How Pokemon 8-bit music was inspired by classical music

[@DavidBennettPiano]

My chiptune track played in the outro of this video is available to download at davidbennettpiano.bandcamp.com/track/study-in-gameboy or stream on Spotify: sptfy.com/davidbennett 🎼

[@Moiaija]

@David_Bennett_Pianoscam

[@jaredf6205]

@@Moiaija When is KZbin going to do something about this shit

[@TuskenRaiderHater]

David you should make a video on non harmonic tones and explain why they work!

[@Moiaija]

@@jaredf6205 dont know

[@herrmajestat]

I just love it when the first video of a newly discovered channel I click on is sponsored by this crap. Moving on.

[@TheRedEncryption]

The fact that there were only four sounds and three of them were capable of producing pitches and that these intricate-sounding compositions were possible is impressive!

[@Aeduo]

The pulse waves have their own harmonics that helps add a bit of complexity, and what's described as the custom waveform could be made to have additional harmonics. All kinds of fun techniques to create more depth and complexity to these tunes.

[@thehearth8773]

The NES had the same limitation, too, with the small exception that it was also capable of playing very short samples (at a cost to ROM size that could be significant--they didn't have a lot of space to go around in those days), and it couldn't play custom waveforms (its third channel was fixed to be a triangle wave). And the Commodore 64, famous for its music, nevertheless was also severely limited; it had only three voices total, though any of them could be switched between a couple different waveforms. It's impressive how composers managed to make great music with such highly limited hardware!

[@AB-sw4kb]

Limitation breeds creativity

[@Richard_Nickerson]

@@AB-sw4kb This

[@Richard_Nickerson]

@Zero Release him, Lord Vader

[@truegreen7]

I never thought my appreciation for Pokémon music and Masuda's compositions could grow even more, but here we are. Thank you. I really loved your original piece as well.

[@BBWahoo]

#BustANutInsideMasudAss

[@BBWahoo]

@@RandalfElVikingo Oy vey goy you can't say that against the chosen piplups!

[@graydeotto2820]

love seeing channels from my different interests cross over, nice to see ya here Ron!

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@graydeotto2820 technically it’s the same interest since it’s about Pokémon and tru green has talked about Pokémon music before on his channel

[@graydeotto2820]

@@madnessarcade7447 i mean, my interest in music theory youtube and Pokemon youtube, yes Ron talks a lot about music in vids and the podcast but its still a bit of a genre crossover

[@NoJobRob]

Hope this video does well and we get more video game music analysis! There is a treasure trove of music theory goodness there. Legendary thumbnail

[@DBRX5]

great comment!

[@Bladavia]

I hope you're already subscribed to 8-bit music theory

[@NoJobRob]

@@Bladavia yep. Would love to hear David's perspective too and I'm sure he would cover some different aspects from 8-bit

[@omarkharnivall2439]

Goofy troop for snes and bombliss 2 + also have great music, a review please

[@sxcJOELisNotsexy]

Jeremy Soule has done some amazing work in videogames.

[@Pyroific]

I've always loved chiptune music because its just pure melody, nowhere to hide in sound design!

[@schlafwandler1427]

This Pokemon Mansion Theme has elements of pure sound design. Especially the start.

[@friedemannmagerl7901]

Listen to orchestra music

[@Pyroific]

@@friedemannmagerl7901 agreed!

[@friedemannmagerl7901]

@@Pyroific chiptune is fun to listen to tho so no offense ofc

[@Pyroific]

@@friedemannmagerl7901 none taken :) orchestral stuff is great cause its so dynamic, you can go from super subtle into huge booming walls of sound

[@idreamofgenie2599]

Using 8-bit Pokemon music to explain classical music concepts like counterpoint and arpeggiation is ingenious! Before watching this, I never would have thought I could comprehend these seemingly arcane concepts, but explaining the limitations under which 8-bit Pokemon music was made and showing how the music illustrates the concepts made them easier to understand. And I do enjoy chiptune music, so that was a big draw. Thanks!

[@BenThere_DoneThat]

Couldn't agree more!

[@vascosanchez]

Arpeggiation really isn't an arcane concept at all 😭

[@idreamofgenie2599]

@@vascosanchez It is for me! :)

[@cooldebt]

I would also recommend 8-bit music as jazz - by The Consouls. They draw out the jazz construction of many vgm tunes brilliantly.

