# Who wrote this music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038 "2011-05-07T01:23:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/1 "2011-05-07T01:23:54Z")
A friend of my wife’s sent her a link to a youtube video of somebody playing a videogame theme on guitar. The game was NES _Gauntlet_. [Here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4k0j2c9jm0) the theme. It sounds to me like it’s at least based on a J.S. Bach Tocatta, or possibly lifted from Bach _in toto_. But I don’t have the music appreciation chops to properly identify it. A little help, please? TIA. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/2 "2011-05-07T16:28:59Z")
Gonna bump this one time. If no response, I’ll ask for a transfer to the Game Room. Again, TIA. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/3 "2011-05-07T16:30:03Z")
[Hal Canon](http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Title_-_Gauntlet_(NES)) is credited with the music for _Gauntlet_. Certainly sounds influenced by Bach. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/4 "2011-05-07T16:44:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > A friend of my wife’s sent her a link to a youtube video of somebody playing a videogame theme on guitar. The game was NES _Gauntlet_. [Here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4k0j2c9jm0) the theme. > > It sounds to me like it’s at least based on a J.S. Bach Tocatta, or possibly lifted from Bach _in toto_. But I don’t have the music appreciation chops to properly identify it. A little help, please? > > TIA. I’ve always assumed that the music from Gauntlet was based on part of Basil Poledouris’ score for “Conan the Barbarian”, but looking on Youtube I’ll be dashed if I can find the music! But try that. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/5 "2011-05-07T17:23:17Z")
Thanks, **choie**! I still think he lifted it from something else, but short of finding Hal Canon and asking him, I have no idea how I’d go about finding what his inspiration for the piece was. If I were to find him, though, I suppose it wouldn’t be a great idea to open by accusing him of stealing from Herr Bach… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/6 "2011-05-07T19:53:13Z")
It’s probably Bach, and quite possibly not from any of the lute suites - that could be from one of the violin [partitas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_partitas_for_solo_violin_%28Bach%29) transcribed. It is also not necessarily originally in e minor… Then, to complicate matters, it might be one of Bach’s contemporaries, like [Sylvius Leopold Weiss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvius_Leopold_Weiss). Same caveats apply - it might not originally be a work for lute, and it might not be originally in e minor. All I can do is assure you that I’m on the case, and painful though it is, I’m slowly listening my way through Bach and Weiss to see if I can hear it. It isn’t anything I’ve ever played, but that doesn’t narrow it down very much… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wrote-this-music/581038/7 "2011-05-07T23:16:55Z")
I always thought it was a version of [The Final Countdown](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw)by Europe.