“Name Three Composers Who Defined Cartoon Music”

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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 when the subject turns to music.  Which is pretty strange when you think of how important music is to the manic power of cartoons.  (Try watching a few of your favorites with the sound off and you’ll begin to see what I mean.)  Still, the fact remains: In 50 years of cartoon history, only two truly identifiable musical voices have emerged.

There’s  Carl Stalling at Warner Bros., who wove together brilliant orchestral pastiches—often rivaling the mad montages of Charles Ives— to accompany the antics of Bugs, Daffy and the rest.

And then there’s Hoyt Curtin at Hanna-Barbera.  Like Stalling, Curtin called upon the dominant musical form of his day—in Hoyt’s case, the big band sounds of the forties and fifties—and translated it into a series of themes and scores that are maddeningly catchy, effortlessly funny, and utterly unmistakable.  You can tell a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from across the street, just by hearing a few strains of music.

Hoyt Curtin’s music jumps out at you and wraps itself around that part of your brain where the giddy, childlike pleasures live. It nudges and jolts and eggs the action on.  It’s as bright and instantly recognizable as the Hanna-Barbera  color palliate.  That’s called style.

To hear what I’m talking about, try and find a copy of Rhino Records’ Hanna-Barbera’s Pic-a-Nic Basket of Cartoon Classics, or click here for sample. Just put that collection on your player, and then sit back and get ready to enjoy a prolonged involuntary grin.  (How long has it been since you’ve had that experience?)

“Name Three Composers Who Defined Cartoon Music” 
Essay #4 (of 15)
Original essay written by Bill Burnett, Creative Director, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, 1993-1996