It’s always a treat to hear real-life musical ensembles play your favorite video game music. I’ve never had the privilege of catching a video game concert “live,” but I count myself very lucky to be living at the same time that musicians, like those of ZREO (formerly Zelda Reorchestrated), are producing masterful arrangements and orchestrations of Zelda music. ZREO’s most recent album, released June 2025 and fitting for this week in Zelda history, focuses on music from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Taken together, the tracks of Concerning Clock Town are much like the movements of a Romantic period symphony: wholly distinct with their own musical journeys, yet telling one unified narrative arc across the album’s entire runtime. The core of that narrative, of course, is the same as the Hero of Time’s journey through Termina in Majora’s Mask, beginning with Link’s mugging at the hands of Skull Kid, Tatl, and Tael in the track “Opening (‘Lost in a Dark Wood’)” and ending with “Anju’s Wedding & Epilogue (‘End Credits II’).”
Of the album’s seven tracks, two in particular stood out to me from start to finish, including the eponymous track “Concerning Clock Town.” As one could well assume, the track involves an arrangement of the theme for Clock Town, the hub of MM and the site of the Carnival of Time. Yet, the track is not just a simple transcription of the theme as it is heard on the first day. On the contrary, it incorporates the music of each of Majora’s Mask’s three days. It begins with what sounds like the slow, metronomic churning of a clock’s gears before the Clock Town theme properly kicks in. The tempo gradually picks up throughout the entirety of the second day’s version of the theme before landing on the third day. As the music of the third day progresses, it becomes more and more chaotic with random string pizzicatos and laden with clashing harmonies, accelerating faster and faster. The churning clock gears begin to sound menacing, signaling Link’s time to save Termina is running out. But, just before the music is completely crushed under the chaos, it stops altogether and silence fills the space. The clock gears return, churning slowly as they did at the beginning of the track, now representing the return to the first day and the time loop mechanic at the heart of Majora’s Mask.
The second track that stood out was “Oath to Order,” an arrangement of the same-name ocarina tune and “Calling the Four Giants.” This track is perhaps the most inspired of any on the album, taking influence from several composers of the Romantic and Post-romantic style periods of classical music. The track is rich with Rachmaninoff’s dramatic chromaticism and Ravel’s colorful orchestration. There is a reference to Tchaikovsky’s use of the “omnibus progression,” a compositional technique that carries the music to a drastically different key through the divergence of two chromatic lines (this can be heard around the 4:05 mark). The progression culminates in a timbral allusion to the bold brass instruments of Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, fittingly named “Tragic.”
And the entire last minute of the track — don’t even get me started! From the full tutti power of the orchestra and gut-wrenching harmonies, to the heroic quotations of the Legend of Zelda main theme and a choir that emulates the diegetic singing of the Four Giants, the last minute of this track is one of the most spectacular, awe-inspiring musical minutes I’ve heard. Period. Full-stop. And while one of my least favorite compositional techniques, a Picardy third ends “Oath to Order,” closing out the predominantly minor music on a major chord. Mirroring Majora’s Mask itself, this ends the track’s bleak story with a sense of relief and hope for a new day. This emotion leads directly into the albums final two tracks, arrangements of the joyous music of the Carnival of Time and Anju and Kafei’s wedding heard during the game’s end credits. The album then ends the same way it began, with the mysterious and wandering music that follows Link through the Lost Woods.
Concerning Clock Town is a fantastic album with truly beautiful moments throughout. Buy/listen to the album on Bandcamp, or stream wherever you can find it! It’s only thirty minutes and it’s some of the most beautiful music from the Legend of Zelda series arranged in one of the most impactful orchestral experiences you can have without being in the concert hall. And then listen to the rest of ZREO’s catalog!
