Koji Kondo (近藤 浩治 Kondō Kōji, born August 13, 1960) is a Japanese composer … Read Full Bio ↴Koji Kondo (近藤 浩治 Kondō Kōji, born August 13, 1960) is a Japanese composer and musician best known for his scores for various video games produced by Nintendo.
Kondo was born in Nagoya, Japan. He took to music at an early age, writing simple tunes for fun even as a small child. At seventeen, he decided to pursue music professionally. He undertook classical training, and he learned to play several instruments.
In the 1980s, Kondo learned that a company called Nintendo was seeking musicians to compose music for its new video game system, the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan). Kondo had never considered writing video game music before, but he decided to give the company a chance. He was hired in 1983.
Kondo found himself in a totally different environment at Nintendo. Suddenly, he was limited to only four "instruments" (two monophonic pulse channels, a monophonic triangle wave channel which could be used as a bass, and a noise channel used for percussion) due to limitations of the system's sound chip. Though he and Nintendo's technicians eventually discovered a way to add a fifth channel (normally reserved for SFX), his music was still severely limited on the system.
Kondo has stayed with Nintendo through various consoles, including the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo outside Japan), the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube and most recently the Nintendo Wii. These latter systems have vastly improved Nintendo's audio capabilities, and Kondo today composes music with CD quality sound.
Koji Kondo attended the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL in May of 2006. His music from the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series was performed by a full symphony orchestra. This event drew nearly 4000 attendees.
Considered by many to be the "John Williams" of the digital entertainment world, Koji Kondo is acclaimed the world over thanks to his unique partnership crafting the most recognizable themes and soundtracks with industry giant Nintendo (and to his credit, a creatively fluent partnership with Shigeru Miyamoto). Fans and critics alike cite as his greatest talent being his ability to craft melodies that while catchy and pleasant upon first listen, remain enjoyable even when looped over long periods of time and played through inferior sound equipment. His songs are certainly memorable; the title theme song to Super Mario Brothers retains its iconic status 20 years after its initial release. Not unknown in the musical community, Mr. Kondo can count talent such as Paul McCartney among his fans. Kondo's music has been cited as being as integral to the Nintendo style as the game design of Shigeru Miyamoto.
Conversely, this familiarity is also the cause of most criticism of Kondo's work. Over nearly 20 years in video game music, his style has changed very little. The themes of Super Mario Bros. in 1985 are little different from those of Super Mario Sunshine in 2002, although the earlier game sounds more primitive due to technology constraints. This need for sameness over the years is something of a two-edged sword for Kondo; when he has tried something different, as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, some criticized him for abandoning the themes and styles they had grown to enjoy (although others found this to be some of his best work).
"Super Mario Bros. Theme" has been on Billboard Magazine's Hot Ringtones chart for over 90 weeks, where it also hit #1.
Koji Kondo's work shows at least three major influences: Latin music, jazz music, and classical music (mainly ragtime and march music), often with a strong cinematic flair. Latin is particularly evident in his bouncy themes throughout the Mario series, such as the soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. 3. The happy main theme has a slow, samba-like rhythm. The second theme offers a more upbeat, ragtime-like style. Bowser's theme would not sound out of place being played by a Mexican mariachi band. This influence also shows up in his more recent works, such as the Gerudo Valley theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a song with a certain stereotypical Andalusian flair.
Kondo's more jazz-influenced pieces also come from a wide variety of projects. One of the earliest examples of this is his minimalist underground theme from Super Mario Bros., and Saria's theme from Ocarina of Time sounds almost Dixieland in places. All of this is hardly surprising; Kondo lists Henry Mancini as one of his most admired influences.
Kondo was trained as a classical musician, and this shows in his more ambitious projects, such as the soundtracks to the Zelda series. These pieces are distinctively cinematic, reminiscent of John Williams' work on Star Wars or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The title theme to The Legend of Zelda is grandiose for all its low fidelity. Several of Mr. Kondo's themes have been famously recorded with full orchestral backing, with several tours of his work featured highly in concerts presented around the world.
Kondo's work is also highly influenced by Eastern Asian music, which might not be surprising given his country of birth. His songs are predominantly melody-based with little supporting harmony, which is in keeping with the Asian tradition. This makes him somewhat unique among the most popular video game composers, as his counterparts such as Nobuo Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama produce more Western-sounding compositions for their games.
Kondo was born in Nagoya, Japan. He took to music at an early age, writing simple tunes for fun even as a small child. At seventeen, he decided to pursue music professionally. He undertook classical training, and he learned to play several instruments.
