TORONTO — The Toronto Symphony Orchestra won't be playing the usual classical staples from the likes of Mozart and Beethoven this weekend, but rather a very different repertoire drawn from the video games “World of Warcraft” and “Assassin's Creed.”
The unconventional show is the latest to embrace the growing popularity of incorporating game soundtracks into grand orchestral settings, often with added visual elements like lighting and game footage.
The TSO show is a presentation by Game On!, a touring showcase featuring songs from 14 titles, including “World of Warcraft,” “The Elder Scrolls” and “Assassin's Creed,” along with customized video game footage to go along with them.
Principal conductor and music director Andy Bryk said he chose pieces that were well suited to the orchestra's interpretation, such as “Cohen's Masterpiece,” a grandiose, Chopin-inspired score from the first-person action game “BioShock.”
“It's really important to us that the music we choose from the different games we present is something the orchestra can really enjoy,” said Brick, a Chicago native.
Some video game music is inherently symphonic, but other pieces require radical interpretation, said Brick, who will perform his second show at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday.
Some of the genre's most famous melodies are fragmented, as they were often designed to play during specific in-game locations or character interactions.
“Music doesn't always go from point A to point B to point C,” Brick explains.
“You need an arranger who can reproduce music in a linear way.”
This is where Brick comes in.
The Game On! concert will feature “Situation Critical,” an all-electronic track by Derek Duke, composer and audio director for the esports shooter game “Overwatch.”
To maintain the spirit of the original, Brick says he consulted with Duke in translating the digital arrangements into arrangements for analog instruments typical of a symphony orchestra.
“I actually put every note and phrase that I was changing and orchestrating on a spreadsheet so that[Duke]knew exactly what I was doing,” he says.
Brick says that songs from other Game On! titles, such as The Witcher 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Guild Wars 2, were relatively easy to rework.
A similar show by Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra will take place on Jan. 10 and 11, 2025, performing the “Final Fantasy” soundtrack.
The orchestra's senior manager of artistic planning said Nobuo Uematsu's “Final Fantasy” was particularly appropriate for the NAC's first-ever video game concert.
“The honesty of the music and especially the fanbase that surrounds it is so rich and I think it lends itself perfectly to the atmosphere of a concert hall,” Burt says.
She says she's interested to see what kind of audience “Final Fantasy” will attract.
“The audience is becoming more and more multigenerational. We have families coming,” she says of the audience as a whole.
Carleton University musicologist James Dearville said the performances could provide a much-needed boost in revenue for businesses struggling to recover from the declines in ticket sales and attendance following the pandemic.
“I think (the video game concerts) are a sign of the overall energy and consideration for the younger generation,” Dearville said.
But he questioned whether such events would encourage younger people to subscribe to season subscriptions.
“From what I can tell, these concerts tend to be one-off, and there's not necessarily a strong correlation between subscriptions and concert attendance,” he says.
The performing arts sector has been particularly hard hit by pandemic restrictions that have seen music venues temporarily close and limit attendance, with financial difficulties forcing the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra to cancel its 2023/2024 season.
Dearville noted that orchestras are also increasingly performing contemporary music and works by Canadian composers.
“During the pandemic, we found it difficult to get people into venues because people have become accustomed to listening to music for free,” Dearville said.
Forays into commercial productions are nothing new: So-called “pop” series have long been a staple for symphony orchestras hoping to reach beyond their core following.
The head of another video game music tour production company says that most attendees of Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons will be experiencing live orchestral music for the first time.
The concert tour, based on the farming simulation game, features new music arrangements by a chamber orchestra and immersive lighting and video displays, and played sold-out shows in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver earlier this year.
“This is really an opportunity for the whole community to come together,” said Gaetano Fazio, CEO of production company SOHO Live.
“We've heard comments online that going to a concert is like being in a room with 1,000 friends, and we love hearing that.”
Brick said video game music is as much a part of modern music consumption as pop, jazz or hip hop.
The Grammy Awards introduced a category highlighting the genre in 2023.
Brick predicts that as video game music continues to evolve and orchestras become able to perform a wider variety of pieces, we'll see more intersections between the gaming and symphonic worlds.
“It's going to take some time because the video game industry requires a continual maturation of composers, orchestras and arrangers who can consistently produce very high quality music,” he says.
“It's definitely happening.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2024.
