Use of Progressive Rock in David Wise’s Soundtrack for Donkey

Kong Country and the Advancement of Video Game Music

Brooke Spencer

Professor Stephanie Lind

MUSC501

3 March 2019

Introduction

In 1994, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo game: Donkey Kong Country (DKC)–

resulting in widespread popularity and new innovative use of music in gameplay. Through

the utilization of prog-rock in David Wise’s soundtrack for DKC, Nintendo has expanded its

range of musical styles, function, and status as a top contending videogame company. The

use of prog-rock can be broken down in David Wise’s three pieces: “Treetop Rock”, “Fear

Factory”, and “Aquatic Ambience”. Through elements of prog-rock seen in each of these

pieces - harmonic prolongation, fragmentation, distortion, and use of the concept ‘meta-

chord’ – we can see that DKC’s music was unlike anything Nintendo had been creating

previously, and set expectations for music in videogames to come.

History

Starting in 1977-78, the video game industry began to rise in popularity through

arcades. In the 1960s/1970s when first-generation home consoles were created, sound

was not a possibility. It was only when Pong was released on the Atari home console in

1975 that sounds were used deliberately: the game had 3 different sounds coinciding with

actions on screen: the ball hitting the wall, the paddle, and a sound for player failure. Most

games included sound in future releases to increase profits after Pong’s success.1

By the end of the 70s, arcades were growing in popularity, with Nintendo a primary

arcade console producer. In 1980, NAMCO released Pac-Man, whose huge success led

1 Fritsch, Melanie. "History of Video Game Music." In Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance, edited by Peter Moormann. Musik Und Medien, 11-40. Berlin, Germany: Springer VS, 2015, pg. 12.

Nintendo to realize they had to up the ante against their competitors. Such an opportunity

came in 1981 with the release of Donkey Kong, which solidified Nintendo as a prominent

contender in the video game market.

During the late 1970s-1980s, the rise of home consoles began and created a new

conflict for video game producers, with a rapid decline in arcade production due to a

decrease in profits. As the game industry became more competitive, the threat of lawsuits

and copyright battles led to secrecy, fear and protection over the brands.2 After Atari’s

success with their home console, Nintendo decided to shift from the arcade business,

releasing the Famicom home computer in 1983 in Japan; this was re-released

internationally in 1985-6 and rebranded as the “Nintendo Entertainment System” (NES.

The system ported three popular arcade games previously released by Nintendo: Donkey

Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye.3 The North American Famicon (NES) was released in

1986; alongside seventeen launch titles including a game called Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. was entrusted to developer Shigeru Miyamoto, who developed

Nintendo’s first big title Donkey Kong; Nintendo’s reliance on Miyamoto was an attempt to

stick with a developer with a proven track record of success. With the NES launch,

Nintendo as a company sought to create something never done before in video game

history, both technologically and musically: more complex rhythms, dynamics, an

expanded range of timbre used in the systems music, as well the ability to have polyphony

for the game/system.

2 Collins, Karen. Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008, pg. 37-39. 3 Ibid, pg. 19.

Koji Kondo (born in 1961 in Nagoya, Japan) became one of Nintendo’s lead sound

designers/composers. From an early age Kondo had studied music, mainly piano and

keyboard. It is interesting to note that Kondo never intended specifically to work as a

professional musician. Kondo had been taking a general arts degree at the Osaka University

of Arts when Nintendo sent a recruitment message to the university in 1984 due to

company expansion, seeking someone dedicated to composition and sound programming.

Kondo showed interest in the position and was hired without even submitting a demo tape.

Once employed, Kondo worked on smaller projects until the company gave him the task of

writing the Super Mario Bros. score.4

Kondo would establish many music video game conventions in the 8-bit era; unlike

many classically-trained composers, Kondo could not rely on human elements to bring

expression in his works. Articulation, dynamics, texture, and voicing are variables most

composers take for granted, whereas with the NES these factors generated new and more

difficult technological challenges that had not been explored before. All of Kondo’s music

had to be put into code, and to play and be “performed” by a programmable sound

generator rather than being performed live musicians. To make matters worse, the NES

also had a very small amount of memory on their sound chips (five channels, only three of

which Kondo could use for technical reasons), which limited the expansion of the music.

Rather than viewing this as a limitation, Kondo embraced this challenge of his work, using

creative looping techniques to repeat melodies, with only a few moments of creative

content. This technique takes up less data on the sound card, still creating the effect that

4 Schartmann, Andrew. Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack. Vol. 106: Bloomsbury, 2015, pg. 28.

the music playing is new and interesting throughout by giving different wave channels

melodic or accompanying music that created a “blended three-voice sound.”5

Where Kondo would establish a basis for this genre of music, Koichi Sugiyama (best

known for 1986 Dragon Quest) would make significant improvements in the use of texture.

