Thursday, May 11, 2023

Importance of a previous context for music

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few days I heard a radio ad for the 2023 Boise Fourth of July Parade. For background music they used John Philip Sousa’s 1893 stirring march, The Liberty Bell. I suspect the producer wasn’t old enough to know about a previous association for that tune. It had been used in the opening for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the BBC sketch comedy TV series (1969 to 1974), which you can watch on YouTube here or here.

 

Five decades ago I saw an Air Force Now newsreel film using Edvard Grieg’s 1875 In the Hall of the Mountain King as background music for B-52 bombers taking off. That music was horribly inappropriate. It had previously been used in M, Fritz Lang 1931 mystery suspense thriller film. The melody was whistled by the child murderer Hans Beckert (who was played by Peter Lorre).

 

Back on April 15, 2011, I posted about Does your introductory music clash with your presentation?

 

An image of a marching band was adapted from this one at Openclipart.

 


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