The Snicket Movie (pre-release post I)
Dec. 14th, 2004 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinThis evening I received an update of "The Snicket Report," the movie website's little newsletter thing. I had a fascination with the movie website back when it first debuted, but have been ignoring and/or avoiding it ever since. Today I decided, wisely or unwisely, to heed the beckon of Paramount's marketing department and see what was new. By far the most intriguing thing was an area where you could listen to selected cuts from the soundtrack, which led me to the following observation:
What is it about minor-key waltzes that is so undeniably Snickety?
All the "theme" music that has been associated with the Series of Unfortunate Events in my mind has been a minor-key waltz. It may have started with "Scream and Run Away," the song about Count Olaf which I heard sung by the author in an interview one morning on the radio, which got me hooked on the series long before I actually read any of it. A minor-key waltz - on the accordion, no less. "Gone, Gone, Gone" is the Gothic Archies' song that preceeded the narrative on the very first Snicket book-on-tape I checked out from the library that fateful day in 2002. That was a minor-key waltz. The Edward Scissorhands theme, used in the teaser and trailer for the film, is a minor-key waltz, and I have come to associate the entire soundtrack (possibly one of the best soundtracks ever written, but that's another matter) with the Snicket books. Octaveleap's "Waltz for Lemony and Beatrice" is a superb little piece of music which I find myself listening to over and over, and is a minor-key waltz. Pick any minor-key waltz from the Amélie soundtrack: it works. The "End Title" track on the soundtrack, which is usually a summary of the principal musical themes in the preceding movie, is ... you guessed it, a minor-key waltz.
What is it about a bittersweet melody in 3/4 time? What about the odd meter, lilting rhythm, and - though this may be a personal perception - usually French flavour says "Miserable but resourceful orphans pursued by a terrible villain and surrounded by a baffling web of mystery and intrigue"?
What is it about minor-key waltzes that is so undeniably Snickety?
All the "theme" music that has been associated with the Series of Unfortunate Events in my mind has been a minor-key waltz. It may have started with "Scream and Run Away," the song about Count Olaf which I heard sung by the author in an interview one morning on the radio, which got me hooked on the series long before I actually read any of it. A minor-key waltz - on the accordion, no less. "Gone, Gone, Gone" is the Gothic Archies' song that preceeded the narrative on the very first Snicket book-on-tape I checked out from the library that fateful day in 2002. That was a minor-key waltz. The Edward Scissorhands theme, used in the teaser and trailer for the film, is a minor-key waltz, and I have come to associate the entire soundtrack (possibly one of the best soundtracks ever written, but that's another matter) with the Snicket books. Octaveleap's "Waltz for Lemony and Beatrice" is a superb little piece of music which I find myself listening to over and over, and is a minor-key waltz. Pick any minor-key waltz from the Amélie soundtrack: it works. The "End Title" track on the soundtrack, which is usually a summary of the principal musical themes in the preceding movie, is ... you guessed it, a minor-key waltz.
What is it about a bittersweet melody in 3/4 time? What about the odd meter, lilting rhythm, and - though this may be a personal perception - usually French flavour says "Miserable but resourceful orphans pursued by a terrible villain and surrounded by a baffling web of mystery and intrigue"?
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Date: 2004-12-15 07:16 pm (UTC)Good gravy am I glad I read this post! Otherwise I wouldn't have known I could listen to parts of the soundtrack! I just listened to the end title. STRINGS AND VIBES! STRINGS AND VIBES! It's so... right. Melancholy, sensual, like tears of a child. Also kind of reflective, like a conclusion. Thomas Newman might have to become my new favorite film score composer of all time just because of that one clip.
...wait... was that a vibraphone or a glockenspiel? Darn! I can't tell!
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Date: 2004-12-15 08:05 pm (UTC)Same thing used on the Harry Potter soundtrack, I think. Which, coincidentally, is a minor-key waltz. (!!)
Good to see you!
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Date: 2004-12-16 03:25 am (UTC)You know what this entry challenges me to do? ... Write a Snicket-esque song that's NOT a minor-key waltz. I better get on that.
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Date: 2004-12-17 05:42 am (UTC)Tchaikovsky incorporates many children's instruments into the score including a rattle, cuckoo, quail, toy trumpet and miniature drum. His greatest feat was his triumphant quest to be the first of his fellow composers to use the magical celeste in a score. Featured in the ethereal Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the celeste is a bell-like sounding instrument that is a variation on the glockenspiel. Having discovered many of the other toy instruments during his visits to Paris, Tchaikovsky was thrilled to discover Victor Mustel's invention. He guarded his finding, with the hope that he could beat out his composition rivals, Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov, for its initial presentation to the Russian public. "I expect that this new instrument will produce a colossal sensation," he mused. Indeed, the opening measures of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy evoke “the sound of falling drops of water, as from a fountain”, as per the original ballet choreographer Marius Petipa’s artistic direction.
(http://www.victoriadanceseries.com/resources/nutcracker_listen.htm)
Yes I looked it up. When in doubt, look it up.
CELESTE!
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Date: 2004-12-17 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 02:09 pm (UTC)(refrains from any future discussions about music from here to eternity)