Big project announcement time! I've been working on finishing up the rest of the Tetris (GB) tracks that are missing from the main site, which mostly include some fanfares and lesser-known multiplayer tracks. The arrangements themselves are mostly done but I'm still working on formatting the medleys and confirming song titles (mainly the 2-player tracks, since I have to wait for a friend with a Gameboy and Tetris to come test those ones with me). I've learned some interesting facts about this soundtrack while working on this, though, which I'll elaborate on below. (I'll also put the videos for the last two sheets in spoilers since there are multiple per arrangement and this post is already going to be lengthy.)
Tetris (GB) - 2 Player Danger (Toréador Song)[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]This is an arrangement of
Toréador Song from Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen. It plays during 2-player matches when the blocks get close to the top of the screen. This arrangement of it incredibly fast compared to the original, which suits the way it's used in-game but it would definitely be a challenge to play it at tempo on piano.
Tetris (GB) - 2 Player Final Results[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]This plays on the result screen when one of the 2 players wins the best of 5 series, not to be confused with "2 Player Match Results" which plays on the results screen between matches. It also bears a passing resemblance to the guitar intro to the Guns N' Roses song,
Sweet Child O' Mine, but I doubt the two are actually related in any way.
Tetris (GB) - B-Type Fanfares (Trepak Variations)[MUSX] [MUS] [PDF] [MIDI]These six tracks have a really interesting story behind them. They're all variations on a theme from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet, specifically from the
Trepak character dance. They play when the player beats the B-type game mode on speed level 9, with increasing complexity depending on the height level selected (0-5). However, every OST rip and wiki I could find listed five variations, the first four for levels 0-3 and the last one being used for both height levels 4 and 5, with a
sixth variation labelled "unused" that only had one voice. This sixth variation was distinct from the first variation, which also only has one voice, but it was longer than the first four variations and shorter than the fifth so it didn't fit into the scale of increasing complexity. This intrigued me enough that I got out my Gameboy and Tetris and beat all of the level 9 B-type levels to see what was going on, and what I discovered was that this track was actually a unique variation for height level 4 with some of the voices missing. I was able to track down gameplay from an emulator that supports what I confirmed on actual hardware, which is linked in the spoiler (it's the only one with a different thumbnail). It's fascinating to me that almost everywhere I looked said the same thing about this track being unused when the real problem was that it's an incomplete rip. I also wonder whether all of these incorrect sources originated from the same rip, or if there's something weird about the game files that has resulted in multiple incomplete rips of that track in particular.
Originals
Level 9 High 0
Level 9 High 1
Level 9 High 2
Level 9 High 3
Level 9 High 4
Level 9 High 5
This set of 3 jingles wraps up the last of the Tetris tracks. The first one, "Game Over", plays whenever a player tops out in any mode. The second, "Success!", plays when a level is cleared in the B-type game mode (and potentially a few other places as well). The third and final track, "2 Player Match Results" plays on the results screen between matches in multiplayer mode (also not to be confused with "2 Player Final Results", which plays at the end of the entire best of 5 series of matches). The interesting track here is the second track, "Success!", which is listed on the VGMPF wiki as being based on the fanfare "Charge!", commonly played at sporting events and used in many
other games as well (and is therefore attributed to the composer of that fanfare, Tommy Walker, on that wiki's page for Tetris). Comparing the Tetris fanfare to the "Charge!" fanfare, however, reveals many differences between them - the Tetris fanfare is missing the characteristic three-note arpeggiated pickup, instead being two repeated notes; the interval between the two main melody notes is a perfect fourth rather than the minor third of the original fanfare; and the melody ends on the root of the major key while the "Charge!" fanfare ends on the fifth of the major key. Therefore, I believe this is a mistaken attribution and the Tetris fanfare is original to the game (or else is so generic as to not be worth attributing to anyone in particular).
Originals
Game Over
Success!
2 Player Match Results
Well that's it! This was a fascinating project and I'm looking forward to submitting these in the future. I hope someone else finds some of my research on this topic interesting as well!
