6:00 "brothers": note the full stop at the end. 'bro' was quite specifically a black-American thing back in the '80s, and still a little edgy: Nintendo would never have used it in the title of a console cart about two white Italians aimed at a mainstream kids' audience. Very good video!

i love how completely you captured the utter DISMAY that every fan had when the villians either barely talked or didnt talk at all

I find it ironic how snow levels *always* have absolute fire soundtracks 🔥🔥

This one is quite good: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZzHf4ODa7ljqaM

Beautiful video! I want to mention a couple things that I hear a tiny bit differently from how you described them, but to be clear, this isn't at all meant as criticism--just to note things that struck me as interesting. For one, you describe the thirdlessness of the chords in "Snowy" from Undertale as giving them a "smaller, quainter quality"--and maybe so, but for me that actually adds quite directly to its feeling of coldness! Thirds are often metaphorized as a "warm" interval--they give a chord a rich and friendly depth. Omitting the third makes these chords a little stiffer and colder, to my ear. So that's really not to disagree with you, it's just to say that I think it does what you say it does even more directly! Also, regarding the Ice Cavern theme from Ocarina of Time (which I agree does an absolutely amazing job at what it does), I actually perceive the first chord as more of an inverted D minor chord than an extended C major chord, I suppose just because the top line and its D-C-Bb-C-D logic is what sticks out to me most. But it's only "minor" by virtue of the melody--analysed this way, the chord is more of an inverted D9(no3), and there we again have our "cold" thirdlessness!

I think an interesting video idea would be discussing why Cloud levels in videogames sound the way they do.

I really like the Sector 5 theme from Metroid Fusion. It feels tense, oppressive and slow, and makes you feel like you’re trapped in a giant freezer.

my favourite video game song for the first tier is crisp climb castle from mario 3d world bowser's fury, though i'm just a HUGE sucker for songs in the 3/4 time signature for some reason

great vid thank you, i love the megamanx ice music

When the sleigh bells

Honestly, I was pretty sure that Undertale's snowy was inspired by Earthbound's snowman, what with all the earthbound inspiration in the entire game. It also goes along with Pokémon r/s/e route 113

Lovely and informative video! I think there's a fifth type you could add to the list: intense, fast-paced music evocative of escaping from an avalanche or charging through a blizzard. You hear this a lot in action-oriented platformers and racing games - think something like Ice Ice Outpost from Mario Kart 8, Cool Edge Day from Sonic Unleashed, or Blizzard Man from Mega Man 6. Very synthy, very percussive, and often accompanied by an electric guitar for some of that glacial grittiness.

15:08 subtle but had no business to make me smile. Keep Up the good Work, I Love it!

amazing video, another song that makes me feel cold but cozy that im inside is the snowpoint theme from d&p! i remember as a kid being so cozy travelling up to snowpoint city for the first time!

The way you put "vibes" into words is incredible, this was a great video

Incredible video! OoT’s Ice Cavern’s shimmering sound comes from a sample CD (“Fantasia” from Best Service Gigapack) so my guess is the whole tone structure comes from simply writing the initial quartal and transposing the rest through a sampling keyboard.

Really loved the last one in particular: quartal voicings work beautifully for that sort of icy chill. What stood out to me was that while some of the “wintriness” could be seen as universal, programmatic invocations of nature, a lot of it is more culturally determined. For example, outside of the US, Christmas music doesn’t have the same strong association with 40s/50s jazz harmonies. I’ve always associated it more with either traditional carols or with cheesy novelty songs. And if you live in a place where Christmas isn’t in winter and winter is more wet and windy than crisp and snowy, then a lot of the other associations are weaker as well! But this is probably changing over time as things like “winter levels” develop their own musical language which comes to stand on its own,

For me, the _coldest_ I have ever felt from the music in a video game was in TotK - Specifically the Frozen arrangement of Rito village that plays before you do the Wind Temple. I'm not sure if it's 'objectively' as cold as ice cavern independent of the context of both of the BotW renditions of the theme (and the original Windwaker version), but applying that instrumentation and arrangement to a tune that is usually fairly warm and inviting creates the musical impression of a community desperately clinging on while slowly running out of resources due to an intense cold for me. Ice cavern has - for me - a neutral coldness; one that's unpleasant to be in and will likely cause you major problems if you don't wear appropriate clothing for it, but not actively out to hurt you. The frozen arrangement of the Rito Village theme feels far more hostile to me in the nature of the cold, because it's bringing that level of coldness and throwing it at a community without the infrastructure to handle it.