[@Terpsichorean-oj8vc]

Oh c'mon arpeggiation is as basic as it gets. Literally 'rolling' the chord.

[@Rosalina102798]

It's so fascinating how Masuda can make these almost sort of robotic, pattern-oriented yet genuinely elegant compositions based off his apparent love of counterpoint, Phrygian dominant mode, isorhythms supporting arpeggios and starting off with one or two initial musical ideas, and then gradually building off of them like a painter would with their canvas. A very Baroque-era musical philosophy based on rhythmic simplicity and focus on melody, indeed!

[@JediMindG]

A whole lot of personality in his compositions

[@juanramonsilva1067]

If you think Masuda is fascinanting wait till you hear the king of counterpoint. Johann Sebastian Fugues.

[@GrayVMhan]

The musical version of making a sphere out of triangles

[@rockonthestone4907]

The Pokemon soundtracks features some my favourite music ever, so it's really thrilling you decided to cover some of it. Go Ichinose, who joined the sound team during Gold and Silver is a real idol of mine, absurdly talented and creative composer/arranger

[@paulheinrichdietrich9518]

True, the music for Gold/Silver is wonderful.

[@Jskid666]

I always joke that Go Ichinose's "Approaching Cynthia Prelude" is my fabourite Rachmaninoff prelude. Pokémon games have always had the blessing of incredibly talented and creative composers.

[@10freekie2]

Maybe a second video covering second gen and go ichinose :))?

[@nilsbauer6994]

The music of gold and silver in its original Chiptuner sound gives me goosebumps and makes me ✨feel things✨ to this day ❤️

[@addictofanime]

I’m actually about to change the battery on my gold/silver/ crystal cartridges partly because I wanna experience the original music I loved as a kid (I have my original game boy color too), that said, I still think gen 4 has the best Pokémon center music, especially bdsp

[@barneyboyle6933]

The champion battle theme from Gold/Silver is the absolute masterpiece of all Pokémon music

[@1Pandemoonium]

Not gonna lie, I didn't expect dedicated videos looking at game music from you, but this was brilliant - cheers 😄

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks 😊

[@mitchellboyce9853]

The part where he mentioned adjusting the Viridian Forest song so that the parts looped at different times blew my mind, I always had a feeling there was something I was missing about that song but never would've figured that out

[@thomers2451]

Lol sure you did

[@bootyshortsband]

​@@thomers2451 it's not a secret that these songs have unsettling aspects

[@729MendicantTide]

A lot of songs in R/B/Y have desynchronized loops. Viridian Forest is not one of them. Lavender Town is, though (the loops take two minutes and 43 seconds to synchronize - four loops of channels 1 and 2 - for channel 3 to cycle through once).

[@mitchellboyce9853]

@@729MendicantTide The composer is directly quoted saying that he did this for Viridian Forest at 9:30 in the video

[@729MendicantTide]

​@@mitchellboyce9853 Okay, _technically_ Viridian Forest has an offset loop, but only because both the pulse wave channels have their line copy-pasted for a second time through every loop on the song since the DPCM channel track for that song is exactly double their length in measures. For all intents and purposes, it might as well be counted as one loop. I believe the same thing applies to Rocket Hideout. It still is not as blatant as Lavender Town where the DPCM channel has a sixteen measure loop versus the twenty measure loop the pulse channels do (edit: it's 16 vs 20, not four vs five. I have a bad habit of counting measures in groups of four)

[@FromGroundToMud]

You can disable and isolate audio channels in GB/GBA emulators. I used to do it while playing Pokemon G/S/C and R/S/E and got to really appreciate the intricacy of these amazing soundtracks. PS: Prof. Oak lab theme is the Chinese Dance by Tchaikovsky!

[@aardvark698]

My god, after reading your comment I searched for it on YT and thought for half a second "This is the Oak Lab theme!". This is the kind of trivia that I definitely love.

[@nilsbauer6994]

Omg, thats why I loved it so much back in the day. As a child, the clip with the mushrooms dancing to this melody in Disney's Fantasia was one of my favourite things!

