Irregular meter in video games
May 14, 2008
[Part one | Part two | Part three]
6/4 — One On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness piece added. (Hi, Brainy Gamer readers!)
5/20 — Two Road Rash 3 pieces added.
5/15 — Two Jet Force Gemini pieces added.
Most music theory nerds I know have a certain musical feature that really gets them excited — an unusual harmonic progression, a favorite chord, a particular rhythmic figure. For me, that feature is irregular meter. In my experience irregular meter is fairly uncommon in video game soundtracks, so I thought I’d collect what few examples I’ve come across here.
Remember the race results screen in Mario Kart 64? Most likely you skipped past it with barely a glance at the scoreboard, but if you stuck around for a moment you’d have heard this gem from composer Kenta Nagata:
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Despite being in 11/8, I think this rhythm feels pretty natural. Kudos to Nagata for smoothing over the strange time signature.
Here’s something neat — take a look at this bass part from the Grammy-winning “Almost 12,” a piece by modern jazz quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones:
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Notice anything? Aside from the halved time values, it’s metrically identical to the Kart 64 bassline — an eleven-beat pattern subdivided as 2+2+3+2+2. Even the rhythm is the same. (“Almost 12,” incidentally, was released about a year after Mario Kart 64. Maybe the Flecktones are Nintendo fans.)
The earliest example I could find of irregular meter in a video game is the final battle music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, composed by Koji Kondo:
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Nothing too complicated here. The bass arpeggio is fast and perhaps a bit hard to follow, but the percussion and the chords of stacked fourths reinforce the time signature pretty strongly.
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Kondo wrote a similar piece for the game’s penultimate battle (Link versus Ganondorf):
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While this piece uses many of the same musical ideas as the Link to the Past one — the fast bass arpeggio, the descending melodic contour, the quartal harmonization — the rhythm has changed from merely “quirky” to “murderously complicated.” I had to slow down the tempo in an audio editor just to figure out what was going on.
In a nutshell, the bass’s 3+3+3+3+2 pattern has been replaced by the decidedly spicier 3+3+3+2+2+3+3+2+2. I’ve notated that as alternating 13- and 10-beat measures. Even better, the chords sometimes cut across those subdivisions (m. 3, 7), and the chorus’s part (m. 10ff.) seems to ignore the meter altogether. Good luck trying to perform this one!
My final example, also from Ocarina of Time, is the “fairy flying” theme from the beginning of the game:
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The two main sections are a 13/16 part (subdivided as 3+3+3+2+2) and a 10/16 part (subdivided as 2+3+2+3). Thankfully the bass and string parts actually reinforce the meter here, so it’s pretty easy to hear where the beats fall. Heck, compared to that Ganondorf battle theme it’s downright elementary.
That’s all I’ve got for now. If you know more of video game pieces with irregular meter, I’d love to hear from you.
5/15 update: Thanks to a tip from Daniel in the comments, I’ve got two more irregular meter pieces for you. Both are from the Jet Force Gemini soundtrack, composed by Robin Beanland and Graeme Norgate.
Here’s a snip from the Water Ruins theme:
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Since the rhythmic pattern is so long (30 beats), the metric subdivision isn’t particularly instructive here. (It’s 2+2+2+3+2+2+2+3+2+2+2+3+2, if you’re curious.) I think the easiest way to understand it is “7/8 with a 2+2+3 subdivision, and every fourth measure has an extra two beats tacked on.” (Tacking on extra beats every so often, incidentally, is another one of my favorite musical features.) For what it’s worth, this piece is big on mixing meters; immediately following the part I transcribed is a section in plain 7/8 (3+2+2, no funny business), and shortly thereafter is standard 4/4.
The boss battle theme has a similar case of rhythmic schizophrenia. This chunk falls between a duple 6/4 section and a triple 9/16 section (whose beginning I included; see mm. 13-14).
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Yeesh. I slowed that one down in the audio editor too, if you were wondering.
Here we have a 24-beat pattern which subdivides as (deep breath) 2+2+2+3+2+2+2+3+2+2+2. More simply, we might call it “9/16 with a 2-2-2-3 subdivision, and every third measure loses the last three beats.” Even that’s a bit of a mess, but if you drum your fingers along with the piece you should be able to get the hang of it. At least the melodic line has the decency to use a reasonable rhythm, unlike the Ocarina of Time Ganondorf battle theme.
5/20 update: Two more quick examples for you, from the 1995 Genesis title Road Rash 3. The game’s distinctive heavy metal soundtrack was composed by Don Veca.
