Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by trilobiter
Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack by Andrew Schartmann
5.0
The essence of great art is opening up new possibilities within a limited medium, pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible. In that sense, the team that produced Super Mario Bros. are among the greatest artists in the history of their medium. This book focuses on the methods and accomplishments of just one of those people, composer Koji Kondo, who took a limited musical tool set and pointed the way forward to complex arrangements and a more intimate marriage between recorded sound and the bodily experience of playing a video game.
Schartmann makes a case for the music of Kondo having an appeal beyond the simple nostalgia associated with a game that was otherwise groundbreaking in so many other ways. In fact, Kondo incorporated elements of jazz and classical music in new ways to suit the needs of the project, creatively finding ways to create sophisticated effects that seemed beyond his technical means. That creativity is foremost what animates the musical world of Mario. All of this is illustrated with musical notation and described in the language of chords and keys, which may be daunting to the uninitiated. It is however necessary to show what exactly Kondo was doing that was so exceptional; in any event, Schartmann does an excellent job showing how that technical terminology relates to the effect felt by the average player.
Incidentally, this book has been somewhat criticized for being outside the ordinary subject of the 33 1/3 series, on account of a video game soundtrack not being a "traditional" album. The only thing I have to say on that score is that this is an extremely boring viewpoint. It is true that the original game contains only about three minutes of unique music, but those three minutes are as historically important as any thirty-to-forty minute work this series has discussed.
Schartmann makes a case for the music of Kondo having an appeal beyond the simple nostalgia associated with a game that was otherwise groundbreaking in so many other ways. In fact, Kondo incorporated elements of jazz and classical music in new ways to suit the needs of the project, creatively finding ways to create sophisticated effects that seemed beyond his technical means. That creativity is foremost what animates the musical world of Mario. All of this is illustrated with musical notation and described in the language of chords and keys, which may be daunting to the uninitiated. It is however necessary to show what exactly Kondo was doing that was so exceptional; in any event, Schartmann does an excellent job showing how that technical terminology relates to the effect felt by the average player.
Incidentally, this book has been somewhat criticized for being outside the ordinary subject of the 33 1/3 series, on account of a video game soundtrack not being a "traditional" album. The only thing I have to say on that score is that this is an extremely boring viewpoint. It is true that the original game contains only about three minutes of unique music, but those three minutes are as historically important as any thirty-to-forty minute work this series has discussed.