The Use of Historical Music Styles to Enhance Authenticity in Historical Video Games

Historical video games strive to transport players into bygone eras, where every visual detail—from architecture to clothing—works to build a convincing world. Yet one of the most powerful and often overlooked tools for achieving immersion is music. The careful selection and composition of period-appropriate music can deepen a player’s emotional connection to the setting, reinforce the narrative, and transform a game from a mere entertainment into a time-capsule experience. This article explores how developers use historical music styles to enhance authenticity, the challenges they face, and the technologies that make such fidelity possible.

The Role of Authentic Music in Building Immersion

Music functions as an emotional anchor in video games. It signals mood, heightens tension, and provides rhythm to gameplay. In historical titles, the stakes are higher: the music must also ring true to the period. When a player steps into the cobblestone streets of Renaissance Florence or the muddy fields of medieval Bohemia, the soundtrack acts as an auditory passport. Authentic music reinforces the sense of place and time, making the historical setting feel lived-in rather than stagey.

Research in game studies and musicology confirms that players subconsciously evaluate the credibility of a game’s soundtrack. A jarringly modern chord progression or an anachronistic instrument can shatter believability. Conversely, when music aligns with historical documentation, players report higher levels of engagement and emotional resonance. This authenticity does not merely please historians; it enhances the core gameplay experience by grounding the player in a coherent sensory world.

Historical Music Styles and Game Examples

Developers draw from a wide range of historical musical traditions, each suited to different settings. Below are key styles and notable games that employ them effectively.

Medieval Music

Medieval settings, popularized by titles like Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, rely on instruments such as the lute, harp, hurdy-gurdy, and shawm. Composers study surviving manuscripts—including the famous Codex Manesse or the Carmina Burana—to recreate the modal harmonies and rhythmic patterns of the period. The sound is often sparse, favoring monophonic lines and natural reverb that evoke stone halls and open fields. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, composer Jan Valta and Adam Sporka used authentic medieval folk tunes and original compositions rooted in the era’s modal scales, creating a soundscape that feels both historical and emotionally resonant.

Renaissance Music

The Renaissance introduced polyphony and the rise of instrumental ensembles. Games set in Italy, France, or England during the 15th and 16th centuries—such as Assassin’s Creed II or Dishonored (though the latter is a fictional setting with Renaissance-inspired aesthetics)—benefit from the rich textures of viols, recorders, and early keyboard instruments like the harpsichord. Jesper Kyd’s score for Assassin’s Creed II incorporates elements of Italian Renaissance dance music and sacred polyphony, weaving them into a dynamic soundtrack that adapts to player actions. The interplay of authentic instruments and modern cinematic scoring creates a bridge between historical accuracy and contemporary engagement.

Baroque Music

The Baroque era (roughly 1600–1750) is defined by ornamented melodies, basso continuo, and grandeur. Games set in the courts of Louis XIV or the Age of Exploration—like Versailles 1685 or Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired titles—often use harpsichord, viola da gamba, and Baroque trumpet. The soundtrack to The Forgotten City (a time-loop game set in ancient Rome) takes an interesting approach: it blends Baroque arias with original compositions that evoke the period’s solemnity. Baroque music’s structured complexity also lends itself well to games that emphasize strategy and elegance, such as Ostfront or historical strategy titles.

Folk Music

Regional folk music grounds the player in local culture. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the folk and bluegrass-inspired score—complete with banjo, fiddle, and harmonica—paints a vivid picture of the American frontier. Similarly, Ghost of Tsushima uses the shakuhachi flute, koto, and taiko drums to transport players to feudal Japan. These folk traditions are not just background; they are woven into gameplay events, campfire scenes, and story beats, making the world feel alive with its own musical heritage.

20th-Century Music

For games set in the early 1900s through the 1940s, jazz, blues, and early electronic music dominate. Mafia: Definitive Edition recreates the sound of 1930s Chicago with period jazz bands, while Wolfenstein: The New Order uses distorted electronic music and industrial sounds to evoke a dystopian 1960s. Games like Bioshock deploy 1940s swing and show tunes to ironic effect, contrasting the candy-colored surface of Rapture with its dark undercurrents. Authenticity here often involves licensing original recordings or commissioning musicians who specialize in vintage performance techniques.

Non-Western and Ancient Music Styles

Historical accuracy also demands careful consideration of musical traditions outside Europe. Total War: Attila features Mongolian throat singing and horse-head fiddles for the Huns. Heavenly Sword (set in ancient China) incorporates Chinese operatic styles and traditional instruments. Even games set in antiquity, like Assassin’s Creed Origins (Ptolemaic Egypt), draw on reconstructions of ancient Egyptian music using replicas of lyres, harps, and double flutes. These choices require deep research, as the surviving notation is often fragmentary. Composers collaborate with ethnomusicologists to infer scales, rhythms, and performance practices.

Challenges in Achieving Authenticity

While the benefits of authentic music are clear, developers face several hurdles.

Source Material and Reconstruction

For many eras, a complete musical record does not exist. Medieval secular music was often transmitted orally, leaving only hints in treatises or iconography. Composers must interpret fragmentary evidence, balancing scholarly caution with artistic license. For example, ancient Greek music has only a handful of surviving fragments; games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey reconstruct sounds using the Seikilos epitaph as a starting point, then extrapolate scales and instrumentation from vase paintings and literary descriptions.

Budget and Production Complexity

Hiring specialist musicians, commissioning historical instrument copies, and recording in period-appropriate acoustics (e.g., stone churches or wooden halls) is costly. Smaller studios may resort to sample libraries, which, while improving, can sound generic. The need for dynamic music systems—where the score shifts in response to player actions—adds another layer of complexity. Composers must write loops and transitions that stay true to the historical style while remaining functional for gameplay.

