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Yesterdays post lacked a postscript. Actually it’s a lot more than that, as it is the link which originally prompted the writing of that whole goddamn thing. It’s a transcription (PDF alert) of the Mario Brothers theme so that all you budding orchestrators and orchestrators-in-development can write versions for the instruments which it hasn’t been played on yet. All two of them.
Tags: mario brothersThere are some melodies that most people will instantly recognize. On the one hand there are the classical: da-da-da-dum; the Ode to Joy; O Fortuna; etc. On the other are songs from popular music: Smoke on the Water, Hey Jude, Oops… I Did it Again.
And then there is a third group containing everything else.
For the Gen X/Y crowd this 3rd group is far from an afterthought — it contains some of our most striking examples. There are pieces in this category that have so strongly influenced us that there are over 800 different renditions for piano, and over 1000 for guitar just on youtube. These are pieces which we have listened to continuously for hours at a time, over the course of days, weeks, months, years.
And here is the most ubiquitous of the bunch:
Even a cursory glance through youtube gives you an idea of the influence of this particular piece. There are versions for orchestra (with over 280,000 views):
Beatboxing flute (over 10,000,000 views):
A version for bare hands:
Tesla coil:
As well as versions for RC car and bottles, ocarina, ruler, accordion, balalaika, theremin, pipe organ, 11-string bass, electric guitar, classical guitar, tuba, clarinet, wind trio, a capella, bassoon, trombone, viola, violin, piano, and many many more…
The influence and reach of that little theme is quite remarkable.
Tags: mario brothers, music, nintendo, youtubeEarly this ante-m., the covers (duvet actually, imported all the way from Debenhams in England which took up most of the space in my luggage but was highly, exceptionally, worth it) came off to the incessant looping of Toxic. The Britney song. This wasn’t an outside, uninvited intrusion due to radio-alarm randomness, but instead an internal performance which I blame on too many ukulele videos before bed:
I remember having a ukulele as a kid, and also remember my musical skills mostly encompassing breaking the strings. It turns out that there is a huge (not so) seedy underworld community of ukulele devotees with mad ukulele skills. For example, I managed to miss the rise to popularity of this performance (which occurred thousands of years ago in internet time):
Hell, there are even multiple ukulele “orchestras” in existence. Here’s the GB one covering Kate Bush — which actually makes me just want to turn it off and listen to the original, but the “Heathcliff!” is kind of funny:
It almost makes me want to pay for and try playing the ukulele.
Almost.
Tags: music, ukulele, youtubeThe Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: one of the greatest Minnesotan exports. It’s a not so terse (but oh-so poshly arrogant) phrase which labels the effect of, having recently observed or learned something new, then noticing it everywhere. The classic example is, after buying a new car suddenly seeing swarming flocks of cars of a similar make. Another example is seeing the term “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” crop up all over the place after reading about it. Everybody (yeah, everybody in the entire world) reckons that it’s due to the recency effect.
Well, this seems to happen frequently with blogging. No sooner does one craftily (and sexily) tap out a stunning new post, than one observes stuff related to that topic dripping and draped all over the internet. Or even TV if you’re into that kind of thing.
You want an example? Well I’ll give you an example! The other day I touched on a thought about music and motion, and how intricately linked they are, from the point of view of choosing a soundtrack. Today, up pops an article which describes research recently done into this connection. Specifically researchers at the University of Texas have shown that a sound played simultaneously with a faint flash of light makes the visual section of the brain respond exactly as if it had seen a far brighter light. It seems this could be an evolutionary adaptation which allows animals to respond quickly to threats which are often both in motion and, say, growling.
While this is a fair-ways away from directly applying to music, it’s interesting to note that there is a physical connection — rather than merely a figurative one — between sound and vision. Of course, this isn’t really news to those with synesthesia. The really cool thing about this experiment is that the senses are connected in a deliberate, symbiotic fashion, and not just able to have their wires accidentally (or deliberately, lysergic dymethylamide fans) crossed
Tags: baader-meinhof, music, visionAnother return from another weekend away, I’m a busy boy. And a tired boy. Here’s another cop-out Youtubey post dedicated to anyone who has ever tried to (and failed to) play a melody on their phones beeping keypad:
Tags: phone, youtube
