Broadly cited as one of the most influential video game series of all time, as of 2023, The Legend of Zelda is one of the largest video game franchises in the world. Series protagonist Link has appeared in more than 30 games over a span of 37 years, and as of June 2023, the series as a whole has sold over 160.491 million units worldwide.

Established in 1986, music for the series has evolved from eight-bit chiptune to full fledged orchestrations, presenting musicians and scholars with a chronology of music that represents not only the series itself, but serves as a case study for the evolution of the role of music in video games.

The aim of this work is to examine the music of The Legend of Zelda in order to analyze its effectiveness as: 1) a narrative tool, wherein I will argue that the music in this series in particular has evolved into its own language through the leitmotivic nature of many of the themes, and helps to tie together the Zelda narrative over multiple games as well as further the narrative of the individual game the music is in, as well as analyze and establish the role of music in evoking emotion and 2) a gameplay mechanic, where the music (and by extension, the auditory environment of the game) provides cues to the player to prompt action in multiple ways, becoming a mechanic with importance on par with the visuals of the game itself. Finally, this work also attempts to take an overview on the role of music in video games as an art form comparable to long form writing, films, and other media that deal with storytelling, mythology, and emotion.

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