Into the Score - February 3, 2009
Episode 25 - God of War

INTRO

(??)

I'm Kenley Kristofferson... (and I'm Gerard Marino) and this is Into the Score.

Good evening everybody! After a three-month hiatus, it sure is good to be back! As always, I'm Kenley Kristofferson and you are listening to Into the Score, the only podcast solely devoted to the academic study of video game music! For tonight's episode, we study the soundteam of Sony's 2002? work, God of War, with its score by Gerard Marino, Mike Reagan, Ron Fish, Winifred Phillips and Cris Velasco.  In this episode, we'll learn all about the origin of Western Music and how a civilization almost 2000 years ago has shaped our music today via theory, musical practice and instruments... oh yeah, and God of War as well.  

(CONTACT INFO)

CONTACT INFO

Sounds like a good show - maybe you want to let me know what you think? To do so, check out the website at www.intothescore.com.  If ever you want to reach me, send an electronic carrier pigeon to Kenley@intothescore.com, so k-e-n-l-e-y@intothescore.com.

Wow, so three months, eh? Life has been too crazy with teaching, the holidays and scoring two video games right now - really heavy stuff.  But now, it's on and to have us catapult into the intensity, this is "The Vengeful Spartan" and this one is by Gerard Marino.  It has a prominent melody that is split up into two sections and we hear both of these sections a lot.  The first one is more melodic and soars above the percussive ostinato, while the second section feels more like a tag to the ending -  in other words, like an ending that feels like it's going to end, but doesn't quite end, it loops a couple of times.

(THE VENGEFUL SPARTAN)

STORY

On the advice of Bob Mackey, a columnist for the gaming blog,  61 Frames per Second, I'm actually going to jump into the meat of God of War.  I respect his readership and his contribution to gaming, so we'll see how this goes!

God of War was released on March 22, 2005 in North America and on June 21st of the same year in Europe.  It was released on the PlayStation 2 console and was developed and published by Sony.  According to the "Making of" video at the end of the game, it took about three years to develop and as stated by producer Shannon Studstill, "it came from David Jaffe's head".  David Jaffe was the lead designer and director for the game and was really the driving force behind the its development.  

(http://www.mobygames.com/game/ps2/god-of-war/credits)

In the "Making of" video, he talks about the intrinsic gameplay mechanics in the literature of Greek mythology, specifically citing "Medusa's heads, Zeus's thunderbolts and battling Cyclops."  The game itself includes many different kinds of gameplay elements, from hack-and-slash to puzzle-solving to adventure to navigation...it's all there.  The game itself is incredibly dark, focusing on the story of a mortal trying to kill the God of War, while to the player, revealing his deep and troubled past.  There were two points there, let's start with the first: A mortal trying to kill the God of War.

This is really the core of the game's plot.  The game takes place in Ancient Greece, which is deeply entrenched in a pantheistic belief system - we often call this "mythology", but to the Ancient Greeks, this was their religion.  To stay consistent with social knowledge of this era, I will refer to it as "mythology," though I don't believe that the term is appropriate for what we're discussing.  Anyways, moving on...

In Greek Mythology, the god of war is Ares, one of the sons of Zeus, who is the king of the gods.  Ares is in the process of destroying Athens, whose patron saint is his sister, Athena.  Athena commands our protagonist to kill the Ares and save Athens - she would do it herself, but Zeus forbids the gods to wage war on one another.  Kratos travels through Athens, destroying the minions of Ares when he sees the oracle, a wise woman who can see into the future.  She tells him that the only way to destroy Ares is to travel to the temple of Pandora and obtain the mythical "Pandora's Box," which is the only way to kill a god.  

Now, this could be a generic adventure game, except that our hero isn't exactly our normal hero - this leads to our second point from before.  When conceiving Kratos, Jaffe told his artists to come into work and get mad, describing Kratos as "brutal, nasty, violent, anti-social, pissed off, angry" and the rest I can't say because I want to keep this a clean podcast.  He started off as this armoured machine, but as the artist stripped off each piece of armour, shield or helmet, they started to see (as David Jaffe puts it) "a more animalistic side to him," and then what you get is a bald, ivory-skinned, ripped out man in a loin cloth with chains and paint all over him - now we have Kratos.  

