Pieces of music most people know only from movie soundtracks and trailers

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD3VsesSBsw
Carl Orff: "O Fortuna", from Carmina Burana. "O Fortuna" is probably the biggest example of this, to the point that its usage in trailes tends to be parodied these days. In 2009 BBC estimated it's the most listened to piece of classical music from the last 75, and I doubt it would anywhere near that spot if it wasn't used so much in cinema.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVpl-RNzdE4
Camille Saint-Saëns: "Aquarium", from The Carnival of the Animals. This composition has such a cinematic feel and has been used so many times in movies that for a very long time I thought it was an original soundtrack piece by someone like Danny Elfman... Until I found out it's part of a classical work originally composed in 1886 (though not performed in public until 1922). I assume the reason it sounds so much like "movie soundtrack music" is that many soundtrack composers (like Elfman) have taken their cue from Saint-Saëns' work.

3. ironically i reckon most people know Glass's music for Mishima from adverts/documentaries about other stuff

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

Saint-Saëns might just be king of this

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc

watching the Alex Ross documentary last week and the bloke in hospital with me said "oh, so that's what that tune is"

It's great when some music supervisor pulls a new-old classic, a "why hasn't that one been used before?" choice like "Moldau" in Tree of Life

Anyway there are literally hundreds of these, I'd argue that a piece of music hasn't actually entered public consciousness until it's been trailerfied. Barber "Adagio" from Platoon is the best example imo. Saint-Saens is popular w/out Tim Burton but every or orchestra in the world will program "the Theme from Platoon"

clint mansell's lux aeturna via requiem for a dream film & lord of the rings trailer, yanno the one with all the darkly driving strings and all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpL7YqtD28o

also ligetti''s lux aeturna via 2001 A Space Odyssey's stargate sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgRZnsAgKng

*ligeti

Wasn't Mansell's "Lux Aeterna" specifically composed for Requiem for Dream? What I meant for this thread was tunes that weren't originally written for any soundtrack, otherwise you could simply list all the famous movie themes here.

o it was, my bad

Anyway there are literally hundreds of these, I'd argue that a piece of music hasn't actually entered public consciousness until it's been trailerfied.

No doubt, but tunes like "I Feel Good" are still generally recognized as "that James Brown tune", not only as "that trailer tune", even though it's been used in loads of trailers. What I'm talking about are tunes that most people wouldn't recognize as anything else than "that trailer song" or "that movie theme".

Feel like there's a ton of songs that fit this, but Clubbed to Death is one of those now ubiquitous songs that a lot of people don't know the name of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_to_the_Bone

Skip straight to Appearances in other media

Misirlou, known to most people simply as "the Pulp Fiction theme song"

Also - I know it's not a movie soundtrack/trailer - but the omnipresence of Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks" (aka that interminable whistling song) in literally 25 different major ad campaigns makes me think lots of people wouldn't know it was a minor indie rock hit a few years ago.

'Ride of the Valkyries'?

this is basically how people experience classical/orchestral/opera music these days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qx2lMaMsl8

If we were honest with ourselves, we'd have to say that ANY piece of classical, orchestral or operatic music known to the general public these days is known to it via its use in cartoons, movies, ads, or television shows. And it has always been so. That's why it is not called "popular music".

I've never seen any movie with "The Flower Duet"... But I first came across with this awesome LL Cool J tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeoAS6aBdhQ

(This was part of a whole rap/opera fusion album released under the name "Rapsody".)

been noticing Part's "Spiegel Im Spiegel" at lot recently, seems to be the go-to Something Sad Is Happening tune atm

I am relatively certain that ppl in the nineteenth century did not experience classical, orchestral or operatic music via its use in cartoons, movies, ads and televisions shows

that kill bill jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Rgwqa3c0o

also never forget @ 1:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZLpew6o-oY

Misirlou, known to most people simply as "the Pulp Fiction theme song"

Anyone posted this yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMFhPyNKDs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

when are Dieterich Buxtehude's organ works gonna get some movie trailer love?

