New Transcription: "Overlooking Hyrule" from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (2020)

The Age of Calamity is now upon us, so here is a new orchestral sheet music transcription for one of the several overworld map themes from Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity.

If you're after the sheet music, score, XML or MIDI for Overlooking Hyrule from Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, you can find links here!

This includes individual part scores for:

Full Score
Flute
2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in Bb
Trombone
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Bass Drum
Suspended Cymbal
Tam-tam
Snare Drum
Piano
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabass

If you are one of my Patrons, you can now find the MIDI, XML, SIB files, as well as stems and multitracks I created for this transcription now available to download from your Patreon Google Drive folders!

Arranger's Note:

"There are a couple versions of this theme floating around: some start immediately at m.2 (0:05); some have this little single measure anacrusis (lead in / upbeat) which I have retained here; and some have even included a long solo ad lib. piano joined by a soft synthesizer as a prelude (see: https://youtu.be/JkNR30RrQiA?t=678 ).

Now, at the time of writing, the game had not released, so we did not know for certain whether this piano prelude was a confirmed part of the map theme or an entirely separate track. I leant towards the latter, since the prelude initially appeared in a cutscene moments before the map selection screen appeared, and later overworld screens jumped straight into the larger theme (transcribed above).

So, what do we have here?

After our opening anacrusis, we jump into a familiar melody - the "Age of Calamity" motif (first heard in the "Main Theme" - https://youtu.be/QkpVJ3QIkoo ). This motif (or melodic theme) appears often throughout the OST. In this map theme, it remains close to its original appearance in the "Main Theme"; playing around G Aeolian (G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F).

However, this time we begin immediately in the sub-mediant (chord VI; here, Eb). This quickly invokes a Lydian flavour (from the sharpened 4th interval clashing when the melody plays an A against the pedal Eb). This steps up to an F sus 4-3/9-8 chord (F-Bb-C-G resolving to F-A-C-F). Here, we also get a quote from Breath of the Wild's OST with the twinkling piano derived from "Field (Day)" - BotW's own map theme ( https://youtu.be/xGi23M_5lXg?t=6 ).

Next, we get our first appearance of the tonic (0:17; G Aeolian) with another statement of the AoC motif. To tail off the phrase, we stay on a tonic pedal (G) but colour it above with a D minor triad (D-F-A) and some light dissonance via an Eb resolving to D.

Then, this opening phrase nearly repeats (0:29), now with the piano flickering moved ahead two beats (0:38), added brass (0:45), and an extended ending (0:47). In this new ending, the melody soars up an octave as we fall back down to F (rather than staying on G), allowing for some gorgeous semitonal dissonances with sus 4-3 chords (Bb-A clash over an F). To finish the phrase, we get an ambiguous chord of C-F-G-Bb-D; some sort of sus4-3 add9 chord (0:50).

This resolves somewhat to a C dominant 7th (C-E-G-Bb) but with the G substituted for an A. This shifts to Bb major in 1st inversion (D-Bb-F) preparing us for an interrupted cadence back in to the sub-mediant (Eb; 0:54) as we get a new section.

The melodic material we get here is an exact quote from the "Main Theme" (see 1:37: https://youtu.be/QkpVJ3QIkoo?t=97 ). Of course, here we are at a much slower tempo, without metric dissonance (via time signature changes), and with an entirely different harmonic colour. But the melody stays the same.

As we continue through the next phrase, we slip spookily into E minor (E-G-B) via a tertiary modulation (1:04; from G to E). This progression is also commonly used in the "Main Theme", and could itself be considered another AoC motif (this time, a harmonic motif). Alongside this, the piano plays its familiar arpeggios as we float between E minor and Eb major 7th (Eb-G-Bb-D).

We then drop down a semitone onto D - the dominant pedal for G (once more, similarly to the conclusion of the "Main Theme"). The dominant chord is not complete until we get our mediant - the 3rd - which here would be F# (the 3rd above the root; D), and we eventually get this in the trombone at 1:27, marking our imminent return to the beginning.

This OST seems like it will be a masterclass in motivic writing - well worth looking into it for anyone interested in using motifs in their music."