Liontamer Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Kabukibear Justin Lincoln kabukibear@gmail.com Donkey Kong Level 1 comments: Well, this started out as something of a joke. Someone had tabbed the five note theme to the first level of Donkey Kong and I, jokingly, sad I would attempt to arrange it. Surprisingly enough, I found myself humming the theme to myself and the more I did the more the "theme," seemed like a backing track that could be built upon. So, in the arrangement, the initial statement of the theme is in the accented notes at the beginning, note for note, with a few extra notes thrown in to make it slightly more interesting. After that the bass progresses down while still holding on to the rhytmic feel the theme presented and then finishes up with a little bit of my own writing to flesh out a bit of movement and drive the music back up to the original theme. Once the melody comes in you'll notice that the melody is actually the main theme, pushed up an octave and augmented so as to stretch the theme out into a melodic line while it accompanies itself in the rhytmic pattern you heard in the intro. This moves into a slightly altered section where the rhythm is familiar, but the theme has now been moved up and augmented even further, allowing me to play around with some chords before each note of the theme appears. I eventually kick it into a fun little bridge that brings me back to the main theme. The reason I kept jumping back to the main theme was to provide a ground to the next severe altering of the theme. The next is the most of all in the piece, where it becomes almost unrecognizable, but the notes and order of notes are still there. It ends with a recapitulation of the theme to draw in all the loose ends. Thank you! I hope you accept it! ~bear ------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/download_file/13624 - Track 4 I didn't catch much. Not even gonna tally up the seconds or percentages: :00-:05.5, :14.5-:20, :29-:34, 1:02.5-1:07, 1:16.5-1:21, 1:57.5-2:03, 2:12-2:17 The source is just a simple 5-note pattern. When expansion and original sections are necessary for such a minimal theme, it's mission critical you don't lose sight of recognizably using the original theme throughout the arrangement. A lot of writing that was derived from the source was too liberal simply through changing the notes. Awesome piece of music, Justin, but way off the rails as far as being an overtly recognizably ReMix of this source tune. If you'd ever be willing to revisit this concept, keep the variations of the source less drastic and keep them constantly in play. Primarily altering rhythms and tempos instead may be more the way to go. Looking forward to the next one from you, because you play a mean geetar. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Tougher decision than I thought it would be, because there is a Donkey Kong sound to this for most of it. Let's try a different kind of breakdown than counting seconds. Bridges don't seem to have any connection I can find, which is roughly a third of the song. The rhythm of the original is present the rest of the time, but the phrase is only kept intact twice per iteration because sometimes the bass changes and last three notes are changed. You can add the melody line too, which gives me... Larry's breakdown exactly. Ha, so much for not counting seconds. Yeah it's too liberal for me. I could see someone saying YES to this based on the rhythm connection and the way the theme always leads up from the changing bass the same way, but that's too loose a connection IMO. Pretty much if you kept those last three notes intact most of the time while playing with the bass like you did, I think this would hold the connection. Beautiful song no matter what you decide to do with it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 The main issue here is that the arrangement downplays the source, burying it as a simple backing pattern. While you have a great grasp on expansion the source tune must be, and I quote, "identifiable and dominant". The track is very nice and the production is close and warm. Sadly, that doesn't keep it from ultimately being too liberal. Sorry man! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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