Ode to joysticks

''If Beethoven were alive today he'd be a video game composer,'' says Tommy Tallarico.

When he was a 10-year-old in Springfield, Tommy Tallarico spent his Saturdays wandering video arcades with a portable cassette deck, recording sounds from his favorite games. Then he'd run home, splice his favorite parts together, and pretend to play along with the crude remix on a broomstick.

Thirty years later, Tallarico holds a Guinness record as the most prolific video game music composer in the world, having penned the tunes that accompany games such as Prince of Persia, Earthworm Jim, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and the latest iteration of PacMan.

Tallarico is also the coproducer of a show called "Video Games Live," which makes its Boston debut tonight at the Citi Wang Theatre. The show features a full orchestra and choir performing the music of popular games from Advent Rising to Zelda, along with synchronized lighting, electronic percussionists, and video game footage. Audiences comprise not only hard-core gamers but curious musicians, little kids, and, according to Tallarico, lots of grandmothers. (The show is family-friendly, avoiding Grand Theft Auto and similarly violent games.)

"This music is legitimate," says Tallarico, who now lives in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. "People might think that it's just a lot of bleeps and bloops, and that was true 20 years ago, but not anymore."

"Video Games Live" premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2005 to an audience of more than 11,000 fans. Sensing a sensation, Clear Channel Communications decided to launch a 20-city tour, which was supposed to include Boston. But lousy ticket sales led to the company canceling all but two shows. Tallarico says the company didn't give itself enough time to pique interest in an arguably weird idea. "They put the 20 shows together within six weeks of the [first show]," he says. "Three weeks into it they were like, 'Why aren't we selling tens of thousands of tickets?' "

The 2008 show, managed by MSG Entertainment, includes some 50 cities nationwide, with ticket sales bolstered by the popularity of music-themed video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The show often includes a Guitar Hero performance of Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion," and Tallarico says there's a possibility lead singer Steven Tyler, who is Tallarico's cousin, will make an appearance at the Boston event.

The show includes more bells, whistles, and electricity than a typical symphony concert, but Tallarico insists that the extras only add authenticity to the video game music genre. "When the great Tchaikovsky debuted the 1812 Overture, he had live cannons on the stage," he points out. "I've always said if Beethoven were alive today he'd be a video game composer."

CARMEN NOBEL