Choicest VGM - VGM #175 - Frontier: Elite II - Frontier Second Theme



Composed by: Dave Lowe

This is the second piece of original music that plays in the 1993 space trading sim Fronter: Elite II. While Dave Lowe composed and arranged the music for the game - most of the music in the game are actually popular pieces of "classical" music (I say "classical" since they're not from the "Classical" period - probably more Romantic/Modern) with only two being originally composed by Lowe. Last week we had the main theme from the game (that plays during the introduction) and today we have the creatively titled "Frontier Second Theme". But here's an interesting bit of trivia for you: apparently this theme was actually the first piece of music submitted for use in the game. Holly Jazz Lowe, Dave's daughter, explains:

He'd already written the second theme and had sent this to David Braben, but although Braben really liked that theme and it was used inside the game, he wanted something more strident and battle-y for the main intro scene.

Oh and where did I get the music? I recorded it directly from the game audio (using the Adlib/Sound Blaster option) while running the game through DOSBox. I did find MIDI files of the DOS version's music online but they just weren't the same as how I remembered. So there you have it :)

Thanks to Dave Lowe for composing such a memorable soundtrack!


Comments