Those of us who have children that are, dare I say, addicted to Minecraft, or, in more euphemistic language, are Minecraft architects, then we are familiar with the Minecraft soundtrack that has serenaded the household on many video-gaming occasion. This is why I am most thankful that the German composer and sound designer, Daniel Rosenfeld, better known online as C418, created such soothing and pleasant music to accompany the game.
The signature Minecraft sound is quite minimalist and ambient in nature, with its peaceful, ethereal and melancholic qualities. Some have compared it to the work of Brian Eno, and other experimental, electronic musicians. The soundtrack brilliantly creates a serene atmosphere in which the gamer can build, explore and create. It is helpful in the same way that listening to classical music while studying or working can enhance focus and productivity.
Rosenfeld evidently had little choice in choosing a minimalist approach. “Minecraft has a terrible sound engine,” he explained. “Imagine a looping sound file that plays for two seconds and then just starts over. Let’s say it’s a rain sound effect and now you’re on a beach so you have wave sounds, too – but if you do that, if you play two looping sound files simultaneously, the engine crashes. And the engine only has 20 sound channels. So if you make a cow farm or a sheep farm, you can’t have all the animals making noises at the same time. Terrible.”
There are many biomes and landscapes in the game, which players can move erratically between, so creating music for each landscape could have created a choatic, disjointed soundscape. So instead Rosenfeld worked towards crafting seamless, peaceful music to promote a sense of continuity and purpose. He wanted the music to be secondary and not distracting as the player creates and moves about, and to only be noticeable during key moments of the player’s journey. “I almost hoped that they’d only notice it when something interesting happens in the game,” he exclaims. “That way the player automatically identifies the music specifically with events that they themselves created. Imagine you’re building a house and the sun starts setting, and the theme the music comes in – or you go into a cave and there is lava and there are diamonds, and then the music plays. People still come up to me and tell them their story of how they did this or that and then the music came in and it was like magic to them – even though it’s completely random.”
It is also wonderful that several Minecraft compositions sound so beautiful on the piano and are easy to learn. One such example is “Wet Hands,” one of the most popular Minecraft tunes. This piece is gentle and relaxing to play. It is in the key of A major, with four beats per measure and a slow, andante tempo. The left hand has a broken chord accompaniment that often uses extended ninth chords. The melody has a slow pace that picks up at times with a rolling contour that mimics the left hand pattern. Together, they create a reverie-like mood, an atmosphere of serene contemplation. A world of endless creative possibility and where one’s imagination can run wild in whatever biome or landscape one fancies.