Without giving too much away, before the game's opening, Kratos was a general in the Spartan army who commanded a small group of soldiers.  As his hunger for power grew, so did his army, numbering in the several thousands.  During one battle with a barbarian tribe, he was seeing certain defeat and begged for Ares, the God of War, to come to his aid.  When he did, he commanded that Kratos be his servant on Earth, and so it was.  He is sadly described by the game's narrator, Gaia, perfectly: "His desire for conquest knew no bounds, but that which he desired would ultimately consume him."

(http://godofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Kratos)

If he were a song, he might sound something like this.  This is "Athens Rooftop Fighting" and it's by Gerard Marino.  We hear both sections of the theme here - the smooth and linear melody and then the rhythmic tags - we'll be discussing those later on in the episode.  "Athens Rooftop Fighting."

(ATHENS ROOFTOP FIGHTING)

GREEK

As you may already noticed, this episode is a bit out of sync from the other ones, most particularly because it's not in the usual order, it doesn't follow the same formula as other episodes - this next section follows suit.  There are so many musical elements and nuance that reside in this score, but in order to notice AND understand them, we have to understand where Greece was coming from at the point in history when the game takes place (which I will approximate at the ballpark of 800-500 BCE)... this will take us to this show's big idea:

(MARIO CLIP)

Ancient Greece's Contribution to Western Music.

ANCIENT GREECE

The Ancient Greeks are considered the beginning of what we call "Western Civilization," at least, according to most university history courses, textbooks and college standards websites like, say, collegeboards.com.  (http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/ex_wc1.html)

This isn't to say that earlier societies like Mesopotamia and the Eqyptian Empire weren't crucially important to the evolution our societies, but that's really not where the definitive turning point is.  If we look at the contributions that Greece has made to the Western way of thinking about the world, the influence of this one culture is absolutely astonishing.  Contributions like having a Pericles, who lived from 493BCE to 429 BCE, gave power to the people and led with an honesty unparalleled by today's standards... a practice called "democracy." (http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/htmlver/characters/f_pericles.html)
  
Some of the other incredible contributions of Greek society include the Hippocratic Oath, coined by Hippocrates maintain responsibility for patients in the care of doctors, the Olympics, pillars in buildings, an incredible value of the arts, including a myriad of plays and dramas, mathematics, science, geometry, physics, astronomy as well as many other things - including our next segueway.  

Many of these contributions above can be found somewhere in another contribution of Ancient Greece and, in my eyes, one of the most important contributions: Philosophy.  The first philosophers that we credit with Western Civilization go back to Ancient Greece, including Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Democritus and Pythagoras, many of which writing some of the most famous and revolutionary works in the history of philosophy, including Plato's Symposium and Republic for example, or Aristotle's Metaphysics or Politics... there are too many to name.  However, there is one philosopher that is the most important to what we talk about in this podcast and his works are little known because of the absolute secrecy in which he and his followers worked... Pythagoras.

Now, I know what you're thinking - Kenley, this is not a podcast about triangles, why are you talking about the triangle guy? No, I congratulate you on your astute observation, this is not Episode 25 of a podcast about triangles, it is about music and without Pythagoras, our music would sound a lot different than it does now.

See, Pythagoras believed that the whole world revolved around numbers, put very eloquently in "Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers" by Philip Stokes as "The ultimate nature of reality is number" (Stokes 11), which would explain his love of triangles and figuring them out.  According to the very same document, music was the catalyst for this way of thinking, and I will tell you how.

The legend goes that Pythagoras was walking through town when he passed by a blacksmith who was hammering swords.  As he each blade was being shaped by successive hammer blows, Pythagoras realized that each blow produced a different pitch.  So, he studied the hammers and saw that the weight of each of the five hammers was a different weight - one hammer that sounded with one twice its weight, produced a sort of consonance, as though the two pitches sounded good together, one that was one and a half times the weight produced yet a different consonance... there was something going on here.

