It’s The Banner Saga month in Game Music Hub! This article begins a four-week coverage on Austin Wintory’s stunning trilogy of scores for the tactical, turn-based RPG series of games.

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As a fan of game music, I often find myself trying out games solely because I listened to the score on its own and liked the music. I got to discover the beauty of Final Fantasy VII that way, or completely fell in love with the first two Dead Space games because of listening to the first score. Other favorites like Halo, Uncharted, Fable (yes, you read that right) or The Witcher were the result of me listening to their music first. The Banner Saga is one of such games.

Allow me to indulge in a bit of history– back in 2014, Austin Wintory was already quite the name among fans of game music thanks to his stellar work on Journey, but I was actually very indifferent to his music. The release of the very first Banner Saga didn’t make a difference at first. His music always came across as very intellectual and musically accomplished, but quite cold emotionally (a descriptor that would probably make him wince a bit; it does to me). The technique and talent was always there, but I couldn’t really connect with the music emotionally. Journey, Flow, Monaco, Horn… you name it.

Then one day, about a year after The Banner Saga came out, I relistened to it, and I had a completely different reaction. Maybe it was my evolving tastes, maybe my ears were faulty then, I don’t know. Suddenly, I found myself engrossed by the rich Scandinavian-inspired instrumental palette, the harsh, unforgiving mood of the music, and the detail in the writing, whether in the action music, the quiet moments or the in-game folk songs.

I immediately felt the need to seek out the game. You can tell how much the music made an impact on me because I never would have otherwise played the game on the grounds of it 1) not being on my radar, and 2) being a turn-based strategy game, a genre at which I’m absolutely terrible.

I came out of the other side of the experience a fan of the score, and completely enamoured by the game. Not only is it a narratively satisfying experience set in an absorbing and detailed world, but its turn-based combat mechanics are intricate and reward experimentation and… well, strategy (and no, I never did git gud at it, to my very own dismay).

The rest, as they say, is history. Today, I’m a huge fan of Stoic’s work on the games, their rich world-building, boldness, layered characters, emotional impact and deep understanding of branching narrative.

I also am a huge fan of Austin Wintory. The Banner Saga opened my eyes to how much of a doofus I was for not “getting” his music. I think he’s genuinely one of the most exciting composers working in games right now, and am always anticipating whenever a game that he scored comes about.

Which brings us to today. It’s my honor to present a custom playlist of selections from the entire Banner Saga trilogy, curated by yours truly. As usual, join me after the jump for behind the scenes stuff.

TRACKLIST:
1. Onward
2. The World is Breaking
3. Cut with a Keen-Edged Sword
4. Only Snow can Shield the Sun
5. Strewn Across a Bridge
6. Huddled in the Shadows
7. The Twilight Flight
8. Of Our Bones, the Hills
9. Our Steps, to the Night
10. Into the Hurricane
11. Feet and Shields Planted
12. A Path Through the Skies
13. Children of the Fallen
14. Ruin Beyond the Walls
15. From the Table to the Axe
16. With a Mighty Grief that was Ours and Theirs
17. Fate, Chosen
18. We are all Guests Upon the Land
19. Only We Few Remember it Now

Behind the Scenes

One of the necessities of running a blog like this, with the type of articles I write (both Modding the Score and the actual analytical essays), is that I need to schedule everything months in advance.

I can’t exactly turn in a detailed analysis of the musical narrative behind God of War’s main boss every week, or even just a custom playlist. They take naturally longer to make and require more work, which is why there are fewer of them thus far.

Where I’m going with this is that this playlist has mostly been finished since late-August, but because of the inherent ambition behind the article I was planning to go with it (about the intricate thematic narrative of the music, and which eventually turned into the whopping three articles to be published in the coming weeks), I had to wait until November before it could see the light of day.

Other than a couple of tracks and their ordering, the process was pretty smooth sailing. Another series of scores that benefit from me knowing them inside out.

Many of the choices I made in this playlist have everything to do with the themes of the score. I won’t go too much into it because I want to leave it for the following weeks, but the playlist is anchored by what I consider to be the three most important thematic ideas in the score– the main theme, the hero motif and Juno’s theme.

Both the main theme and Juno’s theme are prominently featured in Onward, the end credits song from the first game sung by Malukah and Peter Hollens, which is why I chose to open the playlist with it, instead of going with the menu screen cue from the first game like any sane person would. The hero motif is introduced two tracks after in Cut with a Keen-Edged Sword. The three of them then go on to appear frequently throughout the playlist.

Juno’s theme in particular is laid out to mirror its evolution in the trilogy itself, meaning that its early appearances are subtle and muted, such as in Huddled in the Shadows, but by the end it’s at the forefront of the music, like the lengthy treatment it receives during the middle portion of With a Mighty Grief that was Ours and Theirs. And speaking of this track…

One of my main concerns going into the playlist was the significant amount of action music there is on the albums. I don’t mean this as a criticism because the music is fantastic and the games do feature a lot of combat… but it’s spread out over the course of three hours on three different albums. The immediate concern was that the 80-minute runtime I was targeting would quickly be swallowed by an overabundance of action music if I wanted to include every single track I liked.