In the 1980s, Kondo learned that a company called Nintendo was seeking musicians to compose music for its new video game system, the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan). Kondo had never considered writing video game music before, but he decided to give the company a chance. He was hired in 1983.
Kondo found himself in a totally different environment at Nintendo. Suddenly, he was limited to only four "instruments" (two monophonic pulse channels, a monophonic triangle wave channel which could be used as a bass, and a noise channel used for percussion) due to limitations of the system's sound chip. Though he and Nintendo's technicians eventually discovered a way to add a fifth channel (normally reserved for SFX), his music was still severely limited on the system.
Kondo has stayed with Nintendo through various consoles, including the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo outside Japan), the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube and most recently the Nintendo Wii. These latter systems have vastly improved Nintendo's audio capabilities, and Kondo today composes music with CD quality sound.
Koji Kondo attended the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL in May of 2006. His music from the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series was performed by a full symphony orchestra. This event drew nearly 4000 attendees.
Considered by many to be the "John Williams" of the digital entertainment world, Koji Kondo is acclaimed the world over thanks to his unique partnership crafting the most recognizable themes and soundtracks with industry giant Nintendo (and to his credit, a creatively fluent partnership with Shigeru Miyamoto). Fans and critics alike cite as his greatest talent being his ability to craft melodies that while catchy and pleasant upon first listen, remain enjoyable even when looped over long periods of time and played through inferior sound equipment. His songs are certainly memorable; the title theme song to Super Mario Brothers retains its iconic status 20 years after its initial release. Not unknown in the musical community, Mr. Kondo can count talent such as Paul McCartney among his fans. Kondo's music has been cited as being as integral to the Nintendo style as the game design of Shigeru Miyamoto.
Conversely, this familiarity is also the cause of most criticism of Kondo's work. Over nearly 20 years in video game music, his style has changed very little. The themes of Super Mario Bros. in 1985 are little different from those of Super Mario Sunshine in 2002, although the earlier game sounds more primitive due to technology constraints. This need for sameness over the years is something of a two-edged sword for Kondo; when he has tried something different, as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, some criticized him for abandoning the themes and styles they had grown to enjoy (although others found this to be some of his best work).
"Super Mario Bros. Theme" has been on Billboard Magazine's Hot Ringtones chart for over 90 weeks, where it also hit #1.
Koji Kondo's work shows at least three major influences: Latin music, jazz music, and classical music (mainly ragtime and march music), often with a strong cinematic flair. Latin is particularly evident in his bouncy themes throughout the Mario series, such as the soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. 3. The happy main theme has a slow, samba-like rhythm. The second theme offers a more upbeat, ragtime-like style. Bowser's theme would not sound out of place being played by a Mexican mariachi band. This influence also shows up in his more recent works, such as the Gerudo Valley theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a song with a certain stereotypical Andalusian flair.
Kondo's more jazz-influenced pieces also come from a wide variety of projects. One of the earliest examples of this is his minimalist underground theme from Super Mario Bros., and Saria's theme from Ocarina of Time sounds almost Dixieland in places. All of this is hardly surprising; Kondo lists Henry Mancini as one of his most admired influences.
Kondo was trained as a classical musician, and this shows in his more ambitious projects, such as the soundtracks to the Zelda series. These pieces are distinctively cinematic, reminiscent of John Williams' work on Star Wars or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The title theme to The Legend of Zelda is grandiose for all its low fidelity. Several of Mr. Kondo's themes have been famously recorded with full orchestral backing, with several tours of his work featured highly in concerts presented around the world.
Kondo's work is also highly influenced by Eastern Asian music, which might not be surprising given his country of birth. His songs are predominantly melody-based with little supporting harmony, which is in keeping with the Asian tradition. This makes him somewhat unique among the most popular video game composers, as his counterparts such as Nobuo Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama produce more Western-sounding compositions for their games.
Stone Tower Temple Upside-down
近藤浩治 Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by 近藤浩治:
Chase Start me up いつもと同じ空 よくある シチュエーション なのに はやる気持ちはもう 夏のゲーム いざ開始! …
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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What do you think about Stone Tower Temple and it's music? And what songs from the N64 games would you like to see us cover next? Tell us about it below!
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Josh Burns
That’s true, his BK music does feature diminished fifths/augmented fourths (i.e. tritones) frequently and all over the place, but it’s important not to think that tritones must always necessarily evoke diabolical evil.
While it’s true that, naturally, the tritone by itself has a naturally unsettling and even sinister sound, it can achieve other effects with the right context.
For example (and I would say this is the main way in which Kirkhope uses the tritone for BK), the whole tone scale naturally features an augmented fourth (tritone), however the very distinctive effect of the whole tone scale is usually used to invoke a sense of intense mystery and very often magic and wonder.
