Tech

This ancient instrument can perfectly recreate the 'Super Mario Bros' theme

by Mark Teo

Photo: Fanpop.com

Step aside, chiptune. While plenty of people are trying to recreate videogame music digitally, there’s an analog instrument that can create tones that sound just like gamer soundtracks of yore: The sheng.

We won’t blame you if you haven’t heard of it. It’s actually an ancient Chinese musical instrument—according to its Wikipedia page, early iterations of the instrument were depicted as far back as 1,100 B.C. To put that in perspective, that’s around the time the Mayan calendar began, and it’s nearly 4,000 years before Super Mario Bros. first graced screens everywhere.

But despite the instrument’s age—and its prominent usage in Chinese operas—it turns out the woodwind instrument sounds just like the digital tones used to create the music that accompanied Mario, Luigi, and Bowser. Need proof? Here’s a video of a young Chinese musician pulling off the Mario theme with shocking aplomb.

For the sake of reference, here’s the original theme. Thanks to Gizmodo for the tip.