Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- A Landmark Timeline of Video Game Music
- Foreword: The Collaborative Art of Game Music
- Introduction
- Part I Chiptunes
- Part II Creating and Programming Game Music
- Part III Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
- 9 Music Games
- 10 Autoethnography, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
- 11 Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games
- 12 Analytical Traditions and Game Music: Super Mario Galaxy as a Case Study
- 13 Semiotics in Game Music
- 14 Game – Music – Performance: Introducing a Ludomusicological Theory and Framework
- Part IV Realities, Perception and Psychology
- Part V Game Music, Contexts and Identities
- Part VI Beyond the Game
- 24 Producing Game Music Concerts
- Select Bibliography
- Index
13 - Semiotics in Game Music
from Part III - Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- A Landmark Timeline of Video Game Music
- Foreword: The Collaborative Art of Game Music
- Introduction
- Part I Chiptunes
- Part II Creating and Programming Game Music
- Part III Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music
- 9 Music Games
- 10 Autoethnography, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
- 11 Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games
- 12 Analytical Traditions and Game Music: Super Mario Galaxy as a Case Study
- 13 Semiotics in Game Music
- 14 Game – Music – Performance: Introducing a Ludomusicological Theory and Framework
- Part IV Realities, Perception and Psychology
- Part V Game Music, Contexts and Identities
- Part VI Beyond the Game
- 24 Producing Game Music Concerts
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Playing a video game is a very communicative activity. Set aside the ideas that communication only happens between humans and that communication only happens with words. We communicate with animals, machines and the built environment all the time, conveying our needs, aspirations, designs and emotions as we live in and shape our world. We do the same when we play video games, inhabiting a virtual space and forging our path through it. Understanding how we communicate with a video game, and how a video game communicates with us, helps us understand the fundamental elements of the video game text (like graphics, sound, narrative and music) and how they fit together. It also helps us to be able to shape and direct those communications, if we are in the business of constructing or composing for video games.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music , pp. 220 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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