intrigued me a lot the first time I heard it. It was this kind of strange, ethereal sounding piece, and I knew there was something familiar about it that I just couldn’t place. I spent some time with it, running around the ruins of the Temple of Time, climbing everything (and falling off a couple times), just to drink in the hollow sound. I even found my first Korok there (which also left me very confused). It wasn’t until much much later that I was watching a speedrun, and had the video at double speed (because it wasn’t fast enough, apparently!) that I first realized what was so familiar about the track. Noticing the Temple of Time theme gave me a whole new appreciation for the track, and really for the game’s soundtrack as a whole, as there are so many things like that hidden all over Hyrule!

What was your first reaction to this piece? Did you notice the Temple of Time theme right away? Or did you just fly through so quickly you didn’t even notice? Give me a shout in the comments to let me know!

Matt Pederberg is part of the Writing Team at Zelda Dungeon, holds a Bachelor of Music, and has used that knowledge to develop his love of excellent music in excellent video games!