[@steveita2162]

Whelp. Never gonna unhear that

[@bootyshortsband]

yep. what i did was put pokemon midis into guitar tab software to learn the battle theme basslines

[@WWEdeadman]

I never even thought about how the GameBoy's music engine worked. I gotta say, the way Masuda wrote those pieces is absolutely genius though.

[@vergilmontiero2558]

Masuda's music method

[@Oh_Hael_No]

I got chills from your original piece at the end!! It's absolutely fantastic!!

[@paulmustermann7068]

I just heard it once and already have a earworm, a wonderful meldody! Sounds medieval

[@Henle_]

That chiptune piece is fantastic! Please release the full version!

[@halinaqi2194]

Ngl i didn't personally like it, just something about pokemonsusic sounded way better to me than the original composed piece made by this youtuber.

[@polter5195]

As a modern trained musician this really demystifies how chiptune is written, so thank you! I could never wrap my head around how they made it sound good, because just using 8bit instruments doesn't make great chiptune. Most of the work is the arrangement.

[@cooldebt]

I realised that vgm had really good bones when I discovered The Consouls 8 years ago. Their vgm jazz covers are absolutely brilliant!

[@vergilmontiero2558]

That's a great summary of the process

[@DrPOP-jp7eb]

I think there is no music I know so well by heart as the original Pokémon music. If I'm ever in an elderly home I hope they play those songs to stimulate my memory.

[@10freekie2]

Ahhh that idea is so touching 🥹…

[@TheFalseStory]

Viridian Forest, Mt. Moon, and Pokémon Tower are such fantastic compositions - twenty years on and still some of my favourite music.

[@SMCwasTaken]

Wait till you listen to Gen 3 and 4

[@SurprisedPikachuGames]

The Pokémon OST is indeed a masterpiece.

[@SMCwasTaken]

Pokemon Emerald and Platinum have the best music

[@emmakatebrakefield80]

I love how old video game music like this takes inspiration from classical music. It’s like double the nostalgia 🥰 Great video as always! Especially love the thumbnail

[@cooldebt]

How about adding a third layer of jazz as The Consouls do? It's brilliant stuff!

[@TheDeathmail]

I love how you mentioned that Masuda allowed limitations to breed creativity... art works best when limited.. because it's within limits that we rise above...

[@kidkangaroo5213]

>Oreimo pfp Opinion discarded

[@monochrome10]

Word

[@Baby_boodle]

I really adore your chiptune piece at the end! It seems like it would be right at home in a pivotal plot moment in a game.

[@CyriltheWolfmusic]

I'll never get tired of these different perspectives on early video game music. Truly incredible stuff

[@cooldebt]

You can really tell the composers knew their stuff not only when.thr music is analysed like this but also when bands like The Consouls turn it into incredible jazz.

[@LuisFernandez-gs7ek]

FINALLY the video I've been all my life waiting for. I've always been fascinated by how this soundtrack combines baroque counterpoint with 20th century harmonies, like if Prokófiev composed a fugue in three voices for harpsichord. The GB limitations ended up giving rise to a unique compositional style.

[@ChengHorn9]

After all these years I come to appreciate these games more and more with videos like these. It's beautiful that these catchy tunes we listened to as kids were so heavily inspired by highly respected composers of old. Thank you for the video.

[@VegaMaiden95]

Amazing analysis. I've been in love with pokemon music since I was very little, and I enjoyed the deep dive into its composition a lot. There is beauty in the music that emerged from the technologic limitations of old consoles that I am happy is still being explored today.

[@cooldebt]

You should hear it as arranged as jazz - The Consouls are brilliant!

[@davidnewtown8774]

I've got a different interpretation of the Mt. Moon theme! To me, the beginning sounds more like a B augmented going to an E augmented and then back to B+. Then Masuda uses scale degree 2 of B+ (C#) that he emphasizes in the melody to cleanly move to the F augmented section, as it's scale degree 5 in that chord. F+ drops down a half step to E+, then we're back to B+. However, that last B+ doesn't have its root until right before the piece repeats. Instead C#, scale degree 2, gets emphasized repeatedly until it finally resolves down to the B. We want augmented triads to resolve. Every note in one could easily resolve up or down to make a stable chord. Masuda, by only using augmented chords, creates a feeling of anxiousness in the listener. This is compounded in the middle section by chromatic runs in the bass and a slowing down and speeding up of tempo and also by the measures of 5/4, 6/8, and 7/8 he throws in in the second half of the piece. That's my read of it at least!

