🧵THREAD: Lots of us learned classical music from watching old cartoons

Learned about a lot of classical music especially because back when I was watching, vocal music couldn’t be used for competition routines (only for exhibitions), meaning every skater used classical music or orchestral versions of show tunes or popular songs. The classical pieces were much better than the Muzak!

in a Loony Tunes cartoon involving some kind of bird, maybe a crow, hopping along, and I still can't hear it without seeing that crow in my head.

Unfortunate about "Inki the Caveman" moniker, but he was actually drawn as a sympathetic character, rather than an object of mockery. And yes, I always see that walk/jump in my head, or even emulate it. But not in public, lol.

I linked it as a kindness to someone wondering about it.
Warner bros cartoons were pretty racist, misogynistic, etc, and crude stereotypes were frequent to be sure.

But this thread was about the classical music that entered into the consciousness of kids at that time and for a few generations after.
That's all. Other orchestrations of that piece don't thrill me much, but the oboe lead and crotales(?) in the simplified arrangement are good. Separated from the video, it works.

Was that "too racist/didn't watch"? Clever meme twist there.
Ah, well. That's all folks.

I thought it was a crow and not a mynah bird, but I hadn't seen it since I was a little kid, and I certainly don't recall the Inki character - the depiction is shockingly racist even though he's the hero of the cartoon.

-Laelth

It was GLORIOUS!

Sounds like a trip.

(don’t ask, it was slow day...) and found out our coworker had never heard any, had no idea what it was.

We started with Bugs and Elmer clips (of course) and ended with the cool and particularly badass Flight of the Valkyries from the Metropolitan Opera in 2012. She was more impressed with Bugs, I think lol.

Check out his electronic pieces as well as the jazz variations. In a lot of different ways, he was ahead of his time.

Great post! Thanks....

I learned from Bugs Bunny.

I remember those wonderful Saturday morning cartoons. By the time my kids came along, it was Thundercats and Ninja Turtles.

, and the bricklayer was an octopus . they used Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” when showing activity at the site .
this was used for several cartoons including some popeye cartoons. raises hand , guilty as charged .

figero was written by mozart in the 1700ds.

corrections , additions . deletions . the music presented in this cartoon is from barber of seville composed by Rossini.

composed by Rossini. The Marriage of Figaro was composed by Mozart

I use a college professor who had a Loony Tunes sound track CD that he would always play in the background in his office or at home when entertaining. It took me a while to realize it wasn’t a kid watching cartoons and was actually the music he played. He said it helped him think with all the craziness on campus

that Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube was one of the most abused pieces of music in cartoons, but 2001 sort of redeemed it.

Apparently this Claude DeBussy piece, Clair de Lune was cut from Fantasia, such a pity:

https://www.wqxr.org/story/268590-saturday-morning-cartoons-debussys-clair-de-lune/

The movie was exceptional

...really took it to a new level.

Overtures to Poet & Peasant and Morning, Noon & Night in Vienna -- Franz von Suppe
Excerpts from Midsummer Night's Dream -- Felix Mendelssohn
Academic Festival Overture -- Johannes Brahms
William Tell Overture (2nd & 3rd movements) -- Gioachino Rossini

The 2nd movement in William Tell usually accompanied a storm, & the 3rd movement played under a sunrise. I don't recall hearing the final (Lone Ranger) movement in an old cartoon, but it had to have been used.

Like watching old movies at home with the sound off and Pink Floyd on.

Bugs did it with only three fingers on each hand.

I saw the original Fantasia as well.

I also got go to Lenard Bernstein's Young People's
Concert at Philamonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) in NYC.

And heard the music in the cartoons, too. 👍

symphonic music, but my father was a big country and western fan. So when I was a kid, she took me to live concerts by Erie, PA's own symphonic orchestra. This was partly to expose me to an alternative to my father's preferred music, but mostly, I think, to have a companion for something she wanted to do.

When mom was out shopping or visiting with friends and my father was watching us at home, he brought out his harmonica and played tunes for us, like Turkey in the Straw and She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain.

My oldest brother played 1950's rock records when he babysat us younger kids.

It was a musically eclectic childhood.

I was the oldest of two so no one played R&R for me.

But I watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and became a fan over a short period of time. So British rock, Jan & Dean (bit not really the Beach Boys), r&b, Motown soul, eventually San Francisco psychedelia, Prog rock, Punk and New Wave, Alt, Indie, funk some years later.

