Later Romantic composers would seize upon the manipulation of Classical topics to create a variety of musical tropes. The former lowers the discourse of the march to bring the finale’s message of brotherhood to all people, not just the upper class ( Hatten 1994, 82).
High-pitched, metallic percussion, a sign of a non-Western other, is paired with a march, a marker of high discourse associated with regality and wealth. A famous example is the so-called Turkish March from the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Musical tropes, on the other hand are “a manipulation of a topic through the juxtaposition of contradictory or unrelated types” and “must arise from a single functional location or process ( 1994, 170). used as part of a larger work” ( 1994, 294). Musical topics are, in Robert Hatten’s definition, “a complex musical correlation originating in a kind of music. In both examples, tropes of the soaring topic hint at significant events that unfold during the course of gameplay. I then explore the topic’s use in two games that heavily feature flying, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IV (1991) (1) and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011). I engage with not only the musical characteristics of the soaring topic, but also its cultural and historical development. As a case study to explore this idea, I define what I call the soaring topic through an examination of music used in Hollywood cinema and video games that accompany scenes of flight. The music, especially with the recent success of live video game music concerts, is beloved as much as the games themselves, and is rich, complex, and contributes greatly to the narrative of the games, particularly when viewed through the lens of topic theory.
#Ww2 online tropes series#
Though not quite as ubiquitous as Mario, Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda are long-lived video game series and popular with gamers. So in a way, the dance type of a waltz has become associated with images and experiences related to weightlessness (whether through space or in water) over the last 50 years, giving the waltz a new topical relationship within popular culture. Stanley Kubrick’s choice of the Blue Danube Waltz in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to accompany the first scenes of weightlessness was likely a factor for Kondo as well. Waltzes have always been tied to a sense of weightlessness, especially when paired with a set of skilled dancers who seem to float, rather than dance, across the floor. Perhaps the bass line is distantly reminiscent of the sounds of bubbles popping, but on the whole, Koji Kondo’s music takes another route entirely, choosing the waltz to give players a sense of floating through the level along with Mario. The waltz contains nothing that is overtly water-like. Of particular note when playing (or reminiscing) is the music that accompanies the underwater levels. (1985) for the Nintendo Entertainment System have become iconic, referencing video games at large and, when heard in their original 8-bit form, a link to gaming’s past. The four main music cues in the original Super Mario Bros. Copyright © 2019 Society for Music Theory
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