The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Orchestrations [Import] [Audio CD] Koji Kondo

Even though this album is made wiht keyboards, they are very clear, full sounding. Most of the songs are decent, a few are a little annoying. I reccomend Astral Observatory, mainly because I loved that song in the game, and it sounds really good on this cd. Also the bounus Indigo-Go's track is a nice jazzy swing, that is amusing. Overall you can't really go wrong.

Contrary to the title, The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Orchestrations is not performed by an orchestra at all! Instead, it sounds like a bunch of guys performing on high-quality synthesizers that nearly sound like an orchestra (think Symphony Ys '95). I was pretty disappointed on this level; I was expecting it to be symphonic, not synth-phonic!

That said, The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Orchestrations is still worth getting. It contains arrangements of 18 songs from the game (some of which are condensed together onto one track), all faithful to the originals. They all sound full and much richer than the quality of the system on the original game soundtrack.

Don't be fooled by the fact that there are only 11 tracks. Four of them contain more than one song from The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask. "Opening" begins with the eerie, quiet strings found in the "Opening Demo", then it segues into the very lively (and Scottish) "Clock Town" music, before concluding with the last part of the "Title Demo" - which contains the sinister, Arabian-style theme of Majora. "Commanding Vow" contains both the slow theme of the Giants and the Ocarina song of the same title, mixed together in a very majestic, mysterious tocatta (there's an excellent organ solo, even though there are no choral vocals on that track as well). "Fighting Enemies" contain three of the game's boss battle themes ("Boss Battle", "Mujula's Mask Battle" and "Mujula's Magic Emperor Battle") and is bookended by the very fast, intense (and obnoxious) "Mujula's Mask Moon". "Ceremony" starts with the triumphant fanfare that accompanies the Moon's demise, then plays a very lovely, slow song (which I didn't remember hearing from the soundtrack album... composed for this track, perhaps?), before it plays the triumphant, primitive celebration music along with hints of the classic Zelda Overworld theme. All of these compilation tracks transition the various melodies into each other so well, and are cleverly arranged.

The remainder of the album has a number of tracks that are really fun to listen to. "Termina Field" (yes, the revamped version of the Zelda Overworld theme) is a delight - with a very lovely (and well done) piano solo about two-thirds through the track. The carnival-like "Music Box Shrine" has hints of the "Waltz of The Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, from the ascending scales and descending broken chords of the harp, to the catchy three-note waltz-beat that only the strings can perform with grace.

The last track may strike some listeners as being out-of-place on an "orchestral" album. But then, the music of Majora's Mask is similarly offbeat. This bonus track, entitled "Daru Blue", is an extended version of the jazzy, irresistibly bouncy - and groovy - swing song that the Zora Band plays. The only time this song had an extension (it was only about 45 seconds long on the original album) was briefly on the Ending music track. However, this arrangement is a real treat, especially for fans of the original.

Even though the title is misleading, and the bombast performances overemphasized, the excellent arrangements of the songs on this album more than make up for it.

I was really hoping this would have been as good as the Ocarina of Time orchestrated album. I was hoping this album would be orchestrated! It has the flavor of Major's mask. but its not all there. Take the Goron's Shrine piece for instance: In the game, the song is backed by the goron's voices giving it a truly amazing sound. In this cd however, those goron voices are synthesized and also in the wrong pitch. Not what I expected. One star gone right there. It just does not have the same feeling that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Original Soundtrack has. Its still a nice piece, but it could have been better.

I was a little bit disappointed when I first listened to this soundtrack.

Yes, it does sound great, but every instrument is digitally replicated and not real even though it says orchestrations on the cover.

Qualitywise, I'd say it's a little bit better than the music that you find on The Wind Waker's original soundtrack.

I've also had some problems playing the CD of on my CD-player. It doesn't work. I have to play it on my computer to be able to listen to it, which is a shame. I don't know if all copies are like this though, I might have been unlucky...

If you're know what you're buying and what to expect, this isn't too bad a soundtrack. I'd still recommend it to people who enjoyed Zelda: Majora's Mask and would like to have a different musical experience than the one you got in the game!