Here’s a snip from the Italy race background music:
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It’s fast, but fairly simple. Note that the pattern can also be written in 21/8 without triplets if that’s your thing.
Here’s a snip the title screen track, which doubles as the Australia race background music:
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This one is mostly in straight 4/4, actually, but every so often it skips a beat and briefly feels like 7/4 instead. This effect is most pronounced in measures 11-14 of the transcription.
6/4 update: Below is a snip from the splash screen menu music for Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, composed by Jeff Tymoschuk:
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A five-beat pattern subdivided as 3+2 is pretty standard fare; in fact, that’s the metric basis for Paul Desmond’s “Take Five,” perhaps the most famous irregularly metered piece of all time. So why does this one sound a bit odd?
It’s because of the quarter note pulse in the middle staff. It stretches over the barlines and also shifts its position halfway through the transcription. (Look at where the quarter notes land in measures 1-4, as opposed to in measures 5-8.) The upshot is that the meter is ever so slightly concealed, giving the piece a layer of rhythmic ambiguity.
42 comments
Fascinating. I’ve always felt that the Ganon battle from Ocarina was a bit rhythmically ‘off’, but never considered that it would be so oddly metered.
Unfortunately, I think that such uniqueness in videogame music is being replaced and superseded by more ‘filmic’ (read: Hans Zimmer-ic) scores like you’ll find in Call of Duty, Mass Effect (though don’t get me wrong – the Vangelis-like electronic sections were great, but the orchestral scoring was reasonably unimaginative, save a few sections), and even to an extent Mario Galaxy (though that was a great, great score).
If you can get hold of Robin Beanland’s soundtrack for Jet Force Gemini you might find some irregular meter, from memory. The music on the whole is very good, and to go back on what I’ve just said, very good in a filmic manner (though it was a little more surprising, back in the N64 days to get a filmic score). Nonetheless, there is definitely some interesting rhythm in there, though I’d have to give it another listen to really see if it’s the meter or just the rhythms…
by Daniel on May 14, 2008 at 2:27 am #
I don’t think there’s necessarily a correlation between “filmic” scores and uniqueness — nor, as you point out, between filmic scores and quality, as there are plenty of great orchestral scores. Irregular meter is just rare across the board, so it’s tough to find outside of specialized genres like math rock or contemporary jazz.
Thanks for the Jet Force Gemini recommendation. I’ll check out the soundtrack and report back in a day or two with any findings. :)
by Dan Bruno on May 14, 2008 at 10:01 am #
I agree, but I do think that there is something about MIDI that enables, or perhaps forces a composer to be more adventurous. Would an orchestral composer really have written a calypso-tinged theme for an Italian Plumber, for instance?
On a baser level, I think the poor quality of MIDI simply means that composers have to work in different ways, one of which is finding interesting rhythms to make unexciting tones more interesting.
by Daniel on May 14, 2008 at 11:48 am #
Well, there are two different issues here — music genre and sound technology.
I consider filmic music as a genre (roughly homologous to, say, popular classical music) that’s independent of the technology used to generate the sound. I’ve been listening to the Jet Force Gemini soundtrack, for example, and it’s certainly in filmic even though the music is sequenced. On the other hand, a game like Sonic Adventure uses (some) real instruments, but I would never think of it as having a filmic score. The Super Mario Galaxy score, meanwhile, is a mix of genres and sound technologies. In short, you can have a filmic score with real instruments or fake instruments, just as with any other genre of music.
With that said, there is definitely a point to be made about restriction breeding creativity — I argued the same thing in my Ocarina of Time music series. I haven’t thought much about whether MIDI encourages rhythmic ingenuity, but it might be an interesting avenue of inquiry.
PS: By my ear, Jet Force Gemini has at least three pieces in irregular meter. Your musical memory is impressive! I’ll work up some transcriptions and sound clips when I get the chance.
by Dan Bruno on May 14, 2008 at 12:08 pm #
The issue of realness and fakeness is of course becoming more and more diluted as technology gets better at pretending to be real – I suspect that a large amount of Hans Zimmer and other Media Ventures expatriates’ scores in recent years have contained large electronic ‘augmentations’ that your average listener wouldn’t pick up on as not being the real thing. Hell, I can re-orchestrate something here, in my bedroom and have it sound like a close cousin to the actual recording, and I don’t have the resources or funds that they do.