[@benkendall5562]

I forgot just how incredible Pokémon music is. To me music/sound design is what makes a video game or a film, without great sounds it will only be average or good at best, the sound takes you back and you fall in love with it all over again

[@10freekie2]

Very true!!

[@cooldebt]

I never realised that vgm was actually that goid until I heard The Consouls' brilliant jazz covers. The original tunes are really well constructed - and, of course many are outright bangers!

[@vergilmontiero2558]

Yeah it definitely does, soundtracks to video games, tv shows and movies make the experience more memorable to me.

[@GymnopedieTornado]

This is so cool--I swear when I was a kid and first getting into classical music the opening to the second movement of Stravinsky’s “Symphony In Three Movements” made me think very weirdly of Pallet Town, and I could never tell why. Still can’t, but thought of it when I first saw your thumbnail. Excellent as always!

[@Bartokassualtdude94]

I always thought the Lavender Town theme had some influence from Rite of Spring's "Ritual Preparations of the Ancestors."

[@karbengo]

14:00 Now that caught me off guard. I've played Pokemon Red on my GameBoy in 1998, but I didn't have earphones, so I always played with the sound comming from the speaker. After all these years, this is the first time I pick up the vibrato effect on those background notes on the Lavender Tower theme. Truely admirable work from Junichi Masuda.

[@Yuni009]

This was super interesting and made me relive my time in school learning music. Absolutely amazing how this works and loved the piece you wrote! ❤

[@Hero_of_Sinnoh]

Well done this was an absolute joy to watch! Masuda does not get enough credit for breathing life into the series through the music of the game. Hope this vid does really well!

[@buisigames2859]

Do a part 2 on pokemon gold silver music please! I want to see more of the evolution of some Kanto songs in Gen 2

[@vergilmontiero2558]

I second this, unless I'm too late and it's already done by now lol

[@kath_nanaya6803]

a channel called 8-Bit Music Theory has a really good video on that!

[@angelaguerrero3808]

Since i played my brother's old GBA i was wondering this, with less tools the melody and creativeness are pushed to shine in a work of total inspiration and gave us memorable tunes that will be with us for ever

[@cooldebt]

Can I recommend The Consouls vgm jazz arrangement of Zelda Main Theme and others - very nostalgic and brings out the brilliance of the original composition

[@MarkusSsZ]

Junichi Masuda is probably my all time favorite composer. Absolute genius.

[@SMCwasTaken]

Mine is Yoko Shimomura

[@SoleaGalilei]

I never knew this music was inspired by classical composers, but it makes so much sense now. You can really hear the similarity playing them back to back.

[@SMCwasTaken]

All music is inspired by another composer Junichi Masuda and Yoko Shimamura are god tier composers

[@Sayuku_P]

Thank you for this analysis, it's so precise and accurate! but I must add that this inspiration to classical music doesn't stop in the 8-bit era! Cynthia's piano prelude (greatly inspired by Rachmaninoff) or N's Castle (both versions) are great exemples!

[@SMCwasTaken]

Nahh He needs to do a video on Yoko Shimomura and her work on Kingdom Hearts

[@imscreamign]

this is amazing, easily one of my favorite videos of 2022. great work!!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks!!

[@RS-fz4ps]

I love that in gold silver and crystal, when you revisit Lavender town in the postgame, the town’s theme is the same but different. The tune begins the same with the creeping intro, but changes with the drop after the first few bars. It is revised to be more jovial and the melody takes a dramatic upswing. It’s like a reminder of the past but I’m a new light. Can you be nostalgic for nostalgia? Because that’s the feeling of the gen II lavender town theme.

[@Anaxiamander]

This is a fantastic explanation of the great work Masuda did on these pieces. I would love to see your explorations of some of the works of other early video game composers, especially Tim Follin. His work on Pictionary (NES), Treasure Master (NES), Plok! (SNES), and Agent X (ZX Spectrum) are particular standouts to me. He did a lot of work with making the sound chip in the NES in particular sing just as beautifully as Masuda did the Game Boy.

