Cartoons and Classical Music: From Fantasia to Bugs Bunny
Memory is kind of a funny thing. They tell you that a lot, and it seems to be true. You know how if you have a bad experience with a food, the smell of that food will remind you of that bad experience for a long, long time afterward? Well, the same thing is true for me with classical music.
I have always blamed the film Fantasia for being my introduction to classical music. It has always been a long-time favorite of mine, though I rarely watch it (the only copy we've ever owned I left at my parent's house). But something about the combination of music and art really struck a chord with me. Every time I hear Night on Bald Mountain, how can I not immediately picture little dancing fire demons falling into hellish flames as a big giant gargoyle looks over, ghost skeletons riding ghost horses over a village towards the mountain? Even though now I can appreciate the music a little more for it's beauty, I still get creepy shivers of discomfort and fear from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, because the Genesis segment of Fantasia absolutely terrified me when I was a child to the point that I wouldn't watch it all the way through. Others were afraid of Night on Bald Mountain, but not me. Ghosts, darkness, demons-- those didn't bother me in the least. Earthquakes, volcanoes, lava, destruction... those were the things I had nightmares about. I still have trouble listening to it. I would say that Dance of the Hours reminds me of dancing hippos, but to tell you the truth it is actually harder to get that song away from my childhood love of the song "hello muddah, hello faddah." And obviously, how can I not think of Mickey Mouse when I hear The Sorcerer's Apprentice?
But Fantasia is the reason that I fell in love with Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Pastorale-- this still probably one of my absolute, ultimate favorites. Though Ihaven't seen the movie in years, to this day with each movement I can picture the entire sequence of events as if they were happening on the screen. I know when the pegasus babies go down the rainbow, when Bacchus has his wine party, when the centaurs hook up with their ladies. Weird... it sounds so much more on crack when you actually write it out like that. The point being that more than almost anything on Fantasia, the imagery for this piece has stuck with me the clearest, and quite possibly can never be wiped out. For the most part, Fantasia was my very first introduction to these pieces, probably to most classical music completely, and it is possible that fro the rest of my life, I will bring up these images when I hear these specific pieces even if I have come to really appreciate them in new ways.
But not all my memory is connected to something as... lofty as Fantasia. No, Looney Tunes had to get in there and make it EMBARASSING. How is it fair that when I hear Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, I have to imagine ACME anvils falling from the sky trying to crush the coyote? Or when I hear Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, do I REALLY need to imagine Bugs Bunny dressed up in drag trying to woo Elmer Fudd and then running for his life as shenanigans take place (though girls doing the can-can is a quick second in imagery there, for obvious reasons). Or Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt's HAll of the Mountain King, Daffy Duck dressed in robber clothes with a sack of stolen money from a bank? Ok, granted that that song is also used in that context a lot-- sneaking. Or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, which also brings to the mind unbidden images of crazy shenanigans (yes, there are a lot of those in Looney Tunes, aren't there?) happening as daffy and bugs and others run around, or Tom and Jerry? I can't help it! I'm sure that cartoons are the first place I probably heard Edvard Grieg's "Morning", though the imagery there is kind of obvious and universal... so I don't know if that counts. On a stranger note, even Bugs Bunny did a version of the Barber of Seville.
This could be a call to comment on how media affects our childhood, but why would I want to go that route? If it hadn't been for some of these things, I may never have been exposed to some of these pieces in the first place, and so a little crazy imagery is worth it. Even if it is cartoon bunnies dressed as cancan girls. Going back as an adult and listening to the pieces again, the full pieces because of course Looney Tunes would only play you the familiar part, I can get a new understanding and love for the songs all over again. I just happen to have funny imagery in my head. I'm willing to bet of us do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWGQaczNL5I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXEElJFR6g
I have always blamed the film Fantasia for being my introduction to classical music. It has always been a long-time favorite of mine, though I rarely watch it (the only copy we've ever owned I left at my parent's house). But something about the combination of music and art really struck a chord with me. Every time I hear Night on Bald Mountain, how can I not immediately picture little dancing fire demons falling into hellish flames as a big giant gargoyle looks over, ghost skeletons riding ghost horses over a village towards the mountain? Even though now I can appreciate the music a little more for it's beauty, I still get creepy shivers of discomfort and fear from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, because the Genesis segment of Fantasia absolutely terrified me when I was a child to the point that I wouldn't watch it all the way through. Others were afraid of Night on Bald Mountain, but not me. Ghosts, darkness, demons-- those didn't bother me in the least. Earthquakes, volcanoes, lava, destruction... those were the things I had nightmares about. I still have trouble listening to it. I would say that Dance of the Hours reminds me of dancing hippos, but to tell you the truth it is actually harder to get that song away from my childhood love of the song "hello muddah, hello faddah." And obviously, how can I not think of Mickey Mouse when I hear The Sorcerer's Apprentice?
But Fantasia is the reason that I fell in love with Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Pastorale-- this still probably one of my absolute, ultimate favorites. Though Ihaven't seen the movie in years, to this day with each movement I can picture the entire sequence of events as if they were happening on the screen. I know when the pegasus babies go down the rainbow, when Bacchus has his wine party, when the centaurs hook up with their ladies. Weird... it sounds so much more on crack when you actually write it out like that. The point being that more than almost anything on Fantasia, the imagery for this piece has stuck with me the clearest, and quite possibly can never be wiped out. For the most part, Fantasia was my very first introduction to these pieces, probably to most classical music completely, and it is possible that fro the rest of my life, I will bring up these images when I hear these specific pieces even if I have come to really appreciate them in new ways.
But not all my memory is connected to something as... lofty as Fantasia. No, Looney Tunes had to get in there and make it EMBARASSING. How is it fair that when I hear Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, I have to imagine ACME anvils falling from the sky trying to crush the coyote? Or when I hear Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, do I REALLY need to imagine Bugs Bunny dressed up in drag trying to woo Elmer Fudd and then running for his life as shenanigans take place (though girls doing the can-can is a quick second in imagery there, for obvious reasons). Or Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt's HAll of the Mountain King, Daffy Duck dressed in robber clothes with a sack of stolen money from a bank? Ok, granted that that song is also used in that context a lot-- sneaking. Or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, which also brings to the mind unbidden images of crazy shenanigans (yes, there are a lot of those in Looney Tunes, aren't there?) happening as daffy and bugs and others run around, or Tom and Jerry? I can't help it! I'm sure that cartoons are the first place I probably heard Edvard Grieg's "Morning", though the imagery there is kind of obvious and universal... so I don't know if that counts. On a stranger note, even Bugs Bunny did a version of the Barber of Seville.
This could be a call to comment on how media affects our childhood, but why would I want to go that route? If it hadn't been for some of these things, I may never have been exposed to some of these pieces in the first place, and so a little crazy imagery is worth it. Even if it is cartoon bunnies dressed as cancan girls. Going back as an adult and listening to the pieces again, the full pieces because of course Looney Tunes would only play you the familiar part, I can get a new understanding and love for the songs all over again. I just happen to have funny imagery in my head. I'm willing to bet of us do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWGQaczNL5I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXEElJFR6g