Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Felt nostalgic. Might drop park guests in a lake later.
Here is Allister Brimble's "Main Theme" for the classic theme park sim game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Now scored for a full orchestra with fully engraved sheet music.
This video uses the "RCT2" font by Qimplef, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED).
fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/465125/rct2
--------------------
➤ Analysis:
A game where you manage an amusement park. What do you think would be an appropriate musical theme to accompany this?
Allister Brimble made the fantastic choice of utilizing a fairground organ (fairground organs being commonly paired with traditional carousels). These organs are capable of performing reed instruments (winds), but they can also supply various percussion (drums and cymbals). To reflect this, Brimble similarly employs all of these instruments here (in addition to strings and periodic brass).
My goal in this arrangement was to expand these forces to cover the full symphonic spectrum, allowing orchestras to perform this work without several instruments being unused. The objective therefore was to add the remaining winds, brass, strings as well as additional percussion to keep the several percussionists occupied, whilst still retaining this fairground aesthetic.
The organ solo in the original opening remains so wonderfully iconic that I couldn't resist retaining it as an optional introduction if desired (as an organ is not always available to ensembles). The tonality of this solo commences is C♯ minor (C♯-E-G♯), a rather unfriendly key for various transposing instruments. I debated shifting the material up a semitone into D minor for easier playability (reducing double ♯s) but ultimately decided against this, as the original tonality of C♯m / E sounds far brighter and chipper.
Following this organ introduction, the same material is re-arranged for a smaller symphonic ensemble of winds and brass, playing "non-leg." ("non-legato" = "not smoothly") for a more detached sound. Half-way through this phrase, strings gradually emerge providing additional colour, as we finish on a bare 5th chord (G♯-D♯; 0:45).
Ascending into the next section via chromatic runs (0:45), we modulate into the relative major of C♯ minor (E major; E-G♯-B). Here, the more upbeat material begins, evoking a delightfully cheerful aesthetic from the use of added-6th chords (E-G♯-B-C♯; found in the flute and glockenspiel), octave jumps (in the violins), and tertiary modulations (e.g. B to D at 0:51, and A to C at 0:56). The trumpet melody also descends in sequence (playing the same phrase down a step).
We get a repeat of this material at 1:05, now placing the melody in the violins as the trumpet develops into a countermelodic role. Additional twinkling is added through a high piccolo and harp plucks.
The next section commences at 1:22, modulating into the subdominant minor (A minor; A-C-E, which eventually converts the tonic similarly into minor (E minor; E-G-B at 1:29). This oscillation of A to E creates a plagal sound (chord IV to I), and so I added a choir to enhance this more chordal effect. The trumpet takes over the melody from the winds at (1:39) as we get a new countermelody in the horns.
By 1:49, we start to modulate rapidly into many distant keys (Am, to A, to F♯, to Bm, to B) giving us a nice stepping stone into the subdominant key (A in 2nd inversion, E-A-C♯) which is where we finish, with a cheeky manipulation of the tempo to drive us there as if the theme park rides themselves are speeding up and slowing down.
--------------------
The score was created in Sibelius 7.5, and the audio was created in Cubase using sample libraries from EastWest and Vienna Symphonic.
★Game: RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
★Developer: Chris Sawyer
★Publisher: Infogrames Interactive
★Composer(s): Allister Brimble
★Software: Sibelius 7.5, Cubase Elements 7, Cubase 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 15, EastWest Sample Libraries, Vienna Symphonic Library
★Tags: RCT2, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Main Theme, Orchestra, Orchestral, Orchestration, Arrangement, Remix, Cover, Sheet Music
#RCT2
#Orchestra
#MainTheme
🎵 Sheet Music & Parts ➤ mymusicsheet.com/TandA/340783
💗 MIDI / XML / Sibelius ➤ bit.ly/TandABundle
🎹 Commissions ➤ jshaw.co.uk/commissions
🎮 More Arrangements ➤ jshaw.co.uk/TandA
👍 Facebook ➤ bit.ly/TandAFacebook
🐦 Twitter ➤ bit.ly/TandATwitter
🎵 Bandcamp ➤ bit.ly/TandABandcamp
🎵 Spotify ➤ bit.ly/TandASpotify
🎵 Deezer ➤ bit.ly/TandADeezer
🎵 YouTube Music ➤ bit.ly/TandAYouTube
🎵 Apple Music / iTunes ➤ bit.ly/TandAApple
Felt nostalgic. Might drop park guests in a lake later.
