Author: bdettelback

This past weekend I went to see the new Thor movie with my dad, and one thing I really liked about it was the soundtrack. As a trombonist I’ve always been a fan of the rather epic soundtracks associated with sci-fi and adventure films, but this one was enjoyable in a much different way. The soaring french horn melodies as the heroes descended onto the battlefield were replaced with driving rhythmic beats and synthesized sounds mimicking the 1980’s, the dramatic choral accompaniment when the villain ascends the steps of the castle were replaced by the sounds of Led Zeppelin’s loud guitar chords, and the beautiful love themes were replaced by pulsating synthesizer underneath edited vocals.

The most interesting thing I found in the movie was the transition. It begins with a fairly normal soundtrack, but slowly begins to switch over to mainly synthesizer. The first scene of the movie I noticed this was when Thor’s father dies and that event triggers the arrival of the movie’s main villain, Hela. As Odin fades away, the music turns to a minor setting as Thor grieves his loss (around 3:11). Then as the music gets darker and the portal from which Hela arrives opens, the earthy woodwind/string sound slowly gets replaced by heavy brooding brass and synthesizer. They begin to fight and the synthesizer is there, but very low and still not a main part of the score until Thor arrives on the alien planet, this is just the first instance where I noticed it’s presence and the effects of it.

Once Thor arrives on the alien planet of Sakaar where everything is 80’s colored and exciting, the music really blows up with electronic sounds. From here on out the movie is very electronic sounding and it creates a very different experience than what a normal Marvel fan might expect. I think for me at least the integration of the orchestra and the synthesizers was extremely cool and effective. The music was written by Mark Mothersbaugh, and he has stated that he combined his knowledge of synthesizers from Devo with his knowledge and access to a 100 piece orchestra to create the score.

The video I chose is a teaser trailer for this film. I particularly like this trailer because it highlights this transition of old to new in terms of score. The trailer begins with Thor hanging by a chain and voicing over, while a quiet choral interval is repeated in the background. As the scene fades and Thor begins to explain some background, the Led Zeppelin comes in nice and strong. If you go back and listen to the opening of the trailer you can hear that the choral interval is the same exact interval featured in “Immigrant Song”‘s iconic call. Also if you go back with the knowledge of the upcoming Immigrant Song, you can hear the drums very softly present underneath the chorus. This trailer does a great job in my opinion of integrating the new and old styles of soundtrack from the dramatic orchestral score to the similarly dramatic and maybe even more exciting rock and roll background music. Even though the Led Zeppelin music had different connotations with it’s release and wasn’t written specifically to match this scene of film, it’s effects are similar and even more effective in many ways. This could be possible because of the nordic connotations already in the song and the fact that it’s supposed to be “powerful and funny“, something the movie strives for in itself.

These are some comments that I thought sum up my point very well. The first uses some crass language to describe the popularity of the movie and associates it all with the music, while I don’t necessarily agree with them because who knows what the music is going to be like before watching? But whatever. The second goes as far to place the music over the aesthetic attraction to Cate Blanchett! I’d say that’s a pretty cool statement in today’s sexist world of stupid men who love fighting movies with pretty women in them. Finally the third comment reveals that the song is also used in the movie and even though it is repeated, it’s presence only amplifies the experience! That’s cool, sometimes things get overused.

All in all I thought this movie was pretty cool, and it’s use of both orchestra and synthesized sounds made it a very interesting aural experience for me. I urge you to watch the movie and even listen to the soundtrack!

 

Considering it’s morally ambiguous past, Carl Orff’s Scenic Cantata Carmina Burana, can be heard by the general public everywhere from Ozzy Osbourne, Old Spice ads, and even Domino’s Pizza Commercials. Premiered in 1937 by the Frankfurt Opera and Bertil Wetzelberger and supercharged with conflicting undertones, Orff’s explanation of Carmina Burana created lots of conflict between the Axis and Allied powers of the second world war regarding Orff’ political standings.

Part of the reason Carmina Burana was such a success was because of it’s accessibility. Orff utilized a large modern orchestra, full chorus, and solo voices. The music has been shown to emulate and be derived from Stravinsky with maximalist Wagnerian features. Originally Orff was accused of using undesirable jazz-like rhythms in a Stravinsky-esque style, but Nazi Officials overlooked this fact once they realized the piece’s potential for propaganda. Another reason this was overlooked was by the common folk and dance elements also found in the piece.

One interesting tidbit of this history is that Orff was supposedly one quarter Jewish, making his political stance in the Nazi party particularly interesting. He was known to be friends with prolific Jews such as Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel while living in German. The most common explanation is that Orff simply took advantage of his popularity among both sides and used it to make money, and an interesting example of this can be seen in Frankfurt when Orff was documented in taking a commission to rewrite Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream score. He later denied this when the Allied powers were determining his employment status after the war ended. By believing his lies, his status was made “Gray-Acceptable”, and made him eligible for work in the Allied military government. Another way Orff’s employment status was hazy during the war was his actual employment in the Nazi regime. For multiple years, he was awarded a job composing music for the Hitler Youth and teaching music. He tailored the curriculum and music to align with the Nazi ideals, stressing folk music and emphasizing the negative impacts of jazz and atonality.

