Prince of Persia Music History
At the heart of the Games of the Prince of Persia always lay duality. This may not be obvious at first glance, but if you dig into the history of the series, then everything will fall into place. This is reflected in the character of the hero, in the creator of the series of Jordan Mehnere and, importantly, in the music of the game. Sit down, and I will tell you why the whole soundtrack of the “Prince of Persia” from the zero is a real rock, that the most popular part would not have happened without the indirect participation of the Dwayne of the “rock” Johnson, in which part you could hear Grounding, but also that the tone of the music of the whole series was not at all the game composer, but a psychologist. This is a story that you have never heard!
Jordan Mehner. Way to the development of games
The main feature of the prince of Persia is duality. And only because the character of the Prince of Persia is inseparable from his creator, Jordan Mechner. The prince was created at the junction of two eras, two worlds: eastern and western. Like Jordan, absorbing Western culture from early childhood, a native of New York, at a young age became interested in the culture of the East. This will play a role a little later, while it is much more important that during training at the university the future game designer sincerely became interested in the thing no less important: programming.
Video games made an indelible impression on Mechner. Already in the first year, he decided to create something of his. The pen of the pen was the Asteroids clone, called Deathbounce. Inspired by the ATARI masterpiece, Mehner, for the most part, simply copied it, and then sent a copy of the game to the publisher Broderbund to distribute.
The company, of course, refused to publish such a frank clone, but sent Mehner as a sign of gratitude for the work done by the CHOPLIFTER game, at that time one of the best -selling games of the company. And this is a key moment.
Unlike many peers, who also, seeing video games in the 80s, were fascinated by a new form of art with one fact of their existence, Mehner saw the other side of this type of entertainment. He wanted to use it as a new type of expression. Even then, he realized that games are not only a fan for the fan.
What struck me at Choplifter is that it was a game that told a story and created an emotional connection. No matter how little these little men on the screen were, I felt the emotions of the characters in trouble. They could only with the help of several pixels express joy and relief when the player’s helicopter, or devastating guilt, saved them when they were left behind.
Jordan Mehner
Jordan Mehner also noted that after the completion of the Choplifter game, not the inscription Game Over appeared on the screen, as in a heap of games of that time, but The End. This settled in his head the idea that, like a film, a game could have an ending. Happy or sad depending on the actions of the player. Jordan wanted to not just create games. With their help, he wanted to tell stories.
Karateka and the first success
And the first story was Karateka. Studying at Yale University, Jordan Mehner began to attend karate classes out of school time. Then he fit into the local film club, where Akira Kurosava often watched and discussed the films, as well as the silent cinema, which, according to Mechner, “conveys a powerful emotional message and atmosphere without a single spoken word”
When creating Karateka, a mechanical for the first time used the rotoscopy technology. In a nutshell: Rotoscoping is a way to create animation in which the movements of the actors first remove, and then, using a special device, in fact, the rotoscope, these movements of the frame behind the frame are copied on the film and based on the resulting sketches create animation.
In video games at that time, this method was not to say that the most popular, but in the animation it allowed to achieve amazing results that are not a shame even today.
If it is interesting how this process goes, then I advise you to familiarize yourself
However, the technical restrictions of the platform, and Karateka came to Apple II, did not allow to fully evaluate this technology. The drawing was carried out with a frequency of only 8 frames per second, so it was not possible to achieve the conceived smoothness of the movements. But still at that time it looked very, very worthy. Due to the technical, at the time of development of the subsistence of the project, the author had to face another restriction: Apple II did not have enough resources to simultaneously draw animation and reproduce music. I had to try hard to optimize the project, and as a result, the father of Jordan Francis Mehner, who was invited as a composer, using only one note (since the more Apple II could not give out) wrote musical accompaniment.
This was curious this: Francis Mehner studied the game on the piano and played quite well on it, but was not a professional musician. He was more interested in fine art and in 1970 he even participated in creating the design of characters and surroundings for the street to Sezam. The main employment at that time was the position of lecturer on psychology at one of the Universities of the United States. Looking ahead, to the video in the future he will return only once, and devoting his life to science.
