Hey Steemians!
If you're unfamiliar with this new series of mine, basically I share a soundtrack and my thoughts about it, and I highly recommend listening to the song while reading! 😊
I decided on a console game this time - Super Mario Galaxy!
If you've never heard of this game before, you probably didn't own a Wii back in the day. Regardless, Super Mario Galaxy is an amazing game; it was the 3rd 3D Mario game and was released in 2007, one of the earlier releases with the Wii. It was also one of the first Mario games I completed 100%.
This soundtrack is awesome because it is the first Mario game to use a symphony orchestra. With my (Chinese) orchestra background (albeit somewhat limited), this soundtrack really spoke to me, and I love listening to all the different instruments coming together achieving synergy. 😌
Here's the song I want to share today:
If you've played this game before you'd know this song is iconic, and arguably one of the best songs in the Mario series. Everyone only knows about the classic Mario Bros. Theme, so I wanted to share this one since only players will know it, and it's so epic everyone should know about it!
In the game, this song can be found from "World 4" (called Bedroom in-game), from Gusty Garden Galaxy.
I think the song matches the background and the gameplay really well. It starts off with a loud fanfare as you fly in and the moment you touch down it gets quiet for the plucking violins to be heard. And then, the melody. Oh man, the strings in this are beyond amazing. The violins, the flourish from the harp, and the buildup with the brass section is just excellent. The subtle support from the timpani is great as well. I really like that the whole momentum of the song goes up and down, which is very fitting for the first mission, Bunnies in the Wind, where you need to float with the wind using these Floaty Fluffs.
The game's soundtrack (including this song) was composed by the brilliant Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota at Nintendo. Yokota actually initially composed a Latin American style of music, which Kondo rejected because Mario was supposed to be "cool", which was not suited to the "cute" music Yokota created. He later presented three different styles of music: one piece had an orchestral sound, the other had pop music, and the last featured a mix of both orchestral and pop music. Shigeru Miyamoto, the famous producer, then chose the orchestral piece, as it sounded the most "space-like".
Here's the live orchestra recording if you're interested in seeing what it's like:
This song is so iconic that it has sparked countless covers and remixes on YouTube. Here are a couple of my favourites:
If you're in the mood for something light and peaceful-sounding,
If you want some rock, check out this remix:
This song is so beautiful, and I love that so many different orchestras have used it in concerts. It's truly heartening to see video game music getting the credit it deserves, especially when so much work is put into it by the composers and the musicians.
Thank for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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