[@acrouzet]

It would be interesting to see a comparison between a composer like Masuda and a composer like Tim Follin. Composers from Europe like Follin often used rapid arpeggios to simulate chords in a single channel, a technique not often used by Japanese composers. Thus I believe European chiptune music would align more with homophony rather than counterpoint.

[@stevej1154]

Limitations often produce great work. Which is true in numerous disciplines. Having complete freedom to do anything just leads to feeling overwhelmed by the options. For example, a chef with limited ingredients is forced to improvise, often producing great meals that he would never otherwise have considered. With endless options, he might tend to just stick to what he knows.

[@TxWIll]

Always loved Junichi's work - he's so crazily talented doing coding, composing AND design throughout his tenure at Gamefreak; certainly a pioneer of VG music. Love the breakdown!

[@SMCwasTaken]

I consider Nobuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimamura, Koji Kondo and Junichi Masuda to be the big 4 composers of Videogame music

[@UnshavenStatue]

11:26 this little chunk is honestly an incredible example of redshift, like when an ambulance passes you by or when you're watching someone fall into a blackhole

[@MezaN69]

1st time here, I'd call myself a music illiterate but I must admit I somehow found easy to understand your explanation. I know pokemon is very underrated in music compared to other game franchises but it happens that Masuda-sama and Ichinose-sama are favourites game composers overall. I hope you could cover gold, silver, crystal too in a video. If I may request your analysis on gum leader / elite 4 theme and Lance / Red, I'd be forever grateful.

[@ledusko]

There is so much in this video, you can learn bases of the music theory with those exemples, it’s brilliant

[@Onyx619]

The trainer battle theme from gen 1 was truly masterful. That they got that out of the gameboy was incredible

[@Bartholomule01]

Embracing the simplicity inherent in some genres really does yield great results as you've shown talking about the game's music and then composing a peice of your own in similar fashion. I have noticed that there is a simplicity present in Hip-Hop Instrumentals born out of the limited tech available when they first made them in the 70s. And I have liked what I've created with Hip-Hop Instrumentals more over the years when I have simplified it.

[@bobboulden]

I can't believe the soundtrack to my childhood was written in code. Loved the chiptune song at the end!

[@reneezmp]

I can’t thank you enough for this video. This soundtrack was part of my childhood and such an important thing to me up to this day, and it fills my heart up with joy to discover more about it. Thank you ❤

[@michealranex1839]

In regards to scary Pokemon. I recently got my wife to start playing Pokemon legends Arceus. She played her first distortion the other day and said "that fealt like a nightmare".

[@Anonymice]

Your chiptune piece makes me imagine exploring a ruined, cursed town in something like Dragon Quest. Devoid of life but not of danger, crawling around in search of treasure and seeking to find the source to put a stop to it, to cleanse it to allow the world to heal, or at least to figure out what happened.

[@some-say-gregms]

Awesome topic for a video I'm stoked!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

😁😁

[@samsunglg6671]

I used to hear this type of audio when I was playing the my cousin's games and it was so impressionable, all kinds of major mood changes can be felt from them. Very potent material, and thanks for sharing.

[@eatfruitsalad345]

absolutely fascinating examination. i love bach and also pokemon music but had no idea that his works played such an important role in the development of the music.

[@Ax0lotl524]

I was studying this exact subject these days. This video came in such a good time for me.

[@tisiphone535]

You appeared in my recommandation and I'm more than happy to have clicked on the video ^^ I like videos which tackles music theory behind our beloved OST and I see that Masuda really made genius moves while composing the soundtracks with so few voices available !

[@ltjgambrose]

It says a lot about Masuda's skills as a musician and programmer that he was the composer/sound designer for the first GameFreak games at 26 years-old and is now the chief creative fellow at the biggest media franchise of all time.

[@otozinclus3593]

Masuda is a good composer, but as a programmer he and most other in GameFreak are not that impressive. No other big franchise release so many technically so poorly executed and buggy games as they did Pokemon Red and Blue would have never released in a proper state, if it would not be for Iwata to jump in and get involved into programming himself to fix the mess they created somewhat

[@GoyBenius_0901]

​@@otozinclus3593 They hardly released in a "propper' state with his help they were held together with masking tape and a prayer, I won't even give them the ol "duct tape and a prayer" because that would imply they were atleast somewhat stable.

