MIDI Week Singles: "Ending" - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

 

"Ending" from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1992)
Composer: Koji Kondo
Album: The Legend of Zelda SOUND & DRAMA
Label: Sony Records
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD

Closing out this month-long thing of using ending songs during December, I wanted to use one of my favorite tracks (that was not the 21m30s epic piece from Final Fantasy VI that I already used to close out the MIDI Week Singles on December 31, 2015), and last week I knew that I wanted to use this song as the finale for 2020.

For reference, there are a number of ending themes in A Link to the Past, from when Link recovers the Triforce and saves Zelda, to when the game pans across Hyrule showing the player scenes from after Ganon's defeat, the actual staff roll.  The "Ending" track from the soundtracks includes the fanfaric music as you are flown over Hyrule and the staff credits music being a slowed variation on the original title theme from The Legend of Zelda, which really became a theme for the series with this game; although there were elements used in The Adventure of Link.  From the very first moment I heard the ending music to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, it immediately became one of my favorite tracks in the game.

For me, part of what makes this song so amazing is the context that it is used in-game.  Out of game, the theme repeats five times over the first 03:50 of the song, although there are stretches where the fanfare does not play and gives way to the B melody.  But, while the song is playing, it shows you people going about their lives in locations familiar to the player.  We are shown vultures returning to the desert, a bully finally finding a friend, the King returning to the castle, and your Uncle recovering, along with some others as well.

But my love for this song is not limited to the new theme you hear in the fanfare, but then during the staff roll, a variation of the original The Legend of Zelda theme is played, but it takes a minute to get there.  This part of the song starts out somewhat melancholy but still reminiscent of the original theme.  Like you can feel the song getting there, but the melody being played is beautiful enough that you are not upset that you are not hearing the main theme.  Then at 5:44 the main theme does kick in at the same tempo as the song that was already playing, blending seamlessly.  Flawless.

Goodbye, 2020.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

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