Karateka, in addition to animation, had a couple of important gameplay and visual features. Despite the fact that the action takes place in Japan, the hero and heroine have blond hair. The design of fair -haired characters was influenced by the preferences of the Japanese. While the hair color was usually not repainted in the West, it was customary to portray heroes with blond hair in the manga of those years, and antagonists with dark. The other important feature turned out to be another. After defeating all enemies, if you approach the princess, which the hero saves the whole game, in a combat rack, the princess will simply cut down the main character from one blow. It was necessary to leave the battle rack, bow. Only then will the finale be positive. Two paths. The combination of two worlds. Duality for further work was laid here. But it was only a warm-up before something big.
Prince of Persia – the beginning of the great series
You can turn on and ponest
Despite the success of Karateka, the publisher did not put pressure on the developer with the condition to release the sequel. Mehner was given complete creative freedom. And the author again sent his gaze to the east. But from Japan moved to the shores of the Persian Gulf. From the east to the setting, the collection of Arab fairy tales “1000 and one night” impressed by Mekhner, and from the west on the gameplay and the environment, was the film by Stephen Spielberg “Indiana Jones: In search of the lost ark”.
The magical world of the eastern fairy tale crossed with the acrobatics of the Western action movie. At the junction of these two worlds, Prince Persia appeared. By that time, the experience gained already allowed Mehner to get around the Apple II computer restrictions. Therefore, the newly applied rotoscoping this time looked really as it was conceived. It is interesting, however, that in Karateka, that in Prince of Persia, this decision was dictated by … the lack of proper skills in working with animation.
When we decided to use rotoscoping, I did not think about being on the point of progress. We did this mainly because I am not so good in drawing or animation. This was the only way that I could come up with to achieve a realistic movement of the characters.
Jordan Mehner
Family in a row in this game has been preserved. This is a well -known fact that the prince’s movements were removed from John David Mechner’s younger brother. But it is precisely to write music to this part and all its ports (with the exception of the version for Game Boy, where the music of Tallarico was used. He was a tester and offered to compose new music for free) The father of the Francis brothers returned for the first and last time. And set the tone for the future musical parties of the entire series.
Using a meager set of electronic tools by current standards, the soundtrack of the work turned out to be surprisingly holistic. Alive. With a truly oriental color. The animation already mentioned above, this time smooth and worked out, looked like a real revolution, and the framing of Prince Soundtrack framing the short adventure only emphasized what was happening. Here is the horror with mysticism and almost the hill of a horror, which only intensifies the involvement when there is little time left on the timer, and the triumph of victory.
But the most entertaining thing is that Francis Mehner seized consciously or not for the main topic, made her a leitmotif, on which he built the whole soundtrack. Listen to at least the main topic, and then the Princess track.
The game quickly gained popularity and the versions for other platforms were only a matter of time. Already in the port for Super Nintendo, both the graphic component and musical accompaniment have been significantly transformed.
There was already a place for both the rapid action-compositions, and almost a techno-butvik during the final bossfight. But not a single version went into the purest action. It has always been an adventure. And in order to emphasize this moment, Jordan Mehner introduces an antagonist. No, this is not a vizier of Jafar (who, by the way, is another funny family fact, the father of Jordan played). This is a dark prince. His alter ego, appearing from a magic mirror and regularly inserting the hero of the stick into the wheels. Fighting him is pointless. Strikes the dark prince, you will only cripple yourself and yourself. To defeat the dark side, to win, one might say, yourself, your fears and contradictions, you can only stop fighting. This is something from the field of eastern philosophy and the treatise “The Art of War”: “To win the battle-you need to lose it”. But perhaps this is my LNGS. One way or another, the game has become successful. This means that the sequel was not far off.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame
In the second part, music has become more diverse
In the work on the second part, a rather large team was already involved. The main game designer, still Jordan Mehner, hires the appreciative Johnell Adkisson, along with the arranger, Silpen-Reluke Bruna. And the couple perfectly captures the mood of the series. The only opening topic with flute and string is immediately immersed in the atmosphere of the eastern adventure.
