Mount Wario's Dynamically Developing Music

[Music] Mario Kart 8 soundtrack is still one of my all-time favorites I don't know if I can think of another soundtrack that's more melodic has more inventive arrangements or features more stellar musicians high-profile Japanese jazz and fusion players from bands like T Square and dimension were recruited into a miniature big-band ensemble to record this funky jazz fusion masterpiece there are tons of highlights to the soundtrack animal Crossing's seasonally dictated instrumentation donut planes feel good organ groove and dolphin shoals burnin sax solo just to name a few if you want to hear more about that feel free to click here but the number one highlight for me both musically and gameplay-wise has got to be mounted Mount Wario stands out for its concept alone instead of racing three laps around a normal racetrack the players start at the top of a mountain and race all the way down to the bottom never repeating a section of the course once it's completed following this example the music evolves to suit each section of the course as each player moves through them perfectly matching the evolution of the track itself there are other examples of dynamic music across the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack from simple stuff like the music speeding up on the last lap of a track or throwing in a disco beat whenever you're in first place to cooler stuff like the electric guitar that comes screaming in when you run into the storm cloud section of cloud top crews [Music] still Mount Wario takes things to a whole other level replacing the typical three laps in this race track are three distinct sections the icy mountain peak the middle section featuring the cavern Wario dam and the forest and the final ski hill homestretch likewise the music is broken up into three main sections with the middle section broken up into two sub sections let's look at the way that these sections flow from one to the next how they managed to arrange smooth transitions between each when the time it takes to move through the track is so variable and how the music supports the emotional intention of the track at each point in the race after the 3 2 1 countdown the intro immediately gets things moving with the sixteenth note figure rocketing up before landing on this big shot on beat 2 of the bar the racers all start in this big airplane copter thing blasting out into the air on cue before landing on the snowy mountain peak already the synergy between the music and the gameplay is perfect the timing is such that this huge brass shot hits while you're mid jump between the airplane and the peak no matter where you are in the starting order it's so perfect after this intro fanfare a solo trumpet establishes the main melodic motif of the piece over top of the syncopated piano figure and a bass pedal vamp before a frenzied violin and electric guitar run lead us up into the main melody the solo violin and distorted electric guitar are going to be two key players in this arrangement so keep an eye out for them as our racers barrel through the snow the main melody comes in with the solo violin elaborating on the motif put forward by the trumpet a few bars earlier the arrangement here is stripped down compared to the intro with the brass and sax is absent for now which is perfect for setting the scene as the race gets started the violin and rhythm section have ample energy to get things moving but the simplicity of the orchestration here gives the arrangement plenty of room to grow as it goes along notice this chromatic lead ascending part of the melody in this choppy dotted eighth rhythm this is another motif that will get developed later on [Music] at this point the violin drops out as the guitar and horns come back in to take the melody developing on the previous melodic phrase with this really cool extended chromatic cross rhythm before the Saxons give us a syncopated g13 sus 2 g 13 to set up a return to the top of the head [Music] notice the big band style arranging here with all of the brass instruments playing together in one distinct group while the sexes play a second complementary part together in their own distinct group and the rhythm section laying down the groove in the background one of my favorite things about the soundtrack is how it mixes classic big band jazz arranging styles with grooves and harmony that are not at all typical of that genre this section loops back to the start of the violin melody and continues looping until the player reaches the second phase of the race when the player does reach the second stage by crossing the entrance to this cavern inside the mountain the music finishes out whatever bar it was on and then cues a two beat drum fill to lead into the second section of the piece [Music] finishing out the bar before doing this transition keeps the pulse steady which makes the change a lot less noticeable and the laughs jingle noise that plays as you pass this threshold slightly obscures the transition making it a little less obvious that we're cutting to a new part of the track the second section of this track both musically and gameplay-wise acts as the rising action of the piece we get a big texture shift as the Sachs's grab the melody for the first time in the piece so far playing it in a lower register and altering it with some extra syncopated and sixteenth note figures the bari sax honks out this rhythm with the bass and the drums at a double-time backbeat to contrast the first sections looser groove [Music] moving from the full super high brass melody to the smaller ensemble while ramping up the rhythmic intensity introduces the simmering tension that's just waiting to erupt this mirrors