Mario Galaxy is definitely an interesting one. I would call it primarily an orchestral score, simply because in contrast to almost all other Nintendo scores (or is it just plain out *all* previous Nintendo scores?) it’s actually got the real deal in there somewhere. But nonetheless, you’re quite correct that it strongly features some electronics and the occasional non-orchestral instrument, like the Sitar in ‘Dusty Dune Galaxy’ or the all-round unusual instrumentation of ‘Honeyhive Galaxy’. Nonetheless I would have paid an extraordinary sum to simply be able to listen to ‘Gusty Garden Galaxy’ and ‘Battlerock Galaxy’ whenever I needed to. Great pieces.
Well, that was quite a tangent. Glad to hear Jet Force Gemini worked out, I was worried I might have misremembered! Very interested to hear what you have to say on the topic.
by Daniel on May 14, 2008 at 12:24 pm #
You’re right – everyone does have a favourite musical feature. ^_^ I can’t decide if mine’s mixed metres, a la The Pyramid Song by Radiohead, or chromatic excursions in a generally diatonic piece. Can I have 2 please? =P
The mid boggles at how you could transcribe that ganondorf battle track – truly a heroic effort, sir.
I can’t think of any games that use irregular metre, however a number of themes from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica uses irregular metre – the prologue theme is either Complex or Mixed, and the music that plays over the credits has something similar, however that might actually be a 3-against-4 pattern, as I can definitely feel the 3 beats to a bar grouping in that one.
by Ben Abraham on May 15, 2008 at 12:01 am #
Daniel: To be clear, I don’t have any problem with so-called “fake” instruments like MIDI and synth sounds, and I don’t consider Galaxy‘s score “orchestral” just because it’s performed by an actual orchestra — it’s the style of the pieces (some of them, anyway) that earns that designation. I certainly like the sound of the live instruments, but the important thing for me is always the quality of the composition. If Galaxy had the same music but with synthesized sounds — like those found in Twilight Princess, for example — I’d still call it orchestral, and I’d still enjoy the score.
Ben: Yeah, there are a bunch of other musical features I enjoy too. For example, I get a kick out of minor subdominant chords for some reason. I point them out to people when they go by on the radio. :)
The Ganondorf track was pretty annoying. Slowing the track down helped, but the chorus part is so disconnected from the bassline that it sounds metrically independent. Also the attack on that choral sound is so soft that it’s difficult to tell exactly when the notes start (especially at slower speeds), but I think I got pretty close. (I see that I forgot to do my snazzy custom beaming in a couple of measures, though — I’ll fix that up in a bit. [fixed now -- ed.])
by Dan Bruno on May 15, 2008 at 3:48 pm #
Re: the “Australian” Race Theme – yyeeeap. That’s what it sounds like when I drive down the M4 Motorway on a motorbike, swingin’ a chain, just swingin’ a chain.
Good work on digging up these old Road Rash Fossils – I have #2 I believe, and if I had to remember *anything* about the chiptune music form it, I’d probably come up empty handed. It’s pretty awesome what they could do with a few oscillators, some white noise and a filter.
by Ben Abraham on May 21, 2008 at 12:42 am #
Very interesting! Great transcriptions too. I don’t have the soundtracks with me to verify, but I think most of the PSX-era Final Fantasy games have odd-metered battle themes.
The Mario Kart example is particularly interesting. I always thought of irregular meter in games as a device for increasing tension, but that track is both musically and “functionally” one of the least tense things in the game. Huh.
by Peter on June 4, 2008 at 2:02 pm #
Thanks for the tip, Peter. I’ll scrounge up some Final Fantasy soundtracks and see if there’s anything worth transcribing.
You’re right that irregular meter is often used to evoke tension, whether it’s in the Zelda battle themes I transcribed above or in Stravinsky. On the other hand, it’s possible to avoid that connotation if the composer “smooths out” the time signature to make it sound less irregular. The Mario Kart 64 and Béla Fleck pieces in the post are good examples, as are “Take Five” from the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Lalo Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible theme. While an attentive listener will recognize the irregularity in those pieces, many people won’t notice anything unusual.
by Dan Bruno on June 4, 2008 at 6:28 pm #
…of course, while the Mission: Impossible theme is a good example of smoothing out a time signature, it is intended to evoke tension. :)
by Dan Bruno on June 4, 2008 at 6:33 pm #
If you haven’t had the chance to try it yet, the indie title ‘Immortal Defense’ has some very interesting breaks in music and themes. Plus it was composed by the designers Dad, which makes the whole thing all the more surprising. Here’s a link to the game where you can get the free demo:
http://studioeres.com/immortal/
The soundtrack is also free and can be downloaded entirely here:
http://studioeres.com/forums/index.php?topic=210.msg1172;topicseen
It’s really worth a play. It’s one of the best plots I’ve seen in a video game, period.
by L.B. Jeffries on June 4, 2008 at 9:04 pm #
Thanks for the recommendation, L.B. I’ve heard good things about Immortal Defense from a bunch of people now, so I’ll be sure to give it a shot.
