Soundtracks to computer games claim the widest global reach of any musical genre. Since they often use the sounds of a symphony orchestra, why not devote a Prom to this music? This first ever gaming Prom was a sell-out, with the audience noticeably younger than the norm. I was accompanied by an experienced gamer, on his first visit to the Royal Albert Hall. But after fifty years of concert-going, I was at my first concert of which I knew none of the music.
The presentation from the stage by Louise Blain and Steffan Powell was audience-friendly to the point of announcing their competing Pokémon choices and encouraging cheers of support. On the platform, Robert Ames conducted an “electronically expanded” Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with seven busy percussionists, in eight items in historical sequence from games console titles of the 1980s to a suite from last year’s Battlefield 2042. All but one were Proms premieres, and for two items the BBC had specially commissioned an arrangement. Much work was done to bring this unique event together, with undeniable success.
Thus the start of Matt Rogers’ Loading Chronos reheard 1987’s Chronos game’s title-track by Tim Follin, through the “noisy chuntering” of the process of loading a game from tape. The invention after that developed the material further into a coherent curtain-raiser. Then a clearly crowd-pleasing suite from Koji Kondo’s The Legend of Zelda arranged by Nic Raine showed that cheering is a Promenaders’ habit for all genres.
The ensuing commission from CHAINES (Cee Haines, composer and multimedia artist) was a tribute to the 1990’s games Pokémon, Ecco, and Secret of Mana. Amongst several effective instrumental touches, the percussionists’ use of whirly tubes (suggesting eerie whistling), and the reedy tang of electronically enhanced oboes and cor anglais (suggesting synthesisers), were the most piquant.
A medley from leading Japanese composers formed a central trio of iconic gaming soundtracks; Final Fantasy VIII (Nobuo Uematsu, arranged by Andrew Skeet), Shadow of the Colossus (Kow Otani, arranged by Tomomichi Takeoka), and Kingdom Hearts (Yoko Shimomura, orchestrated by Kaoru Wada). The first used extended swift ostinati – percussion, especially snare drums, essential – perhaps a favourite with games involving pursuit, as broader lyrical themes can float eloquently above the propulsive rhythm.
Austin Wintory’s music for 2012’s Journey was the first game score to get a Grammy nomination, and excerpts from Traveller – A Journey Symphony formed the longest piece on the programme at fifteen minutes. In his programme note Wintory said “I hope those in tonight’s audience who are unfamiliar with the music or the game find some meaning...” He need not have worried. Richard Harwood’s playing of the electronically enhanced cello solo framed the sequence eloquently.
In 2021 Hildur Guðnadóttir and her husband Sam Slater provided a score for Battlefield 2042 which used no traditional instruments, but rather “rusted metal, desert sands (etc)…then used each material to create chaotic, out of control sound-making systems in our studio...” A selection and orchestration made by Ames was here given its European premiere. As Hildur wrote, “if you want to go outside the box as far as you can…hire someone who has no idea what the box is...” So, few familiar tropes. Here we get a series of disrupted pedals, dystopian clashes, the occasional menacing thump; a bleak, comfortless, haunted soundscape. If music is ever heard in a post-apocalyptic world, this is how it will sound.
Haunting in a different way was music from Dear Esther and So Let Us Melt by Jessica Curry (who was present), arranged by Jim Fowler, and like everything else, very well played by the RPO under Ames. It made an ideal close to this first – but surely not the last – gaming Prom. For the many who could not get a ticket, this is well worth catching on iPlayer, or viewing on BBC Four on Friday 5th August.
