One man choral group performs the Legend of Zelda theme

A reader writes, "Filipino composer and gamer Diwa De Leon performs a five man a-capella and violin of the themes from Legend of Zelda."

This is my own rendition of the themes from Legend of Zelda game composed by Koji Kondo. Most of my picks came from Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past originally for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
I'm a professional composer, arranger and violinist, and cosplaying is one of my hobbies as well as playing video game music just for fun.

Legend of Zelda medley - A Capella Voices and Violin

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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weatherman

The guy in the upper right is the best singer in the bunch. He should go solo and ditch the other losers.
krylon

augh you can’t play the music from link to the past (especially from the dark world) without totally making me miss the days when I played the game over and over trying to make sure i’d checked every nook and cranny
scionofgrace

The heavy emphasis on “Link to the Past” themes makes me all nostalgic. I loved that game SO MUCH.

Great video.
masterdiwa

Dear Boingboing staff, thank you once again for featuring my Legend of Zelda video.

I have a new video which I’d like to share to you, it’s my version of One Winged Angel from FF7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA-wlwzU6mI
Chipotle

#2: “ooof,from a professional violinist I would expect a better intonation…”

If you click the link to the youtube page, he says that he is ‘a bit of a violinist’, not a professional violinist.

You are correct to expect better intonation from a professional violinist. You are also correct to assume he is a professional violinist, because Cory quoted him as saying he is a professional violinist. I don’t know the guy updated his blurb after Cory took the snippet, or if Cory just quoted him wrongly (I’ll assume the former), but that’s the source of everyone’s confusion.

Although I do not enjoy his intonation, I am impressed. For ‘a bit of a violinist’ (whatever that means), he’s pretty solid.
Talia

Reminds me of this, which I love dearly (might have been linked here before, I dont recall)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4
Anonymous

And then there’s this awesome 64 track rendition of “Thriller” that a friend just turned me onto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFAVxaEc9JQ
katamari88

lovely, lovely, lovely!!!
failix

The post above (#24) sums it up very well for me. That’s exactly what I would’ve said too.
Frenetic

Nice hats!
DrSchnauzer

ooof,from a professional violinist I would expect a better intonation…
If that wasn’t in the description I would’ve said: Awesome!
Joel Johnson

Those themes always make me so wistful.
robcat2075

screechingly painful violin.
Evil Jim

Except for violin it’s very nice work. Makes me nostalgic.
FoetusNail

Yes, he seems a bit pitchey in places, but this is fantastic! Great arrangement Diwa! Thanks for the post Cory, added to favorites and Five Full Stars!
Homingpigen

I can’t believe people are being so nitpicky – Pitchy? intonation off? This is creative and wonderful.

I still say awesome!
Alan

It took my 14 year old son 2 seconds to recognize the song.
TheBlessedBlogger

I think it’s really lovely and creative. Good job Diwa :)
Daemon

Er… “a capella and violin” is an oxymoron. a capella means that it’s pure vocals with no intruments.

Other that that particular nitpick… Well done, even if I don’t have the “zelda is awsome!” gene required to appreciate the choice of music.
Anonymous

I prefer this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRv8gnBMiWM
Anonymous

wow, i have a large vocal range and great with synching in audacity & ableton, and never thought about this… changing clothes was a real nice touch too. i think i just found my gothic choir
gadfly

one man’s nitpick is another’s love for accuracy – his intonation on the violin is not that great, that doesn’t mean he’s worthless or the video sucks. in fact i think it’s pretty cool. certainly not as good as the wind waker video in post #9 but that guy doesn’t play any fretless string instruments. and being a guitar player who’s recently taken up the fiddle, i can attest to the truly maddening difficulty of good intonation.
pinehead

Quick! Everybody start bitching! We need more criticism over here! :O

Like Joel said, stuff like this makes me wistful. That was a cool arrangement, Mr. de Leon.
Takuan

don’t nitpick, it’s sweet and good. I really like #9 too!
JArmstrong

This is a really wonderful thing you have here in your directory! Oh, the long nights… and days…
PaulR

Daemon @ 8:

I came here to say the same thing, but then I realized that the four voices and violin are the same person. So when the voices were recorded, they each were a capella.

Well done!