Koji Kondo - The Legend of Zelda

Kondo's captivating score is an integral part of this iconic video game.

One of the trend-setters of video game music, Kondo's score for The Legend of Zelda paved the way for much of what came later – including Howard Shore's film music for Lord of the Rings.

Koji Kondo has, along with Nobuo Uematsu, become one of the leading lights of Japan's video game soundtrack world - mostly thanks to his music for the Zelda games.

The Legend Of Zelda constitutes many different games for different platforms, but they all have music at the heart of them. The main hero in the games, Link, often carries a flute, and in certain games players must help him to play the right musical motifs to progress.

Aside from this more technical application, Kondo's music for the games takes on a gloriously pastoral character, taking no small influence from both John Williams and Ralph Vaughan Williams. That pastoral character is, for many, eternally bound up in nostalgia for the games themselves, but melodies this good work whether you've played them or not.