By the way, the prince himself again appears the enemy. More precisely, Jafar, who did not die the finale in the first part, and tried on the appearance of the hero. And again, the story in the plot plan, as it were, reflects the hero’s struggle with himself. Duality. But with regard to music, here, unlike the previous part, there is almost no place for calm compositions. Even in the seemingly pacifying melodies, as if there was a danger. As if you can’t trust anyone. As an example, you can listen to the track trek. The soundtrack constantly holds the pace, but, I must admit, even at the time of exit, he was no longer to say that something unique. Recall at least the same cartoon “ALLADIN” from Disney.
The atmosphere of the East in the music www.new-king-casino.co.uk of the Second Prince is sustained perfectly. And even knowing the name of the game to which he belongs, the scene of action is guessed immediately. But there was no one thing in him, there was not enough, as they say, zest. Good, but not fine. Talented, but not brilliant. And the series had every chance to fix it.
Prince of Persia – now in 3D
Not perfect in everything, but in many ways a very interesting soundtrack.
In financially, the second part of the adventure of the Prince of Persia was far from as successful as the first. In addition, the series of not the most successful publishing decisions of Broderbund forced her to sell property, and subsequently close. During a series of divisions into different companies, mergers and resale, the rights to the series moved to Red Orb Entertainment, Broderbund unit. Red Orb in 1996 began work on a new part of the adventures of the Persian prince. For a year, he went to pre-Podakshn, 2 more for development and in 1999 the world saw a new prince. But not just saw, but saw in the 3D turnover in those years.
Due to the most warm reception of the second game, as well as due to a lack of financing, it was decided to maintain part of the old team. In particular, the creator of the series Jordan Mehner was involved as a creative consultant and co -author of the script, and Johnlle Adkisson, whose company was a newcomer in the Greg early series, took up the music.
Already then Mehner decided to move on. He recently completed work on The Last Express and did not even think to return to the Persian series. Failure with the previous game made him look for new development paths in the adventure genre, but somehow Red Orb managed to persuade Jordan to participate.Moreover, he was not connected in a new project in almost no way. It was rather a tribute to his creation than creativity.
I signed a contract when I had not seen the game and eventually acted as a consultant. But as the project has developed, I understood more and more that this was not what I would like to see. This is nothing more than a clone of Tomb Raider. I felt disunity with the prince’s character, and the pressure of the publisher, deflecting my ideas, made the prince a character, whom I barely recognized.
Jordan Mehner
It was difficult to find out the music. Duality in its worst manifestation showed itself here. This is what I talked about a little earlier. While Johnlle Adkisson tried to return the series to the usual eastern sound, Greg early pulled him somewhere towards the electronic component. It is enough to listen to combat tracks, and you will understand what I’m talking about.
Greg early. The person who first decided to bring the experiment to the soundtrack of the Prince of Persia. In my opinion, not very successful.
And, let’s immediately discuss this moment: I do not against mixing genres, and in the future it is the genre mix that will save musical accompaniment. How I do not against the genre of electronic music. Moreover, the rhythms of the East and electronic music can sound quite organically, and there are a lot of examples that will be discussed a little later in this article. It just didn’t work out here. In the middle of the beautiful eastern batch here and there, there are suddenly interspersed electronic tools. And sometimes, even electronic music completely prevails and destroys the entire atmosphere. And it sounds extremely foreign, simply destroys the whole idea. Prevents music from being holistic.
Although, undoubtedly, magnificent compositions are found, and the decision to add chanting vocals, and at all, in my opinion is simply brilliant. This in music from at that time was a rarity. And, for example, a similar technique when writing tracks with oriental color outside the series about the prince in 10 years in 2008 will be adopted by one of the authors of the Soundtrack Metal Gear Solid 4. I’m talking about the “topic of love” now.
In general, the adventure of the prince in 3D had every chance of becoming his swan song. Not the warmest technique in the press, a strange and unresponsive management, an illogical design of locations, and most importantly: the absence of ideas with an unwillingness to listen to the creator of the series Jordan Mehner, plus a feverish soundtrack played an angry joke. The series could well end here. But the story gave her another chance.
