EPTSo I went to go see The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses tonight performed by the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and I would like to share my experience with you all as my first blog!
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5221.jpg?t=1332847912)
Benayora Hall! Lived here for all my life but I've never visited this hall once TT
So to start I could probably go on forever about how I first got into Zelda when I play Link's Awakening or how I've been a huge fan of Zelda for all my life and such, but I'll try to spare you guys and get right to my experience with the concert without TOO much backstory... even though this post is going to end up being EXTREMELY longwinded anyways ^^;;
I was extremely excited when Nintendo first announced their tour for the 25th Anniversary of Zelda last year, at E3 I believe? As with many other fans, the music is one of my favorite aspects of the Zelda series, and getting to hear my favorite tunes live from a symphony was a dream come true. I had also never attended any sort of performance from a professional symphony before, despite being a musician and performing in band through middle and high school, so naturally I was extremely excited for my first visit to a symphony to be a concert for the music I had grown so fond of.
Unfortunately there were no plans for the tour to visit Seattle and the closest stop would be in Los Angeles. Thankfully, the Symphony of the Goddesses tour would be announced fairly shortly afterward, with a visit to Seattle included in the tour dates.
Of course I got extremely hyped up that I was actually going to get to see this performance live instead of just watching YouTube clips, but for some reason I ended up procrastinating on buying tickets like an idiot lol.
So time flies and suddenly it's the day before the concert. I check online for tickets and only the more expensive tickets are left (The seats were told in $40, $80, and $120 variations I believe, with only the $80 and $120 seats left). I would have just bought the most expensive ticket instantly and that would be that, but I had just recently spent quite a bit on various computer equipment so I began to hesitate.
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New monitor, keyboard, mouse, and mousepad... Worth it.
So what did I end up doing? I asked my parents for advice on whether it'd be worth it or not to spend even more money to attend the concert. Being the best parents ever, they told me that something like this is once in a lifetime and that I should definitely go. They even offered to go with me, as they also had never attended a symphony before. The thought of attending the concert with my parents was weird at first, but I decided that it would be nice to go as a family. Not to mention it's my dad's fault I got into Zelda in the first place, watching him and my brother playing Ocarina of Time as a little kid
So we ended up buying the three best available seats and were set to go the next day.![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5241.jpg?t=1332848335)
Success!!!!
Having never attended a symphony before, I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to dress LOL I knew people usually dressed up for things like this, but being a Zelda concert I wasn't quite sure how other people were going to go about with their outfits; I decided that this, being something fairly significant to me, was worth dressing up for. Unfortunately I really don't own any formal clothes, so I actually ended up wearing my high school band uniform LOL Talk about getting your worth out of things. So after showering and dressing up we were off to the concert!
We found the venue and parking without much trouble and headed inside to claim our tickets at will call. I noticed most of the people were dressed casually, with a fair amount of people dressed up and a handful of cosplayers as well. I'm sure you guys have seen your share of Zelda and Link cosplay so I'll spare you ^^;;
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5224.jpg)
Awesome Ezlo hat LOL
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5225.jpg?t=1332847919)
Pretty cool cloak ^^
After claiming our tickets, we walked around a bit to check out the merchandise booth and to just look around. There were SO many people on their 3DSs, I really don't know why I didn't think of bringing my 3DS to spotpass (Then again I brought my 3DS to EVO last year and never did anything with the tons of spotpasses I got there lol). I also heard someone playing Epona's Song on an ocarina which was very cool, although I couldn't see where the music was coming from. They were also selling refreshments that were oddly named after Zelda references...
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5226.jpg?t=1332847919)
Uhhhh no thanks LOL ;;
After a quick visit to the merchandise booth where I bought both available items (A t-shirt and a poster... Lolllll hooray for spending money), I caught up briefly with a friend that was also there and then headed inside to wait for the concert to begin.
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5240.jpg?t=1332847929)
A picture of my friend and I ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This was after the concert but whatever ^^
Listening to several of the performers warm up, I could recognize several tunes that were all too familiar... I began to get some serious nerd chills in anticipation of what was to come. There was also a screen on which clips from the games would be played alongside the music as I had previously read online.