I am relatively certain that ppl in the nineteenth century did not experience classical, orchestral or operatic music via its use in cartoons, movies, ads and televisions shows

also reasonably sure that by the second half of the 19th century there was no hard line between "classical" and "popular" music

but like i said upthread this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYGu8ap1FvI

is a great reverse case because i bet the number of people who've heard it in adverts or TV is orders of magnitude bigger than the number of people who've watched the movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AegUFLTBNxM

also reasonably sure that by the second half of the 19th century there was no hard line between "classical" and "popular" music

I'm not so sure this is true?

yeah weird claim there nv

is "Oh! Susanna" classical music?

or "Silver Dagger" or or or

i followed this mozart playlist on spotify and i get that deja vu feeling of having heard stuff in movies before but i can't really place it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg3l3r_DRI

I want to say "Dies Irae", aka "The Theme From The Shining." That's probably less the case in more Catholic countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIDN_3EkWN8

I primarily associate "Sabre Dance" with the circus -- and on that tip I guess one might well throw in Offenbach's "Infernal Galop" (aka "Can-Can.")
(Uh, punctuation-fiends: where the hell should I have put that full stop?)

(post delayed while server was down)

ppl in the nineteenth century did not experience classical, orchestral or operatic music via its use in cartoons, movies, ads and televisions shows

I am equally certain that the majority of the public in the nineteenth century did not attend classical concerts or operas (or ballets fwiw) but rather limped along with music hall ballads, brass bands playing military marches in the park, humming or singing folk songs while hanging the laundry, barn dances, lugubrious hymns at church services, and other popular music forms. Mozart, not so much.

no guys, i'm sure there were examples that were popular music or classical music, the Foster tunes you cite on one hand and say Wagner on the other, but there's a growing bourgeois audience in the middle who would attend concerts where you'd hear Bach hymns or operatic arias sung on the same bill as contemporary songs that we wouldn't consider classical at all by people like James Molloy. There was a popular audience for some classical music that's continued through to the present day.

which is my answer to Aimless too - for a lot of the musical audience the range of what was popular or accessible was probably more eclectic than it later became. people have been spoofing on tunes from Figaro for example more or less since it was written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q

Noodle Vague OTM

The middle class bulked up in the 19th century, but the working class with no high school were still by far the vast majority in Europe and the USA. (Outside those areas, the whole classical / operatic thing had no real presence I think we can agree.) Sure, in Milano, street sweepers may have sung Rossini, but this was a local phenomenon that had no mirror in Cleveland, OH or in Manchester.

I do agree that the middle class listened to both treacle and to better stuff. They began to have pianos in their homes, etc. I still do not think this segment of society could be termed "most people".

a growing bourgeois audience in the middle who would attend concerts

this was not "most people" let's be real

lol xp

wouldn't Tubular Bells be one of these

This is the dumbest argument I've seen in a while.

It is categorically impossible for most people who have encountered classical music throughout history to have encountered it via media that had not yet been invented; you are defending a wholly untenable, stupid position with irrelevant factiods.

I know the odds that anyone would read what I wrote according to strict logic are less than minimal, but what I wrote made logical sense. Before the invention of modern media I maintain there was not "ANY" piece of classical music known to "most people", so that there are no pieces I have claimed they knew through those media. Therefore I am not claiming something which is "a wholly untenable, stupid position". But, hey!

this was a local phenomenon that had no mirror in Cleveland, OH

Man why y'all always got to pick on us?

Before the invention of modern media I maintain there was not "ANY" piece of classical music known to "most people"

agree w/this, and by contrast there were "popular" songs that a majority of people within a given culture would know. primarily hymns and folk songs.

by far the most common musical exposure that the majority of people got prior to modern media was via religion. most people were not hearing orchestras, seeing ballets, operas etc.

