# UK Dopers - Can You Identify This Classical Piece?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 1, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135 "2004-06-01T20:34:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aagramn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Aagramn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aagramn)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/1 "2004-06-01T20:34:19Z")

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This is a long shot I know. Can anyone help me identify the piece of classical music from the BBC’s Euro 2004 trailer? The one where the players have been replaced by paintings (there is a cubist Raul IIRC).

Any help would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/2 "2004-06-01T20:39:54Z")

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Sorry I can’t but I am posting because I heard that earlier and it stood out as being very interesting. I’ll listen out for it.

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/3 "2004-06-01T20:40:56Z")

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P.S. I’t’s pprobalby not a long shot. I’m confident you’ll get an answer to this.

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/4 "2004-06-01T21:20:42Z")

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I hesitate to hijack this thread, but when I read the title, I thought it was referring to a different piece of music that I have long wanted to learn the identity of.

I heard this piece on _Monty Python’s Flying Circus._ It was played with strings, and I think there may have been a choir, although I can’t remember any words.

It sounded like it could have been religious, or even a Christmas piece.

It was very lovely.

I have tried to transcribe below the first line of it. I don’t know for sure if it was in the key of C, I just chose C for simplicity. The tempo was about 180 beats per minute. (The underscores after the first G note mean the note holds out – sorry about the primitive notation):

1 2 3 & 4 & 1 2 3 & 1 2 3 4 1  
C C D C B A G\_\_\_\_\_G A C C B C

Thanks for any help, and apologies for the hijack.

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**Author:** ![snorlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@snorlax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snorlax)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/5 "2004-06-01T21:27:31Z")

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According to [this](http://www.whatsthattune.co.uk/messagecomplete.asp?id=6741) site, it’s called Balcony Scene by Craig Armstrong from the 1996 (Baz Luhrmann) version of _Romeo and Juliet_.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/6 "2004-06-01T21:31:58Z")

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[A poster on this mb](http://www.commercialbreaksandbeats.co.uk/forum/forums/forum.asp?forumid=17&page=0&select=8097#xx8097xx) says:

> [@](#):
>
> the song is definately “kissing you” which is sung by Des’ree and is on the 1996 Version of Romeo and juliet soundtrack the music in the trailer is an instrumental part in the middle of the song. Craig armstrong did do some music for the R&J film but this is more on the second soundtrack album of the same film (sorry if thats quite hard to understand!)

As to whether that’s based on an older classical piece, I can’t say because I couldn’t find the trailer online.

F.U.: Your piece is the Christmas carol “Ding Dong Merrily On High”.

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**Author:** ![Aagramn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Aagramn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aagramn)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/7 "2004-06-01T21:51:59Z")

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> [@snorlax](#):
>
> According to [this](http://www.whatsthattune.co.uk/messagecomplete.asp?id=6741) site, it’s called Balcony Scene by Craig Armstrong from the 1996 (Baz Luhrmann) version of _Romeo and Juliet_.

Thanks for the help.

In case anyone is interested, the piece is definitely Balcony Scene by Craig Armstrong off his Space Between Us album. I’ve just found sitting in my music collection, much to my suprise! I never got around to listening to it properly. There is some confusion on the message boards snorlax and rowrrbazzle linked to because Craig Armstong mostly composes for film scores. There seems to be a version with vocals on the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack (not sure who Des’Ree is).

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/8 "2004-06-02T03:54:06Z")

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Thanks \*\*rowrrbazzle \*\* – you’re good!

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-can-you-identify-this-classical-piece/248135/9 "2004-06-07T20:40:35Z")

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Sorry to bump this, but I downloaded the song from Virgin music download site.

The sad thing is, the trully brilliant part of that song is right at the end and lasts about 10 seconds (it’s the bit used in the Euro 2004 advert). The rest of the song is pretty average IMO.
