Super Mario Bros. 2 Analysis – Ending (Part 2)

Six months later and we finally get the epic conclusion of this analytical mini-series.

Well, I’m not sure how epic a conclusion it is, but we will make the best of it!

This is a pretty straight forward excerpt.  There is a nice passing motion between the V and IV chord on the third line represented by a bVII, though functioning only as a passing motion.  Also, there is a nice sequence descending from V to ii early on in the excerpt.

What I want to draw your attention to here is the last eight measures.  Why do you ask?  Well the progression alternating from bVI to I ending in a secondary dominant half cadence is not new.  It may not sound familiar, but with a little bit of chord analysis, you will soon see:

This is the third formal section of the original Super Mario Bros. theme.  The exact same chord progression in the exact same key, with the same harmonic rhythm.

Intentional?  Maybe.  Pretty Cool? Absolutely.

Review: Reale’s “Chaos in the Cosmos”

The first article I want to take a look at was recently published in a new journal based out of Germany.  This music journal ACT focuses on the relationship between music and performance.  Steven B. Reale published an article entitled “Chaos in the Cosmos: The Play of Contradictions in the Music of Katamari Damacy.”

This article was very interesting to me.  First off, the game examined is not one I would consider first for an analysis, mainly because the qwerty, cutesy nature of the games initial appearance.  However, fans of the game will be very familiar with all the contradictions in the game, from the King’s attitude towards his son and his subjects vs. the generally happiness that seems to pervade every angle of the game.

The article begins with an overview of the game’s plot and examination of some of the contradictions that occur in the story and dialogue of the game.  He also uses this point to examine the kawaii culture of the Japanese and how that plays into the game design.

The rest of the article focuses on examining the various music elements of the game.  He traces the use of a particular tune throughout many of the different music objects in the game, and also examines the reinterpretation of certain tunes.  He comments on the juxtaposition of acoustic and digital music throughout and gives us a great overview of the music throughout this game through an analytical lens.

The resulting conclusion of the analysis looks to paint a picture of the games contradictions as it is embodied in the music, from the terrible vs. kawaii, digital vs. acoustic, and overall right vs. wrong.  Steven’s article takes us much deeper into a game that on the surface does not seem to offer as much as is actually there.

A Blast from the Past

I visited the Orlando History Center this past weekend.  They are hosting a special exhibit called “Games People Play” going through the history of video games.  Sadly, I was disappointed by the latter half of the exhibit.  I was hoping for more detailed exhibits on significant moments in games past.  The first three exhibits were fun though.  They had a working pinball machine from 1966, called Central Park made by Gottlieb.

What does this have to do with game music analysis?  Well not much.  This game has two sounds produced acoustically (not electronically!).  There is a bell that rings every time you score points.  For every multiple of 100 pointes, the monkey on the backboard rings the bell you can see in the picture.  The two bells are tuned very dissonant to each other and both have a lot of overtones.

I was intrigued by the sound of the score reaching 100.  An score-hungry player would be focused on the playfield and the ball so much that he would not have much of a chance to see the score board.  The use of a sound indicator at every 100 point mark gave the player some indication as to his progress in the game.

It goes to show that sound has been used in games very early on as an indicator to the player of an event or situation the player would want to be made aware of.

Changes coming!

So I have been away from analysis for a couple of months due to some other projects I have taken on.  However, recent events have gotten me excited about this blog and all the analysis I want to share with you.  The most exciting of which is an article I have published in a new academic journal in Germany: ACT, zeitschrift fur musik and performance.

Before I tell you about that, I would like to let you know what is coming around the corner (some of the changes you can already see).  I will be adding a pages bar at the top here with various resources the study and appreciation of game music theory.  This will allow me to get rid of all the extra fluff at the bottom of the page here and give a closer look at some of the terminology and analytical tools I use here or have come across.  Right now, you can see that I’ve posted a page with a list of books and articles discussing game music theory, with links when available.  This list is in its infancy and will grow extensively over the next month or two.  If you have a reference you’d like to add, you can comment below and I will include it.  I have many references already to add that I used in some of my articles and thesis but will be doing so when I have the time to format them correctly.

