Song of the Week 38.5: 'A Hero's Legacy' by Evan Pattison (redo)

For this week's .5 edition, I'll be reviewing the song talked about in Song of the Week Reogan Style. Actually Reogan doesn't talk about the piece itself, but he adds visuals that go along with what he heard. I'll try to keep those visuals in mind while I'm reviewing this. This is Evan Pattison's second OCR piece titled 'A Hero's Legacy'. Huh, I think this is one of the first (if not the first) Legend of Zelda franchise remixes I've ever reviewed. Anyway, I'm not going to go off topic, so let's get down to business.

The song starts out with a gradual entry by a group of strings. These strings are what is mainly heard throughout this song. The group of strings had a wide range of pitches; approximately two or three octaves are used. At 0:09 a small woodwind instrument (most likely an oboe) is heard playing a rhythm while the strings are harmonizing against it. At 0:19 there's a large cymbal crash and the beginning of the song is repeated, this time much louder and dramatic. The only difference hear is the volume and the entry of some low brass to help out the lower-pitched strings. The harmony with the strings as the oboe plays this time is even stronger as well. At 0:35 another crash is heard and a new section begins. After this crash, what's heard is all of the sounds holding a note while slowly fading from the song. 0:41 is the real transition to the next major section, for the piano comes in and plays a solemn melody. The piano solo consists of the high melody without much bass to back it up. There are times throughout this section where the notes from the piano are accented, which makes the whole thing seem a little louder. After the solo ends at 1:08, all of the orchestral elements heard before as well as another cymbal crash will come back in the song. There are lots of harmonies heard here, although the four-measure-long melody is repeated the entire time. At least the harmonies aren't as repetitive. At 1:32 there's one more crash, and another break similar to the one at 0:35 starts up again. After this at 1:40, the piano will come back in once again. It plays a melody very similar, if not the same, as the piano solo back at 0:41. The difference here is that there's a small amount of flute backing the piano up as it plays. At 2:05 the strings slowly come back in. At 2:06 the oboe will now play the melody while the strings play a rather simple harmony. The melody is none other than the well-known LoZ melody that a huge majority of gamers have heard. However, this arrangement of the melody is much sadder, depressing, and slow. The strings create a very dramatic feel along with the melody. This is where I can see those visuals that Reogan described, and they actually make sense with what I'm hearing. At 2:33 snare drums come in, as well as a church bell. The melody now repeats, this time louder with a whole lot more elements added. There's now timpani, louder strings, low brass to back things us, and various cymbal crashes. At 3:02 some of the elements are slowing starting to drop out. The melody continues to play, with strong strings and great bass. At 3:16 though, the song comes to an end...

Pros: There were a lot of great orchestral elements here that made the song shine. I thought that the harmonies went very well with the melody, and I liked the dramatic feeling that it gave off. This type of music fits well with a Legend of Zelda game.

Cons: The piano solos at 0:41 and 1:40 were accented too much. The song was a little simple and repetitive; there was hardly anything new heard as the song progressed. Also, I hated the ending. There was hardly any fading (the song pretty much just stopped), and the song sounded a little weird ending right in the middle of the melody.

Overall: This song is good, although I feel that it does need some tweaking. It's a very calm piece with a lot of dramatic orchestra, yet it lacks the complexity to really make me go "Wow, that was an amazing piece". Still, this is pretty good stuff here.

Rating: 7.8/10