# Name this tune! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520 "2012-06-28T00:14:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/1 "2012-06-28T00:14:29Z")
I’ve heard this particularly triumphal fanfare many times in my life, but I have yet to learn the title. It’s only 7 notes and 3 chords long, and it always seems to signify great accomplishments. Or royalty. A MIDI reduction is here: [http://www.rogermwilcox.com/midi/LevelGain.mid](http://www.rogermwilcox.com/midi/LevelGain.mid) ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/2 "2012-06-28T14:33:26Z")
Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Rocky: Again? That trick never works! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/3 "2012-06-28T15:11:10Z")
I’m curious about that, too, if it has a name. I know it very well, and have played it many times, but have no idea where it comes from. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/4 "2012-06-28T19:18:25Z")
It’s like “ta daa!”, but longer. (“Ta daa!”, I am 99% certain, comes from the very end of Rossini’s overture to _William Tell_.) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/5 "2012-06-28T19:32:48Z")
Kind of sounds like what they have in a lot of video games when you finish a level or save the princess. (Mario Brothers is what came to mind.) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/6 "2012-06-28T19:44:13Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Kind of sounds like what they have in a lot of video games when you finish a level or save the princess. (Mario Brothers is what came to mind.) Yeah, it definitely has that “triumphant accomplishment” feel to it. And its near-ubiquitous use implies that there HAS to be an official name for it. Somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/7 "2012-07-03T18:37:01Z")
Hrm … this is perplexing. The regulars on another online bulletin board I post to ALSO couldn’t identify this tune. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/8 "2012-07-03T18:53:52Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Kind of sounds like what they have in a lot of video games when you finish a level or save the princess. (Mario Brothers is what came to mind.) It’s the same chord progression. After seeing the latest update (that there is no further info), I decided to Google “bVI bVII I fanfare”. (That’s what this chord progression is.) There’s [this interesting story](http://gamemusictheory.blogspot.com/2011/04/mario-cadence.html) about the “Mario cadence,” but it doesn’t seem to help in deriving the ultimate derivation of it. [This article here](http://aeoliancadence.co.uk/ac/Glossary_A_definitions_of_musical_terms_in_rock_and_pop__Aeolian_cadence_aeolian_mode_Andalucian_cadence_augmented_chords_and_intervals.html) calls that progression an “Aeolian Rock Ascent.” I guess I’d just call it a “flat 6 flat 7 one cadence.” ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-tune/626520/9 "2012-07-03T19:26:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [This article here](http://aeoliancadence.co.uk/ac/Glossary_A_definitions_of_musical_terms_in_rock_and_pop__Aeolian_cadence_aeolian_mode_Andalucian_cadence_augmented_chords_and_intervals.html) calls that progression an “Aeolian Rock Ascent.” Hrm … that doesn’t look quite right. That page says an Aeolian Rock Ascent ends on a minor chord, which the fanfare in the OP most definitely does not. I also see an “Aeolian Rock Ascent (in major)” listed on that page, but that had the first two chords in minor. The chord progression in the OP begins on the subdominant (the IV chord of the key – if it were in the key of C major, that would be an F major chord), then progresses through the parallel-minor version of the subdominant (the iv chord in minor, e.g. an F-minor chord in C major), and then finally ends up in the tonic (the I chord, e.g. a C-major chord in C major).