the rising intensity of this part of the race track with these precarious jumps and increasingly sharp turns forcing players to stay focused the harmonic shift we hear here is great too we move to an a minor chord which we've yet to hear so far in the track lending the section at fresh sound it obviously sets a different tone from our C major heavy a section but it's a similar enough chord that it doesn't sound out of place coming after any of the bars from section one this makes the transition between the two sections ridiculously smooth the chords in this part move up a minor third every four bars going from E minor to C minor to E flat minor to F sharp before transitioning back to the a minor if the a minor section is the simmering sax section then the C minor bit raises the tension with a higher melodic range in added guitar doubling the melody the distorted electric guitar and sax doubling is a super cool sound that I don't think I've ever heard outside of this sound track [Music] moving up to the E flat minor high brass shots come in and thus axes moved to this accompanying sixteenth note figure that was foreshadowed in the intro [Music] finally the f-sharp section brings the tension to a boiling point as the brass moves up to an insanely high range while thus axis and guitar take on a new fuller and more harmonically tense accompanying line this all builds into an eruption of brass shots that set up a return to the a miner at the top of the section as your cart reaches the forest part of the mountain we seamlessly crossfade to a new subsection of music that shares the exact harmony and form of this second section allowing the music to crossfade to whatever point in the form of the new subsection you are at in the previous one at this point the energy gets ramped up even more by alternating this driving sixteenth note melody line in the Sachs's and guitar with segments of shredding violin solo [Music] [Applause] [Music] this dynamic of trading solos is guaranteed to bring the house down in any piece of music never mind with the violinist as burning as this guy he plays like a shredding rock guitar solo on the violin and it's awesome this trading is bolstered by huge brass shots that come in the same way that came in before over this a flat minor chord building the tension to its breaking point right as you come up to the final section of the track [Music] jumping around to different instruments like this layering multiple different parts on top of each other and the frenetic energy that each part brings to the music works perfectly behind this forest section as racers bounce their way over logs and swerve around trees barely hanging on as they try to get ahead of their competitors this tension explodes as the racers veer into the final stretch of the track a ski hill that rolls down into a finish line surrounded by hordes of cheering audience members congratulating you on your big finish the sharp turns and slew of obstacles give way here to a straight shot down to the end featuring a ton of boost pads to launch you off of this jump nothing feels better than shooting off of this ramp and gliding down towards the applauding masses it really feels like the culmination of everything so far like you're on the home stretch and the music scores this feeling perfectly first of all the transition to the section of the music is made much easier by the final laughs jungle that closes across this interrupting the previous music and allowing the final section to start from the top without worrying about a smooth transition we're in the key of E major now reprising a much more syncopated energetic version of the first sections melody the dueling guitar and violin have put aside their differences to tackle this theme in unison providing that crucial sense of everything coming together as we rock it towards the finish line the brass takes this momentum up to a climax and as they reach their peak on this high E the band does a surprise shift to a C Lydian pedal underneath punctuated by the guitar and sax is playing this rhythmic line [Music] that final two bar transition with the brass shooting up an f-sharp triad over an e base pedal rocket us back to the beginning of the section all of this intensity pays off once you hit that finish line and get the sweet relief of that finish music [Applause] [Music] this has got to be one of the most finely crafted levels in Mario Kart history with an equally meticulously crafted score to accompany it there's so much fire in this tune the choice of violin solo and electric guitar with sax section as the two main voices is so creative and the composition of the melody right down to the three act structure is just solid but even more than all that it really elevates the experience of racing down Mount Wario by understanding exactly what's happening at any given part of the track and enhancing that with the score and I think that's about the highest compliment that you could give a video game composer so thank you Rihanna Komatsu you killed it and thank you to my lovely patron mates of franca for requesting this topic if you also want to help support my channel via patreon check out this link here if you want to help support the channel without becoming a patron consider buying an 8-bit music theory t-shirt they're pretty comfy also follow me on Twitter if you want some more grippy hotcakes thanks so much for watching and I'll see you all next time [Music] you [Music]

Channel: 8-bit Music Theory

Views: 372,770

Keywords: Mario Kart 8, Mount Wario, Music of Mario Kart, Music Theory, Dynamic video game music, how to write music, 8-bit Music Theory

Id: -6K4NiDP04I

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2019