Prince of Persia The Sands of Time and the Stuart Chatwood era
The soundtrack The Sands of Time is extremely recommended for familiarization
In 2001, the rights to the publication of the old games of the series moved to Ubisoft, but only Jordan Mehner had the right to release new games. At the same time, the company’s branch in Montreal worked on Splinter Cell and one of the producers of the project Yannis Mallat gathered a small team and arranged a brain storm on how a new game about the Persian prince could look like if they had the opportunity to work on this franchise.
In May, all the same 2001, Mallat invited Mehner to Ubisoft Montreal, showed his developments and they really liked the furner, which after two unsuccessful games already abandoned the idea of doing something in this series. The authors from Ubisoft perfectly grabbed the main mechanics of original games: acrobatics and brought it to a new level. Mehner called him the “brilliant expansion of the gameplay, which provided the players with new opportunities”. The mechanics of rewinding time, which became a proprietary chip, was invented a little later, when Jordan had already joined the team. In general, Yannis Mallat was appointed producer of the project, and Patrice Dezile – a creative director, and they were given a full Blanche cards when recruiting a team.
Patrice Dezile. One of The Sands of Time Development, which a little later, will lead the creation of another large franchise, Assassin’s Creed.
The developers perfectly understood that from the very beginning of the PRINCE OF Persia franchise created a diverse character. A freedom -loving warrior who is not afraid to argue with his father, but at the same time the monarch responsible for the future throne. To reflect this internal conflict, the mix of the western and eastern, the corresponding composer was also needed. It turned out to be a steward chartwood.
Stewart Chartwood-Canadian composer and rock musician of The Tea Party group. The first work for the video game industry was Road Rash 3D. Although if you listen to the compositions in general and see the clips The Tea Party will be clear that the guys loved to experiment to experiment. I advise you to look completely a video for the song Babylon. But another was much more important: Chatwood connected the Middle Eastern motives and rock music in his compositions. And this mixture already looked very organic. If the composition of The Tea Party called the Temptation is inserted into the soundtrack of the “sands of time”, then you can not even notice a catch.
So if you think that real rock began with the arrival of Godsmack in Warrior Within, then your memory plays an angry joke with you. I myself thought so. Listen to at least the composition A Long Way Up. Chatwood created a kaleidoscope of melodies with a different mood, and the party holder contains rock, ethnic, symphonic music, combining them in different combinations, in order to get something new, something unique at the exit. Many cool, rhythmic, but at the same time not straining and memorable arrangements, which demonstrates the skills of Chatwood as a composer. For example, Prelude Fight is a great combination of string, eastern ethnic elements and slightly overloaded electrihitars.
Stuart skillfully connects different elements, puts accents, while all allows you to convey the grace of movements, and the intensity of passions, and the place of action. Mixes from various elements are generally a distinctive feature of the soundtrack “Sands of time”. Be it percussion and vocals in The Library. Or vocals with an electric guitar with rhythmic eastern drums in The Royal Baths.
The decision to add vocals, which was extremely successfully inscribed in the Prince of Persia 3D, it got up perfectly and here. The soundtrack “Sands of Time” is unique music within the framework of the gaming industry. Nobody did anything like this to Chatwood. However, the steward understands that it is not worth leaving for completely impudent experiments, so there are also quite traditional oriental motifs in WelCome to Persia.
The composer knows that the character for whom he writes music is a harsh warrior, which emphasizes with slightly gloomy march motifs in Introduting the Prince. As well as powerful symphonic parties like Reverse the Sands of Time. And like a cherry on the cake – the final composition of Time only Knows, which sounds during the credits.
The eastern motive of the melody, vocals in English only emphasize the duality of the nature of the game. Balance between the West and the East. The Sands of Time soundtrack was something fresh, but Steward Chatwood only warmed up to give out something much more cool.
Prince of Persia Warrior Within and Godsmack
Extremely, no, I insist, it is extremely recommended for listening!