I will be finishing up my SMB2 series and will start on some other topics which I hope you will enjoy.  I will also be doing some reviews and commentary on game music theory publications as I come across them.  Until then, here is an the abstract to my article “Thematic Unity Across a Video Game Series” (you can read the whole article here):

Composer Koji Kondo’s music for both Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1984) and The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1986) is among the most recognized video game music ever written. Through the use of motivic and prolongational analysis, this article demonstrates how Kondo created a unity across the entire Zelda franchise, while making each game’s score unique by examining one musical element, the overworld theme, from each of the main entries in the Zelda series. Schenkerian analysis is used to identify structural and motivic relationships between the various themes. This article concludes with an examination of semiotic implications of this analysis and its impact on other as-pects of the Zelda series and game music analysis as a whole.

Chromatic Harmonies in Pac-Man

EDIT: Due to the original YouTube video being removed that this post was originally based off of, this post may be a bit confusing. I will attempt to get the music object notated and added to this post to make it easier to follow.

Yes, I said it: Pac-Man!  Not a game one would study much for music, since there is so little to be found in the game, but if you stop to look, you never know what you may find.  Below you find the introduction music from Pac-Man (at 0:20), which I am calling the “Game Start” object.

What I found was the interesting chords heard in the “Game Start” object.

Looking at the whole object, Roman numerals would make it I-bII-I-V7-I in B Major

Now there is a bit of logic to this if we dig deep enough (or I could just be making it all up).

In this case, the bII functions a bit like a dominant.  We can hear the E pulling down to the D# (E being the only diatonic pitch in this bII chord).  This allows us to establish B as our tonic pitch before hearing the implied V7 chord in measure 2.

On beat three of measure 2, we get ever so briefly an E over an F#, implying a V7, which re-enforces this idea that E is serving a tonally defining feature until the A# is heard at the very end of this object in the ascending passing motion between V7 and I.

So little music, but so much to uncover.  While I am primarily interested in analysis, a music historian might be interested in tracking the influence of such tonal devices through music of the 8-bit era.

The “Mario” Cadence

I will start off this post by saying that this cadence was not invented nor first used in Mario, however, it is found all throughout the music of Koji Kondo and others who were inspired by his music.
The cadence in question, is the one pictured above.  The motion of bVI-bVII-I.  The example above is given in C major with rather arbitrary voice leading.  For those of you who have memorized all your part-writing rules, you will notice this progression is nearly impossible to write without violating a convention or two (when writing in four parts).  You will notice from all the examples below, ascending parallel 5ths and Octaves are very common when writing out this progression.
In my master’s thesis, I briefly discussed the use of modally inflected harmonies used as substitutions for more traditional harmonies.  The following paragraphs are taken from that thesis, Examining Non-Linear Forms: Techniques for the Analysis of Scores Found in Video Games (Texas Tech University, 2009):

Walter Everett’s discussion of tonal systems in Rock music provides a great explication of the use of modal inflection in the language of popular music. He discusses six different tonal systems that he believes are prominent in the tonal systems of Rock music. The system that is dominant with the composers discussed here is his third system: “Major-mode systems, or modal systems, with mixture from modal scale degrees. Common-practice harmonic and voice-leading behaviors would be common but not necessary.”[1] This system allows for the substitution of chords from modally inflected scale degrees to function as their diatonic counterparts would.
For example, the music of the composers examined below frequently employ the aeolian bVII chord functioning as a substitute for a more traditional dominant chord, such as V or vii°. The bVII can be heard as a dominant chord because it retains the motion from scale degree four to scale degree three in a bVII-I progression. This is the same voice leading motion that governs the voice leading in the V⁷-I motion. The bVII removes the leading tone, but creates momentum through other voice leading tendencies.
We see the bVI lead often to the bVII in cadential motion. Björnberg acknowledges this cadential motion as frequently "replacing the iv-V-i cadence of ‘regular’ tonal minor.”[2] We see it often replace the IV-V-I cadence of “regular” tonal major as well. Not only that, but we also see an example of bVI alternating with I. Both of these are normal functions of a vi chord: substitution for the IV chord in a predominant function, as well as the expansion of a tonic area. The bVI makes a good substitute for vi because it retains the tonic pitch and interval relationship in size (though not quality). Its third relationship to tonic allows it to continue to function as a tonic embellishment. It functions in the cadence because it allows for a descending third progression from the lowered third scale degree. These modal chords retain the function of their diatonic counterparts, and can be understood as functioning like those chords, even though some of the voice leading conventions are removed or altered.

