Cartoons and Classical Music: From Fantasia to Bugs Bunny

[endril_lei]

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

Comments

[nchantedviolin]

My orchestra played the Pastoral Symphony a couple of years ago, and while of course Beethoven wasn't thinking of centaurs, the Fantasia themes were pretty close to his notes on the titles of the movements. I thought that was pretty cool :) It's actually been argued that that symphony was one of the first pieces of theme music (remember Salzburg music history?).

[endril_lei]

absolutely! And even just moving away from the title, I would think it's fairly easy to argue that Beethoven made a lot of those movements easily visual to represent what was happening in the piece. Of course my problem is I still sometimes forget to leave out the unicorns. :)

[youjik33]

I completely agree that the Rite of Spring is creepier than Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia, though I can't exactly explain why. It's just so violent, though. Nothing really HAPPENS in Night on Bald Mountain, and then the church bells chime, Chernabog cowers, and Ave Maria begins -- it really ends on a note of hope, rather than just complete destruction, like Rite of Spring. So maybe that's it.

I have a bone to pick with Warner Brothers. They have ruined "Ride of the Valkyries". I cannot hear it without singing "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!" in my head. ("What's Opera, Doc?" is probably one of the greatest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever, though...)

[endril_lei]

I can't BELIEVE that I forgot that one!!! I KNEW I had left one out! Ride of the Valkyries is totally one of them.