Here is Allister Brimble's "Main Theme" for the classic theme park sim game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Now scored for a full orchestra with fully engraved sheet music.
This video uses the "RCT2" font by Qimplef, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED).
fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/465125/rct2
--------------------
➤ Analysis:
A game where you manage an amusement park. What do you think would be an appropriate musical theme to accompany this?
Allister Brimble made the fantastic choice of utilizing a fairground organ (fairground organs being commonly paired with traditional carousels). These organs are capable of performing reed instruments (winds), but they can also supply various percussion (drums and cymbals). To reflect this, Brimble similarly employs all of these instruments here (in addition to strings and periodic brass).
My goal in this arrangement was to expand these forces to cover the full symphonic spectrum, allowing orchestras to perform this work without several instruments being unused. The objective therefore was to add the remaining winds, brass, strings as well as additional percussion to keep the several percussionists occupied, whilst still retaining this fairground aesthetic.
The organ solo in the original opening remains so wonderfully iconic that I couldn't resist retaining it as an optional introduction if desired (as an organ is not always available to ensembles). The tonality of this solo commences is C♯ minor (C♯-E-G♯), a rather unfriendly key for various transposing instruments. I debated shifting the material up a semitone into D minor for easier playability (reducing double ♯s) but ultimately decided against this, as the original tonality of C♯m / E sounds far brighter and chipper.
Following this organ introduction, the same material is re-arranged for a smaller symphonic ensemble of winds and brass, playing "non-leg." ("non-legato" = "not smoothly") for a more detached sound. Half-way through this phrase, strings gradually emerge providing additional colour, as we finish on a bare 5th chord (G♯-D♯; 0:45).
Ascending into the next section via chromatic runs (0:45), we modulate into the relative major of C♯ minor (E major; E-G♯-B). Here, the more upbeat material begins, evoking a delightfully cheerful aesthetic from the use of added-6th chords (E-G♯-B-C♯; found in the flute and glockenspiel), octave jumps (in the violins), and tertiary modulations (e.g. B to D at 0:51, and A to C at 0:56). The trumpet melody also descends in sequence (playing the same phrase down a step).
We get a repeat of this material at 1:05, now placing the melody in the violins as the trumpet develops into a countermelodic role. Additional twinkling is added through a high piccolo and harp plucks.
The next section commences at 1:22, modulating into the subdominant minor (A minor; A-C-E, which eventually converts the tonic similarly into minor (E minor; E-G-B at 1:29). This oscillation of A to E creates a plagal sound (chord IV to I), and so I added a choir to enhance this more chordal effect. The trumpet takes over the melody from the winds at (1:39) as we get a new countermelody in the horns.
By 1:49, we start to modulate rapidly into many distant keys (Am, to A, to F♯, to Bm, to B) giving us a nice stepping stone into the subdominant key (A in 2nd inversion, E-A-C♯) which is where we finish, with a cheeky manipulation of the tempo to drive us there as if the theme park rides themselves are speeding up and slowing down.
--------------------
The score was created in Sibelius 7.5, and the audio was created in Cubase using sample libraries from EastWest and Vienna Symphonic.
★Game: RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
★Developer: Chris Sawyer
★Publisher: Infogrames Interactive
★Composer(s): Allister Brimble
★Software: Sibelius 7.5, Cubase Elements 7, Cubase 10, Adobe Premiere Elements 15, EastWest Sample Libraries, Vienna Symphonic Library
★Tags: RCT2, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Main Theme, Orchestra, Orchestral, Orchestration, Arrangement, Remix, Cover, Sheet Music
#RCT2
#Orchestra
#MainTheme