Sugiyama surpassed Kondo in his wider range of orchestral timbres and use of more

complex harmonic structures. Using full-size orchestral sound and harmony, Sugiyama had

an advantage to Kondo – especially as a classically trained performer, conductor and

composer.

Both the NES and SEGA Genesis consoles were widely successful; however, the SEGA

Genesis had a wider segment of the coin-op arcade market, and an FM synthesis chip and

superior sound to the 8-bit NES. The Genesis was the most popular console to employ FM

sound. Its sounds at times were a bit “scratchy”; however, they still dramatically surpassed

Nintendo’s sound system. The FM chip would allow creation of sound sampling through

computer’s sound chip memory and also introduced a bigger range of timbres & more

realistic sounds for gaming systems. During this time, Nintendo was trying to emulate the

sound SEGA was achieving, but could not keep up with their competitor’s success.

Once digital instrument timbres were developed, musical sequences could be coded

to the FM chip and could be looped and/or transposed. When coded, SEGA games began to

experiment with interactivity of sound, responding to player input or having gameplay

consequences. SEGA’s music in games at this time was also well known for its progressive

rock stylistic traits. This was done because SEGA composers wanted to make sure none of

their material was “too catchy” and would not become annoying upon repetition. SEGA’s

5 Ibid, pg. 39-41.

use of prog-rock was Nintendo’s downfall as the latter was seen as a company targeted

towards children with more ‘pop-tuney’ music that would be very catchy, but not what

larger audiences wanted.

The SNES

Progressing into the 16bit-era of music, more professional experience was also

required for composing video game/computer music, and ensuring the composer’s product

was high quality: this was because of the competitiveness between video game companies

(like Nintendo and SEGA), striving to have the best consoles, with the best game design

available. When the SNES was released, Nintendo had begun to produce some of their most

popular series games that positioned titles including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda,

Metroid, Pokémon, and Donkey Kong as flagship titles to continuous series development.

These series would soon become some of Nintendo’s most popular titles and were (and

are) exclusive to Nintendo, increasing sales for the company. This also set the precedent for

newer consoles to also receive games related to the flagship titles.

Nintendo’s follow-up game to Donkey Kong was Donkey Kong Country (1994), which

used new 3D technology to out-run other competitors during the mid-90s. New

improvements to graphics and sound were made to enhance the SNES’s dominance in the

market with 3D games like Killer Instinct (1994) and DKC. DKC was not only a cultural

statement for Nintendo, but was also a technological statement to which would promote

“A.C.M” (Advanced Computer Modeling) and other technological advancements of the

SNES.6

6 Ibid, pg. 85.

David Wise

In 1985, David Wise met two men coincidently one day while he was working in a

music shop-trying to promote the newest Yamaha CX5 music computers. As Wise was

demonstrating his own compositions he wrote on the computers, the two men asked him if

he had an office. Wise believed that this was so the men could purchase the computer, but

instead they offered him a job as a composer. The two men revealed to be Tim and Chris

Stamper, the founders of the video game company Rare that helped release DKC. Within a

year of being employed by Rare, Wise had composed scores for over a dozen games and by

year two, he was composing entire game soundtracks within one, two, or (if lucky) four

weeks. Having more time with a complete score meant more time to deal with the complex

hardware and software; time was of the essence. Wise challenged himself with the limited

memory of the NES, emulating music that was unique under strained circumstances; much

planning was involved for how to represent characters, mood, or atmosphere. Rare then

shifted its work to the Super Nintendo and Wise began his newest project with co-

composers Eveline Fischer and Robin Beanland: Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. U.K.

editor James Batchelor quotes David Wise on EuroGamer:

‘The SNES by comparison was like being given an orchestra,’ he says. ‘It was still limited - we had to get

every single sample into 64k of memory, which is tiny so that was a challenge, but it sounded a million

times better. That artistic freedom, thinking about how we could make things sound, was very exciting.

