Overview

This study of Nintendo's five landmark music scores offers new insights into video game music composition and creativity with limited technology. Faced with severe technological constraints on system memory, composers of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) sought ways to disguise repetition in music that repeats extensively. Their efforts gave rise to a set of compositional techniques for creating the illusion of variety. This book distills these techniques into a theory of harmony and form for the analysis of NES music. It then uses this theory to analyze five landmark scores of the NES era: Super Mario Bros., Dragon Warrior, Metroid, Mega Man 2, and Silver Surfer. The book also includes a detailed description of the NES hardware and its attendant constraints, highlighting the ever-evolving dialogue between technology, commercial demand, and artistic sensibility that characterizes video game music of the 1980s and 1990s.

Full Product Details

Author:   Andrew Schartmann
Publisher:   Intellect
Imprint:   Intellect Books
Dimensions:   Width: 17.00cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   0.629kg
ISBN:  

9781835951095

ISBN 10:   1835951090
Pages:   266
Publication Date:   23 May 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

List of Examples List of Figures Acknowledgements                                                    Introduction                                          PART I - TECHNIQUE                                             1 - Technology                        2 - Loops & Modules                          3 - Harmony                                        4 - Modular Composition       5 - Layered Composition                      PART II - ANALYSIS   6 - Super Mario Bros. (1985)             7 - Dragon Warrior (1986)                8 - Metroid (1986)                  9 - Mega Man 2 (1987)                       10 - Silver Surfer (1990)                       Conclusion                                          Glossary                                  Bibliography                                       Ludography                                        Index  

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Author Information

Andrew Schartmann is a faculty member at New England Conservatory and serves as Audio Director at Yale's XR Pediatrics video game lab. He is the author of several books including Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack.

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