From Dream to Reality: A Comparison between Dream’s Compositions and its Contemporaries
Dream is particularly fascinating for a number of reasons, the largest of which could be argued that it’s likely the most documentation we’ve seen from a Rare game that never was. Collectively, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to see character renders, gameplay footage and screenshots, though perhaps the most illuminating have been the musical themes from composer Grant Kirkhope.
Intriguingly, if you’re a fan of his work in Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Viva Piñata, you’ll be able to notice some musical similarities between the fully realized pieces and their origins. On this page you’ll find each of the musical pieces as they originally sounded in Dream, and their contemporary appearances in later games as easter eggs and tributes.
Along with each piece, you’ll find the commentary that Grant Kirkhope graciously provided on his website in order to give proper context into each tune, enjoy!
“This piece took a long time to write. Tim Stamper was looking for a big main theme to have for the opening of the game and I wrote several pieces that he liked (or so he said!) but didn’t feel captured the feeling of the game. I wanted to have a seafaring feel for the pirate element of the game and a grand sounding noble theme at the same time, and Tim wanted “Big Drums”…hehe! I remember I was in the shower thinking about this tune, I had the opening sea sounding section but no main theme after it, I was humming away and the first little section of the melody just came to me. I dashed to Rare still trying to hum it and managed to get it into Cubase before I forgot it. This tune eventually turned up in” Viva Pinata”, I wanted to save it until I had a game that I felt it suited and I was really happy when I realise it would fit into VP. The way the orchestra played it for VP was fantastic, just as I imagined it sounding all those years ago.”
– Grant Kirkhope
As Grant mentioned above, the Main Theme would go on to appear in Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.
You would be able to hear the theme on your twelfth day in the garden, where it sounded incredibly faithful to its original composition, save for the “Big Drums” and the first minute of build-up, of course. Interestingly, the drum beat and backing of the Main Theme would have been heard first in Donkey Kong 64 – it can be heard most evident in the Ending Credits theme.
Blackeye was of course the “baddie” in “Dream”. He had a pirate ship called “The Mudplugger”, I think I would’ve imagined it to be like “The Black Pearl” from “The Pirates of the Caribbean” films. I wanted to make him a little dark but also have some humour in there, so you can hear a bit of a shanty going on in the middle section of the piece. Also I wanted to get across the idea that he thought of himself as grand and honourable even though he was far from it! I actually wrote a song for him to sing, it was sung by one of the artists at Rare, who could manage a good pirates accent, and I had a pirates chorus that consisted of some of the team, I have to say we thought it was hilarious……..sadly I don’t seem to be able to find it anywhere, I’m hoping I’ll be able to track it down, I’d love to put it up here for you all to have a listen too!
– Grant Kirkhope
If you’re familiar with Donkey Kong 64, you’ll recognize “Blackeye” as the theme to Gloomy Galleon, the nautical world set inside of a cove. Since “Blackeye” serves as the central theme, a number of prolific variations can be heard throughout the level depending on the area that the player explores. There’s also a familiar cue heard at 0:35 – 0:38 in “Blackeye” that is similar to Freezeezy Peak in Banjo-Kazooie.
There’s another tune in here that went on to appear somewhere else! This was going to be a chase sequence between some trolls and the hero in mine carts (similar to the mine cart chase in “Indiana Jones 2”) I think. When I wrote the piece I was imagining the camera switching between the hero and the trolls and back so I tried to mix both themes together. You can hear the theme that eventually ended up in “Viva Pinata” as the hero’s theme and the “Mad Monster Mansion” theme again for the trolls. I remember thinking this was going to be really hard to pull off but it all came together quite easily. I really like this piece, brings back alot of memories.
– Grant Kirkhope
For the purposes of Dream, Chase would have been a medley of three distinct themes; namely the theme for the hero being chased (Edson), the theme for the those giving chase (The Trolls) and theme for the Mine Cart Action (Mine Cart). Due to this shift, and for the ease of categorization, we’ve detailed each distinct theme as its own sub-section.
Edson’s Theme:
The Troll’s Theme:
Mine Cart Theme:
Madeleine was the hero’s (Edsun) girlfriend and I tried to write something that was light with a strong theme. This piece actually turned up briefly in Banjo-Kazooie as Tootie’s theme. You hear it in the intro movie as she skips through the grass, it’s only a small snippet but this is where it came from. Tim Stamper wanted to call all the characters in Banjo-Kazooie after instruments hence Banjo and Kazooie, Tootie was originally going to be called Piccolo so I thought the flute playing the main theme would suit her. I can’t remember why we abandoned that naming convention, maybe there just wasn’t enough instruments!
– Grant Kirkhope
As the theme for Madeleine would become associated with Tooty’s appearances on-screen, there are four instances where it can be heard in Banjo-Kazooie. The first three occurrences feature the shorter theme, and can be heard during the overture where Tooty’s is first mentioned to Gruntilda (0:58), the aforementioned skipping scene (1:28), and when she’s fearful of Gruntilda’s approach (2:27). The final occurrence of Tooty’s theme can be heard when she’s rescued at the end of Grunty’s Furnace Fun, and features the full, uninterrupted theme.