It was like being given a whole new toy to play with - and then some. We were eager to see what we

could get out of that chip. ‘I always like a challenge, I always like to stretch myself - just like the graphics

people did at Rare. We'd always try to push technology as much as possible. It was a really exciting time,

working on the SNES’.7

Not to ignore challenges within the SNES, the console had only eight monophonic audio

channels for the console. Even with the newer technology of MIDI, Wise preferred to enter

the codes manually because it took up less memory. Wise talks of his influences during

composition of DKC including the interactivity between the game and music:

There are certain clichés, certain things we expect when we hear music," he says. "It goes back to early

films, and probably even before that with ballet and things like that. There are certain feelings that

certain types of instruments or music evoke. We listened to a whole lot of stuff to get the inspiration, and

I suppose it's a very traditional composition where we took inspiration from many sources and putting

it all together. Back then, even if the gameplay was good, the tune had to do a lot of the scoring

underneath to tell you if things are happy, sad, jolly, or that we're in a jungle or underwater perhaps"8

It can be argued that the DKC soundtrack is “the antithesis to the typically bouncy

sound of 16-bit platformers,”9 with samples of lively melody and jazz integrated into

themes such as “DK Island Swing”, and a strong rock influence. During gameplay, the music

personifies a mood or atmosphere seen on screen, rather than “underscoring the on-screen

7 "From Donkey Kong to Snake Pass: The Music of David Wise." EuroGamer, 2017, accessed September 17th 2018, https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-04-05-from-slalom-to-snake-pass-the-musical-life-of-david-wise, par. 11. 8 "From Donkey Kong to Snake Pass: The Music of David Wise." EuroGamer, par. 15. 9 "Donkey Kong Country Soundtrack- Review." The Greatest Game Music. Accessed September 3rd, 2018, https://www.bestwesterngamesoundtracks.com/soundtracks/donkey-kong-country-soundtrack/.

action.”10 With underscoring, there is no interaction or connection between the music and

what is happening on screen, whereas in personification, there is a connection between a

‘mood’ or atmosphere and the videogame persona. The personification of videogame music

allows players to feel a sense of environment, further engaging the consumer and although

the atmosphere or ‘mood’ associated can have very sparse harmony, it leaves more

attention for overall feeling of the piece with “gaps for the listener to fill in.”11 The greatest

game music site also analyzes the music as closer to 80s synth film scores rather than

expected SNES music: “the music suggests, rather than reveals.”12

Prog-Rock

Music analysts did not investigate rock music much prior to the 1990s; it had

previously been overlooked because the unique timbre of rock/electronic instruments

would get lost in the mix of other significant theory elements; as Ciro Scotto observes,

“Timbre only appears analytically relevant when it highlights, supports, or reinforces pitch-

class relationships.”13 Scotto argues that if there were less focus on pitch-class/harmonic

elements, the focus would turn to timbre’s relationship in prog-rock. The timbre

predominantly seen in prog-rock music includes distortion “to generate motives and

form.”14 Having distortion incorporated in a game’s score is significant to helping the

audience recognize reoccurring motives. The development and re-combination of melodic

fragments is another feature characteristic of prog rock; as Lundberg describes, “one of the

10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Scotto, Ciro. "The Structural Role of Distortion in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal." Music Theory Spectrum 38, no. 2 (2016): 178-99. https://doi.org/10.1093/mts/mtw013. 14 Ibid, par. 3.

structural mainstays of early-70s progressive rock was the use of separate combinatorial

sections, first presented individually, and then reworked in combinations, again giving the

impression of development and musical intensification”15

Once given the tools needed for Nintendo to create a new innovative game visually,

creators needed to up the ante musically as well. The next step for Nintendo was to re-

create the standard for their music and implement it in DKC. They did this by using the

same prog-rock style SEGA was using at the time. The of prog-rock elements in SEGA’s

music created a unique SEGA style: using keyboard instrument sounds that supplied

“background chords” and stating its thematic material (rather than the electric guitar),

various percussion instruments, as well as “fat synth sound” resembling an organ.16 Key

elements of SEGA’s prog-rock also included keyboard instruments, driving rhythm (usually

drums), a repeating bass line with variations on top, and use of modal harmony, exotic

modes, as well as chromaticism.17 Synth timbre was also prominent of prog-rock’s stylistic

traits, which made this easier for game composers to incorporate (due to technological

restraints with sound).18

It is important to also know prog-rock was quite popular in England during the

1970s, where David Wise was residing before working for Nintendo approximately twenty

years later; we see the synth being used often in David Wise’s music for DKC, and other

Nintendo trademark games as well. Wise followed common characteristics of prog-rock-

15 Lundberg, and Mattias. "‘To Let It Be without Pretense’: Canon, Fugue, and Imitation in Progressive Rock 1968–1979." Music Theory Online, 2014, par. 4. 16 Collins, Karen. Game Sound, pg. 43-44. 17 Ibid, pg. 44-45. 18 "Progressive Rock and Japanese Video Game Music." The Music of Video Games, 2013, accessed November 13th 2018, adamflip.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/progressive-rock-and-japanese-video-game-music/, par. 16.

such as fragmentation, chromaticism, use of modes, distortion, melodic emphasis in his

music, and driving rock rhythms. In the article “Progressive Rock and Japanese Video Game

Music”, Adam Filipowicz19claims that the genre ‘prog rock’ was used to make rock more

credible; this was done using more traditional elements of form, harmony, and

instrumentation.

