PipeProject:Music/Musical theme articles

This page provides an overview of the general mechanics and organization of musical theme articles.

Terms

Musical theme and other articles on the wiki have adopted specific music terminology.

Terminology	Examples
Musical theme (or theme) A complete, large musical idea that may or may not recur as a whole in several musical works. "Theme" is synonymous, but "musical theme" prevents confusion with the usage of "theme" in other contexts, thus is preferred unless the context is unambiguous (see comments below). Motif A characteristic, short musical fragment that can reoccur or be expanded within a theme. See Wikipedia definition. Leitmotif A distinctive motif associated with a person, place, or other non-musical ideas that reoccurs in several related themes to evoke the idea. See Wikipedia definition.	"Wild Woods" is a musical theme. "Ground Theme" from New Super Mario Bros. is a recurring musical theme. The theme features a motif of a scalar walk upwards (initially in the form 3̂-4̂-5̂-6̂), which is repeated throughout the theme. "An Awfully Long Time Ago..." introduces a leitmotif that features a perfect 5th leap upwards. The leitmotif appears in other themes such as "Koops" and "Vivian."
Piece A musical work created for any purpose. Equivalent to "song" colloquially. Track A non-standalone musical piece that plays in a video game, movie, or other media. This sense is borrowed from "track" as in a recorded album entry. Use "track" over "piece" if applicable, especially in sound test or album pages. Song A piece that features lyrics to be sung, or a rhythm game track (where "song" is indeed the preferred term). Use "song" over "track" and "piece" if applicable.	"Le Galop infernal d'Orphée aux Enfers" is a piece. The Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World and Paper Mario: The Origami King renditions of "Invincibility BGM" are three tracks (also pieces) of the same theme. "Kong Bananza" and "Happy & Sappy" are songs (also tracks and pieces). "Yo-Ho, Bro!" and the Mario Day song are songs (also pieces, but not tracks). "Ms. Mowz's Song" from Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix is a song (also a track and a piece).
Composition A piece that establishes a musical theme. May or may not include leitmotifs that have already been established. Arrangement A new piece that uses an existing musical theme. Equivalent to "remix" colloquially. Remix A modification on a piece, such as by altering the pitch and by adding or re-recording certain parts. Same definition as discussed in the MarioWiki:Good writing article.	The Super Mario Bros., rendition of "Invincibility BGM" is a composition, while the Super Mario World and Paper Mario: The Origami King renditions are arrangements. The Mario Kart 8 rendition of "Donut Plains" is an arrangement on the theme from Super Mario Kart. The arrangement has 3 remixes that plays while frontrunning, during the final lap, and during the final lap while frontrunning (though only the non-final lap remixes are counted).

Names

If a person is credited under a previous name (such as Shinobu Nagata previously being credited as Shinobu Tanaka), then they should be listed with their current name in text, infoboxes, and appearances tables.

Sections

Infobox

Musical theme articles should start off with a {{theme infobox}}. It provides key information about the musical theme, such as its composer, genre, and first and latest appearances. It also provides links to other articles about related themes, including any arrangements and medleys incorporating the theme that have distinct lineages.

Most importantly, theme infoboxes provide audio samples and images. Audio samples are often better at encompassing the theme than any text could, and images give readers a connection from a musical theme to the game itself. When possible, images should be provided from Nintendo Music and captioned with "Image from Nintendo Music". If the soundtrack is not available on Nintendo Music, then a screenshot from the media can be used instead. Screenshots must be taken from moments in the game where the musical theme actually plays; simply showing an image of the location the theme plays in is not acceptable.

Overview

Generally, the first sentence of a musical theme should align with the following template:

"Wiki BGM", also known as "Wiki Theme", is a musical theme composed by Mahito Yokota for Super Mario Galaxy, where it plays in Super Mario Wiki areas.

If a specific composer is not known, the sentence might instead read:

"Wiki Page Minigame" is a musical theme in New Super Mario Bros., where it plays in Super Mario Wiki areas.

The overview should allow readers to understand the musical theme in general but should not provide a subjective analysis of what could be gleamed from listening to the audio sample. The overview can state any genres or characters that the theme might be associated with. If any instruments or instrument groups can be identified, then the theme's instrumentation can be specified, but the overview generally does not need to list every minor instrument used in its composition. For songs, vocalists in any language can be listed.

