Star Fox 64 [Instrument Deconstruction and Analysis] - Sector Z / Fortuna

[@visualizermusictracks]

Musical Analysis Stepped on the shoulders of giants the music from the epic space opera-that for some reason features anthropomorphic animals-called Star Fox (because of course every good space war drama needs to have the word "star"on its name) displays proudly its influences on its sleeve, synthesizing its sound from a cocktail mixture of the influential Planets suite from Gustav Hoist (especially Mars), a piece born from the true origins of film scoring in the program music and tone poems from the Romantic period; a piece which itself went down ro influence the score for Star Wars and infused it with the romantic pomposity of Hollywood adventure films from the 30s since the director did not want any edgy, electronic sci-fi sounding instruments in its work that was essentially a swashbuckler film with lightsabers instead of swords. Add to it the patriotic military music featuring snare drums for marching and trumpets for fanfares and bugle calls and that is how we get stuff like Star Fox or Super Mario Galaxy. Pure martial romantic scoring. However, the two main, direct influences for the presentation of the Fox Mclaud gang were the British puppet show Thunderbirds and the recently released film Independence Day. Originally, the idea of the Star Fox series was to showcase the newly developed Super FX chip for the SNES, which allowed to create 3D graphics with polygons; the perfect game to showcase this was a space shooter on rails. The animals were only added much later thanks to the quirky sensibilities of game developer Shigeru MIyamoto, which was inspired by the similarity between the long lines of Shinto gates in Kyoto and the gates the Arwings had to cross in the game; Miyamoto finally settled on having a fox as the main character after visiting Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto, the head shrine of Inari, a Japanese kami associated with foxes. Inari is portrayed as being able to fly, and its shrines, particularly the one in Kyoto, are surrounded by red arches, giving Miyamoto the idea of a fox that could fly through arches. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi... You can see the arches here Another game designer, Inamura, used Japanese folklore as an inspiration to add a bird named Falco-but he is actually a pheasant-and a hare as two other protagonists. He also added a toad; the inspiration came from a staff member of Nintendo EAD who used a toad as his personal mascot. Imamura populated the Cornerian army with dogs and the enemy army with monkeys; he also made General Pepper a dog and Andross a monkey since there is a popular Japanese expression about fighting like dogs and monkeys. The main theme of the Star Fox series written by composer Koji Kondo replaces the original main theme of the series written for the original game, since Star Fox 64 is a reimagining of that first game combined with elements from the cancelled sequel. Th score for the N64 game mixes the romantic grandeur of film scoring with martial music. Koji Kondo wrote the main leitmotifs for the Star Fox team and ending of the game while composer Hajime Wakai wrote the music for the stages. The triumphant score from Kondo contrasts with the war infused scores from Wakai. The two main influences on the music, just like the games themselves, were the award winning score of the recently released movie Independence Day and the TV show Thunderbirds, which also combined The Planets suite with Hollywood adventure music and military bugle calls, fanfares and marching snares. A brief history of the development of the epic war music from Star Fox told by tracks kzbin.info/www/bejne/aX7HZISkgK5pn7c The famous tone poems by Richard Strauss influenced by the grand operas of Richard Wagner influenced film music since the point of program music is to musicalize narratives in the first place kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJ7OZpmopZtgabM The bringer of war to the Lylat System. So maybe it should be called Titania. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2qQop6IpamKhJo The Thunderbirds score. You can even hear a melodic part that might have served as inspiration and it is very similar to the Star Fox main theme at 1:28 kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5O8gaiNo96Uo5Y The non triumphant parts of of the game, like the stages, were inspired by the set-pieces from the film Independence Day kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpOUdoCsdr5pp5o Even the Star Fox credits take its cue from and similar figures from the end credits of Independence Day, starting almost in the same way. The track that plays in the planet Fortuna which is a full fledged war against enemy aircraft, and Sector Z is a perfect representative of the Star Fox soundtrack. Chaotic, diminished chords, and ambiguous keys that sound neither major nor minot. Phrygian mode is usually good for battle might be the closes. There are also low ostinatos that are transposed and the more homogenous orchestration of the games consisting of the standard orchestra: strings, timpani, and brass. A small set of instruments that packs a punch What other tracks from this soundtrack would you like to see? Games from the SNES era coming soon. Feel free to ask for any random track ♫ Support the Channel: www.buymeacoffee.com/musictracks ♫ Media files and support for future interactive tools (Patreon): bit.ly/officialmusictracksmedia You can also join now through channel memberships where we can build a community and network of composers, music and gaming enthusiasts. You can support the music visualization project and get some perks like MIDI sequences and samples. Or choose what games or compositions will be featured This is a music theory analysis and piano cover visualization project recreated with the original instrument tracks from the Nintendo 64 game. Extracted with a specialized audio software, we can now dig inside the score for the first time; offering us a glimpse for how each instrument contributes to the whole.

[@realaharbor8466]

This is amazing. Maybe you could try Sector Y/Solar sometime if you get the chance. Also, 6 likes coming from the left… even though I can only leave one

[@visualizermusictracks]

Glad you liked it. Yeah, there will be more from this soundtrack coming soon. Although i will start to mix and match a little between various games and tracks if possible

[@realaharbor8466]

@@visualizermusictracks I see. I bet you’ll do great

[@thebro4994]

Alrighty, new video :D Is there more Star Fox coming in the future or was this a specific request? :3

[@visualizermusictracks]

Im trying to mix it up with various tracks from various games. There will be more from Star Fox 64 but not all at the same time

[@thebro4994]

@@visualizermusictracks Sounds good to me ^^