Nobuo Uematsu (most commonly known for composing music for the Final Fantasy

game series) was one of the first people at Nintendo to use prog-rock in his work. Adam

Filipowicz discusses Uematsu’s composition “Dancing Mad” for Final Fantasy VI (1994),

where Uematsu borrowed elements of melody from Bach’s Fugue in D minor: “Just as

progressive rock artists looked to classical compositions to give their work credibility,

Uematsu may be doing the same here, in a more direct way, to give credibility to video

game music.”20 Uematsu then elaborates the melody to bring in his own composition, but

also incorporate Bach’s. Bach had become a very credible musician during his career, and

Uematsu suggests by using Bach’s music, that his music, and video game music as a whole,

is credible as well.

Analysis

Looking to DKC, we see that Wise used many elements of prog-rock in his music.

Unlike Uematsu though, Wise did not borrow classical elements for his music. Wise

followed more common characteristics of prog-rock such as fragmentation, chromaticism,

use of modes, distortion, melodic emphasis in his music, and driving rock rhythms.

19 From webpage The Music of Video Games 20 "Progressive Rock and Japanese Video Game Music." The Music of Video Games, par. 6.

“Treetop Rock”

We will now example three works from DKC: “Treetop Rock”, “Fear Factory”, and “

“Aquatic Ambience”. The first to be analyzed is “Treetop Rock”.

(Image 1)

“Treetop Rock” begins with an intro (bars 1-8): a two-bar ostinato consisting of a

syncopated rhythm in the strings that continues for the entire piece. In bar 9, a new (lower)

voice emerges with a ‘swooping’ F to G motion, followed by a similar rhythm seen in the

ostinato.

This is where section A begins, as seen in image 1. The marimba enters with the melody at

the pickup to bar 11, continuing until bar 20 where everything except the ostinato drops

out until section B:

At section B, the marimba re-enters with a new theme, repeating it in variations of the

original theme played in B. We can see the original B from bars 25-28, and then a variation

following (29-32): both melody and rhythm is slightly varied.

The variation appears again in the A/B section, in the pickup to 61, to bar 64. This time, the

rhythm and melodic line are similar to the variation by use of the triplet eighth note to

quarter note pattern, but slightly alter once more with a new interval structure and use of

sixteenth notes.

Afterwards, in bar 33 the original A theme comes back slightly varied, and in

different (string) voices instead of marimba. This section is the A’ because it is similar in

many ways to A, but not exact: the rhythm begins the exact same way as the A theme, but

states the theme as a phrase with an ending, rather than a continuous loop. This can be

seen with the eighth-note triplet, which includes cadence-like melodic material.

The melodic intervals are the same in the A’, however the melody itself has been

transposed. Our original A returns immediately afterwards in bars 41-48, followed by the

solo ostinato for 4 bars at the end of the section, which functions as a codetta.

A new C theme, distinctly different from A and B, occurs in bars 49-60. As seen

above in image 1, there is a shift of key constantly happening in the piece from C minor, F

minor, and G minor, and later F minor and G minor again. In this middle section (C) there is

a change of mode (not key) that we would expect from a mostly tonal perspective. In a

tonal piece, we expect the progression of tonic, subdominant, dominant, and tonic again

(and in the repeated A we have a cadence point in bar 40); however, the transition to D

Dorian does not give us the resolution back to tonic in the bigger structure of the piece –

instead we have C minor (i), F minor (iv), G minor (v), and a D minor chord (ii) which does

not give a resolution to tonic. This section also does not include the ostinato, the element

that sustains the song’s driving rhythm, and is strange to hear a different rhythm

substituted in here.

Once the C section has finished in bar 60, the pickup into 61 features a new Marimba

part. This section has a combination of both A and B elements and is labelled exactly as A/B

above. This can be shown at the beginning of the section as a variation of B’s beginning

melody for the first four bars (61-64), and the second half for four bars is the latter half of

A’s melody.

The last and final section of the piece before the repeat back to bar 9 is labelled as the

outro. The outro has a new marimba melody: short fragments played as a sort of call-and-

response to each other with the ostinato still playing underneath.

The last point in which the marimba plays (bar 74) acts as the (melodic) cadence point for

the end of the section with a cadence-like rhythm (triplet rhythm of an eighth note,

followed by a quarter note); however, the section does not end until bar 76. The extra two

bars act as a post-cadential extension to the cadence happening in bar 74, causing the outro

to sound much like a codetta.

