I’m always impressed by the talent of musicians that create violin covers, and the piece I’m looking at today by Patti Rudisill is no exception. But her cover in particular — a rendition of the Kotake and Koume theme — really struck a chord with me. Patti draws inspiration from the fact that the witches are twins to influence the style of her cover, with the end result being a vibrant re-creation that instantly reminds us all of those memorable witches from Ocarina of Time.
While the theme of Kotake and Koume is still clearly recognizable in her cover, Patti fills it with new flavors by playing multiple parts of the song in different cuts and overlaying them together. Now, a lot of cover artists do this anyway to give their covers the fullness of a small orchestra, but I think Patti’s intent is to play the main melody in two halves to represent the two witches. What’s really fun about this is she even wears blue and red headpieces and wigs to highlight this focus! The fact that she put in this extra effort — and really seems to be enjoying herself while absolutely killing it on the violin — makes the cover especially charming to me.
Now, let’s take a moment to appreciate why Kotake and Koume’s theme is so memorable. It’s not only another brilliant example of Koji Kondo’s talent as a composer, but it also takes us all back to each moment when we encountered those two witches in the Spirit Temple. It reminds us of their charming banter, the intense face-off with Nabooru trapped in the Iron Knuckle, and the badass boss that the two transform into (my personal favorite from Ocarina of Time): Twinrova.
We can all agree that the twins were much less threatening in Majora’s Mask, especially when Koume is grovelling in the Lost Woods for a red potion and later takes you on a leisurely boat ride (minus the Big Octorok). But I for one was thrilled to hear their theme return in Kotake’s potion shop — it was usually my go-to when I needed potions, purely so I could hear that music again. So, maybe I have a bit of a personal bias when rating Patti’s cover so highly, but I genuinely think she’s done it justice and, as a bonus, given it a fitting spin!
