Kyle Roderick | Texas Christian University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Kyle Roderick

A discussion of Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and its use in the films Fahrenhe... more A discussion of Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and its use in the films Fahrenheit 9/11 and Hiroshima.

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While many strategy games (both real-time- and turn-based-) use a fictionalized Earth history as ... more While many strategy games (both real-time- and turn-based-) use a fictionalized Earth history as a backdrop for their ludic elements, few seek to faithfully represent the progression of music history via the use of pre-existing music. Soren Johnson’s Civilization IV stands alone as it presents a thorough retelling of music history, with representative works from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern Eras, including works by Josquin, Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, and American minimalist composer, John Adams. The game’s lead designer and AI programmer, Soren Johnson, personally selected each track included in the underscoring playlists. Drawing heavily upon new interviews with the game designers, this paper explores Soren Johnson’s personal representation of music history, analyzing in particular his use of John Sheppard’s Media Vita, Saint-Säens’s Cello Concerto No.1, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and the works of John Adams. I also discuss the implications of Johnson’s personalized version of history and argue that we can identify him with auteur film directors. The paper also addresses the potential for Civilization IV to educate its players in genres they may have been unfamiliar with, helping them contextualize and appreciate previously unfamiliar musics.

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Conference Presentations by Kyle Roderick

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