I enjoyed this first week of Mario RPG. I think we all had a lot of good energy for analysis on this one. Hear us discuss our love and appreciation for Yoko Shimomura’s music!
Favorite Moments in Music History: Red Cape Tango
Metropolis Symphony: Red Cape Tango (Michael Daugherty).
This whole movement is so effortlessly cool to me, because it combines Superman, Tango cello lines/castanets, offstage horn players, and the Dies Irae. It’s pretty difficult to top Symphonie Fantastique’s use of the Dies Irae in an orchestral setting.
This movement is just perfect, but the moment is about halfway through where the strings take the melody and the friggin’ timpani takes the tango bassline for the first time, with the incredible brass commentary punctuating the string statements. Such exciting music. See this version with Toscanini conducting, which starts right before that moment:
Coffee Cup
-Virginia Woolf
Ludomusicologists on Twitch: Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past Part 1
…In which we begin showing our faces on the stream. The more we do it, the more we seem to refine the format and tech side of things. This isn’t my favorite playthrough; Ryan initially wanted to do the whole game in one week. Speedrun + scholarly commentary = not happening. I was definitely off my game in terms of talking about the music, because it was going by so fast and speed running requires doing a lot of things sort of out of order, so I was super thrown by that. Felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.
Live and learn, though. That just tells me I should do a personal run of the game down the line on my Twitch, to get a second chance at talking through it! That said, in listening back, it’s not like it’s completely devoid of musical analysis. And I dug the playing with format–marking objects up top as we got them in the game was a cute touch, and one I’d love to see happen again at some point.
Broken Strings Spring Recital
So I recently shared my high school students’ video game recital from Winter; here was the sequel the next semester. This one served as Mels’s senior project–they coordinated the whole thing, from booking the venue again to organizing the donation to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America to building the powerpoint of gameplay footage and program notes to setting up a livestream! It was really an incredible project to watch come together.
I should emphasize how remarkable it is that these two put together another full recital’s worth of arrangements in a matter of months, with very little re-use of music. We actually had too much music this time around, and so any repeats were purely because we loved them and thought they went well in the set list.
Concert Order:
- 1:11 Katamari Damacy intro and Fugue #7777
- 4:09 Castle Music from Dragon Warrior 3
- 5:43 Super Mario Bros 2 Medley
- 8:47 Shadow of the Colossus Medley
- 16:25 Mega Man 3 Medley
- 22:13 Castlevania Medley
- 29:45 Zelda II Medley
- 36:51 Chrono Trigger Medley
- 41:20 Aerith’s Theme (FFVII)
- 44:16 Undertale Medley
- 50:45 Brinstar: Jungle Floor (Super Metroid)
- 53:42 Rocky Maridia (Super Metroid)
- 56:03 Unforgotten (Halo 2)
- 59:00 Don’t Give Up/Hopes and Dreams (Undertale)
- 1:06:19 Death by Glamour (Undertale)
Broken Strings Winter Recital
So, I had this gig teaching chamber music. I’d go in a few times a week to coach small groups on classical repertoire, preparing them for OMEA Solo & Ensemble contest and school performances.
One day, my violin/viola duo admitted that they were working together on a heck of a lot more than Mozart. When they told me that they were arranging and learning music from video games, I couldn’t believe it. “Do you know what my dissertation is about?!?” I asked them. The group immediately shifted focus. They got their 1 ranking at OMEA on the Mozart, then we threw ourselves into the task of building up a repertoire of video game music in the hopes of putting on a full recital. Initially, the music directors were a little skeptical about the rigor of the work–until I showed them the score for our Castlevania arrangement. These two were performing such wickedly difficult material, and they were excelling at it because they were passionate about learning the music.
They were insistent on trying to learn pieces in the original keys, as close to the original tempo as possible (while acknowledging that some of the tempos in, say, Mega Man, are almost impossible to execute on our instruments). This entire process taught them–and me–a great deal about arranging, texture, rhythm, and what is idiomatic for keyboards vs. string instruments.
We finally put on a full recital here in town, taking a donation at the door for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. We raised $150 for the cause, and shared some wonderful music with our audience. Several of my friends who came were floored to learn that these two were in high school–they assumed based on the final product that these two were college students! Their dedication, passion, and musical maturity really came together to create something truly special, and I am still so proud of what they accomplished.
Concert Order:
- 0:00 Donkey Kong Intro
- 0:34 The Legend of Zelda Medley
- 7:45 Underworld (Kid Icarus)
- 8:42 Brinstar (Metroid)
- 11:05 Tetris Medley
- 15:50 Child of Light Medley
- 20:26 For River (To the Moon)
- 22:47 Ori and the Blind Forest Medley
- 30:40 Pokemon FireRed Medley
- 35:56 Ms. Pac-Man Interlude
- 37:00 Zelda II Medley
- 44:07 Asgore (Undertale)
- 48:10 Unforgotten (Halo 2)
- 50:42 Rocky Maridia (Super Metroid)
- 53:34 Hopes and Dreams (Undertale)
- 1:00:13 Ghost Battle (Undertale)
- 1:02:21 Still Alive (Portal 2)
-Beatrice Warde