I just combed through the soundtrack, and while it’s certainly interesting there’s unfortunately no irregular meter to be found. Thus, for our immediate purposes it will require no further analysis. :) I’m keeping it around, though. Perhaps one day!
by Dan Bruno on June 4, 2008 at 10:37 pm #
Mother 3 makes a whole gameplay mechanic out of predicting irregular meters. Check out it’s battle themes! (Also the story makes me cry, so, y’know)
by v21 on June 26, 2009 at 11:01 am #
Of all the compositions from the game Vandal Hearts II, scored by Hiroshi Tamawari, nearly half of them are in irregular meter. It’s a really powerful rhythm-driven yet melodious soundtrack, and I recommend you check it out for your collection here!
Keep up the good work!
by Atma505 on June 27, 2009 at 1:58 am #
i enjoyed the break down of the difficult time signatures of the pieces. while i agree that perhaps Bella fleck and the fleck tones may be fans of Mario cart i find it hard to say “Maybe the Fleck tones are Nintendo fans.” and somewhat implying that they are stealing. each of the people that make up the fleck tones are extremely brilliant musicians and I doubt Victor Wooten was going out of his way to rip on a Mario cart song. Honestly it is really close to a 12 count or a 10 count with an added beat.
by morgan on June 27, 2009 at 9:09 pm #
Have you ever heard about polyrhythms? It’s about using two different meters at the same time. I think it’s pretty much what happens on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time penultimate battle (Link versus Ganondorf).
And that’s why the chords seems to completely “forget” the meters…
By the way, amazing blog! That was awesome to read this.
by Matheus Manente on June 27, 2009 at 10:14 pm #
Uhh… someone please show me what a 1/20 note and a 1/15 note look like because I’m a music major and there’s no such thing. If you’re going to make up irregular meters at least make it believable by using note names that actually exist like 16 32 64 128
by BQM04 on June 29, 2009 at 10:42 am #
@BQM04: Where are you getting a 1/20 and 1/15 note from?
Are you referring to Dan’s dates at the top? Because that’s an update history including May 15th and May 20th.
by Rafi on June 29, 2009 at 12:03 pm #
I know its fun and enjoyable to relish in the WHY of the choices of odd meters ,however let em assure you that in film scores the reason for odd meters is more often than not dictated by the scene on the screen . Also abrupt and poor music editorial choices .. often made by the picture editor in the early stages end up causing havoc on composers.. of course this is never the case in videogames
by giosound on July 9, 2009 at 11:46 am #
hey this is AWESOMEOEMEOMEOE!!!
do the song aqua illusion in gradius 3 for snes..i think it is a shifting meter from 5/4 to 6/4 after each time the phrase plays a 3rd time..am i right?
by reggie williams!! on July 11, 2009 at 4:52 pm #
Someone has already mentioned it, but I always think of the battle music from many of the final fantasy games when I think of odd-metered video game music as well.
Nice article!
by Alex on July 13, 2009 at 6:27 pm #
Thanks to everyone for the continued feedback! Frankly, I can’t believe this series still has legs. Who knew there were so many music-and-games geeks out there?
I’ll be looking into more of your suggestions as time allows. For now, a few quick responses:
v21: I’ve written a bit about Mother 3, actually! You might like this post. There are more in the sidebar at the top of the page.
morgan: Don’t worry — I wasn’t seriously suggesting that “Almost 12″ was a ripoff of a Nintendo song. I’m a big Flecktones fan myself. :-)
Alex: I wrote about a few Final Fantasy pieces in part two of this series, if you’re interested!
by Dan Bruno on July 14, 2009 at 8:15 pm #
Wow!
by Lawrence Kazali on July 18, 2009 at 4:50 pm #
The music from The Chessmaster for NES makes a go at “Take Five”. The short clip is recognizable.
That site is collecting information about video game music
Help from people that actually know about music, such as your self, would be appreciated. Meters and technical stuff like that is sorely lacking.
by zerothis on July 23, 2009 at 12:34 am #
This is pure genius. I love different time signatures and making up my own drum rhythms. But your interpretation/perception of these video game tunes is genius. Nice work!
