The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Soundtrack)

Koji Kondo scored Ocarina of Time alone, working inside the tiny sound chip of the Nintendo 64. The famous idea is that several themes are songs you actually perform: you press buttons to play them on an ocarina, and the world responds by changing time of day or weather. The instruments are obviously synthetic, all chimes and thin strings, but the melodies are strong enough to carry it. "Gerudo Valley" is a sudden burst of fast Spanish guitar; the title theme is calm and open. It is short, simple, and three decades later people still hum it.