One of the composers behind some of World of Warcraft: Midnight's most memorable musical moments is leaving Blizzard Entertainment.
Senior Composer Adam Burgess has announced that his final day at Blizzard will be August 12, ending a run of more than 11 years at the company.
During that time, Burgess worked across World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo, helping provide music for games, cinematics and live events.
And if the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, there is a very good chance the music does.
Burgess Helped Shape the Sound of Midnight
Burgess contributed extensively to the soundtrack for World of Warcraft: Midnight.
His credits include tracks such as
Aln'hara,
A New Dawn,
The Lady of Shadow,
Origin of All and
What Must Be Done, often working alongside other longtime Blizzard composers.
He also composed
Immolation, the music accompanying the Arator cinematic of the same name.
That particular piece arrived during one of Midnight's more memorable story moments, as Blizzard pushed Arator deeper into the expansion's increasingly uncomfortable conflict between Light and Void.
We previously looked at
why the Immolation cinematic mattered for Midnight's story.
Burgess helped give that scene its voice.
More Than Just World of Warcraft
His Blizzard career stretched well beyond Azeroth.
Burgess also composed music for Overwatch and Diablo, including numerous pieces created for characters, locations, cinematics and other major Blizzard productions.
That is one of the slightly strange things about game composers.
Players may spend hundreds or thousands of hours hearing their work without ever learning the name attached to it.
The music simply becomes part of the place.
A city theme becomes a memory of standing around waiting for friends.
A raid track becomes permanently attached to wiping on the same boss for three weeks.
A cinematic score becomes inseparable from the scene itself.
When it works properly, you stop noticing that somebody had to write it.
“It Has Been an Honor”
In his farewell announcement, Burgess thanked Blizzard for more than a decade of creativity, growth and friendships.
He described it as an honor to have played a part in bringing Blizzard's games, cinematics and live events to life through music.
He is leaving to try something new, although he hasn't publicly revealed exactly what comes next.
After more than 11 years at one studio, that seems fair enough.
Even composers eventually need a new expansion.
Another Piece of Blizzard History Moves On
World of Warcraft's music has always been unusually important to its identity.
You can redesign classes, replace talent systems and rebuild entire continents, but play the first few seconds of an old zone theme and suddenly someone is mentally standing in Elwynn Forest again.
Burgess became part of that tradition.
His departure doesn't mean WoW is suddenly losing its musical identity — Blizzard's audio team includes a large collection of composers and collaborators — but it does mark the end of a long chapter for someone whose work quietly accompanied millions of players.
And Midnight feels like a rather fitting place to leave the bookmark.
His final WoW credits include music for one of the expansion's biggest cinematics and several pieces spread throughout its soundtrack.
Not a bad way to sign off after 11 years.
Source: Adam Burgess / Blizzard Entertainment
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