Koji Kondo :: Biography

Note: This biography was written exclusively for Square Enix Music Online by Chris. The act of using it without advance written permission is regarded as a copyright infringement. It was last updated on August 11, 2007.

Born on August 13, 1961 in Nagoya, Japan, Koji Kondo is an iconic figure widely known for his soundtracks to Nintendo's Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda franchises. The backbone to Koji Kondo's musicality came from taking lessons in the Electone organ from the age of five. Having pursued the instrument into his teens, he improved his skills in a cover band that played jazz and rock music — mainly the songs of Deep Purple and progressive rock group Emerson, Lake, and Palmer — though he chose not to grow his hair like his fellow band members, always mesmerised by the music rather than the image. At university, Kondo studied the arts in general, but was never, contrary to popular belief, trained classically or particularly dedicated to music. Nonetheless, he gained some experience composing and arranging pieces, using both the piano and a computer to assist him. During his senior year, Nintendo sent a recruitment message to Kondo's university stating that they were interested in employing people dedicated to composition and sound programming. As an LCD and Arcade gamer, Kondo relished the opportunity to compose for video games and, in a 'lucky break', successfully applied for the job in 1984 without requiring any demo tapes. He composed his first scores, Golf, Punch Out, and Devil World, soon after, gaining some experience in the field of sound programming in the process. As the first person hired by Nintendo for the specialised purpose of creating compositions, Kondo was to play an integral role making the company's games and music globally recognisable. Having been rescued from oblivion by Shigeru Miyamoto's 1981 Arcade hit Donkey Kong, Nintendo released its first console, 1983's Famicom, which became highly popular in Japan a year later Nintendo looked to monopolise on America's 1983 and 1984 video games crash that devastated the Atari; in 1985, Nintendo begun marketing the Famicom overseas under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System. The hit releases Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda helped the console to sell 60 million copies in total — more than any other console to date — and, in the process, established the game industry's most well-known melodies.

The best-selling video game of all time, 1985's Super Mario Bros., was Koji Kondo's first major score. The four minute soundtrack was created so that short segments of music could be endlessly repeated during the same gameplay without causing boredom. As a result of the massive limitations of the NES console, its score could only feature three channels of music at one time, designated to melody, harmony, and percussion. However, this did not limit Kondo, who could still disguise repetition through employment of unforgettable melodies. His melodic flair proved so strong that the soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. is, even to this day, unparalleled in terms of its worldwide recognition as a video game score. Its Latin-influenced overworld / main theme, minimalistic underworld motif, carousel-like underwater music, and various fanfares are all instantly recognisable to Mario fans and have been incorporated into dozens of games since. The so-called Super Mario main theme is iconic in popular culture in general; it reached Number One on Billboard magazine's Hot Ringtones chart in spring 2006, has featured in over 50 symphonic concerts, and has been remixed or sampled by various bands, several popular artists, and hundreds of amateur arrangers. Given non-gamers often consider the theme to be a prime example of video game music in general, many blame Koji Kondo for helping to establish the stigma of video game music as musically superficial and unworthy of stand-alone listening. Still, it is to Kondo's credit that the score to Super Mario Bros. did so much out of very little — it complemented the game, helped to characterise the fun nature of the Super Mario series and Nintendo's games in general, and became hummed and whistled by millions — even the McCartneys. Having been established as Nintendo's main composer after the success of Super Mario Bros., Kondo provided the larger and more ambitious scores to its most significant sequels, 1988's popular and critically acclaimed Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Nintendo's first title, 1990's Super Mario World. Super Mario Bros. 3 featured diverse themes to represent the game's eight worlds, several catchy new overworld themes, arrangements of old classics, and more serious efforts to represent fortresses and Koopa, though not at the loss of melodic flair or a sense of fun and action. Super Mario World was unique in that the majority of its level themes were creative arrangements of the same melody. Kondo's trademark themes were also used, without credit, in the TV shows and 1993 film dedicated to Super Mario Bros.