Can't hear the Ice Cavern theme without my brain filling in the Freezard breath and 'Link getting frozen and then breaking back out of ice' noises.

this is a great video but in my mind any description of cold music (even though we're limited to games here) should mention the sibelius violin concerto, which contains all three of the non-christmas feelings (and a fourth one, which is more like the feeling of being warm and cozy inside while it's cold outside). other than that this is a great job thanks for the video (:

hey, Im new at making music and really like your videos despite not knowing anything about music theory. I know its allot to ask, but could you (or anyone else) look at a song I made? I feel like I captured strong emotions, but dont know how I did it at all. Some feedback would be nice, but regardless i really appreciate the work you do. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3bZhYigaqd6pZo (its on a different account of mine)

A couple of my favorite underrated ice themes are Frozen Wasteland from World's End Club and Ice Vellumental Mountain from Paper Mario: The Origami King! Ice Vellumental Mountain is especially interesting because it uses a sitar, which is the most stereotypically "hot climate soundtrack" instrument you could pick!

If you ever get the chance, please consider listening to "Remember to be patient" from the omori ost. It really gives off that icey wintery feeling and imo one of the best winter themed osts

Is there a full version of your outro track anywhere?

This is the first video of yours I've seen, and its really well researched! I was starting on a video game project with a winter theme, and this is really helpful One ice theme I think of is Arcterra #1 from Metroid Prime Hunters. I think its the best I've ever heard at capturing the sound of isolation in an unbelievably cold alien landscape, it feels like that kind of cold that's too cold even for snow, the cold that gets through all your layers and hurts your bare skin.

you should talk about the music from "dragonspine"!!!

Albert Collins was a blues guitarist whos nickname was "Iceman" owing to his use of a very high capo and a very stinging bright trebly tone along with playing not with a pick but with his thumb and fingers given even more of a snappy almost brittle tone. I'm not sure how the nickname came about exactly but there must be something innate about those aspects owing to a "cold" sound

Babe wake up, Cadence Hira uploaded

The best part is the glitchy gameplay while the ice theme is playing 15:41. Really takes me back to my childhood!

15:07 you're a gem Hira, never change 🤣🤣

I have a few, but one song I don’t think was mentioned yet is “Snow, lots of snow” from A Short Hike. Probably around a level 3 on this scale

One of my favorite winter-themed pieces of music-and one of the most popular for ambient playlists/videos-is Snow World from Yume Nikki. It has this cheerful yet somber kinda tone to it, like it’s relaxing in a way that it…probably shouldn’t/not meant to be. I’d be interested to know what you think if you decide to listen, and I’d also really like to see a video on Yume Nikki music as a whole, it’s definitely in a class of its own and it’d be a great watch at least for me :))

Love your videos, as always! I like your categories of winter themed music a lot! One of my favourites is the winter theme "The Wind Can Be Still" from Stardew Valley. The first time you hear it, it's quite sad and sleepy and almost depressing (maybe I'm projecting some things I need to work out on my own lol). It communicates a bit of the spacious desolate feeling like the Ice Cavern and Phendrana themes do, and it's definitely minor like many of those themes, but there's a bittersweetness that juuuust peeks through as if saying "welcome to the fallow season, rest (mine), go visit your friends, and stay warm; Spring will return soon enough". It's exactly what the homesteading experience would be like, especially "back in the day". Feed the fire, eat what you've stored up, make sure the livestock are warm enough to survive, and hope you don't get buried inside your home. The fact that a piece of music can actually get across all those senses is pretty magical.