Finally, the most ambiguous part of Carmina Burana is the music itself and the undertones presented within the score and text. The title translates to Songs of Beuren (a Benedictine Monastery in Bavaria). The entire scenic cantata contains a total of 24 songs set to music, the text itself came mainly from the Burana Codex, a compilation of medieval poetry, speaking of sin, passion, lust, and even gambling and drinking. This is the first layer of of confusion as to why the Nazi’s used it as propaganda. The reason ties into a deeper meaning below the surface. The music contains many folk melodies and dance rhythms making it very easy to listen to. It also describes pastoral images of the forest and the Earth in a Wagnerian manner similar to that of the Ring Cycle. Hitler was a supporter and fan of Wagner’s music because it appealed to his ideology of the ancient forest and timeless German landscape for the perfect Aryan soldiers. While this was obvious to Hitler and the Nazi’s, it was not obvious to everyone, and Orff never clarified what his intent behind the piece was. In the end it seems like Orff was just an opportunist who slyly got away with appeasing both sides of the war depending on who was in power.

In quite a different situation and a different time, Colin Kaepernick has been doing quite the opposite of Orff in his stand against standing for the anthem. While Orff shied away from the fact that he was potentially part Jewish and still made money off of the Nazi’s when he might not have believed in their ideas, Kaepernick has taken a stand against the ideas he disagrees with and openly risks his career and public image for it. Perhaps Orff had a little more on the line, but racism in America now has become violent, so perhaps Kaepernick is risking more now than ever.

What is the first thing you think about when you hear the word trombone or see someone playing one? Is it a marching band going down the street in bright red uniforms? Is it a long glissando in an old cartoon when a character does something silly or falls down? I bet it’s not a 15th century brass instrument most commonly found alongside two schawms. One of the things I find so interesting about the trombone is it’s versatility. Today, one can find trombonists playing all kinds of styles and genres ranging from jazz combo to symphony orchestra. Trombone plays a vital part in brass quintet, as well as big band. There are usually at least three of them in any wind ensemble, and even more in a larger symphonic band! New music in the 21st century loves the trombone because of it’s uniqueness in being the only brass to legitimately get a long and very crass glissando. I personally think it’s very annoying when I come across a piece of music written in the last one hundred years and my part is primarily whole notes at a loud dynamic, followed by a bunch of glissandi (that are sometimes physically impossible due to a composer’s lack of knowledge regarding the physics of the trombone). The reason for this being the fact that trombone is also extremely capable, like most all other instruments, of playing a beautiful melody or complimenting a melodic line in other ways than extended technique.

Encyclopedia Britannica describes the trombone as such: “Trombone, French trombone, German Posaune, brass wind musical instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece. It has an extendable slide that can increase the length of the instrument’s tubing. The slide thus performs the function of the valves on other brass instruments.”

I like this description a lot, but the one thing it leaves out is the sackbut. Saqueboute in French, translates nicely to describe the modern trombone in the words “push-pull”. The first sackbuts appear in the year 1400 in Southern France (Eliason), and by 1420 had become while not universal, an accepted fact of the musical scene. The Sackbut was a development of the trumpet with an extendable slide instead of valves that increased the length of tubing, changing the pitch like the modern trombone. Like the trumpet, it had cylindrical bore flared to a bell, but a larger mouthpiece and cross section resembling a coronet. The bell of the sackbut had a five inch diameter and no finish on the rim, and also crooks that made the pitch of the instrument higher or lower depending on their material and size. These were considered tenor sackbuts, but by the beginning of the 17th century there were different sized instruments for alto, bass, and contrabass. 

The early trombone, or sackbut, had a multitude of different functions when it was introduced to the musical world. In the early 16th century, vocal groups were commonly alternating with organs or instrumental groups, but eventually the instruments would accompany and often times double the vocal parts.  The trombone has been described as the closest instrument to the human voice, so this feature of doubling is not surprising. This tradition carried on into the mid 19th century, as the trombone became less of a novelty and more respected in the orchestral setting.

By the mid 1800’s, sackbuts had become trombones in a much more modern sense. The bells became much larger and thicker to create the intended larger sound of composers such as Wagner and Berlioz of the time. Wagner used trombones heavily to portray feelings of heroism, might, and barbarism. But also by that time and into the early 20th century with people like Tommy Dorsey and Emory Remington, the trombone started to develop its lyrical singing side, putting aside the loud and pompous ideals that Wagner and earlier composers thought so important, creating a new and much more versatile personality for an instrument with an unfortunate first name.