soothsayer's Full Review: The Carl Stalling Project Vol. 2: More Music From ...
There are few things as enjoyable as cartoon music. It is funny, oftentimes zany; done right, it is never boring. The music of Carl Stalling and orchestra is fresh as if created for today’s audience.
Carl Stalling was a great composer, and unique in that his music mixed in elements of jazz, classical, and various other elements. He also relied on the collective subconscious to associate things with music, so each idea had its own distinct music.
In the studio, Stalling worked fast, composing almost on the fly. That was the nature of cartoons. He worked out the music based on a visual sketch predetermined beforehand, and with his willing 50-piece orchestra, created the lovely music we hear today.
When you first listen, you somehow want to know what is happening through visual cues, i.e., cartoons. But if you fight that urge, and just delve into the music, you will not mind missing the cartoons; you would even find the cartoons a distraction.
Throughout the collection of pieces there are sections where you can hear comments from Carl Stalling and the orchestra. About half of the pieces in this 28 pieces collection are short, lasting from 3-6 minutes; the remainders are no more than 40 seconds in length. There is a great variety of fun and absurdity when you listen in, and comes recommended.
Sound quality is excellent, a bit flat, but that is because of the quality of tapes from the 40’s and 50’s. I cannot describe to you what Looney Tunes music sounds like if you never heard it before. The music is quite unique. Some sample descriptions follow.
Track 4, Bad Swiss Band, is what it would sound like if the Oompa band was drunk, or hopelessly out of tune.
Track 7, the Orchestra Gag, Carl Stalling gets all the instruments in the orchestra to play simultaneously with a surprising result. Here you hear Stalling introducing each instrument, rather, a few of them. When you hear them all, you cannot help but notice the more complex melody, and the infinitely more instruments that end up playing than was introduced by the conductor.
Track 9, Variations of Chinatown, My Chinatown. The orchestra used violins, flute, xylophone and percussion to create an exotic feel of the Orient.
Track 13, Fall and Splat, a sound effect of a body speeding to earth, followed a by crunchy sounding splat! I do not know what made the body sound like that , perhaps a bag full of bricks.
Track 26, Kangaroo, is a sound effect of the punchy kangaroo character that occasionally made its appearance. It sounds like someone was holding down a metal bar in tension, then thumbed it to produce the kangaroo jumping sound
Track Listing:
01 Zoom And Bored 1957
02 Stage Fright 1940
03 The High And The Flighty (from "Piker's Peak") 1956
04 Bad Swiss Band 1957
05 Marching Pink Elephants (from "Calling Dr. Porky") 1940
06 The Slap Hoppy Mouse 1956
07 Orchestra Gag (from "Hobby Horse Laffs") 1942
08 Variation on Grandfather's Clock (from "Fox Terror") 1957
09 Variation on Chinatown My Chinatown (from "Lights Fantastic") 1942
10 Variation on Lucky Day (from "Fox Terror") 1957
11 Wind-up Doll (from Gonzales' Tamales") 1957
12 Guided Muscle 1955
13 Fall and Splat - SFX
14 Ghost Wanted 1940
15 The Unexpected Pest 1956
16 Drunk La Cucaracha (from "Tabasco Road") 1957
17 Flea-ridden Sheep Dog (from "Curtain Razor") 1949
18 Golf Cue (from "My Bunny Lies Over The Sea") 1948
19 Barbary Coast Bunny 1956
20 Satan's Waitin' [excerpt] 1954
21 Rubber Dog (from "Porky's Tire Trouble") 1939
22 Pappy's Puppy 1955
23 Variations on La Danza (from "A Hound For Trouble") 1951
24 Variations on Johann Strauss (from "Mouse Mazurka") 1949
25 Kangaroo - SFX
26 Mouse-taken Identity 1957
27 Variations on Mexican Hat Dance (from "Speedy Gonzales") 1955
28 Frazzled Coyote (from "Scrambled Aches") 1957
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