Koji Kondo

Koji Kondo
Koji Kondo in 2006
Background information
Born	August 13, 1960 (1960-08-13) (age 49) Nagoya, Japan
Occupations	Composer, sound director
Instruments	Piano, electronic organ
Years active	1983–present
Associated acts	Shigeru Miyamoto

Koji Kondo (近藤 浩治, Kondō Kōji^?, born August 13, 1960) is a Japanese video game composer and sound director who has been employed at Nintendo since 1984. He is best known for scoring numerous titles in the Mario and The Legend of Zelda series.

Biography

Early life

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Koji Kondo began taking lessons in the electronic organ from the age of five. He improved his skills in the instrument in a cover band that played jazz and rock music.^[1] Kondo studied at the Art Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts,^[2] but was never classically-trained or particularly dedicated to music. However, he gained some experience in composing and arranging pieces, using both the piano and a computer to assist him. During his senior year, Nintendo sent a recruitment message to his university stating that they were interested in hiring people dedicated to composition and sound programming. An LCD and arcade gamer, Kondo successfully applied for the job in 1984 without requiring any demo tapes.^[1]

Career

Kondo was the first person hired by Nintendo for the purpose of creating compositions, and was to play an integral role in making the company's games and music recognizable worldwide. The first games he scored were the arcade games Vs. Golf and Punch-Out!!. Despite creating very little music, he was able to overcome the challenges of sound design. As the Famicom had become highly popular in Japan, Kondo was assigned to compose music for the console's subsequent games at Nintendo's new development team, Nintendo EAD. Kondo also wrote an instruction manual on how to program Japanese popular music into the Famicom using the peripheral Family BASIC. To conclude his first year at Nintendo, he created the music to Devil World alongside Akito Nakatsuka.^[1]

In 1985, Nintendo started marketing the Famicom abroad under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to capitalize on the 1983 video game crash that devastated Atari, Inc.^[1] He composed the music for the hit releases Super Mario Bros. (1985)^[3] and The Legend of Zelda (1986)^[4] which helped the system to sell 60 million copies in total – more than any other console to date – and established some of the most well-known melodies in the video game industry.^[1]

Super Mario Bros., for many years the best-selling video game of all time, was Kondo's first major score. The game's melodies were created with the intention that short segments of music could be endlessly repeated during the same gameplay without causing boredom. The NES sound hardware was limited to four to five channels of audio at a time (Super Mario Bros. used four), and like other games, the timbre was designated as melody, harmony, bass, and percussion. Kondo's soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. gained worldwide recognition, and is to this day the most well-known video game score. The main theme is iconic in popular culture and has been featured in over 50 concerts,^[1] been a best-selling ringtone,^[5] and been remixed or sampled by various musicians.^[1]

Kondo's work on The Legend of Zelda scores has also become highly recognized. He produced four main pieces of background music for the first installment of the series; the overworld theme has become comparable in popularity with the Super Mario Bros. main theme. Following the success of The Legend of Zelda, he explored his stylistic diversity further on two Japanese-exclusive titles, Nazo no Murasamejō (1986) and Shin Onigashima (1987). He also created the soundtrack for Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (1987),^[1] which was later rebranded outside of Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).^[6][7]

Concerts

Kondo attended the world-premiere of Play! A Video Game Symphony at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, Illinois in May 2006. His music from the Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series was performed by a full symphony orchestra. This event drew nearly four thousand attendees.

Musical style and influences

Not unknown in the musical community, Kondo can count talent such as Paul McCartney and alternative rock band The Zou ^[8] among his admirers.^[9] "Super Mario Bros. theme" has been on Billboard Magazine's Hot Ringtones chart for over 226 weeks as of February 13, 2009, where it also hit #1.^[10]

He cites rock bands Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and musical genres latin music and classical music as major musical influences.^[11]

Discography

Video games

Arrangement

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

References

External links

• Koji Kondo at the Internet Movie Database
• Game | Life Video Games Live 2007 Interview
• Advanced Media Network Video Games Live 2007 Interview
• IGN GDC 2007 Interview
• Interview with Music4Games
• Kelly, Piaras (26 March 2004). ""Inside Nintendo: Koji Kondo"". Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20071014070040/http://gamerseurope.com/articles/486. . Accessed 17 February 2006.
• MacDonalad, Mark (3 May 2006). "Koji Kondo Interview, Part 1". 1UP.com. Accessed 17 February 2006.
• Van Zelfden, N. Evan (30 May 2006). "Play! kicks off world tour in Chicago. Gamespot.com. Accessed 17 June 2006.