Seeking power FFXII

One of my favorite cold themes is Frozen Rito Village from Zelda TOTK, due to how it took the original and changed the vibe COMPLETELY. The original theme sounds warm and welcoming, but even though the totk version uses the original motifs and instruments, but it just sounds... hollow. It sounds like what you described in level 3, where the music is extremely minimal and instead of a warm rich accompaniment it's replaced with a deep windy atmosphere that only provides the bare minimum harmony, oftentimes omitting parts of the chord. The implied key of the melody provides the majority of information about the progression, with only a skeleton of an accompaniment providing the rest of the details. I didn't go into a really deep analysis but it uses pedal tones and chromatic movement to create a sense of unease and loneliness. During the phrase that plays the dragon roost theme, there's a G pedal and a lot of the harmonies move chromatically to flat 9ths & 13ths. Near the end the DR theme that originally had a Dbma7 C7 Bbmi7 Abma7 progression gets a Db pedal in the bass, and the progression becomes Dbma7 Gø7/Db Db°7 Dbma9, Dbma7 Gø7/Db Gb7#11/Db Dbma7. The use of windy pads and long reverb tails gives it a very desolate sound, and the higher pitched instruments and sparse low end gives it a very cold & icy feel.

Literally yelled “YES!” when you used the Ice Caverns theme from Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m playing it right now and it’s my first Zelda game! Some other ice themes I like: Snow Forest- A Single Flower Blossoms from OMORI SNOWFLAKES from Persona 4 Golden So Happy World- Persona 5 Royal Everwinter from Blinx the Timesweeper

Dude I’m so cooked the thumbnail made me immediately think of the soyjak trio

pikmin 3 distant tundra

Artistry is all about taking Zeitgeists and using them to your advantage

Another great "cold" music is "Bird is Float"/mountain theme from the Baba is You Ost

I think the focus on harmony making things sound cold sort of diminished with every subsequent example in this video...but at the same time, it cuts to the heart of the matter. I don't think harmony has much effect on something sounding cold; I think it's the instrumentation, as focused on in the final two pieces demonstrated. For example, I don't think anything about the harmony or melody of "Sleigh Ride" sounds cold or snowy. It sound Christmas-ey because it's festive, but that isn't the same thing as sounding cold. If you didn't associate that song with Christmas, it could just be another jazz piece. Actually, some instrumentations make it sound like a Sugiyama piece...like if you took out any percussive sounds and slowed the tempo a bit, it could replace the town theme in Dragon Quest 7, lol. This actually makes me wonder: Are there any pieces of video game music that feel "cold" that don't feature any percussion or chordophones?

Bells, chimes, anything that sounds like you're hitting ice to make music is my favorite way to make it sound cold. Crash Bandicoot The Wrath Of Cortex (mouthful) has great ice music with synthesised tonal winds.

Some of my favorite "Winter"/Snowy themes in video games is the Valak Mountain themes in Xenoblade Chronicles 1. There's a day and night version, and it's very interesting how they evoke VERY different emotions despite being the same place. The daytime theme has a heavy usage of oboe and woodwind instruments, while the night focuses basically entirely on the piano. Daytime's theme feels more hostile and... well "chilling", while nighttime is generally more "lively"

Here are 2 another examples of Warmer Snow in game music: One is from Octopath Traveler 1 and the other is from White Album 2, where the title music uses IV -> I over and over again but put more emphasis on the chime timbre to illustrate snow falling

definitely listen to the soundtrack to i am setsuna, the entire game takes place in snowy areas

As someone who greatly enjoys musical expression but has only a barebones knowledge of music theory, I really appreciate your ability to explain what's going on with these sounds in such a detailed, yet digestible way! It's fascinating how music can be used to evoke such specific concepts and feelings. For me, Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3 is the quintessential snow level theme, though its successor in Sonic Adventure also does a great job of capturing the joyful feeling of cruising through layers of fresh snow.

Your content is amazing. Who knew there were other lovers of music theory in video games. Binging all ur videos now. Thank you

Freezeezy Peak in Banjo Kazooie, anyone?

This is really good analysis! 🫡🫡💯

15:07 Aren’t you supposed to avoid Licking ice walls on a cold day? Your midi soundfont could get stuck.