Dead Ant Dead Ant Dead Ant Dead Ant Dead Ant

January 1, 2017 11:42 AM

Classical Pieces You’ve Probably Heard but Might Not Remember the Name Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by infini (51 comments total)

It's embarrassing how much classical music I know only through Stanley Kubrick films.
posted by cazoo at 12:18 PM on January 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

tfw you try to make serious music about serious men doing important serious things
posted by idiopath at 12:20 PM on January 1, 2017 [18 favorites]

(A.K.A. Can Can)

*flips table*
posted by Sternmeyer at 12:23 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's embarrassing how much classical music I know only through Stanley Kubrick films classic Saturday morning cartoons.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:31 PM on January 1, 2017 [24 favorites]

It's embarrassing how much classical music I know only through Stanley Kubrick films.

Or Bugs Bunny cartoons.
posted by SisterHavana at 12:33 PM on January 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

(A.K.A. Can Can)
*flips table*

Got a little too boisterous with your can-canning there, eh Sternmeyer?
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:33 PM on January 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach helped me dredge a couple out of my brain.
So which one is the Pink Panther theme?
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:53 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just today I learned that the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy theme music is a classical piece originally called "Journey of the Sorcerer", by a composer named The Eagles.
posted by kyrademon at 12:57 PM on January 1, 2017 [12 favorites]

> So which one is the Pink Panther theme?

None of them, I think, unless the definition of classical extends to Henry Mancini in the '60s....
posted by Westringia F. at 1:03 PM on January 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

But we all know that the Lone Ranger takes his garbage to the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump...
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:04 PM on January 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

Somewhat disappointed that John Philip Sousa's The Liberty Bell wasn't on any of these lists -- you'll recognize it. (And if you want to argue it doesn't count as classical, The New World Symphony is on the list and it was composed the exact same year, and Rhapsody in Blue is on the list and it was composed a quarter-century later.)
posted by kyrademon at 1:05 PM on January 1, 2017 [9 favorites]

I bring you all carefully curated lists of classics served up on a silver platter and what you do but point out my egregious error with hurriedly trying to find a title (now that it's a must have in FPP building) that would suit a single self descriptive link.

*cue some soul stirring music here*
posted by infini at 1:08 PM on January 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

Hmm. Maybe the Dead Ant is the William Tell Overture?

Pink Panther theme . . . punch line to some joke . . . dead ant dead ant
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:16 PM on January 1, 2017

Aw, infini, I didn't mean to be mean! I love your post! *music swells*

& anyway I have titles turned off... classically
posted by Westringia F. at 1:20 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Looks like they're missing The Devils Gallop by Charles Williams, the theme for The Further Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Ceasar which also makes an appearance at the end of The Spanish Inquisition.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:28 PM on January 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Came for Va pensiero, a.k.a. Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, from Verdi's Nabucco, was not disappointed.

This piece has been on my mind a lot lately, especially the line "O mia patria, sí bella e perduta." Can't imagine why.

Va pensiero previously on MetaFilter.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:42 PM on January 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hmm. Maybe the Dead Ant is the William Tell Overture?

Nah, no expired insects in that one. Just T&A and a little bit of a gut...

Titty bum, titty bum, titty bum, tum tum.
Titty bum, titty bum, titty bum, tum tum.
Titty bum, titty bum, titty bum, tum tum.
Titty BUM, titty bum, tum tum!
posted by the latin mouse at 1:43 PM on January 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

"Ethel, do you remember the minuet?"

"Hell, Gladys, I don't even remember the ones I fucked".
posted by yhbc at 2:12 PM on January 1, 2017 [14 favorites]

Came for La Gazza Ladra, was not disappointed. (Clockwork Orange was a wonderful part of my high school years.)
posted by which_chick at 2:20 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

& anyway I have titles turned off... classically

so do I, perhaps that's why i don't take them seriously

I never got an education in the classics of Western Civ culture and arts beyond O level literature. Everything I've learnt has been after the age of 35*, by myself and thanks to the interwebs. Curated carefully crafted like this is gold.

*with the maturing of the interwebs ~ 2000
posted by infini at 2:23 PM on January 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am always amused that the tootling calliope music that is shorthand for whimsy bears the portentous title of Entry of the Gladiators (by Julius Fucik, in the first link).
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:59 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I looked, but I missed Fingal's Cave.
posted by SPrintF at 3:01 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can't believe they list Barber's Adagio but not Albinoni's!
posted by Flashman at 3:07 PM on January 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maybe these were there, maybe I missed them:

Gendarmes' Duet - Offenbach, AKA Marines Hymn
Brandenburg Concerto #2, 3rd Movement - Bach (AKA theme from Firing Line)
Chopin's "Raindrop" Prelude managed to show up both in Prometheus and a commercial for Halo 3.
posted by lagomorphius at 3:55 PM on January 1, 2017

Gounod, Funeral March of a Marionette, the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Carl Orff & Guild Keetman, Gassenhauer, soundtrack theme used in both Badlands and True Romance
posted by jonp72 at 4:30 PM on January 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

So does it count as a win if I don't recognize the name of a piece but I also haven't heard the music before?
posted by darksasami at 4:31 PM on January 1, 2017

Can't believe they list Barber's Adagio but not Albinoni's!

It's because Barber's Adagio for Strings was heavily used in the movie Platoon, and it's become cliché since then.
posted by jonp72 at 4:32 PM on January 1, 2017

Minuet in G Major, Christian Petzold, the basis for The Toys, "A Lover's Concerto"
posted by jonp72 at 4:38 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

They list "Sinfonie de Fanfares: Rondeau" but isn't it "Fanfare-Rondeau" from "Suite de Symphonies"? Genuine question, gotta keep Standard Snippet accurate.
posted by darksasami at 4:40 PM on January 1, 2017

Schumann's "The Happy Farmer" on that list made me wonder of old chestnuts everybody pounded away on at piano lessons and then forgot belong here.

