# Origin of sneaking-along music **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617 "2006-10-31T18:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/1 "2006-10-31T18:39:00Z")
It’s hard to represent without sheet music, but here goes: ```auto | | | | | | | | | O O O O O~~~ X X X X O . . . . . . . . . C Eb G C Ab G F Eb D C (may repeat) ``` It’s often done with pizzicato strings, or some other staccato sound, and is a staple/cliché of mystery and suspense scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/2 "2006-10-31T19:45:04Z")
I know what you mean! But I don’t think it’s actually used, unless there is an attempt to sound hokey, or “cute”, or whatever. I know at the end of _Around The World In Eighty Days_ (1956), that music is used to represent the detective Fix, sneaking around, and it was hackneyed even then. BTW in that rendition there’s an extra G after the A-flat, but I don’t know if that’s the correct version or not. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/3 "2006-10-31T19:50:09Z")
You can enter a musical sequence into [Musipedia](http://www.musipedia.org/) and see if it can tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/4 "2006-11-01T04:50:15Z")
I know I’ve heard it in movies and cartoons from the 1930s, so it’s at least that old. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/5 "2006-11-01T04:56:12Z")
[A sample](http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l269/hosmackah/unknown2/) from the “Our Gang” short [Captain Spanky’s Show Boat](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0031138/), (followed by the familiar tear-jerking "Hearts and Flowers). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/6 "2006-11-01T04:57:34Z")
The best match I could find in Musipedia is that it’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in a minor key. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/7 "2006-11-01T15:34:48Z")
It was listed as “Spookville” in my beginning trumpet book, round about 1983. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/8 "2006-11-01T16:27:18Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] The best match I could find in Musipedia is that it’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in a minor key. 😉 [/QUOTE] Man, you’ve either ruined that song for me, or redeemed it. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/9 "2006-11-01T16:42:17Z")
I haven’t listened to it for a while, so I don’t know if this could be the actual source, but it seems Prokofiev’s _Peter and the Wolf_ could be where it comes from? I remember that he used instruments to announce particular animals and people, and the music was supposed to hint at their actions and attitudes in the story. If _Peter and the Wolf_ isn’t the exact source of this music, which it may well not be, it’s at least close enough in concept to that “sneaking around” music that appears in so many movies and cartoons. Many of the Hollywood composers were from Germany and Hungary, so they would certainly know a lot about music, including such a popular piece as _Peter and the Wolf_. Kids like it, too! ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/10 "2006-11-01T19:35:21Z")
[QUOTE=Chance the Gardener] I haven’t listened to it for a while, so I don’t know if this could be the actual source, but it seems Prokofiev’s _Peter and the Wolf_ could be where it comes from? I remember that he used instruments to announce particular animals and people, and the music was supposed to hint at their actions and attitudes in the story. If _Peter and the Wolf_ isn’t the exact source of this music, which it may well not be, it’s at least close enough in concept to that “sneaking around” music that appears in so many movies and cartoons. Many of the Hollywood composers were from Germany and Hungary, so they would certainly know a lot about music, including such a popular piece as _Peter and the Wolf_. Kids like it, too! [/QUOTE] Nah, not _Peter and the Wolf_, though it is stylistically similar, especially to the bassoon theme (I think the theme in the OP is typically heard on bassoon or at least that’s the way I’m hearing it in my head). I feel like I knew this at one point but I just can’t remember. I believe it was used in a particular Nintendo game (among others) whose name escapes me - maybe Wizards and Warriors? ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/11 "2006-11-01T19:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=Moe] I believe it was used in a particular Nintendo game (among others) whose name escapes me - maybe Wizards and Warriors? [/QUOTE] Yup. In a track called [Boss](http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/Wwboss.mid) No info on that page about the original composer of the melody though. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-sneaking-along-music/378617/12 "2006-11-01T20:06:59Z")
Can’t answer about the origins, except that, as a pianist, I’ve used that many many times to indicate spookiness and such. If you take that Ab and turn it into a D diminished chord (D F Ab Cb) and roll that chord for a bit it’s a nice effect.