This was the first piece that I wrote for “Dream”, there wasn’t any area of the game for it to go but I just wanted to get started and thought of a beach scene. I really like this piece, there’s something calming about it and you can hear how I was using much more traditional chord sequences than I eventually did when it changed to Banjo-Kazooie. I always think of Robinson Crusoe when I hear this piece……don’t know why……Ah the good old days!
– Grant Kirkhope
A section of the “Shanty” at 0:50 can be heard referenced in Tooty’s secondary theme from Banjo-Kazooie.
As Tooty was once the basis for Edson’s girlfriend, Madeleine, it would stand to reason that she has some strong ties to Dream’s musical history.
Hmmmmm…..I really can’t think of much to say about this one, I’m not even sure if this is the right title, I was either Trolls our Elves. As you can hear they weren’t really really bad, I was trying to make them more mischievous I think.
– Grant Kirkhope
A variation on the introduction for the Troll’s has been featured as the entire theme for Snacker the Shark in Banjo-Kazooie. Given that this theme plays as a motivator to get out of the water and back to the safety of the shore, players were only meant to hear a short segment before they frantically paddled away.
This tune is interesting (well I think so anyway!) as it eventually ended up as the “Mad Monster Mansion” theme. I remember tryng to think of a way to use dark chords and still make it light and humourous, I was listening to “Beetlejuice” quite alot at the time and I liked the style of the music that Mr.Elfman used in the movie. So I started playing with the “oompah” style, that ended being one of the signature styles in the Banjo games, and this tune was born. I really can’t quite remember what the character of “Bully” was like, I seem to remember he was like the Troll guarding the bridge in the story of “Billy Goat’s Gruff” but I could be totally wrong!
– Grant Kirkhope
Despite only having a few instances where “Bully” veers off the familiar Mad Monster Mansion theme, the theme we would go on to hear in Banjo-Kazooie is largely intact from its origins. First heard in the Overture (2:52) as Gruntilda captured Tooty in Spiral Mountain, the entire piece would be fully realized as the central theme for Mad Monster Mansion, and its surrounding areas. It would later be referenced within the BanjoLand medley and the Terrarium of Terror themes in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
I had a lot of fun writing this one as I think you’ll hear!! This character was a big fat drunken Pirate that liked to eat and drink way too much. I don’t think we ever got to the stage of having an actual model to look at so he remained in our imaginations coupled with this tune to bring him to life …….well…..nearly! I remember I wrote the tune and then Greg(Mayles) suggested adding a few “effects”, so of course I went overboard and added lots of stuff. Hearing this tune after all these years really makes me smile and reminds me of the fun we had dreaming up this stuff. I was really new at Rare and didn’t know what to expect, and I was even newer to the team so I was really just finding my way. We all shared the same sense of humour and I think you can tell that when you play the Banjo games, the graphics match the sound match the humour!
– Grant Kirkhope
Big Belly is an interesting case, as it’s more likely that you’ll recognize the sound effects being utilized in Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 rather than the musical backing. It’s sole appearance outside of Dream served as a cameo in Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, where it could be heard unaltered in a medley with Banjo-Tooie‘s Mayahem Temple, Grabbed by the Ghoulies Embassy Ballroom, and a remix of the Banjo-Kazooie theme that would later appear in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
As the title implies this was a seafaring piece meant for when you transversed the map screen in the game, it was going to be a bit like Indiana Jones with an arrow and trail taking you on to the next area. I don’t think we ever got as far as actually having the map screen in the game, a lot of the stuff I did for “Dream” was all in my imagination as I was working super quick being so excited just to be at Rare. I had a sheet of locations and I just started at the top and worked my way through.
– Grant Kirkhope
This action-packed piece would later go onto receive a much more tranquil rendition in Viva Piñata, where it could be heard during the second night in the garden.
This character was a good pirate and a bit of a mad professor so I tried to work in a bit of a noble theme sprinkled with some oddball bits to imply his madness! I don’t think we ever got to an in-game character but there was concept art around for him. I added in a slightly pompus middle section for him and I was thinking of “Crown Imperial” by Walton, I thought it gave him that “stiff upper lip” kind of character…….bowler hats and umbrellas with a handlbar moustache!
– Grant Kirkhope
Only one portion of “Cockeye” can be heard outside of Dream, and that’s during the final battle against Gruntilda in Banjo-Tooie. If you listen closely to 2:42 you’ll hear the same dissonant-style sanity breakdown.
“Lost” is a really interesting case when looking at how some Dream compositions evolved over time. The opening “Big Drums” and low strings building suspense suggest that the song is a variation of the Dream Main Theme, but it also features the iconic DK Isle theme from Donkey Kong 64 making it something of a hybrid. Once again, the most direct comparison to be made is to the Credits theme of Donkey Kong 64, with the variations of DK Isle also drawing from the same theme.