For the task of Exploring as a Performer, I chose the “World Ending Theme” from Super Mario World. This song falls under local context and the AOI 2: music for listening and performing. My relationship to this song prior to the project was limited, as I have never played Super Mario world. Yet, this has a local context because I enjoy listening to video game music in general. Furthermore, this piece falls into AOI 2 because I adapted this song to a rag-time genre, which is traditionally a performance-based convention. My initial brainstorming ideas included emphasizing the rag-time-like sound with a ‘jumping’ left-hand figure and an accentuation of the swing rhythm. I focused on maintaining the general structure and ‘feel’ of the harmony throughout; the major changes I made were in voicing chord extensions and voice-leading With these core ideas in mind, I set out to research rag-time conventions with which I had no experience. One interesting thing I encountered was the influence of Black Americans on popularising rag-time, especially in the realm of American pop music. One composer I focused primarily on was Scott Joplin. After listening to his style, I felt I had a strong foundation. Some techniques I tried to implement were the emphasis on the bass note on beats 1 and 3 with the chords played typically higher on beats 2 and 4, and the syncopated ‘swing’ melody. Some less prevalent conventions that provided a ‘ragtime-like’ feel were the interplay between the b3rd and 3rd note diatonically and the use of altered dominant chords.

For the first week, it was helpful to explicitly write out the melody so I could understand the swing rhythm. After this, the main portion of my adaptation was practicing the muscle memory for the jumps in the left-hand. Despite my experience with piano, I had not encountered many sections that had large jumps throughout. This also took time because I intentionally challenged myself with the intervals and the spacing. Using advanced conventions, I voiced the bass notes on beats 1 & 3 using octaves and the chords on beats 2 & 4 with a mix of inverted three and four-note chords. For these reasons, it was initially difficult to play both the RH and LH together. Another idea I developed during this time was tightening the voice leading by altering the chord extensions. One example of this was the ending 2-5-1 cadence that I spiced up by playing playing an Fmaj7 over D (Dm9), a F A# B Eb over G (Galt), and resolving to a Cmaj(6/9). Here for instance, the upper voice walks down two semitones from E to Eb to D throughout this cadence. In the original song, there is a frequent use of the ‘mario chord:’ an augmented dominant chord. I also worked extensively to include this within my arrangement and to use the augmented 5th in my voice leading.

As I progressed, the song became much easier and more enjoyable to play. Recording the performance was not terribly difficult; it only took around five takes. It also took a slight amount of work to set up the stereo microphone setup and to tweak my adjustments to the sound. Overall, from this assessment I have learned that my piano abilities are able to adapt to novel styles and situations, since I was able to perform in ragtime despite my inexperience. I really enjoyed exploring past the realms of classical music, wherein I have focused primarily on techniques like arpeggios and finger dexterity.