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Martin Galway (born 3 January 1966, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is one of the best known composers of chiptune video game music for the Commodore 64 sound chip, the SID soundchip, and for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. His works include Rambo: First Blood Part II, Comic Bakery and Wizball's scores, as well as the music used in the loader for the C64 version of Arkanoid.
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The concert opens with references to three of Martin's most iconic pieces: Comic Bakery centred on a Bassoon solo, Ocean Loader re-interpreted as more of a military march, but with the syncopation from the original tune sneaked back in, and the loading tune from Rambo First Blood Part 2.
Martin's work also appears in Green Beret: both his slow, ethereal loading tune with achingly longing melodies buried in it, and the bombastic title tune which, while legendarily slated in a bad review in Zzap!64 magazine, is a firm fan favourite, appearing here despite the composer's antipathy for it!
Martin makes a third appearance with Parallax High Score as the second part of the Barbarillax medley. A rousing tune well suited to orchestra, it dovetailed beautifully onto fellow composer Richard Joseph's Barbarian 2 soundtrack. They were connected by more than this, since some of both composers' most iconic works were produced in conjunction with Sensible Software: Martin with Wizball and Parallax on the Commodore 64, and Richard with works such as Cannon Fodder on the Commodore Amiga.
Martin's work also appears in Green Beret: both his slow, ethereal loading tune with achingly longing melodies buried in it, and the bombastic title tune which, while legendarily slated in a bad review in Zzap!64 magazine, is a firm fan favourite, appearing here despite the composer's antipathy for it!
Martin makes a third appearance with Parallax High Score as the second part of the Barbarillax medley. A rousing tune well suited to orchestra, it dovetailed beautifully onto fellow composer Richard Joseph's Barbarian 2 soundtrack. They were connected by more than this, since some of both composers' most iconic works were produced in conjunction with Sensible Software: Martin with Wizball and Parallax on the Commodore 64, and Richard with works such as Cannon Fodder on the Commodore Amiga.