Dancing Mad

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Dancing Mad is the music track that plays during the last four battles with Kefka at the end of Final Fantasy VI (released in North America as Final Fantasy III). An arranged version performed by The Black Mages can be found on their title album. Another arranged version for pipe organ, choir, and orchestra was heard at the 4th annual Symphonic Game Music Concert on August 23, 2006.[1]

It was composed by Nobuo Uematsu who also composed most of the music in the Final Fantasy series.

[edit] In Final Fantasy VI

Because there are four semi-independent parts to the battle with Kefka Palazzo, there are four parts to Dancing Mad. The first movement, which plays with the Outergate Demon, has music similar to Catastrophe, the music played at the very beginning of the game. This part also has music similar to one of Bach's church pieces, as well as Danny Elfman's Penguin theme from Batman Returns. The second movement, played alongside Tools, Tiger, Hit and Magic, has very little in common with any other previously played music in Final Fantasy VI. The third movement, however, does; two distinct musics can be heard: one is "Esper World", which is the track for the Espers (the one played whereupon Terra finds the Esper Tritoch), the other is Kefka's theme. In the final battle with Kefka, it has a short prelude. This prelude is the first movement of "Omen". It then carries on into a much more upbeat, lively music.

[edit] Fame

Dancing Mad did not receive any such fame as other notable songs such as The Extreme or One-Winged Angel did. However, listeners tend to be very opinionated about Dancing Mad, especially in regard to its length, which is in excess of 17 minutes. It is significant to note, however, that the length in the official recording is exaggerated, due to each of the four sections being repeated before moving on to the next piece. Dancing Mad has even become a slang term for a modern piece with length rivalling classical pieces.