What is interesting to note about this piece is the lack of resolution in larger scale

sections. In image 1, it is shown that in most sections, a shift of key or mode occurs (Intro, A

& B=C minor, A’=F minor, C= D-Dorian, etc.). C minor is the piece’s beginning key, and

occurs for the longest consistent period makes it evident C minor is the ‘home’ key. Looking

at image 1 I have labelled each shift in key/mode with a purple sign above the chart that

shows the Roman numerals of each in relation to the home key of C minor. Notice that

there are no i chords anywhere except in the beginning where the original key is

established: the rest are all subdominant, or dominant chords in alternation. As described

in Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony, dominant chords can be categorized as less

stable, with a strong tendency to resolve to a tonic chord.21 The piece ends on a

prolongation of a v during the outro (bars 69-76) - lacking the resolution we expect with

the tonic – and instead the tonic comes back at the repeat of A/the ‘beginning’. “Treetop

Rock” leaves the audience in that unstable place for the majority of the piece, and doesn’t

give the resolution listeners expect. The audience does not get the resolution proceeding

after the leading tone (dominant) being prolonged for a long time, and it therefore feels like

an abrupt way to end the section and loop back to the beginning.

Additionally, harmonic prolongation is used in “Treetop Rock” as another way of

creating a sense of instability in the music. Harmonic prolongation is the concept of a

particular harmony “extended over several chords”22 In “Treetop Rock”, the small-scale

harmony consists of a relatively small number of chords per formal section, and the most

common chord in each section is i. Looking at the larger-scale harmonic progression, [i, iv,

v, ii, iv, v], this suggests a subdominant prolongation in the middle starting with the first iv

21 Burstein, L. Poundie, and Joseph Nathan Straus. Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony. 2016, pg. 75. 22 Caplin, William E., James A. Hepokoski, and James Webster. Musical Form, Forms & Formenlehre: Three Methodological Reflections. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2010.

(A’) to the last iv (A/B), and then moving to the dominant (v).

Because of the prolongation, we hear harmony at a larger scale. YouTube channel 8-

bit Music Theory explains this concept by calling it a ‘meta-chord’: “This music usually

consists of progressions–usually two to four chords long that loops infinitely from

beginning to end. Constant repetition leaves the listener hearing one ‘meta-chord’ sound

throughout the section in gameplay. We stop hearing individual chords-instead just the big

mix of everything together.”23 The idea of the ‘meta-chord’ is very characteristic of prog-

rock, and can be seen in “Treetop Rock”. As aforementioned, section C is in D-dorian mode.

C stands out from the other sections because there is more chord movement, with

subsequently less prolongation: the ‘meta-chord’ concept is harder to identify here with the

emphasis on the downbeat of each new chord. Wise wanted to emphasize modality, and to

23 Theory, 8-Bit Music. "4 Tips for Writing Ambient Chord Progressions." February 28th, 2018. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MycI9ZOSPRk&t=368s.

Bar 33:A’

F minor G minor D Dorian F minor

Bar 41:A Bar 49:C Bar 61:A/B

iv iv v ii

also emphasize use of the ‘meta-chords’ within “Treetop Rock” in the other sections

contrasting to C.

(Image2)

“Fear Factory”

“Fear Factory” starts similarly to “Treetop Rock” with an introduction: we see added

layers of harmony on top of the electronic synth that plays the ostinato. “Fear Factory” also

includes short fragments (bars 5, 7, 9, 11) of drums playing during this introduction and by

bar 13 the piece has a driving rock rhythm repeated throughout the piece.

Section “A” then begins at bar 17 with the new theme played by the marimba under

the ostinato and driving-rock rhythm. After a short 8-bar phrase, “B” begins (bar 25) with a

new synth melody superimposed above the previous voices heard in “A”. Section “C” then

arrives at bar 33 with the brass synth playing the root of each chord (image 2: VI, iv, i) to

emphasize the embellished melody in the top line. A comes back in bar 45 starting at bar

53: A/B has both elements of A (the marimba melody) and B (the brass synth melody)

layered together. This includes slight variations in the synth melody at bar 59 with

different rhythms than the first B at bars 25-32. The piece then ends at bar 64 by looping

back to the beginning.