In continuation, the developers did not want to repeat themselves and decided to change the atmosphere so radically that in the process the creative director Patrice Dezile went so far that his vision of the project was little like the prince of Persia, taking the protagonist to the background, taking as a protagonist one of his bodyguards as a protagonist. This was, according to the publisher, too radically, but at the same time promising. The prototype was called Prince of Persia: Assassins and, I think, you already guessed that Dezile sent a separate game from it, called Assassin’s Creed, which deserves a separate conversation. The replacement of Desil was replaced by Bertrand Hellias, who drew inspiration from, for example, “Silent Hill”.
We wanted to change the tone and style of the game, but to preserve what the Sands of Time has done successful. We needed to create another type of immersion. We decided to move away from the eastern style of the “sand sands”, moving to a more “Gothic” environment to create a more aggressive environment.
Bertrand Hellias
Music was supposed to become more aggressive. This is where the rock talent of Stuart Chatwood opened in all its glory. In tandem with another equally talented composer Inon Tsur, one of the best rocks for video games was created, in my modest look.
The very first Welcome Within combat composition in the beginning, as if emphasizes the continuity of a long vocal party, to which drums and electrihitar subsequently join. And then the entering batch of strings completes the impression chicly. Most of the soundtrack consists of powerful riffs and memorable motifs, backed up by oriental aesthetics. Conflict at the Entrance in general, it seems to me, it is impossible to listen to without tapping your foot or not shaking your head to the beat.
Composers wrote the music so attractive and memorable that thanks to it, constant clashes with opponents do not lose intensity and do not bother. At the same time, the music does not cease to remind us that we are no longer in the magical Persian fairy tale. We are on the harsh Gothic island of time. However, with all the gloomy, music continues to give in places some subtle magic.
In my humble gaze, in The Sands of Time Stuart Chartwood jumped above his head, but together with Inon Tsur in Warrior Within, they just flew somewhere to the stratosphere, but the main part of the soundtrack, which fans like me remembered, did not happen thanks to this pair of composers. Her track I Stand Alone gave us Godsmack.
If you listen to this song for the first time, then I even envy you a little
And this was the first composition licensed for the Prince of Persia series, and not written from scratch. It is interesting that the track itself is pure water “Creativity to order”. At the beginning of the zero film director Chuck Russell addressed Sally Ern, the vocalist and author of the song songs, asking them to use their track for his new film “Tsar Scorpio”.
I had a little time before we started writing a new album. And it turned out that Chuck was a fan of Godsmack and wanted to use our Voodoo song in the film. Since the song was a little outdated, he wanted me to redo it. But I had no desire to process old material. Instead, I wrote a new song for him and called it I Stand Alone.
Sally Erna
And although Chuck Russell and wanted to use the Voodoo track in the film, the mounted black version with the song I Stand Alone impressed Johnson’s Grace, and he called it “hot, incendiary and perfectly revealing character”.
The track became part of the Faceless album that he debuted in the first place of the Billboard chart and literally a month later the album became Platinov. The I Stand Alone itself received two nominations for Grammy. In general, it was a powerful rock hit. And he perfectly approached the moments when the seemingly invincible Dahak pursued the prince. Overlapping with its rocker motive any hints of eastern music, which was diligently prescribed Chatwood and CUR. And believe me, if you have never heard I Stand Alone or have forgotten, then a couple of beautiful minutes is guaranteed to you. But that’s not all! To finally complete this musical picture, during the credits the main single from the Faceles album – Straight Out of Line.
Not all fans took such a sharp change in the mood and musical accompaniment of the game, but in my personal opinion purely, this is perhaps one of the most daring musical statements in the game industry.
Prince of Persia the Two Thrones. Without rock, but still good
It is recommended for listening to all fans. And not fans are also recommended.
Almost immediately after the completion of work on Warrior Within, Yannis Mallat and his team began to create a continuation. Jordan Mehner, as the last time, did not participate at his own free will, believing that he had already said everything that could. It was decided to make a new game aesthetically in the series with something between Warrior Within and The Sands of Time with a big slope towards the last.
The prince infects the sands of time, they begin to crumble his soul, to outstand the darkest desires and aspirations. So the dark prince is born. The idea laid down in the magic mirror of the very first game of the series here gets its development. The duality of the character here is obvious than ever. The result was a hard, gloomy, but at the same time magical story.
