Video: The first Library of Congress lecture given by a video game music composer

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hey everyone!  I’m video game music composer Winifred Phillips.  This past April, I gave a lecture on video game music composition techniques at the invitation of The Library of Congress in Washington DC. It was the first speech on game music composition given at The Library of Congress, and I was tremendously honored to be able to represent the field of video game music!  My presentation was entitled “The Interface Between Music Composition and Game Design,” and was supported by a full house in the Whittall Pavilion of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress. In a previous article, I posted a partial transcript of the Q&A portion from my Library of Congress session, including some of the best questions from the Q&A.  Since then, The Library of Congress has included a video of my entire presentation as a part of their permanent archival collection for future generations.  I’m very pleased to be able to share the entire video with you!

The video of my Library of Congress lecture is embedded below.  The video includes my discussion of some of the top interactive music composition techniques executed by modern video game composers.  Along the way, I explored the history of interactive music, and I included some of the new challenges and considerations that composers face when composing music for Virtual Reality projects.  In addition, my lecture methodically explores the most effective processes for integrating both original and licensed music into video games.

This video lecture embedded below is now available for free in the Library of Congress’ permanent collection.  I hope you enjoy the video!

 

About the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the largest and most popular library in the world, with millions of great books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library of Congress is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. As the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, The Library of Congress is the steward of millions of recordings dating from the earliest Edison films to the present. In addition to the awesome size of its collection, The Library sponsors events, lectures and concerts that are free and open to the public. The Library of Congress hosts public events featuring famous authors, world leaders, entertainers, scholars, experts and sports legends. The Library has been recording Library events for decades and makes those recordings available in their expansive online collection.

Today’s Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 168 million items includes more than 39 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 72 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world’s largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings. The Library preserves and provides access to a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge to inform, inspire and engage both current and future generations in their intellectual and creative endeavors.

 

---

Popular music from composer Winifred Phillips’ award-winning Assassin’s Creed Liberation score will be performed live by a top 80-piece orchestra and choir as part of the Assassin’s Creed Symphony World Tour, which kicks off in June 2019. As an accomplished video game composer, Phillips is best known for composing music for games in five of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: Assassin’s Creed, LittleBigPlanet, Total War, God of War, and The Sims.  Phillips’ other notable projects include the triple-A first person shooter Homefront: The Revolution, and numerous virtual reality games, including Sports Scramble, Audioshield, Scraper: First Strike, Dragon Front, and many more.  She is the author of the award-winning bestseller A COMPOSER’S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, published by the MIT Press. As a VR game music expert, she writes frequently on the future of music in virtual reality games. Phillips’ is a sought-after public speaker, and she has been invited to speak about her work as a game composer at the Library of Congress, the Game Developers Conference, the Audio Engineering Society, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and many more.  Follow her on Twitter @winphillips.