History

History sections are organized much like any other article's chronology. These sections provide a space for going in depth about musical themes as they appear or are modified for each appearance.

The section representing the first appearance of a theme should state, for example:

Super Mario Galaxy marks the first appearance of "Wiki BGM".

Arrangements can be described in a similar format to the musical theme's overview:

An arrangement of "Wiki BGM" titled "Dark Wiki BGM" plays in Super Mario Wiki areas after the Dark Mode Toggle has been activated.

Albums should be described alongside the media they represent; for example, Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack would be described under the Super Mario Galaxy section. Individual tracks from compilation albums should also be described alongside the source of the tracks, and care should be taken to ensure that the association is an accurate representation of the compilation album. Reissues of games should be covered in the same sections as their respective original releases, even if the reissue represents an entirely new soundtrack or expansion to the game.

As with the primary quote of the article, quotes may be used at the start of these sections to represent liner notes or other commentary about the appearances that are described in the section.

Once all relevant reuses, remixes, and arrangements have been specified, a media table can be used to provide audio samples. Audio samples of reuses do not need to be specified, even if they feature higher audio quality. Each track in the media table should feature the track's modern title as well as a description such as "The arrangement heard in Super Mario 3D World" or "The remix heard in Super Mario 3D World".

Certain types of appearances should be included under "Other appearances", including live performances such as concerts and special events, as well as album-exclusive arrangements and sheet music.

If an arrangement or quote has a dedicated article, then the article can be linked to using either the {{see also}} or {{main}} hatnote templates.

Gallery

The gallery section provides an overview of the images used to represent musical themes. These galleries generally are sorted by chronology. For example, images representing Super Mario Galaxy (released in 2007) should be placed before images representing Super Mario Odyssey (released in 2017). The infobox image should not be repeated in this gallery. The following images are good candidates for galleries:

• Nintendo Music track images, with the caption of the form "Image for "TRACK NAME" from SOUNDTRACK NAME on Nintendo Music".
  • Tracks without unique images, such as "SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD Theme", should be omitted.
  • For soundtracks with redirects on Nintendo Music that represent earlier versions of the game, such as Super Mario 3D World redirecting to Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, sort images by the earlier version's release date (2013) but list the soundtrack's primary name (Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury).
  • The first instance of "Nintendo Music" should be linked, and the first instance of each game's name should be linked.
  • Note that game names link to game articles as opposed to Nintendo Music soundtrack articles.

Appearances tables

Appearances tables provide a data-focused view of a musical theme's appearances. Up to five tables are included, in order: "Games", "Film and television", "Albums", "Live performances", and "Other media". These tables each provide a chronological list of appearances of different versions of the musical theme. Appearances are noted as follows:

• "Original" when it's a direct reuse of the original track, even if it's the source-quality version.
• "Arrangement" or "remix", as is described in § Terms
• "Pastiche" if the track only takes loose inspiration from the theme, but is still clearly based on it.
• "Sound effect" if is stored as one in the game's files rather than a music track. In the case of sound effect articles, they should be noted as arrangements.
• "Vocalization" if it is performed by voice, whether it be by a real-life person or an in-universe character; the voice actor should be listed in the credits column.

Any of these that recur (except for the original) are listed with "Past" in front with their origin noted (e.g. "Past arrangement (Super Mario Galaxy)").

The title column provides appearance-specific information about a musical theme's title. While titles can be taken from relevant media such as albums or ports of the same game, they cannot be taken from entirely different appearances. All titles should be cited for game, film, and television appearances; as albums are assumed to contain tracklists, titles do not need to be cited in the albums table.

Notes

Notes sections can list errata about the musical theme. Nintendo Music Selects playlist inclusions are mentioned in the notes section in the following format:

• On the Nintendo Music app, "Wiki BGM" is labeled as "Selects", classifying it as one "of the very best tracks from the Nintendo Music library", originating from Super Mario Galaxy. "Wiki BGM" shares this title with "Egg Planet" and "Rosalina in the Observatory 3".