MIDI Week Singles: "Overworld Adventure" - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (NDS)

 

"Overworld Adventure" from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the Nintendo DS (2009)

Composer(s)*: Koji Kondo, Tōru Minegishi, Asuka Ōta, & Manaka Tominaga

Album: No Album Release

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

I have been playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks a lot over the last week, and while it is not shaping up to be one of my favorite Legend of Zelda experiences, I am enjoying some of the music, which does fit in with the Legend of Zelda worlds/timelines/games.  

Because apparently everything in Spirit Tracks has to be based around trains or some aspect of trains, "Overworld Adventure" does fit the bill quite nicely.  The strumming/picking (I don't play guitar) is in a style that is very much "Hey, I'm a train!" which is perfect for when you are on the train traveling from one location to another trying to avoid the enemy-shadow-possessed trains that hunt you along the tracks.  The melody is played on a panflute-type instrument that comes across as more obvious in this recording than it does over the DS/3DS speakers.  Here you can very clearly hear the puff of air being blown into the flute before each note, which does not sound as clear in-game.

On a side note, I would love to hear this melody actually be played on a set of panpipes, but all I could find on the Tubes was it being played on an ocarina, which makes me wonder if it is even possible.  But I am sure it is because people who are wonderfully proficient with an instrument have amazing skill.  So I will keep looking for that performance, but in the meantime, the in-game version of "Overworld Adventure" it will be for me while I head into the northern snow-filled lands.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
The Ruins Are About To Crumble Down

*P.S.  I am not 100% certain who composed this track as there are four composers credited for the music in the game, but since there appears to not be an official soundtrack (outside of compilation albums) and none of those albums I could find specifically had any one composer credited with this particular song.