(Grout 7)

Pythagoras needed to study this further, he was on to something, but he needed something so basic, but so precise so that his findings would not be contaminated with any of other stimulus.  What he eventually came up with was one string, secured at both ends over a box (with the box amplifying the sound of the string, the same principle as a modern acoustic guitar).  Underneath the string was a piece of wood called a "bridge" and if you move this bridge, it would change the length of the string, thus changing the pitch - this entire instrument is called a monochord, "mono" meaning "one" and "chord" meaning "string"... so "one string"... yep, that's pretty much what it is.

I will demonstrate the same experiment on a guitar.

When you play the string, it has this sound.  Then, when you start cutting it up with the bridge, it makes higher pitched sounds.  When you cut the string in half, you get this sound...we call this, an octave, Pythagoras called this ratio "2:1" because you have one length of string and cut it in two.  When you cut the string in thirds and play the pitch, you get what modern musicians call a perfect fifth, or what Pythagoras called "3:2" or a diapente.  When you cut it into four, you get a perfect fourth or "4:3", or a diatessaron if you really want to impress somebody.  

This went on for a while now, but what we're starting to get is the beginning of Western musical tuning, in other words, concrete notes.  These notes can become organized in a pattern - almost like a scale, but not quite... almost like a mode, but not quite... this is where it gets confusing (what, you mean it wasn't confusing already? No, not even close).

Ancient Greek musical theory makes music theory seem like quantum theory - it is VERY different from the system that we have now... however, there were a few things that bled over into our current system.

The first thing that bled over was notes - the concept of single pitches organized to a particular frequency is something that has stayed with us.  The next thing is the concept of diatonality, or that these notes can be organized in a pattern of close-moving notes, so A-B-C-D-E-F-G - it's like a pattern.  The next thing that can be taken from this is that we can call that pattern something - we would call it a scale, they may call it a mode (again, not exactly, but for the purposes of our learning, let's take it with a grain of salt).  

Why is a mode different than a scale? Well, that's tricky for us because we know what happened after 300 BCE, whereas these musical theorists at the time didn't.  The catch with modes is that when our Western theorists rediscovered the work of Pythagoras, Aristoxenus and Ptolemy in the 5th-century CE, they kind of screwed it up.  We have the church modes which have no flats or sharps, but that's not what the Greeks had - in fact, their musical theory system was WAY more complicated than that.  In the church modes, we have the Ionian mode, which C to C, using the C major scale - same thing, really.  The Dorian mode goes from D to D, but using the same notes as a C major scale - that's where things get a bit different.  It's not D major, that's a totally different thing, it sounds like this:

(D MAJOR)

and now Dorian...

(D DORIAN)

Yeah, different stuff.  In fact, one of the oldest transcriptions of Greek melodies comes a tombstone and it has a melody in the Dorian mode.  It's called the "Epitaph of Seikilos," and it sounds like this.

(EPITAPH OF SEIKILOS)

However, because most people don't know that the Greek system was different, a lot of church modes get thrown into any music to make it sound ancient - "God of War"  is sort of an example, sometimes yes, sometimes no, and before we explore why, some music.  This plays as we saunter into Athens from the sea, it's called "The Splendor of Athens" and this one is done by Mike Reagan.  

(THE SPLENDOR OF ATHENS)

MUSIC

There are two aspects that really bring our ears into the environment of the game, at least in my own judgment, with those two things being thematic material and orchestration.  Let's start with thematic material.  

There is one theme that unquestionably functions as the "God of War" theme and we hear it time and time again - many times, note for note verbatim.  The first time that we hear is when we get to the opening menu, as though it sets the stage for the rest of the game's music.  The score, like Kratos, is heavy, brutal and intense - so this piece sets it up perfectly.  Listen in particular to the melody, because that's our first unit of discussion, the piece is called "The Vengeful Spartan," it's by Gerard Marino and it plays during the opening menu.

