Today, as all normal folks do, I was thinking about Wagner Tubas (an instrument Wagner invented to create the texture he wanted) and Bruckner, and I came across this video.
OMG...
A couple of measures of amazing beauty.
Here is the 3rd movement of Bruckner's 7th Symphony which is where the above phrase of music comes from. The first appearance is a little after 6:10 (the exact phrase from the above). It comes back after 13:45 and, if it could not get any better, he adds a french horn to the little phrase, and again, I'm
I was envisioning a pivotal point in a movie when the romantic leads have overcome a great obstacle, turn to each other, slowly stumble then run to each other.
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
A secret fantasy: Chris Frantz (drummer) and Tina Weymouth (bass) live near the Trader Joe's we shop at. I would dearly love to run into them someday in the frozen broccoli aisle and tell them the story of my thesis advisor, who was a major fan of theirs. I wrote my thesis on Chaucer and 14th century poetry.
My professor was still in her 20's at the time and was a fast-rising rock star in the world of medieval scholarship. This was in the 80's, and the Talking Heads were huge. She would frequently quote some stanza of Chaucer in Middle English and compare it to a Talking Heads lyric. My takeaway from this was that human nature hadn't changed materially in 600 years, a lesson that significantly influenced my world view since.
I'm still in occasional touch with that professor 35 years later, and it would be fun to send her a selfie of me with the two of them. And I bet Chris and Tina would be amused that they were the subject of serious study in medieval studies classes.
Still mainlining Bruckner. So here is the last movement of his 4th Symphony. I set the video to jump to 17:27 for those who just want to hear the glorious ending. You can always back up. As TRL noticed before, his music is very theatrical sounding. You can envision a movie.
The chord progressions are wonderful.
No Wagner Tubas in this one, but he does get horny quite often (that would be French Horns).
The crescendo building to the end is just glorious.
I'm thinking it's time to pull out the Bruckner organ music. I did one a couple of weeks back and they loved it.
So, John Williams must have listened to Bruckner because there are some Star Wars like descending arpeggios in the background in the last minute or so of this movement. Williams did it in a minor key in the theme.
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
John Williams was heavily inspired (sometimes heavily borrowed) from Wanger (Leitmotif usage especially), Richard Strauss, Gustav Holst (esp The Planets), Erich Korngold (earlier movie music), and others. Bruckner himself was inspired in his writing by Wagner and so it makes sense the here similarities in John Williams's music. Williams probably does have some inspiration from Bruckner as well.
I read somewhere that Lucas wanted a certain operatic/symphonic feel that leaned on the heroic (to go along with the whole hero's journey as Joseph Campbell has described) so it would only be natural to use some of the Austro=German Romantic era music as an inspiration.
If you watch Lincoln, you get a real Aaron Copeland feel, as they both pulled from early American music styles.
Here is a video that plays the Star Wars theme, and King's Row music by Erich Korngold.
As we have fallen into movie music, I guess we should go to the beginning.
Here is the first music that was specifically composed for a film. Camille Saint-Saëns composed this in 1908 for the French film, L'assassinat du duc de Guise (The Assassination of the Duke de Guise).
The music goes longer than the actual film. Either the end is missing, or it was intended that way. I am not sure but it is the same on other versions.
Y'all will recognize this, but it's not from Looney Tunes.
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
So what recording credits does she have for her (now more than) 58 years of drumming?
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. - Abraham Lincoln
keith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 19, 2022 3:56 am
That's cool.
So what recording credits does she have for her (now more than) 58 years of drumming?
Trying to track down where she plays, the best I can come up with is a church band. Not a single entry on Discogs. While not perfect, Discogs is fairly comprehensive.
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. - Abraham Lincoln
keith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 19, 2022 3:56 am
That's cool.
So what recording credits does she have for her (now more than) 58 years of drumming?
Trying to track down where she plays, the best I can come up with is a church band. Not a single entry on Discogs. While not perfect, Discogs is fairly comprehensive.
Yeah, thats why I asked. No rock bands, no jazz bands, no credited studio gigs. Possibly orchestras.
Remarkably under the radar.
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. - Abraham Lincoln
He needs a version for Another Brick in The Wall. All those marbles marching around in lines reminded me of that. I'm going to go eat my meat now so I can have pudding.
