Hi there.
I’d like to share something that I’m a bit enamoured with.
Listen closely to this song from Kirby’s Dream Land 3.
(Jun Ishikawa - Ripple Field 1 (Kirby's Dream Land 3))
It has 4 main elements, for this section anyway.
The drums, which are fairly straightforward.
The bass, which is syncopated in a funky way.
The lead, which is very laid back.
And then arps, which are decently fast.
These would be quite a normal speed if they were just single notes, but instead they're
pairs of notes.
Basically chords. So you’re bombarded with a lot of high speed harmonic information.
This is Kirby music.
Oh wait, one more thing.
There’s this tendency in Kirby music to add these little
frills at the end of each bar of music.
Listen to this, for example.
(Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando - Meta Knight (Kirby's Kira Kira Kids))
This is Kirby music.
If you listen closely, it’s actually quite dense!
There’s a lot of stuff going on, but it works out because of the careful consideration of instrumentation
(on top of the already careful consideration for the arrangement).
You could compress this down to just a piano, I guess.
But it’d need some finessing to sound right.
(Ripple Field 1 but awkwardly played on a piano soundfont)
But, the thought is pretty intriguing!
What if someone arranged Kirby music for piano in a way that kept
the multilayered complexity intact,
or even expanded on it?
That’d be pretty wild, right?
Anyway, check out this piano song.
(Nikolai Kapustin - Eight Concert Etudes Op.40 - No.6: Pastoral)
This is Etude 6 from Kapustin’s Opus 40.
This dude sounds like a parody of Kirby music,
but on a piano.
Upbeat with a little bit of jazzy spice,
arps galore,
multiple layers providing tons of syncopation and forward momentum,
copious amounts of harmonic information at high speed,
and little flourishes at the end of bars.
Additionally: speed.
If this song was too slow for you, that’s understandable.
It was an etude titled “Pastoral”.
Try this one, titled “Prelude”
(Nikolai Kapustin - Eight Concert Etudes Op.40 - No.1: Prelude)
I find this delightful!
You could change the instrumentation and put it in a Kirby game
and Jun Ishikawa would simply nod approvingly.
And I’m not alone in this observation.
Red&Green made a delightful arrangement in SNES style.
(Red&Green - Op. 40 No. 1: Prelude (Ishikapustin))
I really wanted to include this in my last mix,
which I had conceptualized as
"Kirbymusic but more”,
but my desire to build on
Blitz Hyper Zone Lunar won out.
So here’s this video!
Admittedly, I haven’t fully explored Kapustin’s work,
but I keep finding bangers.
Opus 40 was my introduction and remains a
favorite, especially the two tunes I featured as examples here.
(Link to the full opus in the description.)
And if you want something with a little more timbral variety than piano,
check out staffcirc’s SWITCHED-ON KAPUSTIN, also in the description.
And ...that’s all for this video.
I just wanted to share these tunes, since I didn’t get a chance last time.
Subscribe if you want some more 16 bit showcases,
support the channel if you’re feeling generous,
and I’ll see you next mix!