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The suspense...
After a fair amount of waiting, the maestra (I believe her name is Eimear Noone) walked onto the stage and began to conduct the symphony in its overture (Which was also played at Nintendo's press conference at E3 I believe).
Almost immediately I was overtaken by tears. Call me a crybaby or overly emotional, that might all be true but all I know is that once I started hearing the main theme of the game accompanied by clips of the original Zelda games I just lost it.
![[image loading]](http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz42/sydneylj/glass-case-of-emotion.gif)
I felt like Will Ferrel in his glass case of emotion
I had extremely high expectations for this concert, but there was nothing that could have prepared me to experience what the symphony had prepared for fans of the game. Throughout the gorgeous renditions of Zelda's main theme, Ganondorf's theme, Zelda's Lullaby, Twilight Princess' Hyrule Field theme, and Skyward Sword's Ballad of the Goddess, I found myself just unable to control myself and that joy that was overtaking me. In only the very first piece of the concert I found myself reliving memories from the original Legend of Zelda all the way to the most recent Skyward Sword alongside classic pieces of music that had never sounded so beautiful even on the Zelda Symphony CDs I had previously heard. I truly have to give an enourmous amount of credit to the Seattle Symphony and the work they have put into bringing these songs to life in such vivid emotion, as well as the original work Koji Kondo had put into these songs and Chad Seiter for arranging these pieces of music.
Before the end of overture my mother had thankfully handed me a handkerchief LOL I definitely needed it as I continued to cry throughout almost every piece played in the first half of the concert hahaha. After the overture and some introductions, the symphony performed renditions of Kakariko Village as well as the Ballad of the Wind Fish. The video for Kakariko Village brought about several laughs from the audience as we watched Link being attacked by mobs of Cucco in both 2D and 3D.
![[image loading]](http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/bloguploads/zelda-motiv-cucco.jpg)
So very true, much to our amusement
Speaking of the audience, I was very surprised at the manners of the audience, as they were extremely respectful and kept noise to a minimum throughout the performance, as well as only clapping at the very end of a movement and such. The people behind me were whispering throughout the beginning of the concert but after gesturing to them to quiet down they complied and everything was good! However, this isn't to say that there wasn't energy just because the audience was silent, because there was definitely electricity in that hall. I can't really explain it but something about almost everyone in that room being there for the same reason sharing that single interest made that performances oh so very intense. As for the Ballad of the Windfish, it was definitely one of the songs I looked forward to most in the concert as it is the trademark song of the first Zelda game I had ever played; it definitely did not let me down and was one of the highlights of the night in my opinion. It also made me notice that we weren't watching the exact same performance that others had seen previously, as the setlist had already changed (Kakariko wasn't included in one of the previous performances, and Windfish was supposed to be an encore).
After these songs came another introduction and the beginning to the Symphony of the Goddesses with a prelude set to the creation of Hyrule.
![[image loading]](http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda05/Story/5.JPG)
Remember this cutscene? Yeah, we had to watch it again LOL The live harp and choir made it oh so very worth it though
The symphony itself was split into 4 movements, each set respectively to the stories of Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and A Link to the Past. Each movement is a medley composed of several of the main themes of the game in such a fashion that briefly retells the story of the game. One of the best part of this is that Zelda fans might notice the focus on the timeline split and its three paths. After beginning with Ocarina of Time we see the continuations of these three timelines one after another; a very cool touch that made the symphony even more enjoyable. Some of the highlights of the first movement were the Title theme, which is another one of my favorite songs in the entire series, and Sheik's theme which I actually got to see be played on an actual harp! The movement ended with the full battles with Ganondorf and Ganon, Navi flying away, and very brief cut of Majora's Mask fading into the backround (Foreshadowing wooooooo)
![[image loading]](http://www.thurau-harps.com/images/harpimages/Loeffler-Harfe-Frontseite.jpg)
Sheik would have a hard time carrying this around in the games, so we settle for midi instead =T
Afterward we dove straight into the second movement, The Wind Waker, a game I think of as one of the best of its series both musically as well as gameplay-wise. After sailing through several of the game's main themes including Outset Island and The Great Sea, we arrived once again at the climatic battle with Ganon and his defeat. Although story of the games was heavily summarized, there was always a great emphasis placed on Ganondorf and the battles with him. It was very cool to see Ganon's rise and fall in each of the timelines in succession; it really gave off this cool feeling that good will always triumph over evil, etcetc.
