So I’ve been having some difficulties with embedding audio in my posts. I think I finally have something that works, and I’ll be looking into updating my older posts to get the audio running smoothly.
Now on with the game! Today’s music object is a short little ditty, played before entering one of the battle ship levels in SMB3, and is also played after the boss is defeated during the fall back to earth.
Each measure of this object contains the exact same music for the upper two pulse wave tracks. The lower triangle wave bass line is a seemingly logical harmonic progression with very strong voice leading tendencies, which seem to outline a I – IV – V – I progression.
Notice now that the upper voices contain the pitches [A, C, E, G, B, D]. Sure, it is a C major scale without the leading tone. I find the arrangement of the tones in the measure interesting. They seem to evoke two harmonies at the same time. The staggering of the rhythm allow our ears to pick out one set or another, and the changing notes in the bass allow our ears to float between the different the different harmonies outlined in the upper two voices.
I am moving towards a larger picture here with the SMB3 objects, but I have a few more objects to examine before I can look at that big picture.