The most well-known example of this cadence in video game music is found in the Overworld Object to Super Mario Bros., hence the moniker “Mario” Cadence:



This particular cadence is used also in the fanfare for the end of each level:



In the last post, I showed this example of the cadence in Super Mario Bros. 2:



Used as a common device for fanfares in the Mario series, we now see it used in Super Mario Bros. 3 Airship Victory Fanfare:



This harmonic language was not restricted to the Mario games from the NES era, as we can hear in the Dire, Dire Docks object from Super Mario Bros. 64:

Harmonic Progression: I | bVII | I | bVII | bVI | bVII | I

In fact, much of the A section of this object follows that progression.  When the bVI enters into the progression, the sense of cadence, or at least tonal center, becomes solidified.
Finding this cadence all throughout this music makes us wonder about its power and how it works.  It lacks a clear leading tone and dominant/tonic relationship, yet it draws our ears towards tonic in a way that no classical cadence does.
Cruise Elroy posted on this cadence back in 2008, which can be viewed here.  He does an analysis of three Ocarina songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which have this cadence in them, and also shows us an example of this cadence in Super Mario Galaxy.
For now, this progression will be coined the “Mario Cadence” and will be identified as such until better nomenclature is developed or found.

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[1] Walter Everett, “Making Sense of Rock’s Tonal Systems,” Music Theory Online Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2004), http://mto.societymusictheory.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html.
[2] Alf Björnberg, “On Aeolian Harmony in Contemporary Popular Music,” Typescript, http://www.tagg.org/others/bjbgeol.html.

Super Mario Bros. 2 Analysis – Ending (Part 1)

This object is in two parts, but there is so much to discuss about the first part that I am splitting up into two posts.

As a refresher, here is what the object sounds like:

Now that you have that in your inner ear, lets dive into the music, shall we?

This object is full of interesting harmonic shifts.  Right from the beginning, we notice the composers use of the bVII as a dominant substitution.  There is also a presiding C pedal throughout the opening from Measure 1 through Measure 8, until the unmistakable dominant chord in measure 8 is heard.

Measures 5-7 present an interesting shift of harmonies through chromatic voice-leading.  This motion connecting the a minor (vi) chord to the d minor-seventh (ii7) is accomplished through descending half step motion and one diatonic neighbor motion (C-D-C in m. 5-6).  This allows for some harmonic instability while maintaining a good sense of voice leading and interest in this three-part object.

The final cadence of this excerpt is also interesting, and one which I will devote a future post to, but it is a very popular cadence in Mario music from the first game up through Mario Galaxy.  This “Mario Cadence” consists of taking the Submediant and Subtonic chords from the parallel minor and cadence on a major tonic.

There are some distinctly classical elements to this object as well.  The chromatic voice-leading from m. 5-8 embellish what is a textbook chord progression ending with a cadential six-four motion into an imperfect authentic cadence.  This part of the object could be described as a contrasting period:

A: Measures 1-8
Ends in an Imperfect Authentic Cadence (melody ends on Mi, not Do)

B: Measures 9-18
2 Measure extension through sequencing.  Ends in a Stronger Cadence than (A) since the soprano ends on Do.  I would argue that the bVII serves as a convincing enough dominant substitution that this is infact a stronger cadence than the one before it.

Analysis of Part 2 of this object is forthcoming.  There is a dramatic change in register and style.  Also look forward to an examination of the “Mario Cadence” as well as some thoughts on Semiotics and Video Games.