Avoiding Anachronism and Stereotype

Anachronistic musical elements can break immersion even in high-budget titles. A rock guitar riff in a medieval setting would feel jarring, but subtle modern influences can work if handled carefully. More insidious is the use of clichéd “ethnic” tropes (e.g., a pentatonic scale for every non-Western culture). Developers must avoid reducing diverse musical traditions to a single signifier. Research into regional variation—for instance, distinguishing Celtic from Nordic folk music—is essential.

Player Expectation vs. Historical Accuracy

Players bring their own expectations: many associate the Middle Ages with Gregorian chant or the Renaissance with “Greensleeves,” even if historical practice was more varied. A soundtrack that is too authentic—using instruments that sound alien to modern ears—may alienate players. Finding the balance between scholarly rigor and accessibility is a constant tension. Some games, like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, fuse authentic Celtic instruments with contemporary sound design to bridge this gap.

Technological Innovations in Historical Music

Advances in recording, synthesis, and procedural generation are expanding what’s possible.

Authentic Instruments and Recording Techniques

Composers increasingly record musicians playing historically accurate replicas. For Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Jan Valta sourced a lute made to medieval specifications and recorded it in a church with natural reverb. Similarly, Pentiment (set in 16th-century Bavaria) used a small ensemble of period instruments recorded in resonant wooden rooms. These choices produce a timbre that sample libraries cannot replicate.

AI-Assisted Reconstruction

Machine learning is beginning to help reconstruct missing pieces. Projects like the Lost Voices of the Renaissance use neural networks to fill in gaps in polyphonic compositions, generating plausible counterpoints that composers can then edit. While still experimental, such tools could lower the barrier for historical fidelity in indie games.

Procedural and Adaptive Music Systems

Historical soundtracks must often adapt to non-linear gameplay. Techniques such as layering (adding or removing instrument parts based on tension) or vertical reorchestration (switching between historical and modern instruments at certain points) allow the music to respond to the player without breaking the period context. Red Dead Redemption 2 uses a system where folk instruments gradually fade in as the player moves through wilderness, mimicking a live campfire scene.

Case Studies: Exemplary Historical Soundtracks

Kingdom Come: Deliverance – Medieval Bohemia

This game’s soundtrack, composed by Jan Valta and Adam Sporka, is a benchmark. They used only instruments that existed in 15th-century Central Europe: lute, rebec, shawm, bagpipes, and frame drums. The melodies draw on Czech folk songs and medieval manuscripts. The music is sparse and rustic, avoiding modern harmonies. It never overwhelms the soundscape; instead, it emerges naturally during tavern scenes or quiet rides through the countryside. Critics praised its “historically informed” approach, and players noted how it deepened their connection to the world.

Assassin’s Creed II – Renaissance Italy

Jesper Kyd’s score for Assassin’s Creed II weaves Renaissance dance forms—like the pavane and galliard—into a dynamic tapestry. Kyd studied the works of John Dowland and Giovanni Gabrieli, and his compositions feature harpsichord, viola da gamba, and recorders. Yet he also introduced modern elements (e.g., synthesized bass) to maintain energy during parkour sequences. The result is a hybrid that feels both authentic and thrilling, setting a standard for historical action games.

Ghost of Tsushima – Feudal Japan

Composers Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi created a score that blends traditional Japanese instruments (shakuhachi, biwa, taiko) with cinematic orchestration. The music shifts between serene, solo flute passages and bombastic battle cues. The use of the shakuhachi—a bamboo flute historically played by wandering monks—gives the game a meditative quality. The team consulted with ethnomusicologists to ensure the scales and ornamentation matched 13th-century Japanese practice, while still supporting modern gameplay pacing.

Cultural Sensitivity and Representation

Authenticity extends beyond notes and instruments. It involves respecting the cultural context in which the music was performed. Using sacred music as background for violence, or appropriating indigenous melodies without credit, can offend communities. Responsible developers collaborate with cultural advisors from relevant backgrounds. For instance, Assassin’s Creed Origins worked with Egyptian musicologists to recreate temple hymns, ensuring they were used appropriately—in temples, not combat. Similarly, Shadow of the Tomb Raider used Andean panpipes and charangos for its Peruvian setting, with compositions vetted by local musicians. This approach not only enhances authenticity but also fosters goodwill with the audience.

Future Directions

As virtual reality and open-world expansiveness grow, the demand for historically accurate soundtracks will increase. We may see more games using procedural folk music that generates regionally appropriate tunes on the fly, or acoustic reconstruction of ancient spaces using convolution reverb. Collaboration between game composers and academic musicologists is likely to become common. Additionally, player education—through in-game music history codex entries—could turn soundtracks into learning tools.

One promising development is the use of dynamic historical music systems that respond to the player’s location and season. Imagine in a game set in medieval Paris: passing a street musician triggers a chanson, entering a cathedral activates a plainchant antiphon, and a battle summons a war drum. Each musical cue would be historically documented, building an immersive soundscape that teaches players about the era’s musical diversity.

Conclusion

Authentic historical music is not a luxury but a pillar of immersion in historical video games. By drawing on documented styles—from medieval lute songs to Renaissance polyphony, Baroque grandeur to folk traditions—developers can create worlds that feel genuinely lived-in. The challenges of fragmentary sources, budget limitations, and player expectations require careful navigation, but the rewards are substantial: deeper engagement, emotional resonance, and even educational value. As technology matures and collaboration with music historians becomes standard, the soundtracks of historical games will only grow richer, transporting players ever more convincingly across time.

For further reading, explore the Art of the Historical Video Game Soundtrack and the academic work at Music and Video Games International.