Who made Warcraft's soundtrack?
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 31st 2007 at 11:00AM
Perhaps because of the upcoming VGL concert at Blizzcon, Erin over on WoW LJ asks about who wrote the WoW soundtrack and what else they've done. If you've got questions, we've got answers.Most of WoW's original soundtrack was written by Jason Hayes, who's worked with Blizzard since Starcraft. His most famous piece for Blizzard is probably "A Call to Arms," which probably still gets your heart pumping. He also wrote a lot of the original game's ambient music, including the Ironforge theme that we hear all... the... time. Here's a nice Q&A with Hayes, and while Hayes now works with other videogame companies (including NCSoft), he's also working on his own album, called Mosaic.
But of course he's not the only composer working for Blizzard. Glen Stafford (director of the Audio Department) and Tracy Bush also have written a lot of the music for WoW, as have Russel Brower, Derek Duke, and Matt Uelmen (the last three composers put together music for the Burning Crusade expansion, and Uelmen has won awards for his work on Diablo and Diablo II). Here's an interview with just Uelmen, and here's an interview with Stafford, Uelmen, and Hayes all together.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see that anyone but Hayes is working on other projects, unless L70ETC gets picked up by a record label-- while the members of that band are shrouded in mystery (besides lead singer Samwise Didier and Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime), I'd be very surprised if the Blizzard music team didn't have a representative on there.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Preston Jul 31st 2007 11:35AM
Who did the music for the first two Warcrafts? Definitely my favorite.
Mastgrr Jul 31st 2007 11:38AM
The best Warcraft soundtrack is BY FAR Warcraft 2 Tides of Darkness plus its expansion Beyond the Dark Portal. Every single song is unique. The way Horde focuses on harpsicords and toms whereas Alliance focuses on harps and bells wasexcellent. By far Glenn Staffords best work for Blizzard! BY FAR! Who can forget Dance of the Ogre? And why do you think they took the Alliance victory theme from War2 as the WoW alliance battleground victory theme?
Warcraft 3 was a major disappointment. I remember during the beta there was complaints about it too cause one of the songs had minutes worth of wind effects. The soundtrack was really blend and plain. I really think Pessino's test songs that were made for the alpha/pre-beta (were released but taken down, but I still have them) fit the game better, honestly. They made a big mistake in the direction they took and there were no really memorable themes or songs from this game.
Anyways, Warcraft 2 vs Warcraft 3 I think, was a perfect example of where MIDI to Audio transition didn't work in favor for the advances and advantages of new technology. The impression to me that still lasts to this day was "Oh, we can use audio so lets toss in wind that lasts 3 minutes cause we couldn't do that with MIDI before". Diablo was better. Starcraft was better. Diablo 2 was better. World of Warcraft was better. Lost Vikings was better (it's soundtrack kicks ass btw). Warcraft 3 really is a gap that was on par with Gregory Alper's half-assed Warcraft 1 soundtrack (which basically he didn't even compose anyway).
Roy Jul 31st 2007 11:39AM
@Preston:
I know Glen Stafford did the soundtrack for Warcraft 2. Not sure about Warcraft 1 though.
Mike Jul 31st 2007 12:08PM
It is just me, or has blizzard's music not been terribly memorable? Don't get me wrong- it's beautiful music... but I never find myself humming a warcraft tune. I remember playing games like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and Tyrian (both composed in part or in full by alexander brandon) and I could still recognize a track just from a few seconds of it. Sure it wasn't orchestrated, but each track was memorable and distinct.
Aurendar Jul 31st 2007 12:41PM
@4 Not True!
I find myself whistling TAVERN, the music you hear when entering Inn's and on ships from WoW. I LOVE that score and would like to have a full version of it rather than the short piece on the soundtrack.
Would LOVE to know who did that piece!
Preston Jul 31st 2007 12:44PM
@2:
"Warcraft 3 really is a gap that was on par with Gregory Alper's half-assed Warcraft 1 soundtrack (which basically he didn't even compose anyway)."
Wow, Warcraft 1's music is some of my favorite game music. Raw, medieval-fantasy war music. 2's was obviously excellent, but I hum the first game's tunes now and then.
Viper5030 Oct 17th 2007 1:52PM
Just thought I've give my 2 cents and comment that I agree wholeheardedly with Mastgrr. The warcraft 2 soundtrack still sends chills down my spine when I hear it. Just that fact that one of the Warcraft 3 music trakcs is a remake of a human Warcraft 2 song makes me happy. But yes, the rest of the Warcraft 3 music is a big dissappointment.
I just find it so funny that Mastgrr noticed the exact same thing as I did about the differences between the Orc and Human music. You really have to be observant to notice all that stuff, either that or listen to it when you go to sleep at night (I won't tell which category I fall under cuz I don't want to come off as a nerd, but you can probably guess).