We see the use of distortion and unconventional sounds in the music of “Fear

Factory” with metal percussive echoes in the background, and a strange synth timbre used

as well. This can be seen predominantly in the intro (bars 1-16), where fragments of

percussion, and synth drone are played. In “Fear Factory”, melodic content is significant to

exemplify the use of prog-rock; harmony and distortion are incorporated here to help

identify form in piece.24 Distortion also creates an effect for the level’s overall mood that

can immerse the player into the virtual world. Akira Yamaoka, composer for the game

Silent Hill, also emphasizes distortion in his music for the game by creating an ““aesthetic

that approximates a mix of industrial music, glitch music, Japanese noise music, punk, and

other counter cultural genres that emphasize the use of unconventional sounds.”25 Karen

Collins elaborates on this concept, defining it as: “[I]ndustrial music built around ‘non-

musical’ and often distorted, repetitive, percussive sounds of mechanical, electric, and

industrial machinery, commonly reflecting feelings of alienation and dehumanization as a

form of social critique.”26 The effect on the level’s mood immerses the player by inviting

them to react on a personal level; this allows the player to make decisions in gameplay

based on those emotions, or reactions.

The fragments seen in “Fear Factory” are expanded in other parts of motives,

transposed, or added in other voices. For example, this is heard in motive B’s melody,

played by the synth brass, and occurs as a 3-bar compression (bars 35-37) in motive C.

24 For example, sound of distortion, low synth ostinato, and percussion that can identify the intro of “Fear Factory”. 25 Cheng, William. Sound Play : Video Games and the Musical Imagination. The Oxford Music/Media Series. 2014, pg. 97. 26 Ibid, pg. 98.

Joseph Straus calls this concept ‘composing out’-by enlarging “the motives of the musical

surface and project them over significant musical distances.”27 In the case of “Fear Factory”,

the motive spread across B (bars 25-32) is ‘composed in’ during C particularly bars 35-37

as a compressed version of B, in a different voice.

27 Straus, Joseph Nathan. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, pg. 159.

(Image 3)

“Aquatic Ambience”/Ambient Music

Eric Hung (Hearing Emerson, Lake, and Palmer Anew: Progressive Rock as “Music of

Attractions”) argues that prog-rock music can also be seen as a form of ambient music;

many scholars see prog-rock as ‘listening music’ rather than ‘dancing’/’participatory’

music. Ambient music is an important element in DKC. According to Winifred Phillips,

ambient music and action music are the most common type of music in video games, and

are “designed to enhance two diametrically opposed states of game play.”28 Ambient music

in DKC adds an extra layer of depth to gameplay by creating an emotional atmosphere that

contributes to player immersion. Ambient music can also trigger stimulation and

excitement while in gameplay, and communicates “intense emotions of the experience.”29

“The actions of progressive rock musicians and fans suggest that, for them, the allure of the

genre is based more upon its ever-changing, channel-surfing quality than upon stylistic

tension generated by the use of high and low musical styles.”30

Ambient music in DKC is particularly emphasized in the water-themed levels, one

example of which is “Aquatic Ambience”. Wise created something that was still progressive

for its time in videogames; however, it was unlike the prog-rock style audiences would

expect. According to YouTube channel 8-bit Music Theory, ambient music is used to “paint a

picture” – to paint a certain mood or evoke a specific time or place in gameplay.31 The

notion of the ‘meta-chord’ ties well into ambient music; the harmony blurs together into

one ‘sound’, instead of the listener hearing distinct individual chords. Like most ambient

28 Phillips, Winifred, and Books24x7 Inc. A Composer's Guide to Game Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2014, pg. 151. 29 Ibid, pg. 151. 30 Hung, Eric. "Hearing Emerson, Lake and Palmer Anew: Progressive Rock as “Music of Attractions”." Current Musicology, no. 79-80 (2005): 245-59, pg. 11. 31 Theory, 8-Bit Music. "4 Tips for Writing Ambient Chord Progressions."

music, “Aquatic Ambience” does not follow the standard harmonic framework expected.

This can be seen in “Aquatic Ambience”’s structure (image 3) with the cycle of four

chords32: i9, VI7/9, iv11, and bVII. Each section of the piece from the introduction, to A, to

A’ has this same chord loop, a harmonic function progression of TSTSSD. The prolongation

of tonic suggested in the use of four chords (i9, VI7/9, iv11, and bVII ) exemplifies the idea

of meta-chord, and reinforces a single ‘mood’ throughout “Aquatic Ambience”. The ‘goal’ of

the piece is not to have complex structure, but to engage players and allow them to develop

their own experiences or feelings towards the game. Creating these new meanings or

interpretations allows players to have a new appreciation for the game’s music. As

