What is going on in the harmony for the Legend of Zelda main theme otherwise known as “Overworld” by Koji Kondo? There are so many chromatic chords going on, so let’s dig in! First thing’s first, to know which chords are chromatic, we have to know what key we’re in. That means identifying the tonal center.
Overworld Tonal Center
There are multiple ways of establishing a tonal center:
- The traditional dominant-to-tonic motion. That means a V – I or a vii° – I.
- Play the tonic note repeatedly
- Play the tonic note as the lowest and the highest notes (also repeatedly)
- Put the tonic in strong metrical positions and leave the other chords in weaker metrical positions
These are just some ways of establishing a sense of tonal center. But how does the Zelda main theme establish a key in the beginning? At the beginning, we get a B♭ major triad. That’s strong metrical position.
Then we have this group of 4 measures of introduction before we get into the piece. At the end of the introduction, the harmony goes from F to B♭, which is that dominant-to-tonic motion. The introduction establishes the key through a combination of B♭ being in strong metrical positions and then also that dominant-to-tonic motion.
After this introduction, the way that the tonal center is established changes because we’re not getting B♭ every four measures. We have a few extra measures going on in there. We also have B♭ minor instead of B♭ major.
You can also see the change in how Kondo establishes the tonal center in the different kind of harmonic progression compared with the introduction. In the introduction, the harmony moves by steps: B♭ A♭ G♭ F
But in the meat of the piece, the harmony goes B♭ to F (a relationship of a 5th), but then it moves by step again to G♭, then a 5th to D♭, step to C♭, and so on, alternating between steps and 5ths.
Overworld Chromatic Harmony
Now that we have an idea of what the tonal center is (B♭), we get to look at the cool chromatic stuff that’s going on.
For those who don’t know chromatic refers to any chords that you’re using that are outside the key you’re in. These chords add more color to the music beyond the colors given by the chords that are in the key that you’re already in.
(Hence “chroma” for “chromatic”)
Overworld Modal Mixture
The first chord in the piece is B♭ major, and we get that again in bar 5.
See B♭ in mm. 1 and 5
If you know your scales well, then you’ll notice that I actually notated this piece with 5 flats, which is the key signature for D♭ major / B♭ minor instead of 2 flats (B♭ and E♭), which would be the actual key signature for B♭ major / G minor.
Did I make a mistake? No, I did this on purpose because the next chords are A♭ and G♭, which actually don’t come from the key of B♭ major. These are from the key of B♭ minor.
We call these borrowed chords because we’re borrowing these chords from another key.
This specific use of borrowed chords is a great example of what we call modal mixture. Modal mixture happens when we use chords from parallel keys.
Parallel keys share the same letter name, but they’re major or minor. B♭ major and B♭ minor are parallel keys.
To help you see what’s going on, the image below has all of the chords from B♭ major and B♭ minor lined up next to each other. Notice that none of these chords are the same in both keys.
Note that no chords are the same in both keys
Something composers were fond of in the 19th century especially in Western tonal music was to collapse parallel keys together. Instead of being very clearly in the major mode and just borrowing a chord here or there from the minor mode, composers actually collapse the two modes together to create one big key that use chords equally from both keys.
That’s what’s happening here in the Zelda main theme (Overworld).
We start in B♭ major with the B♭ major triad. We immediately use chords from B♭ minor (A♭ and G♭). Then, in m. 4, we get actually both versions of F. I didn’t write it in the chord notation, but we start with F minor with an A♭ in the bass. That switches to an A♮ that turns the whole chord to F major.
So we get both F minor and F major that leads us to B♭.
Overworld Chromatic Passing Chord
We continue this modal mixture in the next bar, going from B♭ major again to F minor and then to G♭. Then Kondo switches up that descending stepwise harmony to move by 5ths instead. We go from G♭ up to D♭ before stepping down to C♭.
But wait.
If you look back up at our handy chart of chords from B♭ major and B♭ minor, you’ll notice that C♭ is not in either key. Something else is going on here.
If you’re familiar with tonal harmony at all, you might notice that C is scale step 2 in both B♭ major and B♭ minor. Lowering the C by a half step could give us a Neapolitan chord.
A Neapolitan chord is a chord built from a lowered scale step 2 that usually functions as a predominant chord. That just means it steps very nicely into the V chord.