Kondo's music has also been a defining component of The Legend of Zelda series. The first game in the series, released on the Famicom Disk System in 1986, was difficult and time-consuming to score given gallant music had to be created using a small number of sounds. The game's title theme was written in one exhausting evening towards the end of the project after the unfortunate revelation that the music originally intended for this purpose, an interpretation of Ravel's Bolero, remained under copyright. The result not only provided the prime example of the more mature style of the Zelda franchise, but became comparable in popularity with the Super Mario main theme, at least with Zelda gamers; it formed the basis of the overworld music for most subsequent Zelda titles and has featured in various albums, concerts, and fan arrangements. Though too busy with Super Mario games to score The Adventure of Link and Link's Awakening, Kondo has otherwise remained faithful to the Zelda franchise, having subsequently worked on 1991's A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. This game developed Kondo's fluid relationship with the designer of the Mario and Zelda series and head of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, Shigeru Miyamoto. Kondo depends on the visual inspiration of Miyamoto to accurately portray each setting, but only asks for feedback after completing compositions, giving him freedom, autonomy, and, where necessary, criticism. This has allowed Kondo to overcome the constant challenge of creating music to reflect the Zelda series' environments. Though the location of A Link to the Past was influenced by European settings, it was nonetheless alien to everybody — geographically diverse, split into two parallel worlds, and dominated by dark dungeons, mystical caves, and a grandiose castle. Kondo actively researched a wide range of musical styles in order to represent the game's diverse and unfamiliar environments; he integrated and often combined various genres into the score's compositions while exposing amazing melodies, including the Hyrule Castle, Kakariko Village, Zelda, Ganondorf, Fairy, and Master Sword themes that have featured in the series' subsequent titles.

The stylistic diversity of Koji Kondo's Nintendo 64 scores provide the most impressive symbol of his musicianship. The console's first game, 1996's Super Mario 64, featured a highly imaginative score influenced by numerous cultures. It incorporated lively brass-led jazz (Bom-omb Battlefield), watery synth chillout (Dire, Dire Docks), Indian-influenced polyrhythms (Lethal Lava Land), vocal-dominated ambience (Big Boo's Haunt), heavy metal (Koopa's Theme), Baroque organ counterpoint (final boss theme), unlikely percussion-dominated renditions of the Super Mario Bros. main theme and underworld themes, and a whimsical but regal orchestral castle theme. Subsequently, Kondo had a brief flirtation with another major Miyamoto franchise, creating the score for Star Fox 64 with Hajime Wakai. It is a unique addition to Kondo's discography — pseudo-orchestral, often serious and dramatic, and influenced by Hollywood science-fiction scores. Kondo's most ambitious solo work was 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack. A significant challenge was the demand to express styles, moods, leitmotifs, and cultural references in a way that reflected the unity and diversity of Hyrule. Locations, dungeons, individuals, and races were far more individually characterised and elaborately presented relative to A Link to the Past and thus it was necessary for Kondo expressed great stylistic versatility, innovation, and individuality while providing a fantastical and adventurous overall sound. The score was carefully integrated into the game; the overworld theme, for example, was varied according to time of day, Link's motion, and whether an enemy was approaching, while Kondo's unforgettable ocarina melodies and orchestrations were prominently integrated into the gameplay and storyline. The score to Ocarina of Time's sequel, 2000's Majora's Mask, brought a Chinese-operatic influence to reflect a malevolent mask's impact on a parallel world to Hyrule; though arguably Kondo's darkest and strangest work, it was largely musically continuous with its predecessor and directly ported over several dozen often trivial compositions.

