Transcription of "The Moon" from DuckTales[source]

xml
<glacius:metadata>
    <title>Transcription of "The Moon" from DuckTales</title>
    <description>
        I transcribed the famous theme from "The Moon" from the NES game DuckTales
    </description>
    <category>Music</category>
    <category>Music transcription</category>
    <category>Video games</category>
    <series order="11">2022 music project</series>
</glacius:metadata>
<p>
    <a href="https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Stage_Theme"><em>The Moon</em></a>
    is in the pantheon of great video game music. Even though
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales_(video_game)"><em>DuckTales</em></a>
    was a pretty decent game for the NES, it's nothing spectacular, and as such,
    this song was a kind of a sleeper hit. Unlike, say, <em>Castlevania</em>, which was a
    famous game with a bunch of great music, <em>DuckTales</em> doesn't have the "amazing
    game with amazing music" appellation; it's merely a "pretty good game
    with this one incredible piece of music".
</p>
<h2>Gameplay</h2>
<glacius:figure 
    glacius:src="ducktales-gameplay-faded.mp4" 
    glacius:thumbnail="ducktales-gameplay-poster.jpeg" 
    type="video">
    <caption>Gameplay of <em>DuckTales</em> for the NES</caption>
</glacius:figure>
<h2>Odd meter of the intro</h2>
<p>
    Anyway, this song has been covered to death. However, transcriptions were
    not incredibly abundant, and the the little arpeggiated riff at the beginning
    has some weird timing that nobody ever seemed to get right. This weirdness
    is rectified later in the song by adding a <span style="color: #66cc66">C&#x266f;</span>
    to make it an even 16 eighth notes.
</p>
<glacius:grid cols="2">
    <div>
        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-15-8.png" type="image">
            <caption>The correct transcription of the intro from <em>The Moon</em></caption>
        </glacius:figure>
    </div>
    <div>
        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-verse-4-4.png" type="image">
            <caption>Slightly altered intro riff played later in the song</caption>
        </glacius:figure>
    </div>
</glacius:grid>
<p>
    I listened to this tune pretty painstakingly, and I am supremely confident
    that my transcription with the weird 15/8 meter is correct and almost
    everyone else is wrong. Most covers and transcriptions of this song eschew
    the annoying 15/8 meter and just play it more naturally in 4/4 by adding
    either an F&#x266f; or a C&#x266f; as the first note, as seen below (or, in
    other cases, they play all the same notes but not in the correct order, as it
    mostly sounds the same):
</p>
<glacius:grid cols="2">
    <div>
        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-wrong.png" type="image">
            <caption>A prepended C&#x266f; makes this more natural to play for humans</caption>
        </glacius:figure>
    </div>
    <div>
        <glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-intro-wrong-with-f.png" type="image">
            <caption>Or, alternatively, prepending an F&#x266f;</caption>
        </glacius:figure>
    </div>
</glacius:grid>
<h2><em>The Moon</em> Transcription</h2>
<p>
    Music from <em>DuckTales</em> was composed by 
    <a href="https://capcom.fandom.com/wiki/Hiroshige_Tonomura">Hiroshige Tonomura</a>, except
    for the iconic theme song (written by Mark Mueller, arranged for the game by Tonomura).
</p>
<glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-nes-moon.ogg" type="audio">
    <caption>Theme from <em>The Moon</em> from DuckTales, composed by Hiroshige Tonomura</caption>
</glacius:figure>
<glacius:figure glacius:src="ducktales-moon-transcription-sample.png" type="image">
    <caption>Sample transcription of <em>The Moon</em> by Hiroshige Tonomura</caption>
</glacius:figure>
<h3>Downloads</h3>
<ul>
    <li><glacius:link file="11-ducktales-moon-theme.pdf">Transcription (pdf)</glacius:link></li>
    <li><glacius:link file="11-ducktales-moon-theme.ly">Lilypond source</glacius:link></li>
</ul>
<h2>Other versions</h2>
<p>
    As I mentioned, this song has been covered/arranged to death. Here are some of my
    favorites in order of how great I think they are:
</p>
<ol>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4NDgUnl1nY">GaMetal's metal remix</a> -
        and yes, he even gets the meter right during the intro!
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhy2aNEPshw">Smooth McGroove's multipart 
        a cappella</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-OUB5_L4zA">MassiveCarCrash's remix</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiH1TudsXs">erock's <em>Moon Theme Meets
        Metal</em></a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqzu3GmFi4">Tom Winter's acoustic guitar
        arrangement</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPy_AHIIkZY">8-bit Big Band's orchestral
        arrangement</a> - befitting an orchestra, they also got the intro meter right.
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUAkeNa8maU">Dr. Unknown's smooth jazz cover</a>
    </li>
</ol>
<p>
    This is a miniscule selection, there are many more on YouTube and around the Internet.
</p>