Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack (PC)

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack (PC), Paul Romero, 1995

Few game scores start with a gesture as confident as the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack. Opening “Barbarian (Theme for Louis XIV)”, a harpsichord presents an almost rushing motif that already creates a dense soundscape. But clearly, the composer wants to take things further. Soon, a growing number of instruments join the harpsichord figure, playing the motif as a fugue. This continues until a whopping five different voices simultaneously perform in counterpoint. The resulting passage is of a structural complexity not previously encountered in Western game music.

On a purely musical level alone, it makes for a striking start to the album. But this display of compositional bravado is even more important from another point of view. This is a composition that wears its ambitions proudly on its sleeve. The piece doesn’t waste a second to proclaim that this is music of substance, demanding to be taken seriously. In other words, this is a game soundtrack that self-consciously styles itself as “Art”.

Looking at the history of orchestral Western game music, this vision distinguishes the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack more than one might think. Certainly, by 1995, there were already many ambitious orchestral Western game scores out there. However, their role models usually came from within film music. This goes back all the way to 1990’s Wing Commander, whose soundtrack emulated the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises’ music. Heroes of Might and Magic looks elsewhere for inspiration, and arguably sets its sights even higher – classical music and its time-honoured, hallowed aura of gravitas and import. In this regard, it bears similarities to Jun Nagao’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV.

Where did this outburst of ambition come from? As it turned out, from a source that was both expected and surprising: Paul Romero. Before he was introduced to Heroes of Might and Magic‘s Sound Director and future serial collaborator Rob King, Romero had never played a video game. A former child prodigy, Romero had already performed around the world as a classical pianist before the age of 15. Graduating from the world-famous Conservatoire de Paris, Romero had dropped out of music performance after finishing his musical training. After working in various random jobs, it was Heroes of Might and Magic that brought him back to music.

Romero’s background easily explains the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack’s character. Few artists had previously thought of applying classical music’s conventions to the realm of video game music (although one shouldn’t forget The Dig‘s Wagnerian inspirations, also released in 1995). Romero – deeply knowledgeable about classical music composition and refreshingly unaware of game music conventions – was clearly happy to merge games and classical music. The result set a new benchmark for sophistication, density and maturity of orchestral writing in Western game scores.

But that wasn’t the only reason that the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack kicked off one of game music’s most revered franchises. For starters, Romero has a knack for penning drop-dead gorgeous melodies. The score’s melody lines are a constant pleasure, as elegant, refined and graceful as one would hope for, considering Romero’s classical inspirations. His melodies are also catchy. That’s not a characteristic one would usually associate with classical music, where melodies don’t often present themselves as hummable tunes. But it’s Romero’s Baroque inspirations make themselves felt here, if maybe in a slightly unexpected way. Heroes of Might and Magic‘s melodic material usually consists of relatively short figures, as is common in Baroque music, helping the melodies to instantly hook themselves into listeners’ memory banks.

And thankfully, Romero makes the most of his beguiling melodic creations. He structures his longer tracks around variations of a melody particular to each cue. Romero treats these variations with as much meticulousness as all other aspects of the music. They are not just repetitions of a once established motif, but instead they rework and elaborate upon the original material. Once more, it’s a procedure derived from classical music and when implemented as well as on the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack, it imbues the music with a sense of continuous development previously not found on Western game music compositions.

The focus on melodic variations also allows Romero to develop his compositions’ textures and moods in masterful fashion, while maintaining their structural coherence. For example, “Knight”’s opening maintains “Barbarian (Theme for Louis XIV)”’s light-hearted Baroque attitude and adds a more regal, stiff attitude. A beautifully long-spun oboe solo develops the track’s melodic material. After that, the melody passes to the uillean pipes, calling from a far-distant hill top above the moors. “Sorceress” almost plays like a miniature harpsichord concerto, mixing the playfulness of earlier pieces with a dash of mystery. “Warlock” is just as elaborately constructed, but its woodwind soli and string harmonies are sharper and harmonically more ambivalent.

Heroes of Might and Magic is a work that doesn’t outright revolutionise the Western fantasy game score genre, but certainly takes it to the next level. That is, before Heroes of Might and Magic II would magnify almost everything that is great about this soundtrack, and land in unprecedented territory.