Assassin’s Creed
The plot
Jesper Kyd is a well-established Danish composer in the video and TV industries. He was tasked with composing the Music accompanying a range of media: film, TV, books, video games. music for the Assassin’s Creed series which is an action-adventure video game, released in 2007.
The premise of the game is that the Assassins are fighting for peace in each of the different worlds. The player controls the Assassin in historical events and ancient worlds, as well as in the modern day. Therefore, the music Kyd composed had different purposes, and combined past and present. This can be heard in parts of the soundtrack where medieval-style music is merged with with modern An electronic keyboard that allows the player to change the sound. sounds.
Image caption, Assassin's Creed game locations
The hillfort Masyaf in Syria
1 of 3
Game music textures
The music of Assassin’s Creed relies heavily on repetition with various The number of layers in a piece of music. layers being added depending on the player’s choices.
Important considerations for Kyd when composing the soundtrack were:
- fitting the music to the world of the game
- setting music for a specific scene, such as a battle
- creating atmospheric effects
- implying what might be about to happen
- guiding a player within the game
- matching sound effects to what the player views on the screen