Why just the other day I saw a cop emptying parking meters while singing "Largo al factotum" in front of Tower City.

i think some of you think the rich and the poor were a lot more publicly segregated than they actually were

i think you may think more people lived in cities then than actually lived in cities then.

i said second half of the 19th century, UK is predominantly urban by then, probably other European countries, don't know how the demographic breaks down in the States but come on.

the distinction was probably increasingly between urban and rural experience rather than a class one

of course it's possible that the new-born proletariat ran round the streets of Manchester with their hands over their ears, or couldn't recognise the sounds of "classical" music as actual music because it didn't have clog-dancing in it

in 1900 the USA is just under 40% urban, don't have data for before that

Can I just go back and point out the original exchange that led to this stupid diversion:

this is basically how people experience classical/orchestral/opera music these days

[youtube removed]

― This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:40 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If we were honest with ourselves, we'd have to say that ANY piece of classical, orchestral or operatic music known to the general public these days is known to it via its use in cartoons, movies, ads, or television shows. And it has always been so. That's why it is not called "popular music".

― Aimless, Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:49 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

- It is patently false that classical, operatic or orchestral has always been known to the general public via cartoons, movies, ads or television shows because all of those types of music predate cartoons, movies, ads and television.
- from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music

"The most significant feature of the emergent popular music industry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was the extent of its focus on the commodity form of sheet music".[7] The availability of inexpensive, widely available sheet music versions of popular songs and instrumental music pieces made it possible for music to be disseminated to a wide audience of amateur music-makers, who could play and sing popular music at home. In addition to the influence of sheet music, another factor was the increasing availability during the late 18th and early 19th century of public popular music performances in "pleasure gardens and dance halls, popular theatres and concert rooms".[7] The early popular music performers worked hand-in-hand with the sheet music industry to promote popular sheet music. One of the early popular music performers to attain widespread popularity was a Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured the US in the mid-19th century. During the 19th century, more regular people began getting involved in music by participating in amateur choirs or joining brass bands.

stop making up shit when you don't know what you're talking about in a feeble attempt to make yourself look smart

so in this brief period between urbanization and the invention of film+radio, that was when a majority of people experienced classical music as popular music...?

no one is talking about the majority of everyone, we are talking about the majority of people familiar with this music

shit getting heavy, Wikipedia cited

shit wouldn't be so heavy if ppl would stop blatantly making up shit to support imaginary arguments

I don't know what's being argued but I feel like beefing because I'm sitting in the Nashville airport listening to a guy play covers & tbh I wish it were of classical songs

so in this brief period between urbanization and the invention of film+radio, that was when a majority of people experienced classical music as popular music...?

no, in the century when classical music was producing a lot of its most enduring and best loved tunes, those tunes were being heard by a cross-section of society for various reasons including the lack of a sense of "our music and their music"

also, the orchestras and many of the musicians who played in public houses and music halls wd've had a repertoire that crossed all these alleged boundaries because that is how you played a living

the number of people who can identify the composer of a tune they're familiar with is probly similar now to what it wd be then. doesn't mean tunes were unfamiliar.

"how you earned a living", rather

eh okay that all sounds reasonable

I'll put this dispute down to "popular music" being a slippery term

so in this brief period between urbanization and the invention of film+radio, that was when a majority of people experienced classical music as popular music...?

― Donkamole Marvin (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 4:44 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That does happen to be when classical music was at its most popular!

sorry xposts

nv is arguing all the things i would argue anyway, and more articulately than i'm able...

also classical music was popular during the golden age of radio

Indeed, see cult of Toscanini

i know Charles Ives is slightly later than the period i'm talking about here, but i think of a lot of his music as being a recreation of the whole 19th century soundclash of what - let's call it public rather popular - music had become

This argument is banal. Miserlou is otm, so is the Ligeti Ricercata, and the 12 Monkeys theme (I didn't know that was Piazzola! but of course it was Piazzola). Also "Also Sprach Zarathustra" which is best known as "Theme from 2001", but I'd guess that most people know the real title of that and the composer.

the Saint-Saens 'Aquarium' must have reached its apotheosis with Days Of Heaven, where Morricone brewed up a whole gorgeous score fantasizing off it. Actually was 'Aquarium' a movie cliche before Malick took it up?

