Week of September 18, 2020

This Pick of the Week edition revives the 2019 "Augmented Realities: A Video Game Music Mini-Fest" at the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry, providing a platform for some of the world’s most creative artists to astound us with their interactive media. In a series of public events over three days, a gathering of composers, designers, performers, curators, and educators explored the music of this vital cultural phenomenon through film, lectures, discussions, performance, and interactive displays. We hope you enjoy it!

Pick of the Week - September 18, 2020:Video Game Music

A Brief History of Video Game Music (event date: April 5, 2019)

Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband of the video game music podcast "Pixelated Audio" discuss video game music's history, providing context for a video game score by Austin Wintory newly commissioned by the Library of Congress.

The Interface Between Music Composition and Game Design (event date: April 5, 2019)

Composer and author Winifred Phillips discusses her work as a composer for various game systems and franchises. Her presentation outlines techniques used in current and past video game music designs, such as horizontal resequencing and vertical layering.

Digital Collections and Resources at the Library of Congress

Winifred Phillips: The Music of the Game (Blog Post)
Winifred Phillips is a maestro in the world of video game music. She’s composed soundtracks for major hits such as Assassin’s Creed Liberation and The Da Vinci Code. She’s won industry awards. She’s written a book on the subject. She’ll be speaking this Saturday at the Library’s Augmented Realities Mini-Fest on the intricacies on composing for games, as opposed to traditional film and television scores. (Library of Congress Blog: April 4, 2019)
Would you Like to Save your Game? (Event Video)
(event date: May 1, 2020)
Libraries, archives, and museums face an ever-increasing amount of interactive media in their collections, including software applications, time-based artworks, and video games. These materials provide unique challenges in acquisition, description, and preservation. Many institutions are developing new approaches to ensuring the long-term preservation of and access to born-digital cultural artifacts.

Concerts from the Library of Congress: Pick of the Week

Week of September 18, 2020

Pick of the Week - September 18, 2020:Video Game Music

A Brief History of Video Game Music (event date: April 5, 2019)

The Interface Between Music Composition and Game Design (event date: April 5, 2019)

Digital Collections and Resources at the Library of Congress