Summers describes: “games encourage musical interpretations and give rich, interactive

contexts for players to create their readings, resulting in rewarding and meaningful

understandings of the music.”33

A common characteristic of prog-rock in “Treetop Rock”, “Fear Factory”, and

“Aquatic Ambience” is a lack of harmonic movement (or alternatively, the use of larger-

scale prolongation through meta-chord). We see more movement in “Treetop Rock” with

the prolongation of i, iv, v, ii, iv, v; however, this movement is expanded to larger scale, so it

is less noticeable. In “Fear Factory”, the entire piece is an extended minor i chord. The most

movement that occurs in the piece is in section C: three chords (VI, iv, i) within a span of

eleven bars, which ends on the tonic chord once again. “Aquatic Ambience” shows the most

prominence in terms of the ‘meta-chord’ wanting to create more of the atmosphere with

32 The chord cycle is: C min9, Ab Maj7/9, Fmin11, bVII. 33 Summers, Tim, and James Hannigan. Understanding Video Game Music, 2016, pg. 138.

the use of added dissonances to a few chords (i9, VI7/9, iv11, and bVII) played in a cycle

throughout each large-scale section.

Interactivity, Adaptability:

According to Iain Hart (Performativity, Interacpersotivity and Semiotics in Video Game

Music), interactivity must have three components: actions (physical or otherwise), goals

(the reasons behind actions), and effects (what actions achieve). Breaking down these

elements helps emphasize that video games do have interactivity with music, just as a

piano player might use interactivity as well. For example, in DKC goals would constitute

completing areas and collecting bananas, actions would constitute running, jumping and

throwing barrels, and effects would be receiving extra lives, defeating enemies, more

bananas and golden animal trophies.

Interactive audio can be identified as the interaction between the music and player,

whereas adaptive music can change depending on factors of the gameplay altering.

Andreas Rauscher describes the difference as follows:

While interactive audio is directly influenced by the actions of the player, adaptive audio depends on

changes in the simulated environment of the game world: for example, a musical theme which is

triggered by nightfall or a cue underscoring the actions of a non-player character. In cinematic

language, the most explicit synaesthetic convergence between image and sound can be found in video

clips and abstract avant-garde films. Its equivalent in video games would be the genre of rhythm games

in which adaptive and interactive audio are combined within the framework of simulated musical

performance.34

34 Rauscher, Andreas. "Scoring Play – Soundtracks and Video Game Genres ". In Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance, edited by Peter Moormann. Musik Und Medien, 93-106. Berlin, Germany: Springer VS, 2013, pg. 95-96.

Linear and non-linear music can contribute to the idea of interactivity. Linear (non-

interactive experience) “seeks to lead the player to an inevitable conclusion. Non-linear

(interactive) experience “presents the player with a smorgasbord of choices.”35 (Non)-

linearity offers players to be apart of the “game world/narrative” and allows gamers to

make choices, or choose actions based on their own ‘experiences’ they feel they are apart of

in gameplay; games like Skyrim (non-linear) offer players huge landscapes and lots of

choice for gameplay and experience and involves the player not only narratively, but

musically as well. Unlike non-linear music that is the base “state of the game”, linear music

is “fixed”: form does not change as music plays and time passes, and compositional

structure does not alter.36

Like videogames/game consoles of its time, DKC uses linear music elements during

levels in which the music loops and stays structured with the way its presented in

gameplay; however, the game also borrows elements of non-linearity by using atmospheric

music that draws you in, and allows players to feel a part of the game. Ambient chords,

realistic timbre and big synth sound contributes to audiences feeling a part of each level in

gameplay. Linearity is in all three pieces analyzed (“Treetop Rock”, “Fear Factory”, and

“Aquatic Ambience”) with its constant repeated looping (repeat sign at the end of each

piece), and unbroken structure of its piece that does not alter if gameplay changes in a

level. The non-linearity is present with the use of the ‘meta-chord’ and exploiting the

player’s pre-conceived emotions towards the atmospheric music used. The player will then

35 Phillips, Winifred, A Composer's Guide to Game Music, pg. 157. 36 Ibid, pg. 158.

make decisions based on those factors, to which levels they want to play or revisit, and

what he/she does not like in the game.

A common practice used for linear music in video games is the linear loop: music

that repeats over a certain time frame or environment-interesting enough to not notice

constant repetition, can also be done by lacking any noticeable content (would not register

with conscious awareness). The technique would be used for problem solving/creating an

effective loop: perpetual development, compositional dynamics, succession of variations,

repeating figures, and slow textures.37

Semiotics and Immersion:

Video games are an interactive genre, and the significance of the music is the

player’s interaction within the game. The aesthetics of a video game can be investigated

through looking at the way game music is created to encourage game immersion.

Imaginative immersion is when the player becomes absorbed in the world, and can identify

with a game character. The immersion makes it understood that the player feels the same

feelings of empathy and atmosphere. This immersion relies on involvement and

engagement, and the consensus between scholars is that music is often used to cultivate

this tactic.38

37 Ibid, pg. 159-160. 38 Summers, Tim. "Epic Texturing in the First-Person Shooter: The Aesthetics of Video Game Music." Soundtrack 5 (2012): 131-51, pg. 132.

