Into the Score - January 10, 2007

Mega Man II

1) Intro
2) The Time in Gaming when MM2 was Released
a. Lots of side-scrolling shooters
3) The Story of the Game
4) Composers
5) The Music
a. Character Themes and Leitmotifs
b. Metal Man
c. Quick Man
d. Dr. Wily 1
6) The Megas
a. I Want to be the One
b. Air Man

Intro

OPENING

The Blue Bomber comes in for Round Two... I'm Kenley Kristofferson and this is Into the Score.

OPENING II

Hey everyone, happy January 17th of 2007, I'm Kenley and for episode 2 of Into the Score we look at the 1988 Capcom Classic Mega Man II.  I hope that everyone had a stellar two weeks since the debut of the podcast and that everyone is psyched about the music of this classic masterpiece.  Before we tackle this episode, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that the feed of the podcast has changed.  I put a change-of-feed tag in the feed document, so iTunes should pick it up, but in the event that something is crazy (which it might be, then the address of the new tag is itpc://www.geocities.com/intothescore/podcast/rss.xml, so one more time, that's itpc://www.geocities.com/intothescore/podcast/rss.xml.  Yes, the site has moved webservers, but you'll still be able to type in www.songofthefates.com and come to the Into the Score site.  Speaking of SOTF, I now have a less confusing email address if anyone wants to send a note and it is simply Kenley@songofthefates.com, so that's k-e-n-l-e-y AT song of the fates, one word, DOT com.

Okay, so for today's episode, we're going to look at Capcom's Mega Man 2, first taking a look at the state of the union before and after Mega Man was released, then talk about why it was so cutting edge, then leading into the study of character themes of leitmotifs and how they factor into the game.  After that, we'll listen and analyze some music from it and then, are you ready... ladies and gentlemen, we have guests! The Megas are coming to the show! Yeah!! 

Okay, too pumped, let's get this started!

When we're looking at a game, I think that it's really crucial to understand where gaming was the time that it was released.  In 1988, the NES was really starting to pick up steam and there were more and more independent companies starting to sign on to this console.  By the time Japan Capsule Computers, or CAPCOM signed on to NES, they had been working in the arcade business for almost 10 years with its most notable titles being the war-era aerial shooter 1942 and the combat game Street Fighter.  In 1987, designer Keiji Inafune designed the platform shooter (meaning, side-scrolling shooting game) Rock Man and Capcom released the game for NES in Japan.  When released in North America, however, Rock Man was renamed to Mega Man, and here we are today.

Now, while the game began several traditions and conventions in the series, the game really didn't sell that well; in fact, most players and developers thought that this would be the last that we would see of Mega Man.  Thankfully, they were wrong.

Later that year (on Christmas Eve, to be exact), Mega Man 2 was released for the NES.  This one seemed different than the first - no points to be gathered, there were eight robot bosses now instead of six and there were passwords! Yeah! Now you didn't have to beat the game in one sitting! Always a good idea.

Let's talk about the story from Mega Man II, well... maybe not "story", more like backstory, as "story" was never really a big deal in the Mega Mans, as the gameplay was ALWAYS the same, some levels were just better than others!

Let's start with the first Mega Man.  The year is 20XX and humans and robots live in harmony, side by side.  Dr. Thomas Light, a scientist and creator creates two robots, a male and a female with the very classy names of Rock and Roll.  Other robots were created too, as Dr. Light was quite the scientist.  Dr. Light's creations made another scientist quite jealous, the maniacal Dr, Albert Wily and he stole and reprogrammed eight of Dr. Light's creations, but leaving Rock and Roll, perhaps they weren't quite fierce enough.  These eight reprogrammed robots were just the first of what was to be Dr. Wily's robust conquering army, making him the complete and supreme ruler of the world.  But then, Rock volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot and thus, Mega Man was born.  He defeated the robots and though he defeated Dr. Wily, the evil scientist still escaped.  

And that brings us to Mega Man II.  Dr. Wily had built a new fortress and now had eight robot masters, this time of his own creation! Furious and vengeful, the scientist immediately sent them after Mega Man and the blue bomber was back in action.

Cutting Edge
=============

Each robot master was created by one person, as opposed to the tradition of one or two artists creating everything and everyone in the game.  Musically, this made things a lot more exciting too because each character got his own theme, no generic level music for Mega Man - this brings us into our little pedagogical moment of the episode - leitmotifs.

It's really important to me that I try and teach something each episode of the podcast to enrich the musical appreciation of anyone who is listening and really make sure that the listeners get something out of this and my voice isn't just stealing away half an hour of your life here.  As I was saying, today we talk about leitmotifs.

The tradition of leitmotif or character-writing began in the early Romantic era of Western Music, so in the ball park of the beginning/middle of the 19th century.  It's hard to say who really started the trend, commonly, scholars will give the credit to a composer named Carl Maria von Weber, then perhaps Hector Berlioz.  Symphonie Fantastique was written by Hector Berlioz in 1830 and tells the story of a man that's empassioned with a woman from afar.  Going through a waltz and to a field to get his mind off of her, it always seems to come back and, not being able to handle the heartache of their distance, he poisons himself to get her out of his mind once and for all.  However, the lovestruck protagonist doesn't take quite enough poison and sends himself into a deep slumber, watching his own execution then being tortured and taunted by his love in the pits of Hell.  Man, good story.  Although there was no drama on the stage, the music itself told the story, and anytime Hector's love came into the picture, this theme would come in.  Berlioz called it an idŽe fixe, but it was one of the first leitmotifs in classical music, this is it from the first movement, Reveries, Passions.