[@girlwithaguitar24]

God I could listen to musical analysis videos on any/every single Pokemon games - their soundtracks are so slept on in the world of gaming as a whole.

[@SMCwasTaken]

Masuda and Yoko are one of my Favorite Composers

[@davids8262]

no one talks about the composition at the end which is brillant

[@edmn]

Never noticed the vibrato on the Pokémon Tower song. Must have heard it 1,000 times too.

[@jonathanlippard1730]

This is an unbelievably well-presented video, very well done. I'd like to add that if anyone watching is interested in counterpoint, Johann Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" was considered the master treatise on counterpoint in the late Baroque: J.S Bach himself owned a copy. Jacob Gran has an excellent (if a bit dry in presentation) series of YT videos on counterpoint as well, based on Fux's book.

[@stephennicewarner216]

I’ve been waiting for someone who can demonstrate the appreciation for these games I have. The bleakness of the caves. The direness of the battles (Insert low hp sound). The unbearableness of the tower. The horror of the mansion lab. And unique gameboy sounds used to make this unique music for a unique experience. Throw in some Bach and other comparisons. And the creepy pasta ghost at the end! Thanks!

[@ΑλέξανδροςΑργυρόπουλος-κ1τ]

Loved the use of the pokemon ghost sprite towards the end. Nice video mate

[@Zveebo]

What is this? 8-Bit Music Theory??? 😅 Love that you made this - lots of interesting music concepts to analyse in game music.

[@BlackPrinzvonBach]

I normally enjoyed this video like many others of yours...but I was NOT expecting the last piece at the end! Throughout the video my ear adjusted to trying to differentiate each tone separately, but when suddenly I was able to just naturally discern what each melody was saying in the last piece and then be able to listen to them altogether...I just felt like crying for a second there. Great video!

[@k2a2l2]

its truly impressive work to make all these songs with the music technology they had. masuda is a legend

[@neon_vendingmachine]

A refreshing look into my favorite games 💕 that chiptune you composed was AMAZING 👏 🙌

[@eatfruitsalad345]

love that little melancholy chiptune piece you wrote for the end! stellar vid as usual 👏👏

[@Wutwut1n1]

Thanks for the background, interesting journey for Masuda learning about music

[@thomasreichert2804]

17:12 sounds like "h Poké" hijacking the audio chip! Really nice tune and glitch effect. This video is inspiring, and I hope there will be more like it!

[@DBK415]

Lavender town is in E minor. The harmony and melody are in E minor. The motiff does make it sound C lydian.

[@SvenMBMusic]

Exactly! I wonder why nobody pointed it out sooner and why David himself didn't realise during analysis that C lydian flat 2 is an unneccessarily complicated way of looking at E minor / Dorian and does not fit well with the structure of the melody and bassline.

[@laureate90]

Lovely piece of original music at the end. Thank you for sharing :)

[@thoughtsforthebuilders]

Mt Moon always gave me Bartok vibes (: I also personally consider it mostly built out of just the plain ol' whole-tone scale, except for the later chromatic sections. edit: oh yeah, and it blew my mind that I only _recently_ learned that Oak's Lab is based on the Chinese Dance from Tchaik's Nutcracker 😵

[@bazookaman1353]

This feels like an 8 bit music theory crossover.

[@glubtier]

Even more impressive when you take into account all the other limitations the game had and the different ways they had to bend over backwards to fit it on a cartridge. It's honestly amazing that we got the first Pokemon games at all, and it's all thanks to the creativity and innovation of the people working on it, and Masuda was definitely one of the best.

[@johnnysocket76]

Pokemons music from that era thru gen 4 is some of my favorite music of all time. Their ability to make such music with so little in the beginning is also fascinating. These are later games but Route 1 in fire red/leaf green gen 3 wild pokemon battle music are some of my favorite song of all time period.

[@bhloomtunes]

I come back to this video every couple months. It's changed how I write immensely!