(VENGEFUL SPARTAN)

The melody itself has two parts, one very conjunct and linear, not quite smooth, the melody itself is connected.  The second part is much shorter and feels more abrupt, as though it's compressed.  The first part sounds like this:

(VENGEFUL SPARTAN - 0:11 - 0:31)

There are longer notes, the intervals between each note aren't terribly big - there are some jumps, it seems more like a line.  The second section of the melody does not feel that way, it sounds like this:

(VENGEFUL SPARTAN - 0:31 - 0:36)

Not very long, it almost doesn't qualify as a section, it's almost more of a tag or a turnaround - in other words, a melodic device to bring us back to the main tune itself.  The reason that I call it a section is that it comes up on its own several times in the game, like the opening of "Kratos and the Sea," when we're going to take on the Hydra.

(KRATOS AND THE SEA)

It's such a small bit, but it really guides our ear into the "God of War" universe.  From a personnel standpoint, the person behind the thematic material is Gerard Marino, who wrote 13 of the 31 pieces for the game.  For the record, Mike Reagan wrote six, Ron Fish wrote five, Winifred Phillips wrote four, and Cris Velasco wrote three.  In which case, the tunes of the other "God of War" musical staff have no thematic material in them at all - sometimes it's quoted, but never explicitly played, only in Marino's pieces.  However, Marino's pieces are clearly constructed on this thematic material - that's one way to know that he wrote them.  While fighting on the rooftops in Athens, we hear another one of his pieces, called "Athens Rooftops Fighting," which we've heard before, but let's specifically listen for the thematic content in the melody.

(ATHENS ROOFTOPS FIGHTING)

In this case, the sections are split up: We first hear the more conjunct or linear melody at bar 5 and goes on for four bars.  After that section of the melody is completed, we get an instrumental break for four more bars until we finally get the B section at measure 13.  So we have four bars of opening, four bars of the A Section, four bars of instrumental break and then the B section, so the melody is getting split up.  Here it is one more time and the next part, "Athens Rooftops Fighting"

(ATHENS ROOFTOPS FIGHTING)

So after we hear the B section, what happens next? He actually gives us the whole melody, both sections together.  Let's listen to just that part:

(ATHENS ROOFTOPS FIGHTING - 0:50 - 1:20)

So that's just one example, let's find another.  This is "Kratos  Evil Past"

(KRATOS EVIL PAST - 0:45 - 1:25)

Most excellent, I love that one.  That's a chunk from the middle - we get a low register flute, which I imagine is trying to remind us of a syrinx, which is an ancient Greek woodwind and we'll talk about later, and that's starting the A section.  Then, superimposed overtop of that, we have the drums and brass pounding in the B section, so it's like worlds colliding.  Oh, and wicked scary string glissandos and screaming, because Kratos' past isn't a happy one... I'm trying not to give anything away.  Here we go, listen one more time.  

(KRATOS' EVIL PAST - 0:45 - 1:25)

You get the idea - I don't want to delve TOO deeply into this because there may be a good chance that Mr. Marino and I will talk about it in the interview segment of the show.  Did I mention that he's on the show? Boo-yes.  So with that said, let's pull this into our next section of the Music segment - orchestration.

ORCHESTRATION

The game is mostly for symphony orchestra, but some prevalent traditional instruments find their way into the score.  The instruments have some especially ethnic colours, reminding us of the Middle East, Persia and the Mediterranean.  For example, in "Kratos and the Sea," we hear some tremolo stringed instrument, which I can guess is a Persian Santoor, maybe/maybe not, but that's what it sounds like to my ear.  A santoor is an instrument similar to a dulcimar - tuned strings that are a fixed to a soundboard at either end and hit with small finger-sized hammers called "mezrab."  The lower register flute could be mimicking an ancient Greek instrument called a "syrinx," which is one of the descendents of the modern pan flute.  I'm not sure what the range of the syrinx is, but that's just one guess that I have.  Let's have a listen for those two instruments - the Persian Santoor and the Ancient Greek Syrinx.  This is "Kratos and the Sea."