So I had to omit several major action tracks from all three albums, most notably the climatic Threads Unweave from The Banner Saga 2. Even then, though, with such juggernauts as Of Our Bones, the Hills and With a Mighty Grief that was Ours and Theirs still taking up huge amounts of time, I couldn’t incorporate the majority of the diegetic folk songs (like There is No Bad Weather, Minds like Streams and Streams like Minds or An Unblinking Eye) that appear in the games, with From the Table to the Axe being the only one I was able to squeeze in.

The rest of the tracks help flesh out the secondary themes of the trilogy, like the War Anthem or the Ravens theme, and provide a nice contrast with the bombast of these lengthy tracks.

The existence of tracks like Of Our Bones and Mighty Grief meant that it was also going to be a problem having them co-exist within the playlist. Both are lengthy, barn-storming tracks filled with action music and emotional moments. They’re journeys unto themselves, let alone in the context of a larger score.

The way I went around avoiding that both tracks cancel each other out emotionally was to basically build two climaxes in the playlist, the first coming in at the halfway point, and the second one at the end. Every track during the first half is designed to build towards Of Our Bones, the Hills, first by introducing most of the thematic ideas in the trilogy and the general style of the scores. Strewn Across a Bridge and The Twilight Flight are the first taste of action music before Of Our Bones blows everyone’s ears out. After that comes a bit of calm with the somber Our Steps, to the Night, the stunning end credits song from the second game sung by Árstíðir.

Into the Hurricane felt like a natural point to begin the second half because of two specific reasons, 1) It’s the first track from The Banner Saga 3 to appear in the playlist up to this point and, 2) It gave me a chance to introduce the evolved hero motif from the third game into the playlist much more naturally (more on that evolution in three weeks!).

So, in much the same way that every track during the first half builds towards Of Our Bones, the Hills, every track during the second half builds in emotional intensity towards With a Mighty Grief that was Ours and Theirs, with the added bonus of it being much more action-packed than the first half.

Only We Few Remember it Now was always intended to be the final track; the song’s hopeful, resolute mood alongside Eivør Pálsdóttir’s soaring vocals were the perfect way to cap off such a somber, often brutal journey. However, the decision to place We Are All Guests Upon the Land before it was made fairly late. Originally, the playlist’s final tracks were Mighty Grief, Fate, Chosen (the chance to hear the original hero motif before the end was too delicious to pass up) and Only We Few. Sure enough, it was a very strong finale, but it started to nag at me how the main theme seemingly fizzled out during the final third.

The heavily emotional performance of the main theme during We Are All Guests made it the perfect candidate for a final, cathartic statement of the theme that started it all before moving into Only We Few.

Even though I made an effort to include as much as possible into this playlist, I cannot stress enough how much great music was left out. As usual, these playlists serve a two-fold purpose– for listeners familiar with the trilogy, it’s a way of experiencing the scores through a different lens. For the people unfamiliar, this is an entry point, so you can try out the scores and, if you like them, by all means dive into the full albums and, maybe even more so, play the games and discover Stoic’s masterpiece, the journey is well worth it.

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THE BANNER SAGA
Music by Austin Wintory
Performed by The Dallas Winds
Conducted by Jerry F. Dunkin
Featuring performances by Taylor Davis (violin), Peter Hollens (vocals), Malukah (vocals), Johann Sigurdarson (vocals), Mike Niemietz (prepared electric guitar) and Randin Graves (didgeridoo)

THE BANNER SAGA 2
Music composed, conducted and orchestrated by Austin Wintory
Orchestrations by Susie Seiter
Performed by Colorado Symphony
Featuring performances by Árstidir (vocals), Taylor Davis (violin), Peter Hollens (vocals), Malukah (vocals), Holly Sedillos (vocals), Noah Gladstone (bukkehorn), Mike Niemietz (prepared electric guitar), Randin Graves (didgeridoo) and Austin Wintory (accordion)

THE BANNER SAGA 3
Music composed, conducted and orchestrated by Austin Wintory
Otchestrations by Susie Seiter
Performed by The London Studio Orchestra
Featuring orchestral performances by Richard Watkins (French horn), Alistair Mackie (trumpet) and David Bishop (baritone saxophone)
Featuring performances by Taylor Davis (violin), Kristin Naigus (woodwinds), Malukah (vocals), Peter Hollens (vocals), Johann Sigurdarson (vocals), Anthony Parnther (bass sarrusophone), Noah Gladstone (bukkelhorn), Mike Niemietz (prepared electric guitar), Randy Graves (didgeridoo) and Austin Wintory (accordion)
Only We Few Remember it Now featuring vocals by Eivør Pálsdóttir