While still Loving classical. I love orchestral movie scores, too(

and rarely watched him. I preferred Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye. But I heard the Bugs Bunny music when my sister and other brother watched him, and recognized the music from concerts with my mother.

By the time the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, I was in 9th grade and had been very much into 1960s rock for a few years - The Supremes, Beach Boys, Four Seasons. Liked the Beatles right off, but never got caught up totally in Beatlemania. From there, for me, it was Rolling Stones, 3 Dog Night, Mamas and Papas, Bee Gees, and CCR. (Never understood why people criticized me for liking CCR.) Soloists - Helen Reddy, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen Bob Dylan, Billy Joel.

Never got into heavy metal, punk, or any of the rest after that. Kind of stagnated musically, except for a few artists on the radio from time to time. Today I prefer classic rock mostly.

I don't know about the Roadrunner cartoons, but I distinctly remember this from a Bugs Bunny one. . .

out of a speech that he gave..These two did a host of Academy Award wining toons. Yes, those
are some of my most wonderful moments. I started watching toons as a kid. The local theater
had 25 cartoons for 25 cents in the 50s. A group of them in Chicago had been owned by one
of the Warner Bros. and the had access to many great toons. I became a ...toon fan
and have hundreds of them..All kinds and lengths, on tape and discs.. In the 40s, there were Superman cartoons..I got them too.
Some of you may be a fan of Animaniacs I got them all........................
...Most toons I have are just plain ..fun.. The Animaniacs, were fun as well as satirical. ....Animaniacs....were funded and produced by Stephen Spielberg...and have an outstanding quality of humor and satire..One of
those is so funny that it is truly great..."Potty Emergency" I'll see if I can find it on the net, and give a
link..

Those were the best cartoons ever.

I had no idea it was a famous piece by the maestro!!

Still love Liszt today!

>> apologies if someone has already posted this-- I might have missed it, if so

was that it was royalty-free. Simple as that.

Making cartoons was their "day job." It paid the bills.

My parents are artists. They met in Hollywood, working their day jobs.

They retired with pretty good pensions and Social Security and then they were full time artists.

Well paid super-stardom in art is as rare as well paid superstardom in athletics.

Every high school and college student should make plans for a day job.

Arranging and performing classical music for Bugs Bunny cartoons isn't the worst thing that can happen to an artist or their art.

"I love-a to singa,
I love-a the moona inna Juna inna Spring-a"

There were several tunes that I knew from Bugs and Co.. One of them was the tune that they seemed to play whenever a scene showing big business, or when wealthy people would appear. I liked the tune, and was always curious about it. So, one day, while I was visiting my dear grandmother on my mother's side (I guess I was around 9 maybe?), that tune appeared again. So, I wandered into the kitchen where she was, and I said, "Grandmother, There is this song on Bugs Bunny that I like. It goes like this..." and I proceeded to hum the tune. (My grandmother was a lover of music and an accomplished pianist). Now, I actually figured it was some tune they made for the show and so I thought she would just say, "That's nice." So, I do the bit of the tune that they always use in the show, and I am just getting to the end of the phrase when she suddenly turns to me and sings, "Forty-Second Street!". I simultaneously jumped a foot (startled) and blurted out, "It has words?!?"

To be honest, there is much that I can lay at the feet of cartoons. Hell, thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I got an 'A' for reciting The Preamble. (As you might guess, I did not speak it, I sang it. Once the other kids saw that this was allowed, they ALL did it. My teacher later asked me why everyone knew the song, because she had never seen Schoolhouse Rock.)

The theme for the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was a classical work called, “Funeral March of a Marionette” by Gounod. My absolute favorites cartoon were "Fantasia" and "the Rabbit of Seville".

Everyone thinks of the Lone Ranger when they hear the title, "William Tell Overture." Sad to say it was decades before I realized this was part of the same famous piece, but the music itself is instantly recognizable:

Is the highlight IMO of Fantasia.

Wish I could post, but it looks like there are no free YouTubes, but Disney has it up to watch at this link:
Sorcerer's Apprentice - Fantasia

It is truly the G.O.A.T.

Features "Call to the Cows" from William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. Had to look that up to identify it!

I learned from cartoons:

(with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd)

(here with Tom and Jerry)

Sabre Dance by Aaron Khachaturian.