What: The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra plays video-game music conducted by Jack Wall with guests the Oran Chamber Choir, Kokopelli and pianist Lee Ann Lueng
Tickets: $50-$60; children's discounts available. Ticketmaster, 451-8000
EDMONTON - Ten years ago, the money on video-game music would have had it going in the direction of Kraftwerk rather than Francois-Joseph Krafft.
Not so, says Video Games Live co-producer Tommy Tallarico over the phone from California.
"If Beethoven was around today, he would've been a film and video-game composer -- you can quote me on that," directs Tallarico, also the composer for popular games Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Advent Rising.
"He was in it for the money and he was always on the cutting edge, so what else would he have done?"
Tallarico has a bit of the carny pitchman in him, but he's got a point.
People go where the money is, and right now video-game makers are pulling out drawers full of cash for decent orchestral scores to their shoot-'em-ups and role-playing games. Composers Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) and Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) have been two major names drawn to the rapidly growing industry. Elfman's score for Xbox's Fable and Shore's for the online Sun: Soul of the Ultimate Nation are already being released as soundtracks.
The bleep-and-bloop soundtracks to Galaga and Defender machines are now but a memory -- almost nostalgia, even -- and video-game soundtracks are serious business. To hammer the point home, a touring symphony of music from the Final Fantasy series has sold out major venues across North America.
Thus we should not be surprised at Tallarico's Video Games Live, a flashy fusion of orchestral video-game music, light show and gigantic video screens, conducted by VGL co-creator Jack Wall -- also a noted video-game composer for Myst IV and Splinter Cell, as well as the music for Jade Empire, an Xbox game by Edmonton's own Bioware.
The show -- playing the Jubilee Auditorium on Monday and Tuesday night -- features scores from the likes of Halo, Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid and World of Warcraft, along with a live, interactive Space Invaders game and Frogger competition. There's a medley of classic arcade music -- the mind reels at the thought of the brass arrangement for Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Topping off the musical and visual craziness, audience members are selected for a game of World of Warcraft that musicians from the ESO have to follow for sudden script variations.
Martin Riseley, concertmaster for the ESO, seems alternately bemused and intrigued by the upcoming gig, which will put demands on him that he's likely not used to.
"I'm excited," Riseley says. "From what I hear, it's a huge production, so I probably won't get to watch it, I'll be frantically trying to follow the music with headphones on -- it's down-to-the-wire pacing.
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It sounds as much like a dog-and-pony show as it does an attempt at bringing video-game music into the mainstream, and Tallarico admits that there have been occasional snorts from a few serious classical music types aghast at the notion that quality music could possibly arise from such wretchedly populist beginnings.
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