Since Majora's Mask, Kondo has contributed relatively few new compositions to Nintendo's games, but has continued to take a fundamental role in the company. He leads the large and ever-growing resident sound team at Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development's headquarters at Kyoto; his team is responsible for the composition, sound effects, and sound programming for the various Super Mario, Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion, Zelda, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, and Nintendogs titles, among others. Its current members — Kazumi Totaka, Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Shinobu Tanaka, Asuka Ota, and Ryo Nagamatsu — were hired by Kondo with the intention of enhancing the productivity, quality, and versatility of Nintendo's sound production. However, the team largely preserves the characteristics that made Mario and Zelda's scores endearing to millions: melodic focus, a light-hearted and refreshing vibe, and diverse and original compositions. Though Kondo takes a small supervisory role in most productions, he has directed and composed with the team responsible for the latest Super Mario and Zelda titles. Kondo and Tanaka's Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack was unique for its inception of a tropical feel through big band and calypso works, though was similar in musicianship to other Mario soundtracks and featured some 'retro' compositions. Zelda's The Wind Waker offered fresh-sounding nautical compositions, Irish folk music, subtle arrangements of past Zelda themes, and relatively mature cinematic pieces from Nagata, Wakai, Minegishi, and Kondo, while Twilight Princess's giant soundtrack by Minegishi, Ota, and Kondo offered an Eastern European flavour, plenty of percussive compositions, and two full-orchestral works. On 2007's Super Mario Galaxy, Kondo firmly encouraged Mahito Yokoda at EAD's Tokyo branch to create vibrant symphonic compositions while contributing four compositions of his own. Kondo also advocated two Nintendo-only concerts recently. 2002's Smashing... Live featured symphonic arrangements of a variety of Nintendo music performed by the New Japan Philharmonic while 2003's Mario & Zelda Big Band Live was dominated by live jazz, Latin, country, and bluegrass performances of his music and included performances and announcements from Kondo. Kondo's music also featured at the Orchestral Game Concert series, Press Start -Symphony of the Games-, Video Games Live, and PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, which Kondo endorsed by performing his main theme for New Super Mario Bros. at its Chicago premiere.

Kondo is an iconic figure with hidden depth. He has composed for all the launch titles for Nintendo's five consoles, created the two most famous video game melodies of all time, and provided the characteristic sounds that not only defined the Zelda and Mario series, but, to a certain extent, Nintendo, its consoles, and video games in general. The number of games, albums, compilations, and concerts featuring his Mario and Zelda works reflects his massive legacy and he remains the only video game composer to ever significantly affect popular culture. While largely known as a two franchise composer, he has influenced the scores to numerous other video games, particularly those made by Nintendo EAD, and has works like Devil World, Shin Onigashima, Nazo no Murasame Jo, the Famicom Sports series, Doki Doki Panic (known as Super Mario Bros. 2 overseas), Pilotwings, and Star Fox 64 also to his name. Though he is unlikely to go down in history as an exceptionally emotionally expressive or theoretically competent composer, his diverse and refined works on behalf of the Nintendo 64 contradict criticisms that his musicianship is superficial and his emphasis on increasing interactivity of video games with Nintendo's music is also progressive. It's anticipated that Nintendo will dominate the console market for the foreseeable future after the highly successful launches of the Wii and DS. Given Nintendo EAD is focusing on developing games that enhance the interactivity and fun of gameplay, as opposed to enhanced graphics and realism like its competitors, it's clear that the elements that traditionally defined Nintendo's games will remain important. Kondo will ensure that one of these elements is the musical score, where his ability to empathise with audiences will allow him to entice gamers, his understanding of Miyamoto's works will help him represent the fun and action in various games, and his inspiring leadership and past examples will inspire his talented team to do the same. Kondo remains an ambitious musician. He dreams, for instance, that the next Zelda title will use live performances throughout, utilising a full 50-player orchestra to capture the big action scenes and an intimate string quartet for more lyrical moments. He is known to be contributing to Wii Music Orchestra in the meantime. Kondo is far from a relic of the past; his position as head of Nintendo EAD's sound team and one of Shigeru Miyamoto's most trusted employees ensures his future is extremely bright.