I've come to the conclusion that there are a ton of blogs, and that it can't hurt to make one. So let's start this off with the topic I intend to share with you. Videogames. You and me, we've heard it all before, and I'm not going to pretend like you don't know everything you're about to read. But if you agree with me and you find yourself as bored as I am, you'll probably skim along. Right now, I'm inspired, and I might decide to delete everything on this blog later, but some things just need to get written down. Enough stalling!
I'm going to consider two games in this post, one modern and one more than ten years old. By modern, I mean Oblivion, and the one that is older is Donkey Kong Country 2. Cool guys have played both, but if you haven't, here's the title theme for each.
All right, wipe your sweaty palm off before you touch that mouse and scroll down. 'Cause that's nasty. Some of us music nerds are instantly going to prefer Oblivion's "Reign of the Septims" for its higher quality and wider instrumentation. Do I, the author, disagree? It seems I do.
But before we get in to why Donkey Kong Country 2 is secretly better, let me tell you why the two are on even terms. Both of the songs feature a string type intro, though I think DKC2's "Opening Fanfare" kind of stretches the term with its 16bit deedeedums at the beginning. The timpani in Oblivion's theme is used to great effect, and no similarity is present in DKC2's theme, however, let's just mark that up to technological incompatibility. Both of the songs go in to a brass lead melody once through the intro, and both soon fade in to a more peaceful B section. However, Reign of the Septims is in Binary form, and ends on that pretty little B section. Opening Fanfare's Ternary form ensures that that B section is haunted by the bass of the A section, and returns to an A type theme for a finish on a chord dissonant with the key.
That's an overly simplified technical viewpoint of the composition of the two songs. Now, why on earth would I think that the concise, bite sized package in DKC2 is better than Reign of the Septims, which takes you on a veritable journey of the land? I'm not going to cut the soundtrack of DKC2 any slack for being on a 16 bit system, even. It's better because, as a title theme, it manages to sum up the entire feel of the game within the song. That might be a complete balderdash sentence, but when playing DKC2, there's an overarching feeling which I think this song does well explain, that even when you're in the cool places with beautiful music, you're still fighting the minions of a bad guy, that no place is safe, that regardless of where you go, you'll end up back where the plot began, at a conflict with your nemeses. Maybe that sentence is balderdash too. Maybe this paragraph is like a balderdash factory.
Let's get out of that pargraphactory. I do, as a listener and a player of the soundtracks and stories of these games, do not feel as though that same description could be applied to the more modern piece. I feel like the Oblivion piece lends itself to the idealism of the world, a translation of what the world feels like, as opposed to what the game and the story feel like. I appreciate that more. Also, it manages to express more ideas in roughly half the time. Maybe I am just an old man who prefers old music, but I think this music is, artistically and technically, a better piece.
Also, enjoy these two non-title pieces from the two games.
That's all I got for today.
