Have you heard? 10. Wet Hands
Have you heard? is a showcase for the unconventional, unique and inspiring music out there that never seems to get the limelight it deserves.
Wet Hands - C418 (2011)
Minecraft is BIG.
I first played it back in 2011, about the same time it had its “official” release, and when Daniel ‘C418’ Rosenfeld completed and released his first album of music for the game. Wet Hands is one of many pieces released as part of this set and is possibly the most iconic. C418 can now claim to be the composer for the best-selling video game of all-time. Impressive feat!
So how does the ambient music for the most successful video game ever made constitute an unconventional, unique or inspiring piece of music?
Wet Hands is a short and simple piano piece. It is not flashy, overbearing or excessively thematic. It is just some soft and relaxing ambient music to help you enjoy your Minecraft adventure. Most people, myself included, will remember this piece for the nostalgia of pixelated dirt and exploding monsters. However, I wanted to highlight this piece for the music itself and the way it fits into the Minecraft world.
The thing I appreciate the most about Wet Hands is how free-flowing and meandering it is. It doesn’t follow any kind of strict structure, instead just doing its own thing. I can relate to that, as it’s similar to how I play piano myself. The key is well-defined and the music deviates from it only a little, but the way it has been put together makes it feels slightly atonal. It’s clever, simple and effective.
With Wet Hands C418 has gracefully found the balance between interesting music and background music. The themes or not fancy or overpowering. When playing Minecraft the music is noticeable but not distinguished. It’s the kind of music you’d remember when you hear it.
To craft it, C418 has opted to employ heavy use of arpeggiated 7th and 9th chords. The key of A-major is fairly open, with some bonus G chords thrown in. The tempo is calm, fluid and relaxing. On top of this C418 used a simple melody to tie together the different chords. Sometimes, the music augments into a different tone, most notably in the middle where things become dominated by the G9 chord and Bm9. Most interestingly, the major fifth chord, E, doesn’t appear until near the end - at which point it makes quite a stark statement against the predominant G chords. C418 has made crafty use of off-beats to emphasise or de-emphasis certain things. This has resulted in the music flowing as if on an adventure - a clever way of capturing the essence of Minecraft.
And of course, being a short piece, it demonstrates that music doesn’t need to be flashy and long to be good. It’s a reminder of how music only needs to be as long as it needs to be. It’s short, beautiful and atmospheric. An absolute joy to listen to in the background of anything.
This piece has no directly influenced my music. I have not yet strived to write atmospheric and ambient music. However, one can certainly draw similarity between this piece and my style of playing piano. When this music came out I had not yet taught myself the piano, so maybe it was influential in how I developed myself as a musician.
One thing that is sure; it was one of the earliest pieces I learnt to play and I still enjoy it to this day!
Happy listening and enjoy!