Paris Performance To Debut Concert Of Video Game Music

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

So 30 years ago this summer, video games made their orchestral debut. It was a performance in Tokyo. It was the first time that music from a videogame was performed live, was from the Japanese game "Dragon Quest." And this trend has carried on ever since.

EIMEAR NOONE: Now, the original compositions are written for 90-piece orchestra, 80-piece choir and all the world music instruments you can think of.

GREENE: That is the voice of Eimear Noone. She's a video games composer best known for her work on the popular "Overwatch" and "World Of Warcraft" video games. This weekend, she's going to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in Paris in a performance of some really memorable tunes.

(SOUNDBITE OF KOJI KONDO'S "SUPER MARIO BROS. THEME")

GREENE: That is Nintendo's "Super Mario" franchise.

(SOUNDBITE OF ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCE, "SUPER MARIO BROS. THEME")

GREENE: You know that music was playing in your head when you were playing those games. So this concert is going to focus on game music from the '80s and '90s, a special kind of music according to Noone. Back then, putting sound into videogames actually wasn't that easy.

NOONE: Some of the melodies had to be programmed in note by note, so the tunes are really memorable because when you have to program it painstakingly, every note counts.

GREENE: And Noone says there's actually a bonus here. She feels like she might be introducing a new generation to orchestra music, a music genre they might not normally be that excited about.

NOONE: I see entire families all the time. And often, it's the kids that see the program and ask the parents to take them to see the symphony.

GREENE: That is the voice of videogame composer Eimear Noone.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.