Name that tune...
Feb. 11th, 2004 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1Some time ago -- I think it was last year -- ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quadrivium asked about a tune that was used in a lot of Warner Bros. cartoons, especially if there was automation gone amok. By sheer chance one morning a few months ago, the host of an eclectic music show on the local NPR station was playing that music as a "bumper" to fill in a minute or two. (The show is "Excursions", which airs in the morning on WYSO.) And the host mentioned the artist's name -- Raymond Scott.
This afternoon, I visited the Raymond Scott web page. Jackpot! There are sound files of his most famous work, "Powerhouse", which was recorded waaaay back in 1936 with his band, the Raymond Scott Quinette.
There are actually two parts to the piece. The "A" section is the "fast" part, the part that sounds like chase music. The "B" section is the "machinery music". The Canadian rock band Rush used a variant of the "B" section in "La Villa Strangiato" (off their "Hemispheres" album). Even though the copyright had expired, the guys in the band settled out-of-court and made a "penance" payment to Scott. (Here's a link to an interesting anecdote around the story.)
Although the music wasn't originally written for catoons, WB animation musical director Carl Stalling heard it, and used it often in the cartoons. The rest is, as they say, history.
Some of Scott's other works were used in other cartoons; there's a full listing on the Raymond Scott web site (see link above).
Another interesting twist is that Raymond Scott was one of the early collaborators of Bob Moog, when Moog was developing his electronic music synthesizer.
Now.....if we can only get a group of filkers together and perform this piece as an ensemble. (Let's call it "The Filkharmonic Orchestra.")
quadrivium asked about a tune that was used in a lot of Warner Bros. cartoons, especially if there was automation gone amok. By sheer chance one morning a few months ago, the host of an eclectic music show on the local NPR station was playing that music as a "bumper" to fill in a minute or two. (The show is "Excursions", which airs in the morning on WYSO.) And the host mentioned the artist's name -- Raymond Scott.This afternoon, I visited the Raymond Scott web page. Jackpot! There are sound files of his most famous work, "Powerhouse", which was recorded waaaay back in 1936 with his band, the Raymond Scott Quinette.
There are actually two parts to the piece. The "A" section is the "fast" part, the part that sounds like chase music. The "B" section is the "machinery music". The Canadian rock band Rush used a variant of the "B" section in "La Villa Strangiato" (off their "Hemispheres" album). Even though the copyright had expired, the guys in the band settled out-of-court and made a "penance" payment to Scott. (Here's a link to an interesting anecdote around the story.)
Although the music wasn't originally written for catoons, WB animation musical director Carl Stalling heard it, and used it often in the cartoons. The rest is, as they say, history.
Some of Scott's other works were used in other cartoons; there's a full listing on the Raymond Scott web site (see link above).
Another interesting twist is that Raymond Scott was one of the early collaborators of Bob Moog, when Moog was developing his electronic music synthesizer.
Now.....if we can only get a group of filkers together and perform this piece as an ensemble. (Let's call it "The Filkharmonic Orchestra.")