For instance:

Arabesque - Friedrich Burgmüller
Ballade - Friedrich Burgmüller
Spinning Song - Albert Ellmenreich (a true one-hit wonder)
L'Avalanche - Stephen Heller
The Clock - Theodor Kullak
posted by lagomorphius at 4:43 PM on January 1, 2017

Surprised they don't have Funiculi Funicula
posted by Ferreous at 4:44 PM on January 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh wow, the Spinning Song -- I'll take "Songs You Only Know From Obscure Commodore 64 Games" for 400, Alex.
posted by darksasami at 4:49 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Siegfried's Funeral Music - Wagner (Excaliber)
Powerhouse - Raymond Scott (cartoons)
Solace - Scott Joplin (The Sting, Bioshock Infinite)
posted by lagomorphius at 4:49 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

In the mid-eighties I heard a piece on the radio - operatic duet, two sopranos - that I really liked, but I missed the attribution. So I went into the local classical CD shop - there were such things in those days - and described it to the woman behind the counter. Was it, she asked, the British Airways or the Baileys? I was nonplussed by this, but accepted her recommendation of a cassette of opera pieces that had been used in adverts. It was the British Airways. I felt strangely humiliated by this, as though my musical appreciation was somehow debased by its association with an advertisement. I was as much of a pompous ass when I was a student as I am now.
posted by Grangousier at 5:27 PM on January 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Grieg's Peer Gynt: Morning Wood is indeed a timeless classic.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:27 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Was it, she asked, the British Airways or the Baileys?

and famously, The Hunger (1983)
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:39 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

In the mid-eighties I heard a piece on the radio - operatic duet, two sopranos - that I really liked, but I missed the attribution. So I went into the local classical CD shop - there were such things in those days - and described it to the woman behind the counter. Was it, she asked, the British Airways or the Baileys?

Neither of which should be confused with Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto, which people may know from The Shawshank Redemption.

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

Spoiler warning: clicking the link above will tell you what those two Italian ladies were singing about.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:19 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Les Barricades Mystérieuses - Couperin. It even has its own web page.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:36 PM on January 1, 2017

No Symphony Number 5??
posted by swift at 9:07 PM on January 1, 2017

They list "Sinfonie de Fanfares: Rondeau" but isn't it "Fanfare-Rondeau" from "Suite de Symphonies"? Genuine question, gotta keep Standard Snippet accurate.

Neither of those titles are correct. The correct title is "Masterpiece Theatre Song" by Guy Who Wrote Masterpiece Theatre Song.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:16 PM on January 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

"No Symphony Number 5??"

I think you meant to call it "Short Short Short Long"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:29 PM on January 1, 2017

Beethoven's 5th is in Part Two (as is the Minuet!)
posted by yhbc at 9:51 PM on January 1, 2017

I think you meant to call it "Short Short Short Long"

Wasn't that the name of Indiana Jones' sidekick character?
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:21 AM on January 2, 2017

The whole topic reminds me of an oft-run commercial from my youth.
posted by uberchet at 7:35 AM on January 2, 2017

The whole topic reminds me of an oft-run commercial from my youth

YOURS FOR ONLY $13.98! According to the comments this is the same item, although possibly incomplete. You can still get the lps, though.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:33 AM on January 2, 2017

There was a Lexus commercial from the late 90s or very early 00s that used a snippet of Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from his ballet Romeo and Juliet. Very dark, black & white, with the cars swerving to avoid these giant swinging balls.

Concerted googling only revealed that the ad existed (a reference on reddit). I couldn't find the ad itself. And I only knew about it because it was featured on adweek.com back when that site was just a bunch of cool videos.

Anyone here remember it?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:41 AM on January 2, 2017

The whole topic reminds me of an oft-run commercial from my youth.

OMG! I remember this too! I can still hear that guy asking me if I knew that "...the original was the Polovetzian Dance #2 by Borodin?" (I didn't but always wondered was a "polyvetzian" was.)

But as the commercial states, the LPs were only $11.98 (and the tapes---cassette or 8-track---were $14.98). Surprisingly, that included shipping.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:50 AM on January 2, 2017

It's embarrassing how much classical music I know only through Stanley Kubrick films.
posted by cazoo at 15:18 on January 1

Probably the best excuse I'll ever have to post this
posted by ethand at 9:48 AM on January 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

There was a Lexus commercial from the late 90s or very early 00s that used a snippet of Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from his ballet Romeo and Juliet. Very dark, black & white, with the cars swerving to avoid these giant swinging balls.

I remember that too, although I remember it as being in color...fairly muted colors, with a lot of brown and gray, but color nonetheless. (It's entirely possible my memory is faulty on that point.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:08 AM on January 2, 2017

soundtrack theme used in both Badlands and True Romance

For some reason people say this, but it isn't true. Hans Zimmer paid homage to Malick's far superior film on that more recent movie's soundtrack. Yes, it uses marimbas, and yes, it repeats and builds to a Bolero-esque climax, but it's not the same melody as the 'Gassenhauer' used in Badlands. For comparison, here's Zimmer's You're So Cool from True Romance.
posted by Rash at 3:55 PM on January 2, 2017

soundtrack theme used in both Badlands and True Romance

For some reason people say this, but it isn't true. Hans Zimmer paid homage to Malick's far superior film on that more recent movie's soundtrack. Yes, it uses marimbas, and yes, it repeats and builds to a Bolero-esque climax, but it's not the same melody as the 'Gassenhauer' used in Badlands. For comparison, here's Zimmer's You're So Cool from True Romance.

Now I know what I get this mixed up with.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:01 PM on January 2, 2017