Midweek Music Box: Forest Maze Music (Super Mario RPG)

Time to get the lead out...or rather, then metal.

Now where to?

Getting lost in story comes with the territory when your a writer for a living, so it's no surprise that one of my all time favorite soundtracks comes in the form of the Forest Maze Music from Super Mario RPG.  There's so much great music in this game, maybe later I'll talk about some of the other fantastic tunes (like the game intro music, so upbeat and adventurous sounding).  For now though, it's time to get a little lost in the woods.  Here's one of my favorite loops, which clocks in around 15 minutes:

Trust me, it goes by fast.

I remember when I played the game this was by far one of the catchier tunes and it kept me humming for days afterwards.  Nowadays, I use it as one of the many songs in my writing repertoire.  Now of course since I use this music to do everything from regular writing to creative writing, there are some things for me that this evokes other than just the Forest Maze. It really breaks down in three different ways.  

Some sections make me think of a troupe of people like something out of carnival.  At times I can just as much imagine a person juggling balls, a strong man lifting weights, or even magic tricks being performed as much as I can picture Mario meandering the the Forest Maze.  This happy, whimsical tune also reminds me of the section in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker where you "sample" different flavors of music from Russian to Chinese to Arabian.  Lastly, I guess I'm also reminded of that section in Disney's Fantasia where the little mushrooms are dancing around.  Imagine that, a Super Mario Bros song that reminds me of mushrooms. (Go figure, right?)

One final note, this music is what it is and it has a mysterious quality to it meant to help heighten the sense of searching for the magical puppet Geno.  Ultimately, it works really well for the game and for me personally as I tune that I never tire of.  If you need to help pass the time in a plodding, but pleasant way, a loop of the Forest Maze Music could be useful.  You hardly notice when it loops because you'll likely find yourself just going along as well, much like Mario searching the woods for something that's he not quite sure what it is, but knows he needs to find.