(idŽe fixe)

This idea caught on the Romantic era, being used by Beethoven and Strauss, but really being solidified as a musical practice by Richard Wagner.

(Valkyries)

Okay, this is Ride of the Valkyries from Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.  It is a cycle of four operas, taking four nights to complete and over 26 years to compose.  Everything in the Romantic Era was very big, as you can tell - a four night opera? Too crazy for me, my friends (but so good!) Anyways! The opera is based on Germanic paganism and borrows much of its plot from Nordic myth, particularly the Volsungasaga, or the Saga of the Volsungs and the Germanic Nibelungenlied.  

In this massive cycle, Wagner appears to be going pretty crazy with themes, including the ring theme (which is also an idea included the current movie version of LOTR), Wotan's spear, Valhalla, nature's theme, the sword theme... the list goes on and on.

Where usually hear this leitmotif idea is from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in movies and Final Fantasy in video games.  Darth Vader's theme, the force theme, the Hobbit theme, Locke's Theme, Aeris's Theme... the music is written in such a way for us to develop an emotional connection with the character on a subconscious musical level.

That's what happens with Mega Man II - each character is different, with different levels, values and the developers want us to realize that. See how I tied that all together, right on? Though MM1 did it too, there is a very big difference between doing something and then doing something really, really well... Mega Man 2 has a great score.   

As every robot master ends in "man", let's have a listen to Metal Man's Theme, by our Three Musketeers Ogretsu Kun, Manami Ietel and Yuukichan's Papa! 

(Metal Man)

Okay, so we break it apart into three 8-bar sections, we'll call them sections A, B and C.  These three sections repeat over and over again, forming what is called a loop.  The musical pieces in almost ALL video games for NES (and other systems as well) are composed as to loop endlessly without the realization of the player to ensure a seamless environment within the game, no breaks in the picture or the music - by having the music loop in the background, everything in the game stays smooth and fluent.  

The "A" section acts as the intro, introducing the themes and establishing the groove through a repeating pattern in the drums (using static noise, as we remember from the last episode) and the repeating theme in the second channel square wave part - together, these make a looping pattern called an ostinato, which we'll be looking at in the next few episodes.  The repeating ostinato is one of the defining elements of game music, but I won't burden this episode that, that boat gets its own sea to sail!

Just to refresh, NES music uses four channels of audio - usually two square waves at the top, a triangular wave pattern for the bass and a static channel for the drums.  The drums and second square channel sound like this:

(example).

I did not include the bass in the ostinato, as the bass changes in the next part.  The bass parts are a very important part of the Mega Man 2 soundtrack because they are SO involved, syncopated and decorated that they are really a musical accomplishment for the time, check out this bass part...

(bass part)

Now, that leaves the melody! 

(melody)

And when we put them altogether...

(A section)

Okay, so that makes the A Section.  The B section in common practice music involves a theme that is meant to differentiate between the A section and the section that follows it.  The B section is usually defined by a change in melody, harmony or texture (i.e., orchestration).  In this case, it's a change in melody, let's have a listen.

(B Section)

Like we said before, the B section makes the piece more interesting.  Another service that B section provides, at least when there are 3 sections, is that it links the first section and the last section, we'll talk about the importance in the last section in just a bit.

Let's just focus on the second channel, the one that was repeating the theme in the A section.

(B section, 2nd channel)

The first two bars of the section play the motive from the A section, then in the next two bars, it changes to harmonize the melody; then those four bars are repeated, listen again.

(B section, 2nd channel)

Now, to hear how it sounds with just the melody, so that we can put the 3rd-4th bars and 7th-8th  ones into context as they harmonize what the melody is doing.

(B section, 1st and 2nd channel).

Okay, now that leads to the C section.  In game music, most final sections of a loop serve kind of like a big cadence to bring us back to the first section, creating a single, looping piece of music.  Here's the C section.

(C section)

Listen into the second channel, now it's not playing the (doodle-doot-doot) motive at all, it's entirely harmonized with the melody.  The composers do this for a reason, because our ear wants to hear it play the melody in this infectious Metal-Man-esque groove, but it doesn't, it's like it's kind of harmonically dissonant to us - we want it to go back to the start, well let me tell you, the music wants it to do that too!

It creates a neat little bridge with that second channel part.  In the A section, it plays the same thing repeating for 8 bars; in the B section, it plays 2 bars on then 2 bars off, 2 on, 2 off, then in the C section, it doesn't play it at all.

Also, let's look at the harmony of the C section - IV chord (in the key, the root of the chord is on the fourth note), I chord, IV chord, V chord... now the same thing, IV chord, I chord, IV chord and V chord! Do you hear how the V chord feels like it wants to go back to the I chord - this is one way that composers use harmony to create the feeling of the music wanting to go back to the start of the loop!

Alright, so now let's hear the loop, paying particular attention to how the C section wants to go back to the A section! Remember, 24 bars long... and go!

(Metal Man loop).  
The next one we're going to hear is one of the most remixed songs in all of Mega Man history... probably because it's awesome.  It's the first level of Dr. Wily's levels, after you beat all of the robot masters.