It’s just a different way of using and experiencing it. You don't need to be a musicologist to recognize Orff's O Fortuna, or Barber's Adagio. Popular music had been used in film accompaniment from the beginning; by the 1920s studios began promoting songs written expressly for their films, known as theme songs, through sheet music and record sales. Now you have the exact name and probably some of the suggested videos will catch your attention. Not only did the music set the mood of a scene and punctuate important moments in the film, but it served another essential function. Other times, as narrator Lydia Cornett notes in the Slate video, it's "simply lazy.". So let’s see why music is so valuable for commercial purposes. You don't need to be a musicologist to recognize Orff's O Fortuna, or Barber's Adagio. It’s a family flick that includes lots of… Giving certain characters/situations/places thematic identities helps to connect certain plot points together. This doesn’t necessarily  mean that it loses its value. The fairly narrow idioms of popular music are quite restrictive for film music, unless used by a master (think Reservoir Dogs). What about taking some examples and try to predict what kind a scene or emotion they anticipate? The use of classical music in a variety of ways, including popular music approach, is a feature of many filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Lars Von Trier. Movies rely on music to help establish time period, location, cultural heritage or social standing. In a society focused on the latest technology, dance crazes, and what is trending on social media, it is easily understood why so many believe the art of classical music is in many ways irrelevant. Take for example an experiment carried out at the University of the Basque Country. The different music pieces made the difference in the participants’ perception of the speaker and of the brand: “The study participants who listened to the version of the advert with music that was faster and had a greater musical range thought the speaker seemed happier, more restless, sporty, enthusiastic and daring” and the brand was “more energetic, sporty, exciting, refreshing, young and fun.”, “The people who were played the musical version with less tonality and a slower tempo found the person speaking to be calmer, more relaxed, patient, delicate, understanding, disciplined, mature and trustworthy” and the brand was “more delicate, soft, relaxing, mature, natural and healthy”. Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western culture, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. Watch the video and decide for yourself. Last update apparently 2004. With innumerable classical recordings available, why don't filmmakers try a little harder to be original? And it was used in one specific mass: funerals. Even if you don’t know the exact name of the music piece, it brings back pleasant (or not) memories. All rights reserved. Cornett suggests some alternate selections for filmmakers who want that Orff or Barber feeling, but would prefer not to trod the same ground. Rossini's William Tell Overture---Mickey Mouse and Friends. Entertainment is the key to success in using the theme of classical music and a very effective channel for getting a broad audience accustomed to listening to music. Can you see how it works for this example? We, as regular listeners, feel emotion, joy and appreciation when listening to music of whichever type. Can you remember the first times you heard classical music? Using Baroque-style music sets a scene in the 18th century. "Back to the Future" used Huey Lewis' "The Power of Love" for its "present day" scenes and such songs as … The Most Used (and Abused) Classical Music Pieces Bruce Hangen conducts the Boston Conservatory Orchestra in a performance of Debussy’s “Iberia” in … Some films not only feature rousing music but are about world-famous virtuosos or musical instruments. Join us as we travel back in time, into space, and to the edge of reality to uncover the greatest pieces included in our favourite sci-fi films. The results are really interesting and people experience different emotions when exposed to music in commercials or movies. What do you think  about:  cancan, dancing, energy, short dresses and long legs, What do you think about: refinement, aristocrats in fancy clothes dancing, having tea or chatting about society, What do you think about: the greatest conspiracy ever, add some trolls and dwarfs to that, What do you think about: epic sunrise, the ultimate revelation, the creation of the universe, god and his creation. As Catholicism permeated world culture, the melody of the chant was repurposed into classical music, where it was used … Both are go-to favorites for filmmakers, who have used each in dozens of movies. While the vast majority of the cartoons of the 1930s-1950s made excellent use of popular music and original compositions, they also used classical music to great effect, creating some of the finest animated masterpieces of all time. Derek says: March 9, 2019 at 12:06 pm. Music historian Robert Greenberg talks about classical music in cartoons, from Elmer Fudd in a spoof on Wagner and Tom and Jerry playing Liszt to Disney's Fantasia. Different aspects like contrasts, juxtapositions and enhanced visual information induce the audience to feel the resulting product (sound + image) as a whole and it often transforms the entire piece into something inseparable. What brands and the movie industry see, is the potential of music to recreate these emotions and to bring their audiences closer to them. He additionally used Johann Strauss's Blue Danube waltz — a very familiar work, then as now, used to underline the graceful maneuvers of spacecraft. A supercut video from Slate demonstrates the ubiquity of those two pieces, as well as Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat. In this list, we pick twenty of the most unexpected and imaginative uses of classical music in the motion pictures. Would Platoon be as good if Nielsen's Andante Lamentosa replaced Barber's Adagio? The Ravinia Student Marketing Team created this video to show how we see classical music in our everyday lives through advertisements and film. Now let’s just test it. Thoughtful use of classical music in movies is a topic for another discussion – a very interesting one, I think. The participants were exposed to different commercial sets which had the same text, speaker, images, but different music on the background. It’s hard to list all the pieces of classical music used in soundtracks that are now inextricably associated with specific events and moods, but here are some of … Which film best uses its piece of classical music in the context of the film that it’s used in? Fantasia's flop when it was released in cinemas is a case in point. Many film score composers have been inspired by traditional classical music. Classical music in the movies, instead of elevating those who listen to it, often seems to have a detrimental effect. 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