The Big Index 2024: Articles for Game Music Composers

Video game music composer Winifred Phillips, pictured here in her music studio at Generations Productions LLC. This photo is used to illustrate the Big Index, containing an organized repository of articles exploring topics of interest to game composers and game audio practitioners.

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Hey everybody! I’m video game music composer Winifred Phillips, author of the book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. Since the publication of my book by the MIT Press, I’ve maintained a monthly series of articles designed to expand upon the content of that book and enable further exploration of related topics. Inspired by my more recent video game projects in popular franchises such as Jurassic World, Lineage, and Sackboy, these articles have delved into subjects ranging from interactivity, to music theory, to business and networking.

The sheer number of articles has necessitated the inclusion of a navigation tool, so I now include an annual “Big Index” that can assist us in finding our way through the content that’s accumulated over the years.  What follows is that index, organized by general subject matter.  New to the index are articles from the past year that have engaged in more detailed and technical discussions of music theory-related topics, with deep dives into non-diatonic construction that included atonal and polytonal composition.  I’ve also included the transcripts of my interviews with National Public Radio and the BBC that took place in 2023.

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Game Music Interview on Top Score Podcast

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I’m very pleased to report that I was invited to be interviewed on the celebrated Top Score Podcast, and the interview was just released today!  You can listen to the entire interview here:

 

I was interviewed by Emily Reese, a formidable presence in the game music industry.  As a host at Classical Minnesota Public Radio, Reese has produced and hosted this special podcast dedicated to the field of game music since April of 2011.  The podcast specializes in interviews with game music composers, and has produced over 129 episodes so far.  In this capacity, Reese is a champion of game music and the people who make it.  She has predicted that game music will one day join the playlists of classical radio stations, right alongside the music of Vaughan Williams, Bernstein or Mozart. “There are some scores where absolutely that will happen,” Reese says. “Some of these composers should be remembered in 100, 200 or 300 years. They’re that good.”

Emily Reese interviewed me about my music for LittleBigPlanet 3 and Assassin’s Creed Liberation.  She also asked me questions about my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.   All my thanks to Emily Reese, editor Pierce Huxtable and the entire team at the Top Score Podcast.  I’m honored to have been interviewed for this terrific program!