The gaming music making an impact on the classical sector

For many gamers, video games offer a means of escape from the mundane, a portal to an exciting alternate reality. Game creators are constantly finding new ways to make their creations as real as possible, and while detailed graphics and realistic gameplay are integral to immersing players in imagined realms, constructing a believable sound world is a key element of each player’s in-game journey. The audience’s affection for gaming music goes beyond the screen, too, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra naming concerts of video game soundtracks among the six orchestral concert formats which have grown in popularity since 2018, rising from three to 11 per cent of concerts surveyed in the orchestra’s April report. Open-world adventure role-playing game Genshin Impact is just one example of how an effective soundtrack can make or break a game; the popularity of its soundtrack – which transports gamers to the mythical world of Teyvat – is something of a phenomenon.

‘There's a joke among our fandom that we are a music company that makes some video games on the side,’ Wenyi Jin, president of Global Publishing and Operations at Genshin Impact creator company HoYoverse, tells me. The game’s music has been created in-house by the HOYO-MiX studio team for over a decade, guided by the philosophy of ‘building a world with music’. ‘Just like our other projects,’ says Jin, ‘the music production of Genshin Impact started in the very early stage of game development and keeps growing with the fans and world of the game’. This holistic, evolution-based approach to soundtrack creation has certainly paid off when it comes to fan interest, and HoYoverse has released several physical albums since the launch of the game's first major expansion, Genshin Impact Version 2.0, in 2021.

Fan favourite: the popularity of Genshin Impact's soundtrack with the game's millions of fans underpins the Impact4Music initiative (Image courtesy of Impact4Music)

The game’s development team is now harnessing the popularity of the Genshin soundtrack to support the wider classical music industry through Impact4Music, a new initiative which aims to ‘spread the culture of music and support local talent around the globe’. The project was originally launched in Europe last year, with the initial offer of free Genshin Impact soundtrack sheet music to university orchestras alongside financial support and chances to perform. Through free-to-attend concerts subsidised by Impact4Music, the project also has the goal of bringing high-quality music performances to a wider audience. Guided by another of the Genshin team’s philosophies – ‘music for everyone’ – the project is now open to applicants from anywhere in the world, as long as each concert includes at least one piece of music from the game soundtrack. Jin explains: ‘Any non-profit orchestra and musician may apply to use Genshin Impact sheet music free of charge, and for financial support to perform. For example, we may help to cover the expense of performing in music halls or certain venues. Meanwhile, we are willing to provide further support and funds based on the orchestra's needs and ideas.’

As with Genshin Impact’s music, the project evolved with the support of the game’s developers and music studio, but the team also wanted to develop the initiative with input from the people they wanted to help. ‘We talked to musicians and orchestras to learn about their difficulties and needs,’ says Jin. ‘Then we checked our resources and reached out to different organizations to make things happen. The feedback from both beneficiaries and audiences has greatly affirmed our efforts.’ The project has so far supported 14 performances in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States.

Impact4Music's recent sold-out concert in Vienna brought together gaming and classical music fans and raised money for local charities (Image courtesy of Impact4Music)

However, far from dropping in for a concert and leaving once the applause is over, the Impact4Music initiative lives up to its name – creating an impact within the communities it collaborates with. Support for orchestras and music industry is amplified by an additional arm of support, offering donations to social causes local to each event. A sold-out Impact4Music concert in Vienna earlier this month collected donations for charities including Youth Initiative, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime project helping young people become active in preventing drug use in their communities. Beyond the rehearsal and concert process, the Genshin team also works to build sustainable relationships within the orchestral sector. ‘For a conductor, many collaborations are just for a project or a concert with a short time span – even just a week,’ Vienna University Philharmonic director Vijay Upadhyaya, who directed the concert in the Austrian capital tells me. ‘My collaboration with Impact4Music has developed before the concert and in the months after the concert too. The concert was just the tip of the iceberg! I think this partnership is very promising and sustainable for activities in the future.’

