When I first played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I was utterly captivated by much of this installment’s music, to its breathtaking main theme to refreshing rearrangements of previous themes to its ultimate tear-jerking ending sequence— I knew I HAD to make something. Originally born from transcriptions of select pieces, they eventually turned into a medley of some of my favorite tracks from Tears of the Kingdom.

Some notes and observations on Tears of the Kingdom’s soundtrack: it has a prominent main theme melody, but also features a recurring motif? ostinato? based on the pentatonic scale, often voiced in fourths and fifths, that adds to the game’s sense of adventure and wonder. The erhu musically represents the presence of dragons in TOTK, which is more prominent towards the final boss sequence. Zelda’s Lullaby also presents itself in several tracks, lending to incredibly sentimental and heartbreaking moments throughout the game’s narrative. I can’t tell you how many times I cried, both while playing the game and while arranging this medley.

I could go on and on in regards to how much just these selections of tracks impacted me, but you’ll just have to listen to it for yourself and follow along with the notated score to see what I mean.