I know it's not really the same thing, but I usually just end up saying "you know, the theme from Punch-Drunk Love" when talking about Nilsson/Parks/Duvall "He Needs Me"

Concerto for Elvira Madigan and Orchestra

What's that, and where is it used?

Dan otm, although calling people idiotic morans is a little harsh it is par for the course, but we have to develop thick skins and remember to tell ourselves "Forget it, Shakey, it's ILXtown." Back in ye olde organic society or whatever society actually existed at the time, when the primary source of musical entertainment for people was music that they provided for themselves with their own instruments, quite likely a piano, a lot of the material they listened to would have been provided by sheet music which medium would disseminate the hits of the day. Even with the advent of recorded music, there were still gatekeepers in place- if you had a record player you could only use it to play records that had been recorded and released by the recording industry, ensuring that a lot what people of all stations would be listening would be opera and other classical music, Broadway show tunes or TIn Pan Alley compositions. The watershed moment as described in a bazillion books seems to have been the Petrillo recording ban/American Federation of Musician's strike in the early forties , which brought about the rise of the rise of BMI publishing as opposed to the old watchdog ASCAP and opened the floodgates for the release of The People's Music- Hillbilly Records,:"Race Music," etc., ringing the death knell for the Big Bands, and paving the way for rock and roll and so on. All of this stuff had already existed and been recorded at some level but at nowhere near the same volume of output, which eventually started to drown out the other stuff, although of course everybody still knew "Largo al Factotum," you can't keep a an earworm like that down for long. To think people weren't listening to classical music at least in some form way back when is similar to thinking that people who were literate, in the sense of "knowing how to read," weren't reading The Bible, Shakespeare and DIckens, because they were reading some other trash before the age of the publishing arm of mass media.

the Saint-Saens 'Aquarium' must have reached its apotheosis
I would urge you all to get them started early and watch the HBO Classical Baby DVDS with your bairns
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xchs81_aquarium_creation#.USjJcVrSOaQ

as described in a bazillion books
Should have added "or in every Phil Schaap broadcast ever"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0skZvqLTiw

just breaking

James Redd OTM, there are two types of people who watched "Moonrise Kingdom", people who owned the vinyl of Young People's Guide to the Orchestra b/w Carnival of the Animals when they were 2 and people who didn't

I’m sure you recognize this lovely melody as ‘Stranger in Paradise.’ But did you know that the original theme was from the Polovtsian Dance No. 2 by Borodin?”

On a related note, I think the argument has been made that the slathering of classical music all over film tracks may have cheapened it somewhat, turning into a form of audio clip art to be taken for granted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ush9KmInr8

The Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th gets a lot of soundtrack play.

- The Black Cat (1934)
- The Bells in Old Town (1946)
- The Long Night (probably; 1947)
- A Ham in a Roll (1949)
- Lola (1961)
- Me enveneno de azules (1971)
- A touch of Class (1973)
- Zardoz (1974)
- O Casamento (1976)
- The Outsider (1981)
- Frances (1982)
- La scorta (1993)
- Immortal Beloved (1994)
- Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
- El mundo contra mi (probably; 1997)
- Photographing Fairies (1997)
- Scotland, Pa. (2001)
- Salvage Squad - TV series/''Biber Submarine'' (2002)
- Irreversible (2002)
- Cravate Club (2002)
- Copying Beethoven (2006)
- The Fall (2006)
- Crap Shoot: The Documentary (2007)
- The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
- Tears of April (2008)
- Tres caminos (2008)
- Block (short) (probably; 2009)
- Knowing (2009)
- Mustache Party (short) (probably; 2010)
- The King's Speech (2010)
- LA Phil Live - TV Series/''Dudamel Conducts Beethoven'' (probably; 2011)
- No Ordinary Family - TV Series/''No Ordinary Detention'' (2011)

Wait, Strongo, are you claiming "Get Ready for This" is primarily known from movie soundtracks?!