This sense of sustainability and growth can be found in the game’s ‘fandom’ of players, too. The trend of sharing ‘fan art’ on social media has exploded in popularity in recent years and Genshin Impact has not fallen behind the trend – Instagram’s #genshinimpactfanart tag boasts over two million posts. I ask Jin whether she thinks the trend will translate to the music world, but the Genshin team, it seems, are already one step ahead: ‘We already found a lot of derived or adapted music on social media, and this is a part of the fan works for sure. We even invited some of them to perform during some of our events and gatherings.’ And the Impact4Music team are keen to harness this desire to get involved: ‘We want to leverage that influence in support of good causes based on our shared passion in an enjoyable, helpful, and sustainable way for our fans, community, and our team members.’

Around the world: Genshin Impact's soundtrack is influenced by music from aross the globe (Image courtesy of Impact4Music)

The fans’ love for the Genshin Impact soundtrack underpins the entire Impact4Music initiative. HoYoverse’s insistence on in-house creation and careful growth of the music alongside the game are clearly factors in the creation of an impactful soundtrack, but what draws fans to the music itself? For Jin, the key to the HOYO-MiX studio team’s success is its openness. ‘Our music doesn't have a defined style,’ she says, ‘but it always centres on empathy. Good music can convey emotions and go directly to your heart regardless of what language you speak.’ Keeping Genshin Impact’s global audience in mind, as well as the game’s mission to characterise and differentiate the many different realms within Teyvat, the team remain receptive to outside influences. The Austrian concert, for example, brought the Vienna University Philharmonic together with instruments from across the globe including the Arabic oud, Indian sitar and Chinese erhu. Upadhyaya’s varied musical experiences made conducting this unexpected range of instruments far from a challenge: ‘I learned both Indian and western music in my childhood, I have been exposed to Chinese traditional music in the past 20 years and I have been very interested in Middle Eastern and African music traditions. This multicultural experience makes it naturally much more accessible for me to understand gaming music – specially that of Genshin Impact because it involves many ethnic music traditions.’

The task of bringing the game’s music to the concert hall, however, is not to be dismissed. For Upadhyaya, the idea that gaming music is somehow less challenging – or requires less skill – than works in the Western classical canon is a ‘misconception’. ‘Gaming music, such as that of Genshin Impact is not technically easy to play at all,’ he insists. ‘Unfortunately, many classical musicians do not bring the same amount of respect to this music as they would do to Beethoven or Mahler Symphony. This music needs the same amount of preparation and rehearsal time as any other classical work. In fact, due to rather complex rhythmical patterns as can be found in Gilded Runner [a theme which takes inspiration from the Fibonacci sequence – and plays while the player fights off sentient mushrooms], this music needs even more practising!’ But painstaking rehearsal in this case pays off handsomely, as in the case of Upadhyaya’s recent Impact4Music concert, which brought many gamers to the concert hall for the first time. ‘Usually when classical music is performed, the audience is receptive but somehow distant, but in this concert the interaction between the audience and the performance was incredible,’ he recalls. ‘The response was that of a pop concert. The music drew very impulsive and emotional responses from the audience, and my musicians who usually play classical music were pleasantly surprised’.

Vijay Upadhyaya: 'The concert was just the tip of the iceberg! I think this partnership is very promising and sustainable for activities in the future’ (Image courtesy of Impact4Music)

This ‘pleasant surprise’ is set to gain momentum, as gaming music grows ever more present on the concert platform. For the Impact4Music team, the future is bright and demand for live performances of music from Genshin Impact is high: ‘We've seen many comments from fans asking for concerts nearby, or expressing the hope to see our music performed live, meanwhile, we have received requests to perform and adapt our music,’ Jin enthuses. The task now, it seems, is putting together audience and performer: ‘We may connect these two sides of our fanbase if we support people eager to play our music with people eager to hear it.’

For ensembles looking to get involved with the Impact4Music project, Upadhyaya advises careful thought when choosing from the game’s vast catalogue of themes: ‘Genshin Impact has almost twenty hours of music – with different instrumental combinations and orchestra sizes. I don’t think musicians should be apprehensive at all in wanting to perform the music, but the repertoire has to be carefully selected.’ With programme chosen and sheet music and funding taken care of by the Impact4Music initiative, the genre, Upadhyaya believes, is just getting started: ‘This music is more accessible to a broader audience and to younger generations and I think this music will become increasingly popular in concert halls in the future,’ he predicts. ‘Gaming and film music will be the future of many concert halls.’

Orchestras an ensembles keen to get involved with the Impact4Music initiative can contact impact4good@hoyoverse.com for more information.