Sound of Gaming

Join Jessica Curry on a brand new adventure for Radio 3 as she delves into the exhilarating and joyous world of music for video games. Some of the most cutting edge, dynamic and expressive music being made today is composed for video games. And the music, like the games themselves, comes in all shapes and sizes: from intimate chamber music to full jazz bands or electronica to symphonic music on the largest scale, so if you’ve never listened to music from games before, prepare to have your expectations confounded! Jessica presents a heady mix of music to delight the most ardent gaming fans as well as enticing those who may never have even played a video game - with classic scores, new releases and some of her favourites. Today she talks to composer British composer Grant Kirkhope who has scored some of the best loved video games characters from Banjo-Kazooie to Mario alongside a catalogue of hit games that have sold over 30 million. Grant chats about the terror involved in scoring the iconic moustachioed plumber and how melody is the key to great games music. Plus we hear from music fans at EGX - the UK's biggest video games show. Get in touch - email soundofgaming@bbc.co.uk Full playlist: Koji Kondo - Gusty Garden Galaxy (Super Mario Galaxy) Christopher Tin - Sogno di Volare (Civilisation VI) Nainita Desai - Dawn (Telling Lies) Grant Kirkhope - Oven Fresh Day (Viva Piñata) Grant Kirkhope - Main Theme (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) Grant Kirkhope - Showdown Town Square (Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts) Todd Baker - Impossible Worlds (Monument Valley II) Nobuo Uematsu - To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X) Simon Hale - Temptation, Pt 1 (L.A. Noire) Andrew Hale - Main Theme (L.A. Noire) Traditional Russian - Korobeiniki (Tetris) Cris Velasco - Theme for The Long Dark (The Long Dark) Andrea Boccadoro - John Whitgift (Astrologaster) Grant Kirkhope - Mid Boss Mayhem (Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle) Grant Kirkhope - Tirnoch (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) Saori Kobayashi - The Ark (Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga) Jake Kaufman - Flowers of Antimony (Shovel Knight)