TromboneChat

We are rehearsing the full band version of Song for Japan and one trombone solo (our bass trombonist is just pulling out his tenor mid gig and crushing it as the soloist)

One of the clarinetists comes up to us after the rehearsal and said, "wow I had no idea the Donkey Kong theme meant so much to the people of Japan! This is a beautiful variation on that theme"



At first we thought this was hilarious, but now a beautiful piece that I have a good history with performing is tainted with that observation.

That is kind of hilarious.

Oh it's not actually wrecked for me. We laughed so hard when he played that for us

Haha! Well I guess you take inspiration from wherever it comes!

I remember that! It absolutely wrecked my brain to hear the similarites. Lucky I didn't laugh next time I had to go up and do a run-through!

Good times, Harry. Miss you guys over there!

I mean this game was made in Japan, So this is technically also a song for Japan if you really think about it.

Can't help but to wonder if S V was aware of this when he wrote it, or if Song of Japan is just another arrangement of the Donkey Kong song.

A rough timeline I put together to help me understand:

The earthquake and tsunami occurred on the 11th of March 2011
Steven Verhelst, Belgian composer , trombonist and bass trombonist. wrote Song for Japan when? Soon after, I think.

Donkey Kong Song composed by David Wise, British video game music composer
He apparently started composing for Donkey Kong in June 2013
That video was posted in 2018

It's really obvious plagiarism.

That's not quite the timeline...

I'm honestly not that interested in researching this any more, but I still can't find any evidence that the Donkey Kong melody in question existed before Song for Japan was written. David Wise did compose the original 1994 Donkey Kong music, but it was unrelated to that melody.

Donkey Kong for the NES, released in 1986 has the same theme for the title screen. 2013 is just a remaster of the original. The original title screen theme is attributed to Yukio Kaneoka. If anyone plagiarized it’s definitely Verhelst.

Although, mind the “original” from 1986 is just a 15 second track, but it contains nearly the entire Song for Japan first theme.

https://www.mariowiki.com/Opening_(Donkey_Kong)

©1981

Video may be correct in it's attribution to the NES port (1986), but the 1981 copyright date is for the arcade version. This contains the first theme.

I feel obligated to revisit song for Japan after this. I grew up on that game.