Classical music in Nintendo games

[Evie ❤✿]

Discuss.

• Mario Bros. (Nintendo) - the Game Start jingle sounds similar to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik from Mozart
• Super Mario Land (Nintendo) - the invincibility music is part of the "galop inferno", by Jacques Offenbach used in the French Orphée aux enfers comic opera, often just known for its use in the Can Can dance
• Tetris (The Tetris Company):-
  i. Korobeiniki (GB music A)
  ii. Minuet (GB music A Special Link Bundle "v1.0" release)
  iii. Johann Sebastian Bach's French Suite No. 3 In B Minor, BWV 814, IV. Menuett – Trio. (GB music C)
  iv. "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" (based on act two of The Nutcrackers, Tchaikovsky) (NES music A).
  v. Kalinka by Ivan Petrovich Larionov. (Unlicensed Tengen version)
• Nonono Puzzle Chalien and Spin Six (Creatures/Nintendo) have loads, particularly in Kurukuru Walk mode, some of the Spin Six modes, many are probably unused but can be found if you rip the music. can play songs in browser here www.zophar.net/music/gameboy-advance-gsf/no-no-no-puzzle-chailien
  
  
  The EU Spin Six manual credits three of them, as such:
  
  

  Song Title	Composer
  Pictures at an Exhibition	Modest Petrovich, Mussorgsky
  Serenade for Strings	Peter Ilyich, Tchaikovsky
  Swan Lake	Peter Ilyich, Tchaikovsky

• Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite and Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak
• Mother 3: A composer boss called Mr. Passion nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Passion plays classical music
• Some people say S.S. Anne from Pokémon sounds a little like Pictures at an Exhibition too, but this may be coincidental. For me it doesn't sound convincing but it's interesting comparisons were made.
• Yoshi's Cookie
• Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
• Some are in the music for the Out of This Dimension Star Fox level www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XzfcIOquWk
• Game Boy Camera has a couple
• More Nintendo ones from TV Tropes:
  1. "In Banjo-Kazooie, Grunty's theme (and thus, the music heard everywhere through her lair, the Hub Level) is actually a minor-key version of "Teddy Bears' Picnic." Since both The Hero, Banjo, and the Damsel in Distress, Tootie, are bears, it's actually fitting... if not rather odd."
  2. Wii Music had a soundtrack composed almost entirely of public domain songs.
  3. Donkey Kong Country 2's theme for Haunted Hall borrows from "Night on Bald Mountain in places.
  4. The NES version of Punch-Out!! uses "Sakura, Sakura", a traditional Japanese folk song for Piston Honda's ring entrance. This is referenced in the Wii game (where he was renamed "Piston Hondo").
  

A lot here

1. forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11877
2. pineight.com/mw/index.php?title=Public-domain_music_in_video_games
3. allthetropes.org/wiki/Public_Domain_Soundtrack#Video_Games

Other mentions (non-Nintendo):

Antarctic Adventure (Konami) - The main theme is Skater's Waltz by Émile Waldteufel
'that Furby Game Boy game' (Dancing Furby), 0% Nintendo: 'that Furby PC game' (Furby: Big Fun in Furbyland)

[Nester the Lark]

Well, classical music is public domain, and thus, no royalties have to be paid. That was actually pretty shrewd on Nintendo's part, as a number of early video games outright copied commercial music.

This is mentioned in one of the threads you linked, but I keep thinking how Nintendo was going to use Ravel's Boléro as the title music for The Legend of Zelda until they found out it wasn't public domain. Imagine if that was the theme music, and we never got to hear Koji Kondo's iconic title theme we all know and love.

[nocturnal YL]

A few of these were given for free for a limited time in Band Brothers P.

There's also the obvious example of the Parodius series.

Also, the ending of Murasame Castle.

[Evie ❤✿]

Sept 8, 2019 10:26:33 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

Well, classical music is public domain, and thus, no royalties have to be paid. That was actually pretty shrewd on Nintendo's part, as a number of early video games outright copied commercial music.

This is mentioned in one of the threads you linked, but I keep thinking how Nintendo was going to use Ravel's Boléro as the title music for The Legend of Zelda until they found out it wasn't public domain. Imagine if that was the theme music, and we never got to hear Koji Kondo's iconic title theme we all know and love.

Sept 9, 2019 11:43:53 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

A few of these were given for free for a limited time in Band Brothers P.

There's also the obvious example of the Parodius series.

Also, the ending of Murasame Castle.

Thanks for your replies! ^^

Yeah, I remember hearing about the Zelda example but forgot the specifics. Thanks for bringing that one up.