[@Neo21803]

Great video! I love the music in the early Pokemon games, and I certainly appreciate it even more knowing how challenging it was to write the music. I think you missed out on a couple of points in this video, however. The first being that there is certainly a lot of EASTERN influences in the music written as well. The Lavender Town theme and Pokemon Tower theme both use the same minor pentatonic scale used in traditional Japanese music. Part of the eeriness is how foreign the music sounds (not just modality wise, but the voicing as well). The high frequencies and short notes remind me of the sounds of a koto. The second is how the SS Anne theme is pretty much Masuda's homage to Bach, as there is SO much of Bach's influence in this music. Sequencing, counterpoint, secondary dominances, you name it! Other than that, great video! I'm looking forward to your videos in 2023. I show them frequently to my students!

[@cronomeo]

Amazing, now I see why I always liked both pokemon and Bach so much. That chip tune at the end is fantastic. I really love flat notes. Please release the full track :D

[@thegothaunt]

Fantastic!! I adore music analysis for game music and I adore the Pokémon game music, especially these early ones inspired by classics! So fascinating, I never tire of learning. Your piece at the end was so cool as well. It made me want to try composing in these parameters! 💜

[@supersapphire]

beautiful video, made me appreciate how intrinsic the gen 1 soundtrack is even more so.

[@hutif]

I think this is my favorite video of yours yet. Keep up the great and interesting work!

[@LeBingeDoctor]

Classical music AND Pokemon? You made my day, sir, and it was tremendously informative. The chiptune was so great too. Thanks a lot!

[@daviddas6846]

Amazing!! I never thought I could appreciate Pokémon's music but thank you for telling the story behind it

[@egalomon]

the evolution of music in these older Pokemon games is really fun to explore. The first and second generation are true chiptune - with a fantastic advancement inbetween. The 3rd generation is famous for its use of brass instruments - because for the first time you could truly tell what instrument this is supposed to be. 4th gen brings even better instrumentation and the peak of handheld Pokemon music came in 5th generation which, just as the generations prior, is famous for its soundtrack

[@jaredf6205]

Funny story, I set the Pokémon game song as my ringtone about 8 years ago. I was not very social at the time, so the only time my phone ever rang was my manager calling me to either tell me to come in to cover a shift, or to tell me I was scheduled to be in work 20 minutes ago lol. Now when I hear it, it’s traumatic.

[@phoephernelia]

Literally tripping out at your original piece! It's insaaane 🔥🔥

[@Zaante]

I actually loved your composition at the end, reminded me of a prolog, a point of important narration or even a villain theme. Really cool.

[@SmogValley]

This is an interesting watch! I love your chiptune at the outro, it makes me imagine a pirate ship sailing through a haunted island that killed some of the crewmates but the last pirates fight to escape the island.

[@NicholsonStudios]

This was amazing, thank you for this! Also I love your chip tune at the end it’s awesome :)

[@GoyBenius_0901]

I always found Pokémon Tower's music to be less eerie than the music outside in Lavender Town, so any time I passed through the town I'd chill in the Pokémon Center since that has it's own theme, or the lobby of the Cemetary instead of the town itself.

[@denizhankaraca8862]

For me, this was by far your most interesting video, I truly enjoyed it. I also loved your composition at the end ❤️. Thanks!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you!

[@Thaligamathor]

That chip tune you made was fire, brother. Amazing video and detail. I know understand an arpeggio better 🎉❤

[@skatan4727]

These song were true genius, they certainly made up a huge part of the game for me as well as defining my childhood. Thanks of this video, great stuff.

[@ArianesDrawingPH]

Thanks for understanding. I love the documentary-styled editing. And, Happy New Year!

[@Tchaikofisky]

Yessss!! Finally a detailed video that I can share with everyone!! I’ve always knew that the soundtracks are inspired by classical music but I never knew how to really explain it properly! Very much appreciated for this video!!! ❤

[@shkedovb]

12:37 imho the mt. moon tune is based augmented chords, therefore leaning on the whole-tone scale, rather than on a B harmonic major. Combined with chromaticism is providing this mysterious wierd vibe. Thank you for the excellent video! So fascinating!

[@GPCyanide]

A good example of counterpoint in video game music are the Orc themes in Glen Stafford's WarCraft II OST. Well worth a listen!

[@Arjun005]

This is such a good video - well researched and explained perfectly , deserves more views !!