A trick question.
August 15th, 2006
I’ve always loved cartoon music and when more and more public information starting coming out about it during the 80s, I started forming my own theories about it all. Here’s the result of my survey of Hanna-Barbera’s Hoyt Curtin.
A trick question:
NAME THREE COMPOSERS WHO DEFINED CARTOON MUSIC?
(Hint: You can’t. There are only two.)
Ask any reasonably well-informed movie buff who the major film composers are and you’re likely to get a pretty long list of names. You’ll hear Mancini, Williams, Barry, Goldsmith, Bernstein, Steiner, Hermann…
But cartoons? Even the most obsessed cartoon-o-phile comes up short…
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On August 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Ah yes, I bought the limited edition PICNIC BASKET collection the day it came out, well maybe the day after, technically. All of Hoyt’s scores are amazing but the one that really just blows me away is the TOP CAT incidental music. It’s just amazingly lush and has a sophisticated Gershwin undercurrent infused with a snappy Jazz New York underground beatnick movement and a big dash of whimsy. Unbeatable! One thing I wish was available on CD though is all the songs that “THE IMPOSSIBLES” sang on their series. Those songs were amazing, BEATLE-esque in nature and were sadly never heard in their entirety. Anybody have those lying around?
On August 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Manny, check with Earl Kress, producer of the Pic-In-Ic Basket and writer of Hornswiggle, over at his blog: http://mynameisearlkress.com/weblog/
On August 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Are the two you are thinking of Carl Stalling, and Hoyt Curtin?
On August 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
1000 points to the man from Pennsylvania!!
On August 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
These essays are great. I read them all and I only wish there were more.
On May 13th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
[…] Occasionally, I post some essays from Hanna-Barbera in the 90s. Everyone at the studio greatly admired what Joe and Bill had accomplished through the decades but strongly felt many of their milestones had gone uncommented beyond the aficionados. I commissioned HB Creative Director Bill Burnett to slightly rectify the situation. […]