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Poor guy never stands a chance
My only complaint about this movement was the lack of Dragon Roost Island T_T The movement skipped most of the meat of the game, hitting only key plot points to advance the story as quickly as possible, but I still would wish that they would have at least have played it seperately =T
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/3/39/Sailing_Great_Sea.png)
I probably cried this much by this point in the concert, especially after no Dragon Roost Island
After that movement came an intermission which came welcomed by my who emotionally needed a moment to rest LOL But it also signaled the halfway point of the symphony, which by this point I had hoped there would be no end in sight. After the intermission immediately came the Great Fairy Fountain theme, supposedly meant to refresh us according to Noone hahaha.
Twilight Princess came next, and I'm not gonna lie, Twilight Princess isn't particularly a game I care for outside of its Hyule Field theme. Instead of all the tears the previous songs had brought me, however, this movement gave me sooooo many chills. While I am sad that they didn't play Midna's Lament, there were hints and traces of the theme through each of the other songs. That seemed to be how the entire concert went, as several songs were missing from the setlist but were present in the form of little transitions and fills. The dark atmosphere as well as an incredible performance of the Hyrule Field theme and the climactic defeat of Ganondorf once again made this movement pretty amazing.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/thumb/3/3c/Artosis.jpg/200px-Artosis.jpg)
At least this guy gets to yell when he's full of nerd chills, imagine trying to stay silent :X
The final movement was A Link to the Past which is my favorite game of the series and contains my favorite song of the series as well. Surprisingly enough, while the audience had kept respectful and quiet throughout the rest of the performances, there was a huge roar from the entire audience when 2D Link first appeared on the screen. It appears I'm not the only huge fan of this game
About halfway through the performance we finally reached the Dark World theme, and it was beautiful. I had never heard my favorite Zelda song in such beauty before, and I'm gonna lie I started crying again LOL It was just way too good. Afterward we were treated to Ganon's final defeat of the night and Noone left the stage. Cue an insane amount of applause.![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5238.jpg?t=1332847924)
After a series of incredible performances from the Seattle Symphony
None of us thought it was over though, there was no way; we all knew there was gonna be an encore hahaha. Upon return, Noone refused to tell us what this last song would be, claiming that die hard Zelda fans could talk about it after the show ended. It was obviously gonna be Gerudo Valley LOL It was definitely a fitting end to the night... Or was it?
I had read in reviews of the previous shows that there were no songs from Majora's Mask in the setlists at their shows. Sucks for them, apparently due to an immense amount of online requests and pleas from fans, they had a final secret in store for us. We were greeted by a clip of Young Link on Epona riding slowly through the fog... the opening scene of Majora's Mask! The entire audience just went nuts, we were so excited!
![[image loading]](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/Icyshot/IMG_5239.jpg?t=1332847931)
The audience finally clearing out to some credits and Zelda tunes
This marked the end of the night and an unforgettable experience that I will hold dearly to my heart for years to come. It was clear in the work that had gone into this concert that it was a concert by fans, for fans. The selection of music, the retelling of stories, and everything else about this concert was incredible; but in the end it wasn't about the music or the visuals, about a night out dressed nice or a trip to the symphony, it was about this: A celebration by fans for a series we so dearly love, and a chance to revisit all these incredible memories we have been blessed with over the last 25 years. And celebrate we did.
Final word? Go watch this if there is a show coming near you. Go watch this if you love fantastic music .Go watch this if you're a die-hard Zelda fan. Go play Zelda games and then go watch this if you aren't a Zelda fan LOL
if they ever plan on recording it and selling it I will be first in line to buy something like this. The way you've described everything makes me want it even more. Curse you! lol I'm sending this link to everybody I know x.x
