Link from Legend of Zelda is the original warp whistler. He plays the ocarina in Light World and in Dark. Even his shadow plays the ocarina. It’s a fairy ocarina, and Link carries it with him, somewhere on his person, along with bombs, jugs, and silver arrows. “Zelda’s Lullaby” is a song passed down among […]
Archive of posts tagged Nintendo
Chromatic Melodies
I like chromatic melodies, especially when they descend in tuplets. It can be mystical like a mystic cave, mundane as playground song, or silly and sad like a Catholic carnival. Let’s take a look at Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair”. This song features a highly-sexualized celebrity daughter whipping shots of paint into the faces of […]
Do The Wart
There is an unnamed melody which everyone knows in their heart of hearts, heard in the mind’s ear, appearing in variations from Pop and Classical to Nintendo. Let’s call this melody the “Wart Melody” after the villainous frog: King Wart. In 1988’s Super Mario Bros. 2, the agile Luigi takes on final boss Wart while […]
Super Mario Melodies
スーパーマリオブラザーズYou and I, we live in a Netherworld of Noise. That’s why I’m taking you to Happy Tone Town. Everything that used to make noise, now makes a tone. Except blocks―they’re still noisey. But get this: Money sings! You can hear the coins klup into your pockets. And it’s logical too: Jumping makes a bendy […]
Warp Whistle
Example 1 showcases the “Warp Whistle” melody from Super Mario Bros. III written by the 8-bit shogun Koji Kondo. This little leitmotif will sweep your Sprite away in a mystical tornado to the Warp Zone. It begins on a D tone, goes up a whole tone to an E, then jumps up to another D […]
Secret Mystik Licks
Today, we’ll take a look at melodies from classic NES gamepacks. The one below is written by Koji Kondo for The Legend of Zelda (1986). This leitmotif plays anytime your Sprite finds a secret passage or acquires a secret item in the game. It consists of two tetrachords. Drag over them below. The first tertachord […]
