Media and Music: “Ezio’s Family” and The Motif that Spans Millennia
The “Ezio’s Family” motif transcends the boundaries of any single protagonist of the Assassin’s Creed series, binding them together as part of something far greater than them and proving that none of them are alone in committing to the fight against evil.
In Media and Music, our writers take a deep dive into how movies use scores and songs to engage viewers, give new meaning and tone to some of our favorite scenes, and establish themes. It almost goes without saying, but there are spoilers abound.
Written by Arundhati Ghosh
Images courtesy of Ubisoft Entertainment SA
Jesper Kyd couldn't have known just how much one of the main themes he composed for the video game "Assassin's Creed II” would come to mean for the franchise.
Entitled "Ezio's Family," the theme has been reused as a motif in over 10 other “Assassin’s Creed” games since its inception in 2009. The eight half notes in slow succession — first in violin, then piano, then a soft soprano — that begin the piece, have become an instantly recognizable franchise staple. From its beginnings as the backdrop to 15th century Florentine assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze in “Assassin’s Creed II,” to coming up in the soundtrack of “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla,” which follows Eivor, a Viking shieldmaiden, “Ezio’s Family” has made its rounds through history.
In a series centered around characters forced to walk lonely paths in search of justice against the antagonistic Templar Order, the things that tie the assassins together are precious. The motif works hard to not only subtly bind the characters together, but to bind the games’ composers together with a body of work that is collaborative despite not being fully shared. Since the introduction of “Ezio’s Family” and its subsequent intra-series canonization, numerous renowned composers have given their games’ characters unique versions of Jesper Kyd’s motif.
Elitsa Alexandrova’s rendition of “Ezio’s Family” in the main theme of “Assassin’s Creed: Rogue,” which follows turncoat to the Templar Shay Cormac, begins with a lilting soprano singing the motif in a decisive near-staccato. Unlike the series’ other protagonists, Cormac becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood of Assassins and defects to their enemies’ side. This key difference is highlighted by the version of “Ezio’s Family” that comes to represent him. The soft whispered vocals that backed Ezio’s story are nowhere to be found; rather, the singer’s voice gets louder and more urgent as she introduces an upbeat adventuring theme marked with suspenseful piano and building piccolo representing the title’s main character. “Rogue”’s style is almost the inverse of that of “Assassin’s Creed II,” just as Cormac’s values diametrically oppose the Brotherhood’s.
The next composer to have their turn at adapting the iconic motif for a new installment to the franchise — “Assassin’s Creed: Unity,” which follows Frenchman Arno Dorian during his country’s Revolution — was Chris Tilton, who incorporated the theme into an in-game sequence titled “Le Roi Est Mort,” or “The king is dead.” As much of the Brotherhood of Assassins’ beliefs center around not harming innocents, the setting of Arno’s story during the French Revolution is chock full of nuanced relationships between good and evil. “Ezio’s Family” plays as Arno embarks on a journey to kill the King of Beggars, a Templar nobleman who supplements his income with tributes from Parisians in abject poverty. Tilton’s version of the motif is more heavy-handed than its predecessors, with a full orchestra accompanied by thumping percussion. Unlike Alexandrova’s version, “Le Roi Est Mort” doesn’t transition away from the motif, a stylistic choice that makes all the difference in implicitly characterizing Arno, who remains an assassin, as closer in drive to Ezio than Shay, who turns to the Templar Order following his disillusionment with the Brotherhood.
“Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate,” the next game in the series, follows the Frye twins, Jacob and Evie, during the second Industrial Revolution in London. Austin Wintory is the only composer credited with the entire hour-and-a-half long soundtrack, unlike with “Rogue” or “Unity,” where Kyd was also cited due to the incorporation of “Ezio’s Family” into the games’ respective albums. Despite not citing Kyd’s name, Wintory still chooses to use his famed motif, truly solidifying the series’ devotion to tying games together through their soundtracks. “Syndicate”’s version incorporates vocals just as “Rogue”’s does, but the singer uses a lower register and more flowing vocal style. She is backed by a lone violin, and only two instruments tend to be the focus throughout the piece. Stylistically, the emphasis on solitary strings is reminiscent of music typically attributed to Victorian-era London and its famed characters, giving this version of “Ezio’s Family” an almost Sherlockian twist.
The next game in the series, “Assassin’s Creed: Origins,” follows ancient Egyptians Bayek and Aya as they form the Hidden Ones (and, consequently, the Assassin Brotherhood). After Wintory, Sarah Schachner took on the Herculean task of maintaining the motif’s integrity, while being the first series composer that had to apply “Ezio’s Family” to an ancient time period. She drew heavily on synth sounds in order to create the soundtrack of the game, using a Roland Jupiter-6 to emulate everything “from low drones, to ambient detuned bells and arpeggios.” Apart from an abundance of environmental noises, her version of “Ezio’s Family” is laden with orchestral influences, with her edition of the theme first being composed of rich cello strings, which then ultimately transitions into a full orchestra. Pharaonic Egypt saw major string and percussive influences such as lyres and tambourines that were often combined into ambient music that ebbed and flowed naturally. Schachner seamlessly combines such musical elements associated with Ancient Egypt with the timeless motif the franchise’s soundtracks are built on.
“Origins” turned out to be a turning point, as both subsequent games were set earlier than games such as “Assassins Creed II” or “Rogue,” amongst others. The next game in the series, “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey,” follows a Spartan mercenary as they live through the Peloponnesian war, fighting on both sides while simultaneously unspooling the truth about their bloodline’s mythical history. Rather than a single composer, English duo “The Flight” took on the task of making “Odyssey’s” soundtrack. In order to successfully follow Schachner’s footsteps and create a true-to-setting sound for each song, the team “bought dulcimers, Lyres, panpipes, [and] a bouzouki” to fully capture the essence of ancient Athens and Sparta. Their rendition,” simply titled “Assassin’s Creed,” heavily uses Mediterranean strings overlaid with each other to pay tribute to the game’s location. However, the final eight notes of the song, and the final usage of the motif in it, are sung in a raw vocal style similar to that of the original version from “Assassin’s Creed II.” The Flight brings the motif full circle in their soundtrack for the franchise, even while primarily using entirely different instrumentation from the rest of the series.
The most recent installment, “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla,” gives Viking shieldmaiden Eivor a brilliant soundtrack to accompany her backstory. Composer Einar Selvik uses raw, scraping strings and reedy synth sounds to simulate Celtic harps and panpipes, while a booming male choir in perfect sync joins the thunderous instrumentation to embody the concept of a strong, unshakeable united front in one song. Selvik had help from Schachner and Kyd, but, ultimately, much of Eivor’s story is buoyed by his own work. It’s likely that the next Assassin’s Creed game, likely to come out late 2022 or early 2023, will follow the same pattern of devotion to “Ezio’s Family.”
Although each composer uses different combinations of instruments for the same motif depending on the setting and story they are specifically writing for, every variation on “Ezio’s Family” maintains the same haunting, solemn quality the original is built upon. The motif is meant to be a moment of quiet, a rare breath of fresh air for trained killers who are only trying to do what they believe is right for the good of their people and for those that will inevitably come after them. Still, even in rare occasions of respite, characters — and, by extension, the soundtrack composers and players of the games — cannot afford to forget their often bloody, always world-shattering goals. Throughout lives and over centuries, between stripped vocals and ancient instruments, “Ezio’s Family” weaves an intricate web of history, ensuring that the most noble and, consequently, most lonely characters still manage to stay connected in some way to others just like them.