My obsession yields closure
A few days ago I was watching a Poirot TV show, one of those from BBC. In the background I heard this waltz which I knew I'd heard before and was actually very familiar with. Over the course of the day the tune refused to get out of my head. I only heard a few seconds, but somehow I knew the entire tune, but not only the entire tune, I knew a string, a piano and even an accordion rendition. Obviously this was one of those songs you hear frequently but know little about.
It was driving me nuts, so I set out to find out more about it. Unfortunately I did not know it's name, composer, when it was written or even how I came to know it. The melody played in my head all day, so I tried to find it going through collections of all the waltz composers I knew. Nothing. Ok, this composer is obscure. I tried various sites like Midomi where you tap, whistle or hum the tune. Dozens of hits, but nothing. I pulled the show out of the Tivo trash and tried replaying that part of it using MusicID on my iphone. Nothing. OK, so maybe I'll never know.
A day later it's still in my head. So in desperation I opened up my copy of SmartScore and wrote the melody. I created a midi file and tried playing it again through MusicID. Nothing. Grr. So under that theory that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I wrote an arrangement of the entire song on my own, from memory, and played it on the piano.
A day later, still in my head and unsatisfied, I found Melody Catcher which allowed me to input actual notes. This wasn't difficult since I had already written the score. It came up with this a parody based on the melody. Down near the bottom reads "Song: Fascination." AHA, now we're finally getting somewhere. A quick trip to Wikipedia and a little research got me:
Valse Tzigane, Fermo Dante Marchetti (1904). A little known Italian composer contemporary with but overshadowed by Verdi. The song was nearly forgotten until it was discovered and published in 1932 using the English title Fascination.
OK, I now have a new composer to research. Next step, I downloaded some public domain sheet music. Turns out it matched remarkably well with what I had written from memory including the same key signature and rythmic/melodic elements, but I missed a subtle melodic diversion at the end. It was even simple enough for me to sight-read.
A normal person would now be satisfied, but I kept thinking, "So how did I know this piece, why is the melody so familiar?" Well as it happens it has been in a few movies. It was the main theme from the movie Love in the Afternoon (1954) Starring Audrey Hepburn who is by far one of the sexiest women who has ever lived. I streamed the movie, She is just as sexy now as she was in 1954, I rated it an 8 on IMDB.
So if you're still with me after the long story, here's the point. I half watch a mediocre TV show, hear nothing but a tune snippet in the background and as a result discover a composer who even wrote complete operas but which I knew nothing about and can now research, was able to play the entire score on the piano, I re-discovered a really good old film and was reminded that love stories can be sexier by implication than explicitness. And after all this, I am reminded that they say obsession is a psychiatric condition. C'est la Vie.
For your enjoyment, here's a orchestral version with an improvised bridge:
And here is one for string, accordion and vocal ensemble complete with the sappy lyrics: I don't know who the singer is, but it sounds like Dinah Shore.
It was driving me nuts, so I set out to find out more about it. Unfortunately I did not know it's name, composer, when it was written or even how I came to know it. The melody played in my head all day, so I tried to find it going through collections of all the waltz composers I knew. Nothing. Ok, this composer is obscure. I tried various sites like Midomi where you tap, whistle or hum the tune. Dozens of hits, but nothing. I pulled the show out of the Tivo trash and tried replaying that part of it using MusicID on my iphone. Nothing. OK, so maybe I'll never know.
A day later it's still in my head. So in desperation I opened up my copy of SmartScore and wrote the melody. I created a midi file and tried playing it again through MusicID. Nothing. Grr. So under that theory that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I wrote an arrangement of the entire song on my own, from memory, and played it on the piano.
A day later, still in my head and unsatisfied, I found Melody Catcher which allowed me to input actual notes. This wasn't difficult since I had already written the score. It came up with this a parody based on the melody. Down near the bottom reads "Song: Fascination." AHA, now we're finally getting somewhere. A quick trip to Wikipedia and a little research got me:
Valse Tzigane, Fermo Dante Marchetti (1904). A little known Italian composer contemporary with but overshadowed by Verdi. The song was nearly forgotten until it was discovered and published in 1932 using the English title Fascination.
OK, I now have a new composer to research. Next step, I downloaded some public domain sheet music. Turns out it matched remarkably well with what I had written from memory including the same key signature and rythmic/melodic elements, but I missed a subtle melodic diversion at the end. It was even simple enough for me to sight-read.
A normal person would now be satisfied, but I kept thinking, "So how did I know this piece, why is the melody so familiar?" Well as it happens it has been in a few movies. It was the main theme from the movie Love in the Afternoon (1954) Starring Audrey Hepburn who is by far one of the sexiest women who has ever lived. I streamed the movie, She is just as sexy now as she was in 1954, I rated it an 8 on IMDB.
So if you're still with me after the long story, here's the point. I half watch a mediocre TV show, hear nothing but a tune snippet in the background and as a result discover a composer who even wrote complete operas but which I knew nothing about and can now research, was able to play the entire score on the piano, I re-discovered a really good old film and was reminded that love stories can be sexier by implication than explicitness. And after all this, I am reminded that they say obsession is a psychiatric condition. C'est la Vie.
For your enjoyment, here's a orchestral version with an improvised bridge:
And here is one for string, accordion and vocal ensemble complete with the sappy lyrics: I don't know who the singer is, but it sounds like Dinah Shore.