Moormann says “the close connection of computer games and atmosphere can be

found in the fact that games have a very intense relation to space.”39 Space or environment,

including landscapes, buildings, and other criteria, can be used to set an expectation for

players when it comes to both gameplay, and the use of music. Immersion is the term

usually used to identify these factors that work together, to create an environment that is

believable; an atmosphere can be obtained not just from structural elements, but also from

sensations, felt experience, or a felt presence of character(s).40 Theorist Gernot Böhme

expands on this idea, claiming that one of the main functions of music is to create

atmosphere, including blurred boundaries between sounds in everyday life, such as

acoustic nature sounds, to urban buzzing of cars and factories, created samples, or even

“high culture” synthetic music.41 We can see this in all three pieces analyzed in DKC using

the ‘meta-chord’ or prolongation to create a ‘mood’ or atmosphere in its music. The

distortion sounds heard in “Fear Factory” often does blur the boundaries of what is

considered ‘atmospheric’, or the ‘high-culture’ synthesis we hear in “Aquatic Ambience can

be argued at ‘mood music’. Further, the prolongation on chords happening in “Treetop rock

use the concept of the ‘meta-chord’ that can also blur the boundaries of what is considered

the main functions of video game music – particularly for video games.

Often in a video game, immersion takes place when the player is lost in the fictitious

world created while playing. The gamer no longer is focused on the mechanics of playing,

39 Herzfeld, Gregor. "Atmospheres at Play: Aesthetical Considerations of Game Music ". In Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance, edited by Peter Moormann. Musik Und Medien, 147-58. Berlin, Germany: Springer VS, 2013, pg. 149. 40 Ibid, pg. 150. 41 Böhme, Gernot. Atmosphäre: Essays Zur Neuen äSthetik. Suhrkamp, 2017, pg. 224.

but rather invested in plot, setting and factors within the game instead of the real world.42

Rather than immersion being a passive action such as film where the audience has no

direct effect on the events of the film narrative, immersion is active for video gamers.

Navigational significance can contribute especially to immersion as its use of music is

unique to direct players on the right course. This can be done with the absence of music as

well: music will sometimes fade or disappear when exploring new locations in a game,

hinting at the fact that there is nothing in the area to explore. With no music the player can

get bored of the area; they notice the lack of sound and come to the realization that there is

nothing significant left to accomplish or find in that location.43

Many film visual/audio effects used in video games attempt to use realism, rather than

represent authenticity: “in many ways the realism aspired to in games is not a naturalistic

realism in the sense of being a simulation of reality, but a cinematic realism that relies on

established motion-picture conventions.”44 Regarding DKC, this for the most part remains

true, as there are no real apes travelling the globe to collect as many bananas as possible,

fighting giant beavers and crocodiles. Collins suggests that there is a balance of realism

within fantasy game worlds using the term ‘cine-real’. This is explained as a sense of

immersion in gameplay and believability added to cinema techniques used.

Semiosis is also an important component to immerse and interact within a video

game and its music. Initially, the composer creates the music for said videogame for the

player to receive. It is up to the player to then listen to the music and interpret the sounds

and significance in the game. However, the player must also interact within gameplay to

42 Phillips, Winifred, A Composer's Guide to Game Music, pg. 37. 43 Ibid, pg. 41. 44 Collins, Karen. Game Sound, pg. 134.

uncover significances as well. A combination of narrative, graphic elements, sound effects,

and underlying software help “communicate a coherent flow of information.” Hart then

explains these “elements also inform the player's reception of the video game and its

music after development, allowing the player to interpret information from any one of the

elements through its association with the others.”45

Conclusion

David Wise’s music for Donkey Kong Country has revolutionized video game music

since its release in 1994 through the use of prog-rock. This can be seen in harmonic

prolongation throughout “Treetop Rock”, fragmentation and distortion in “Fear Factory”,

and prominent use of the concept ‘meta-chord’ in “Aquatic Ambience”. The ‘meta-chord’

concept can also be seen in “Treetop Rock” and “Fear Factory” and fosters their relation to

prog-rock. The musical elements aforementioned and use of prog-rock expanded

Nintendo’s opportunity to surpass competition that were using similar components, and

influence later game composer’s music.

45 Hart, Iain. "Meaningful Play: Performativity, Interactivity and Semiotics in Video Game Music." Musicology Australia 36, no. 2 (2014): 273-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/08145857.2014.958272, pg. 286.

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