Anyone interested in videogame music?

[yale_music]

Hey everyone,

I just want to announce that my book on early videogame music was published today. I hope anyone with a love for arcade music and NES tunes enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. There's actually a lot more to this music than first meets the ear. Has anyone ever studied it  closely? In any case, the book is called Maestro Mario and is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Apple Store, and elsewhere.

Best wishes,
Andrew

[awesom_o]

My girlfriend and I were just listening to some video game music for piano last night. She's more into the games themselves than I am, so it is much more likely that she will transcribe and record it in future than me (she is also a pianist).

Martin Leung was actually in my older brother's class at uni.

You're correct, there is more to this music than first meets the ear.

Do you think there lies greater art in film music or in game music? We were arguing about this at great length last night.

Looking forward to your book!

[wwalrus]

Instant favorites which come to mind are several songs from VVVVVV, Fire Emblem, and so many more.

[visitor]

love it. thnx for contributing to the growing body of piano lit based on it.  want to buy it but care not for ebooks, I need paper. will you be offering a printed option or a pdf file version? printing kindle files is a big pain in the yoshi (must individually copy each snippet, then connect to pc, then find the snippet folder, then print each snippet one by one....)... does your volume contain these (see below) kind of more advanced 'paraphrases' and similar concert transcriptions on 'themes of' from the nintendo universe? we are lacking good flashly stuff from that "neck of the woods" in general.

this is nice (recently started learning it, well written, fits the hand well if you know how to apply standard technical solutions to the challenges he puts up).

alt (audio + read along)

dude is cool, makes the score and audio avail in multiple formats.

thanks again for the post, but yeah, would love a hard copy option (either published or secure download similar to what J Radnich does where you get an email with coded link to download after payment is confirmed or similar).

[awesom_o]

That one was very nice!

[visitor]

That one was very nice!

glad you also think so! kid is talented, you get the feeling he genuinely does it out of love (and his cosplay is epic).

here's a nice morsel of what a piano + orchestra style treatment can do for a pretty basic theme.
Kingdom Hearts - March Caprice For Piano & Orchestra - Kaoru Wada & New Japan Philharmonic

 

[perfect_pitch]

If anyone's interested in Video Game music...

I do enjoy the music from a lot of video games, and right now - if it wasn't for the fact that I'm practicing hard for a piano competition... I'd be doing my arrangements again.

[yale_music]

love it. thnx for contributing to the growing body of piano lit based on it.  want to buy it but care not for ebooks, I need paper. will you be offering a printed option or a pdf file version? printing kindle files is a big pain in the yoshi (must individually copy each snippet, then connect to pc, then find the snippet folder, then print each snippet one by one....)... does your volume contain these (see below) kind of more advanced 'paraphrases' and similar concert transcriptions on 'themes of' from the nintendo universe? we are lacking good flashly stuff from that "neck of the woods" in general.

this is nice (recently started learning it, well written, fits the hand well if you know how to apply standard technical solutions to the challenges he puts up).

alt (audio + read along)

dude is cool, makes the score and audio avail in multiple formats.

thanks again for the post, but yeah, would love a hard copy option (either published or secure download similar to what J Radnich does where you get an email with coded link to download after payment is confirmed or similar).

Thanks very much for your response. The deal with the publisher, as far as I understand, is that the e-book version needs to prove itself in the market—to the tune of somewhere around 5,000 copies—before they go to print. I completely agree that e-books can be a pain; I like hard copies myself. But sadly there's nothing I can do on that front in the meanwhile...

[yale_music]

My girlfriend and I were just listening to some video game music for piano last night. She's more into the games themselves than I am, so it is much more likely that she will transcribe and record it in future than me (she is also a pianist).

Martin Leung was actually in my older brother's class at uni.

You're correct, there is more to this music than first meets the ear.

Do you think there lies greater art in film music or in game music? We were arguing about this at great length last night.

Looking forward to your book!

Thanks for your message! And that's awesome about Leung. I wrote a bit about him in the final chapter of the book. It would be pretty cool to be involved with Video Games Live some day.

As for your question, it's a toughy...and I'm not sure I'm willing to take all the heat for my answer! Haha. Then again, I'm not a fan of people who don't have opinions, so I'll give you a very preliminary response (with lots of room to punch holes, I'm sure).

I think *early* videogame music, starting with the NES, has an unmatched artistry to it, mainly because composers were forced to deal with incredibly stringent technological constraints, yet still managed (through innovation) to find ways to compose some incredible music. So their artistic talents combined with problem-solving skills truly impresses me. Today, composers of videogame music and film music don't have nearly the same level of constraints to contend with. Of course, there are challenges to all of these genres, but for me, videogame music from ca. 1985–1995 is an incredible achievement. Of course, there's a lot of garbage too!

[yale_music]

does your volume contain these (see below) kind of more advanced 'paraphrases' and similar concert transcriptions on 'themes of' from the nintendo universe? we are lacking good flashly stuff from that "neck of the woods" in general.

My book only contains selections from a few works for illustrative purposes. I'm working on a much bigger study at Yale right now, and the result of that will likely have a huge number of transcriptions. But keep in mind that I'm only working with NES an SNES music for the time being. There's just so much of it to work with!

[liszt1022]

I've arranged, performed, and recorded many NES and SNES works- mostly straight transcriptions. But for sure, some pretty difficult ones.

https://danielbrown.vgpiano.com

[yale_music]

I've arranged, performed, and recorded many NES and SNES works- mostly straight transcriptions. But for sure, some pretty difficult ones.

https://danielbrown.vgpiano.com

This is great! You've done some really nice work. I'm trying to think of some way we might collaborate in the future. It might be interesting to do a lecture recital. Anyway, I'm open to ideas. And again, nice work!

[swagmaster420x]

this guy's arrangement of metroid givees me chills, even tho it's played by a computer i think

u should check out his other stuff

[liszt1022]

This is great! You've done some really nice work. I'm trying to think of some way we might collaborate in the future. It might be interesting to do a lecture recital. Anyway, I'm open to ideas. And again, nice work!

Let me know if you need anything! PM me for better contact info so I can tell you a little more on what I've done.

[yale_music]

Did you get my PM, liszt1022? I sent it last week. If not, send me one.