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Inside The Score – Super Mario All-Stars – Ending Theme (SMB)

Wedding bells

Romance is in the air. Before credit themes were introduced into the series we had this little hymn for Princess Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom. A wedding march for when the plumber and the princess tie the knot at the end of the series—so never, since Peach works as the carrot(pasta) on the stick for Mario to rise into action).

It is the original theme of the princess and also the basis of the Peach’s Castle cue since it takes the opening phrase from here as its main motif to develop. The piece has the melody and flow of a standard. Sounds like a hymn that you would hear at weddings or Christmas; in fact it is very similar to the German folk carol “O Tannenbaum”

The cadences of the melodies are pretty much the same

Musical Analysis

It is basically a chordal melody in C Ionian/Major and a mini masterclass in part writing since it has voices always following and harmonizing the lead melody—the upper voice. Three in the NES original which makes for minor and major triads in open voicing, and the more powerful Super Nintendo with 5 voices all using the same synth string sample which allow for the Soyo Oka extended harmony that she likes, with major and minor seventh chords; plus there is also the music box sample that almost always finds its way into the score.

The original was pretty much the very last composition right when there was barely any memory left so the original cue of Koji Kondo which included a B part not only had to be removed but the piece also had to play way faster than its intended hymn tempo in order to fit on the NES cartridge. This B part and proper tempo as it was always intended was restored on the arcade game Vs Super Mario Bros. and on the Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels it added an extra part that transposes the A section to F. Being a game for the FDS also allowed an extra bell channel. For the All-Stars version, arranger Soyo restores the original intention for the Super Mario Bros. ending but does not include the transposed part.

In any case the piece certainly drives home the romantic relationship between Mario and Peach. And thus, like other platformer action heroes, he receives as a final reward a smooch of victory; simple endings for simpler times.

Here we got a deconstruction of all voice parts for both NES and SNES

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