But the chord here in the Zelda main theme isn’t actually doing that. It’s going to B♭ minor, which is one of our tonics.
It’s not a dominant, so we need to look at context to figure out what’s actually going on here and why this C♭ major chord sounds like it actually belongs.
- It’s coming from D♭ major. Even though C♭ isn’t part of the key, it’s still only a step away from the previous chord (which follows the pattern of descending stepwise motion that Kondo had set up earlier in the piece).
- C♭ major is going to B♭ minor, which is only half a step away
- C♭ major uses notes from the B♭ minor mode. Other than the root (C♭), the chord uses E♭ and G♭, which are from B♭ minor instead of B♭ major.
Because of these three things, it looks like this C♭ major chord is somehow keeping us in the B♭ minor mode.
But wait.
Why wouldn’t Kondo have just used whatever C chord is in the key of B♭ minor?
In B♭ minor, the C chord is diminished. That actually makes it tricky to stay in the key of B♭ minor because diminished chords tend to lead very strongly to chords that are a half step away from them.
At the beginning of this post, I explained that a common way to establish a key is through dominant-to-tonic motion, which includes that vii° – I (or diminished chord to the chord half step above it), in this case D♭ major.
If we change it to C diminished, it’s going to sound like this:
You’ll hear that it doesn’t quite lead to B♭ minor as well anymore. In fact, it actually sounds like it’s supposed to go back up to D♭. Something like this:
So that’s why C♭ major is important here.
But then, the question is why use a C chord at all and why not some other chord?
Looking back at how the harmony worked before, this piece is characterized by harmonic descending stepwise motion. Kondo used what’s called a chromatic passing chord here to:
- Stick with the style of harmonic motion he was using before
- Lead downward to B♭
Overworld Secondary Dominant
But then, why do we have just a regular C major chord in the next measure (which also isn’t in the key of B♭ major or B♭ minor)? Something else is going on here.
For this, we also need more context. Doing any kind of music theory analysis involves going back and forth and looking at context to really get what’s going on.
What’s happening in the piece when we hear the C major chord?
We’re in the key of B♭ minor by this point. The chord is coming from a B♭ minor chord and going to an F major chord. The bigger context is that this F major chord here is at the end of like this little mini section, and we get a repetition of the beginning of the theme (m. 13)
Repeat of the beginning starts in m. 13
If you’ve taken any tonal harmony classes, a little bell should be going off in your head saying, “Hey, B♭ and F are a 5th apart.” They’re the tonic and dominant of the key of B♭ major.
Going back to the beginning of this post, going dominant to tonic is a way of establishing the key, so this is an important relationship that makes sense.
Then the F major just comes from the B♭ major mode, so we’re shifting back to major here. This makes sense because we have a B♭ major triad in m. 13. Of note, it’s also common for composers to use the dominant chord from the major mode because it’s stronger, even if you’re sticking in the minor mode.
Now that F major makes a little bit more sense. Let’s look at the relationship between the C major and the F.
That same little bell should be going off in your head right now because C and F are a 5th apart. C is the dominant and F is the tonic in the key of F major.
You’re probably asking, “Since when are we in the key of F major?”
That shows you’re paying attention because we’ve only been in B♭ major and B♭ minor this whole time. The only time it even sort of looks like we could be in F major is in these 2 measures (mm. 11–12), and yet we still have this dominant tonic progression that I told you can establish a key.
So did we actually change keys?
Not quite. This sort of thing happens a lot especially in the Western European classical Canon. It’s called tonicization.
Tonicization does this dominant-tonic progression, not to change keys, but to make a chord stronger sounding. In the case of this C major to F major, Kondo tonicized the F to make it sound a little bit stronger, which then makes its movement to B♭ even stronger as well.
When we use the dominant of the dominant here (C is the dominant of F, which is the dominant of B♭), it’s called a secondary dominant or an applied dominant, depending on whose textbook you’re using. They’re the same exact thing, just different names.
Conclusion
Now you know about chromatic harmony in The Legend of Zelda Main Theme!
Go back and listen to each of these moments, noticing the effects they have on you as a listener. What do they make you feel?
When you identify how these concepts affect your emotions, you can use the same types of chromatic harmony to create similar effects in your own music.
This was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of chromatic harmony. Learn more about chromatic harmony (and the effects it has in your music) here:
What other songs use chromatic harmony that you’d love to learn more about?