Inon Tsur and Stewart Chatwood made their music to match the narrative. First of all, one cannot fail to notice the absence of any hints of rock-component in the compositions of the work. They were replaced by Dark Embipant and a long, in some places scaring vocals in compositions like The Hanging Gardens.
Two composers here perfectly complement each other. As a multi -instrumentalist, Chatwood gave tracks a quick percussion and tough swift eardrums. While the CUR copes with a symphonic filling perfectly. The interweaving of two styles gives rise to just excellent tracks of tracks.
Another interesting innovation is that now in the music of the series the authors use soundskales. This is a technique when the sounds of the environment, such as howl of wind, are used as part of the composition. For example, a party with a growl in the entry and a dark embosses against the background of Mental Realm. Where it completes everything low, viscous male vocals.
This complements the psychological aspect of the game that studies the personality of the prince and demonstrates the inner crisis. The sound design deliberately emphasizes the experiences of the hero and his loss. Its fall into the darkness. The entire soundtrack is less cheerful than in the first part of the rebooted trilogy and less drives than in the second. More viscous. Atmospheric. With my endless love for music from Warrior Within, in The Two Thrones, it seems to me, the score is more meaningful. More … adult and mature, or something.
Despite the fact that music may seem too gloomy and instrumental, it, like in past times, reflects the essence and nature of the game. Works to show the character and open it. And this is a distinctive feature of all the music of the trilogy about the sand sands. Which would end on a high note, because Ubisoft decided not to milk the franchise, but give the players something new.
Prince of Persia 2008. If you need a little grinder
If you like “magical” music, then you will like it
In 2008, another reboot occurred. Prince of Persia 2008 was sustained in the genre of light fantasy adventure with a simple fabulous story based on Zoroastrian myths. An exciting, easy narrative, where the battles with hordes of enemies were replaced by duels 1 to 1. The artistic style has also changed. Cell-SHADING, like a watercolor painted world, obliged to find another approach to musical accompaniment. As the permanent authors of the series, Stuart Chartwood and Inon Cur returned. In this case, a vector was chosen on the uniformity of melodies by inclusion in them of the guide composition, the leitmotif, which sounds throughout the game in different performance. This is Main Theme, A Fight of Light and Darkness, and a few more compositions.
Music here is a reward. Every time the prince gets to the location, he needs to overcome many obstacles, withstand the fight with the enemy and all this under the pressing soundtrack. While after winning and cleaning the location of the filth, a calm, beautiful and pacifying melody begins to sound. Orchestral marches mixed with oriental percussion instruments sound just fine here.
The rocker fuse Chatwood here found application in the most unexpected way. In one of the main compositions, the theme of the main villain was added here … Grounding. And despite the fact that in words it may seem game, the track turned out to be bright, and the vocal part gives so much context to the topic of the antagonist that I personally wonder why this technique is used so rarely.
A little grilling will not hurt
However, in my opinion, the game still lacks in which action-music in the manner of previous parts. Background tracks for a calm trip on a cleaned map, filled with a fabulous sound of flute, strings and a magic embosses have a much greater structural variety of shades than music for contractions.
In other games, this would not be a serious problem, but in such an action -rich game, like this, the lack of more exciting tracks is a missile, especially if you know that the steering wheel of Chatwood and the CUR, which cope with the writing of such compositions perfectly.
In general, despite the impressive and, as it seems to me, one of the best in a series of main topics and melodies written on its basis. In general, the soundtrack of the prince of Persia in 2008 is good, but cannot reach the heights of previous games. However, despite the lack of drivers, the melodic parts are extremely pleasant here and every time they personally give me a feeling of some kind of lightness and fairy tale. And the musical accompaniment of this game of the series would be an excellent afterword to the main trilogy if Ubisoft did not decide to make another game.
Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands and the end
You can listen to for general development
In 2010, it was decided to return to the theme of the “sand sands” and chronologically fill in the gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. A completely different team worked on The Forgotten Sands, including the composers team. Steve Yablonski and Penka Kuneva were attracted to writing music.