Blip, Bloop, Bach? Some Uses of Classical Music on the Nintendo Entertainment System

Abstract

Focusing on Captain Comic, Pirates! and Tetris, the writer discusses the use of preexisting classical music in the soundtracks of video games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The adventure game Captain Comic represents the apparently arbitrary use of classical music, where it serves only as a backdrop. There is a more targeted use of classical music in Pirates! with tunes becoming important mainly for their semiotic value, suggesting, for example, the game's historical focus. The use of “shorthand” connections remains, however, somewhat unsatisfactory, mostly due to historical inaccuracy in a game that otherwise strives for at least the outward appearance of verisimilitude. Tetris shows how music can operate in concert with other aspects of a game in order to convey a complex and subtle message. Apart from the actual use of folk tunes, the presence of borrowed music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker in the Nintendo version of Tetris offers a reminder of the impressive artistic achievements of the composer's homeland, and lends a feeling of “Russianness” to the game's action.