Posted 8:42 AM by Angie Schultz

Myst Music

Another thing about the Myst games is that they have beautiful atmospheric music. You can buy the soundtrack on CD. Here is the lousy Myst soundtrack page, and here is the better Riven soundtrack page. Both sets of music were created by Robyn Miller, one of the brothers who created the games. (I think brother Rand played Atrus in the video portions of the games.)

I'm into the atmospheric music of Robert Rich and Steve Roach, and the Myst and Riven soundtracks contain much the same sort of music. I like to listen to Rich and Roach while I'm working; the harmony-less music keeps part of my brain from getting bored, so the other part can get some work done. If there's a tune, or singing, it distracts me.

The problem is, while Rich and Roach can fill an entire CD with about 6 pieces (or with one), the Myst and Riven pieces are very short. They're meant to cycle while you're in a particular spot in the game. They're played only once on each track of the CD, which means there are about 20 or 30 tracks per CD, and the constant starting and stopping is a little annoying. That means that they're not useful for working, so they don't get listened to very much.

Now the soundtrack to Exile (some downloads, including one track, there---download the trailer if your bandwidth allows; here's the Amazon page) is a little different. That was not composed by Robyn Miller, and the music is a little more traditional. The opening theme is breathtaking, but unfortunately very short (as are the others on the CD).

Several weeks ago Niles and I were at the movies, watching the trailer for this movie, when my hair began to stand on end. I gripped Niles's arm. That music! It was the opening bars of the Exile theme. (In the Peter Pan trailer the Exile theme plays from the beginning to the point where Peter tells Wendy she can never go home again.) At first I thought maybe they were making a Myst movie; when I found it was only dumb old Peter Pan---didn't they do that not too long ago?---I was very irritated. Get your stupid movie away from my beautiful music!

We don't have the Uru music yet. I don't remember its being particularly compelling.

For Rabid Myst Fans:

I meant to mention this at the bottom of the previous post, but it's long, so I'll put it here so it won't get lost. Go to this page, which discusses the all-important topic of what really happened to Sirrus and Achenar. Scroll down to the second post by asa160, to the end of the second paragraph: "...makes duplication possible." Look at the little animated emoticon. Kewl.

Usually I hate those things with a passion---worse than the text only ones. I'll pardon this one.