This is a standard piece of music that’s used constantly in cartoons and on silent film soundtracks – usually when a villain is slowly sneaking up to the hero/heroine, or basically doing something slyly nefarious – but for the life of me I can’t remember if it’s from a ‘real’ orchestral piece or not.
Let’s say we’re in C minor, in 4/4. The first four notes are a rising arpeggio of quarter notes, the Ab is a “sting” that lasts two beats, and then the last four notes are eighths (usually pizzicato strings, I think).
C Eb G C^ Ab G F Eb D (repeat)
Sorry for the crappy description. But if you can hum this you’ll probably know it immediately! FYI, I’m wondering about this because I’m watching a bio of Ub Iwerks (animator/co-creator of Mickey Mouse) and the theme is used it in one of the Silly Symphonies shorts. It’s an omnipresent little riff and I feel like I should know its source! Anyone?
Good grief, just from a thread back in September yet! How did I miss this? I usually peruse all these “ID this music” threads, too!
So looking at the links in that thread, it appears to have be “Mysterioso Pizzicato,” part of a compilation of silent movie compositions called Remick Folio of Moving Picture Music, published and possibly composed by J. Bodewalt Lampe in 1914. I say “possibly” because from looking at the rest of the items in this book, many of the pieces included are actually rearrangements of pieces (famous or otherwise) by other composers. There’s a fascinating article about it written at Perfessor Bill’s Silent Movie Compositions site.
OTOH, it may date as far back as P.D.Q. Bach and his Chorale Prelude, ‘Da Kommt Ja Der Schurke’! Now that’s impressive.
Thank you muchly, Gfactor. I was crazy not to have guessed that this would’ve been asked before.
Carl Stalling, who wrote the music for the first Disney shorts (and also came up with the idea for Silly Symphonies), started out as a silent film organist, so it’s not surprising he would mix silent organ cues alongside popular songs, classical music, and original bits, as he did both at Disney and Warners.