(KRATOS AND THE SEA)

If we listen to "The Splendor of Athens" (which is either an oxymoron or incredibly ironic, as Athens is in the process of getting destroyed when we hear this), the majority of the piece has Eastern sound to it, not just in instrumentation, but also in performance practice.  Here is "The Splendor of Athens" and it's written by Mike Reagan.

(SPLENDOR OF ATHENS)

Setting the groove, we have a set of East Indian tabla, which are a type of hand drum...their sound is like a bongo, while not sounding at all like a bongo.  It's played in a similar way, has similar construction, but they are really two different beasts.  In the percussion, we also have triangles and finger cymbals, which further that Eastern sound in this tune.  

There is also a lower reed instrument, to be honest, I don't know what that is.  However, I can tell you that it's playing in the East Indian styles of music, ornamenting the long notes.  Ornamentation is when you add something extra to colour the melody, and if you listen to JUST the first measure of the song, you can hear our soloist ornament the long note on the upbeat of three...

(SPLENDOR OF ATHENS - MEASURE 1)

And once you know what to listen for, you hear it EVERYWHERE... Keep your ear focused on this ornamentation.

(SPLENDOR OF ATHENS)

Now, just when you think you've caught everything, he adds another Eastern instrument in there - the Sitar.  The sitar is probably one of the most famous East Indian instruments with its most famous player being Ravi Shankar, celebrated Sitar player and the father of jazz singer, Norah Jones.  It is a plucked, guitar-style instrument with a narrow, but bright metallic sound.  It sounds like this:

(SAMPLE)

Now in (SPLENDOR)

(SPLENDOR)

Alright, some very cool cultural stuff happening here.  Speaking of cool stuff, I'd say that it's just about time for our remix, eh? This remix is coming to us from the ever-wonderful OverClocked ReMix, who we so valiantly support.  Please check them out at www.ocremix.org , download their tunes, support their site and their artists, donate money, buy things from their store - their work cannot be appreciated enough, keep going, amazing community!

The remix is called "Minotaur Nightmares" and it remixes "Minotaur Boss Battle" from the OST.  The remixer is Christopher Lee Getman, aka "Mazedude" and before we play his remix, we're going to sample a little bit of the original, then boost into the remix! "Minotaur Boss Battle!" then "Minotaur Nightmares"

(MINOTAUR BOSS BATTLE)

(MINOTAUR NIGHTMARES)

And that will do it for Episode 25 of "Into the Score" - your support and patience is always appreciated and I love hearing your thoughts about the show or ideas for upcoming shows.  You can leave comments at this or any post at www.intothescore.com or send me a note at Kenley@intothescore.com, that's k-e-n-l-e-y@intothescore.com.  For the next episode, we are teaming up with the FXN podcast to bring a special Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core episode, with a killer score by Takeharu Ishimoto! Not only that, but the big idea for such an episode could only be one thing... ladies and gentlemen, that is the "remix" and who knows more about VGM remixing than the creator and the head of submission of OCReMix, David W. Lloyd and Larry Oji, or "djpretzel" and "Liontamer," respectively.  It's going to be on time, it's going to be packed full of guests, great music and some in-depth study.  Can't wait to see you at the end of March, this is Kenley Kristofferson, signing off.  Until next time!

END


Thanks so much for listening to Episode 24 of "Into the Score," where we studied Nintendo's 1994 release of EarthBound for the SNES, scored by Hip Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki.  We studied the jazz combo and the score to EarthBound! I hope that you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave me a comment at the post, which can be found at www.intothescore.com or you can send me a note at Kenley@intothescore.com! We're going to end off with my favourite tune from EarthBound, it plays when you're in the prehistoric-type Underworld and it's called "The Underworld."  Thanks so much for listening and see you in a month, where we study the history of chant and the epic score to 2005's God of War.  Enjoy!



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