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The term iMUSE stands for "Interactive Music Streaming Engine". So what could be so special about this music engine, that LucasArts decided to get a patent for it?

"[iMUSE] started out as essentially a souped-up MIDI sequencer, and has evolved into more a methodology than anything else.  We currently use iMUSE for streamed music only.  It's a way to organize all the different music cues, and see how they relate to each other by using a graphic layout.  It also allows the composer to specify transitions and other types of musical responses at a pretty detailed level."
(Michael Land in an interview at the Michael Land Homepage)

For some really complicated technical information about iMUSE you can visited the official page about iMuse's patent. You find a lot of sketches and descriptions over there, but it is formulated in quite a difficult language. But still, this site is worth a visit.

Now, in reality, it's not that complicated. iMuse is a system that plays midi (in the older games) or digital (in the newer games) music files, and manages to switch smoothly from one file to another (or to another position in the same file). Therefore, it uses certain commands such as Jump and Loop. It can, for example, also change the volume. The midi version of iMuse was also able to add or remove instruments and to change the tempo. Obviously, this is not possible with digital music, but you can obtain the instrument-effect by switching between two different mixes, one containing the instrument, the other not.

But it's not the system itself that makes the interactivity of the LucasArts games, but it's the clever tricks the composers use. I'd like to show you a few examples of interactive music from The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango.

One of my favorite songs in Curse of Monkey Island is the Barber Shop Song. First it has a special introduction when you enter the shop the first time (when Guybrush asks if anybody knows how to remove Elaine's curse and when the pirates start to become interested in the gold statue... Guybrush: "Oops, did I tell too much?"). Then you have the general theme that plays in the shop. Now, when you start talking with Haggis, Van Helgen, Bill or Rottingham, the music jumps to a special mix for each of the characters, but it starts at the same position that we were on in the original song, so that you don't realize the transition.

The same procedure is used at the end of the game in the Rollercoaster Song. There's a special variation of the LeChuck theme for every room(1,2,3 and 4), but the transitions are really smooth, so that the audience gets the impression it is one big symphonic piece with variations.

In Grim Fandango, I've found another cool example of interactivity. When you are on the docks, you hear the slow Limbo tune. When you look at the moon, Many starts reciting a poem. While Many is talking, we hear strings that are added to the original music.

LucasArts was one of the first game companies that realized that it's not enough to write good music for a computer game, but that the music also has to fit to the scenes, characters and moods of the game.