Modern classical music in gaming

[Kevin]

Yeah. A variation on one your points:

Much of this music was created in 8/16-bit generations where technical limitations prohibited composers from coming up with anything that could possibly rival a 'real' piece of music. Many of these re-orchestrations are excellent considering; even if they didn't stem from 8-bit music or midi tracks (meaning they were written during the last decade), they still weren't written for a 100-piece orchestra to begin with.

Another obvious question is talent: some of this stuff is neat to listen to, but can today's composers of game music be compared with the great composers of the last five centuries? Is it even possible to make such a comparison when they write for entirely different media and audiences? How do we rate composers? Is it just a matter of personal taste or is it possible to rank them based on talent?

Oh I think many of them have great talent, but another factor is many of them are under pressure to get the music written very quickly as well. But I've listened to stuff that Christopher Tin has done that I had never heard before in game context and very much liked it. Admittedly it was Baba Yetu (the audio on that version isn't my favorite arrangement but it pairs so nicely with that BBC HD footage) that really caught my attention thanks to Civ 4, but I do listen to his other stuff.

So yeah I do think these guys have amazing talent when they have the chance to really dig into something. Tin was given a bit more free reign with Baba Yetu which is part of why I think it came out so well.

Of course I also feel that some of the stuff the greats in the past produced was pretty much trite crap too. But again it was stuff produced rapidly for mass consumption not necessarily their best works. I would like some of the video game and movie composers to get a chance to just produce more organically than they sometimes are allowed, but well you gotta make a buck.