RandomRandy
by Randall James on July 27, 2009 at 9:05 pm #
That’s really interesting. I especially liked the three bars of 7/8 then one of 9/8 because that’s also the pattern used in the opening section of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield (probably more widely known as the theme from The Exorcist).
by Matt on July 30, 2009 at 10:32 am #
Wild! Some of these like Mario Kart I never really listened closely enough to even pick up on. Great find! As I browse your posts I’m loving this blog more and more, especially the Zelda/Koji Kondo analysis. Keep it up!
by thom on August 2, 2009 at 12:32 am #
Hey, how about the Level 8/Alien’s Lair music from the NES version of Contra? There are a ton of odd meter changes. Begins with two measures of 6/4, changes to 11/8 for two measures, to 5/8 for another three — it doesn’t even stay with one particular metric feel. Very frenetic.
by Shane on August 2, 2009 at 10:25 pm #
I’d also check out the “Ankor Wat” theme in Illusions of Gaia for SNES, and maybe other songs from that game – incredible score. Very cool that you went through and found these things – a joy to read and see the visualizations of these pieces I’ve known for years. (And NEVER noticed about the Mario Kart..wow.)
by Joel on August 19, 2009 at 1:15 am #
You should try 02′s theme on Kirby and the Crystal Shards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud8XJBlnDc0
And the regular boss theme o.o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2h5NyF68M
by John on August 29, 2009 at 11:46 am #
I’ve always been drawn to strange rhythms both in classical pieces and in modern music. I love techno/electronic, but only when done in a strange time signature, playing with tempo, or with fun things done with triplets.
Now that you mention it, maybe my taste in music was shaped a little too much by the video games I played as a kid.
by Josh on September 16, 2009 at 7:11 pm #
This is a great and interesting site. Good work.
by Paul on November 3, 2009 at 10:08 pm #
My two cents: Level 1 theme from Contra III: The Alien Wars, consisting of a two-bar phrase with the first bar being 4/4 and the second bar being 7/8.
by Ron on November 12, 2009 at 2:22 pm #
Sophisticated post. Acutely drawing upon your interests and expertise generates a fun read. Thank you.
I am sure that I can find another game which utilizes an irregular meter. Will get back to you on that.
In the mean time, I hope you are writing up another post along this fashion. You could easily create an entire blog around video game music, grouped by specific musical themes.
by Jasonsan on November 14, 2009 at 4:43 am #
Some more:
The Opening theme from the Monkey Island games has some strange meter changes… it switches between 4/4, 3/4 and 6/4 pretty randomly… it all flows really nicely under the melody, though.
Also, the triforce music at the end of Link to the Past has some interesting signature changes:
4/4 4/4 2/4 4/4 repeated, but the way the melody goes, it sounds waltz-like. there’s a long section of 3/4 later on.
Street Fighter II has a pretty awesome 11/8 groove on the Sagat stage.
It’s mostly in 4/4, but the Secret of Mana boss music has all sorts of crazy shit going on rhythmically.
by Jesse on December 2, 2009 at 9:12 pm #
Check out Kingdom Hearts, the track called Night of Fate. It’s in 5/4 I’m pretty sure.
by Rain on March 7, 2010 at 1:52 pm #
I hope you realize that alternating measures of 13/16 and 10/16 equate to consecutive measures of 12/16 (or 6/8), which is not irregular.
by Anonymous on May 3, 2010 at 8:15 pm #
Hey “Anonymous”, are you sure you did your math right? The last time I checked, the average of 13 and 10 wasn’t 12.
Meter is more than simply splitting the difference. The downbeat makes a world of difference. Try listening to Dan’s example again.
by Cloud on May 3, 2010 at 9:35 pm #
Thanks you for a very eye opening article on music from some of my favourite games, Zelda and Jet Force Gemini. I will definitly experiment with rythms as in the ganondorf battle. Why is there a treble clef in measure 9 of ganondorf battle (ootbattle.png)?
by Ernest on May 12, 2010 at 11:31 pm #
@Ernest
The treble clef marks the switch from bass clef (m.9) to treble clef (m.10) — much like you’d see for a change in key signature.
The reduced score has the voices in the left hand moving from the lower string chords to the choral chords in the upper register.
by Rafi on May 13, 2010 at 12:31 am #
Wow, this is an amazing site! I love looking for irregular meter in unsuspecting situations! Some of my favorites include “Doom dragon” and “Fusion Dragon Battle” from the GBA game “Golden Sun.” You mentioned old video game music with irregular time signatures, and the first one I can think of is the dungeon theme from Final Fantasy I for the NES released in 1987. He randomly throws in a bar or 11/16 out of nowhere! Anyway, this site rocks! I’d love to hear of anymore tracks you find!
by Jeremy on July 20, 2010 at 3:14 am #