Another example (also used a bit in BK, I think) is the Lydian mode.
There are seven modes (there are actually many more, but they’re all or mostly all derived from the main seven ones). IMO, A mode is best explained like this: if you establish what key you’re in - it doesn’t matter which so let’s say C major - then play all the notes of that key in a row, starting from the root note of the key (I.e. C) - C D E F G A B C - you get a C major scale.
Now, a mode is where you do exactly the same as that, but you start from a different note than C while keeping the same key of C. Each of the scales you could play in this way - e.g. starting on D, on E, on B, etc. - show you what the notes are of a different mode - e.g. D Dorian, E Phrygian, B Locrian, etc.
If you play the scale starting from F (still in the key of C major), you obviously get the notes F G A B C D E F. This is the Lydian mode, F Lydian in this case. The only difference between this and F major is the fourth note of the scale, B, which is lowered by one semitone to Bb (B flat) in the “normal” scale/key of F major. In a major scale, the interval between the first and fourth notes of the scale are what’s known as a “perfect fourth” (e.g. F to Bb), because that’s regarded as sounding very pure and neutral. If you raise or “augment” the fourth note of the scale by a semitone (e.g. change it from B flat up to B), that interval of a perfect fourth (e.g. F to Bb) becomes an augmented fourth (e.g. F to B) - **the tritone**. So, in any Lydian mode, the interval between the first and fourth notes of the scale is a tritone.
Much like the whole tone scale, to me the Lydian mode and its characteristic tritone usually evokes a sense of mystery, but for me it always feels more like excitable anticipation of the unknown or restless, electrifying energy before exploration and adventure - that sort of thing.
**TL;DR**: the tritone isn’t necessarily just “the devil sound” - it can achieve a variety of effects depending on the musical context in which it’s used.
God I got so carried away - sorry for the essay
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What do you think about Stone Tower Temple and it's music? And what songs from the N64 games would you like to see us cover next? Tell us about it below!
Check us out on all these platforms:
Discord: https://discord.gg/kt9AJtp
Patreon: https://Patreon.com/savedatateam
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ShadowPheonix 17
Stone Tower Temple is probably the most fitting fourth act the dev team could’ve come up with for this game. It’s atmosphere and it’s design are so indicative of Majora’s Mask that Stone Tower Temple is pretty much a perfect representation of the game itself. While I think they could’ve used it’s gimmick to greater effect and I think it has a few moments where it stumbles, I feel like Stone Tower Temple is unquestionably a great dungeon. And the music is exactly what the title of this video says it is: iconic. It’s one of the best dungeon themes in the entire Zelda franchise and it’s so distinct and fitting that it will stick with you long after completing the dungeon. Basically, Stone Tower Temple is awesome. Also, I think a song from the N64 games I’d like to see you guys cover is the ranch theme, like Lon Lon and Romani Ranch.
ketochi
It falls into my top 5 Zelda songs... simple as that... the first time you enter the temple you see chests upside down and locked doors that make no sense... but then the little flute starts playing and you remember: –you just have to press A!
“PBS Gaming” or someone said that like 8 years ago, and I can’t agree more
milleniumfrisbee
Stone tower took me years to beat growing up due to one of the enemies guarding an important switch I could never kill and the gim reaper enemy. Thus the temple has been stuck in my memory for years. The thing is though, it is still one of my favorite dungeons to this day. The story and architecture were the first time I got a glimpse at the deeper Zelda lore and the music to this day is like a soothing lullaby.
Maya Jansson
I knew of the combined instruments thing, but I never considered it being a flute in the inverted version. I always thought it was the ocarina. It really does lend credence to Majora (while using the Skull Kid as its puppet) decending Link into its hell. But I think it's more like, even though all three heroes have presumably come to grips with their deaths, they still linger on through Link, and are almost being used by Majora in a sense. Because their forms are being used by Link to aid him in his quest.
I really went off the rails there. These are just such thought provoking tracks. Great video as per usual!
Ein Terranaut
I would love an analysis of the 4 variations of the theme in MM that plays in the swamp, the snowland, the beach and the canyon. That is one of Kondos greatest compositions in my opinion.
Jun 13
That last detail of the Ocarina and the Flute representation was mind-blowing, love it
link3hyrule
RIGHT?!?!!? I never thought of it like that! One represents Link the other one Skull Kid! 🤯 MY FLIPPING HEART DROPPED!
TheNpcsim
Marjora's Mask already has so much depth to it in its storyline alone, but you breaking the music down just added even more depth to it. This was incredible.
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Thank you!