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Nintendo musical counterpoint?

Started by PoohBearIV, October 26, 2019, 03:55:43 PM

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PoohBearIV

I have been looking for Nintendo songs that use counterpoint effectively and heavily. The songs that I have thought of so far are:
-Koopa's Theme (Super Mario 64)
-Ultimate Koopa (Super Mario 64)
-Waluigi Stadium/Wario Colosseum (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!)
-Mushroom Bridge/City (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!)
-Cave (SuperTux)
I would especially like to find a single game that uses a lot of counterpoint. Any help to find such songs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Dekkadeci

The first song that comes to mind whenever I hear the words "Nintendo counterpoint" is Cackletta's theme from the first Mario & Luigi game; good thing we have a transcription of it on the main NinSheetMusic website, and you can check the counterpoint of our transcription here!

BlackDragonSlayer

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SlowPokemon

There's a mini-fugue in the prologue of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations.

Also, Pokémon Center from Pokémon Gold and Silver uses its three 8-bit voices in a really nice contrapuntal way.
Quote from: Tobbeh99 on April 21, 2016, 02:56:11 PM
Fuck logic, that shit is boring, lame and does not always support my opinions.

PoohBearIV

These are great examples. I wouldn't turn down any more suggestions if anyone else finds something.

See, I'm really into this YouTuber, 8-Bit Music Theory. I would like to give him enough examples of counterpoint so that he could potentially devote an entire video to the subject of counterpoint.

Thank you all for your contributions!

And thank you to all the arrangers that make NinSheetMusic so great!

PoohBearIV

Oh, and SuperTux is not a Nintendo game. My bad...

Dekkadeci

Yoko Shimomura seems fond of counterpoint - checked another OST of hers where I thought I'd heard counterpoint and confirmed it.

Both "The Demon King Odio" and "Pure Odio" from the Live-a-Live OST have counterpoint at some point. (OK, "Pure Odio" doesn't have much.)

Code_Name_Geek

The soundtrack for the original Dragon Quest/Warrior game always stuck out to me as using a lot of counterpoint, particularly the castle theme. The first two generations of Pokémon also use it a lot. And one single song that comes to mind to me is Spring from Harvest Moon 2 GBC.

A lot of older games relied on counterpoint because of the limited available voices, which has always fascinated me. Many games for the NES and GB/GBC especially will have a lot of counterpoint if you want to look into that more!

InsigTurtle


607

Interesting. I don't yet know what counterpoint entails, but Cackletta's Theme is one of my favourite pieces of music. I was practising it on organ during the summer of 2018, but I don't have an organ at home and as I haven't been formally taught organ (or piano, for that matter), not everyone in a church's board would be comfortable with me playing their organ when I feel like it.  ::) :-\

Dudeman

Quote from: 607 on October 29, 2019, 02:19:31 AMInteresting. I don't yet know what counterpoint entails, but Cackletta's Theme is one of my favourite pieces of music. I was practising it on organ during the summer of 2018, but I don't have an organ at home and as I haven't been formally taught organ (or piano, for that matter), not everyone in a church's board would be comfortable with me playing their organ when I feel like it.  ::) :-\
Essentially counterpoint means two or more independent melodic lines being played simultaneously. Listening to Cackletta's Theme with that in mind should make things clearer.
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SlowPokemon

More than that, it means that the separate lines follow trajectories according to traditional part writing
Quote from: Tobbeh99 on April 21, 2016, 02:56:11 PM
Fuck logic, that shit is boring, lame and does not always support my opinions.

PoohBearIV

Thanks! You guys have given me a lot to work with!

Further suggestions are appreciated!

Trasdegi


4-voice fugue in the second part of this one.