Friday, January 14, 2011

cOoL sTuFf 2!

So I am watching the Lion King (re-mastered) right now, which is amazing!  I know that some people may have mentioned the African influence in the music in this movie already, but I thought I would talk about it a little bit.  When this film was released in 1994, it was the highest grossing film that year taking in $783 million worldwide.  The music was composed by Elton John and the lyricist was Tim Rice, and Hans Zimmer (my favorite composer of movie music) created the original score.  So as I said before, there is some African influence in the music.  If you would like to know more about the film visit this website where I got all of my info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King.  And finally, here is a clip!
I love this part because you see all of the different animals.  You can hear the percussion and call and response in the music, as well as the repetitiveness.  This is the African influence.

Another Disney example of one of the cultures we have studied is Pocahontas.  This movie has a lot of Native American influence.  One good example is the song called "Steady as a Beating Drum".  This song really shows the drum heartbeat, and some vocables as well.


And of course since I'm a cellist, I found a video of a cello quartet playing "Oblivion" by Piazzolla! 

Piazzolla was an amazing Argentine tango composer.  To find out more about him, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81stor_Piazzolla. 
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8 comments:

  1. Emma OstapeckJanuary 16, 2011 at 1:08 PM

    I'm so happy you used Disney movies! I have a greater appreciation for the music in these movies now that we have learned about the musical styles and instruments of these cultures. I really liked the cello piece, also. Cello is such a pretty instrument. Maybe you could ask Mr. Law if you could play this for your chamber ensemble class.

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  2. MariJanuary 17, 2011 at 1:07 PM

    I completely forgot about all those Disney Movies. I'm glad that you used them in your blog. It reminded me of how much our lives and culture has been influenced by other countries.
    I also put a Piazzolla video on my blog too! But this is amazing!!! I agree with Emma (Ostapeck), you should ask Mr. Law to play this for chamber ensemble.

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  3. Kris[ten]January 17, 2011 at 2:27 PM

    Ah yay for Disney movies! I absolutely love the soundtrack for the Lion King, especially the Circle of Life song (and Scar's "Be Prepared"). It's so hard for me to believe that the movie was released in 1994. It makes me feel kind of old.
    I see you said your favorite film composer is Hans Zimmer...Do you listen to a lot of film music? Film music is one of my favorite things ever. Zimmer is a good composer, but my favorite is Danny Elfman. We should get together sometime and talk movie music!

    Also, Piazzolla is awesome. =]

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  4. rebekah.wertzJanuary 17, 2011 at 3:41 PM

    Lion King is my favorite Disney movie! I love that I can relate stuff I've learned about the cultures to the movie now!

    I love the way you used Pocahontas too as it is another one of my favorites!

    The cellist is absolutely wonderful!

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  5. Canceled BlogJanuary 17, 2011 at 5:24 PM

    YAY Disney!! I love Disney movies and Disney World, I've been every year for a long time. So, I loved Lion King I, II and I1/2 Timon and Pumbaa are hilarious no matter what your age. I love the special editions they put out for Lion King I, you can visit their recording studio while they are recording the music and take a tour of Africa! I loved going through the extra credits on that movie.
    I also love Pocahontas, I used to dress up like her and run around the back yard dancing and singing songs from the movie. I love how Disney involves itself fully into the set of their movies and make sure everything is perfect with the music and set before they even begin drawing the cartoons.
    And of course I still think cello is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments ever created. I fell in love with the timbre the first time I heard it. Beautiful piece.

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  6. Katie ThriftJanuary 17, 2011 at 8:06 PM

    Emma, I love that you talked about Disney movies :) looks like its something we all know about. Lion King was always my favorite and I love how I can hear the African influences with in it now.
    Cultural influences of the music in Disney films is actually a frequent topic at my house. Our favorites to talk about are Lion King, Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid (with the 'Island style'). If we wander to the land of western music, we always discuss The Hunchback of Notre Dame, another favorite of mine.

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  7. KatieJanuary 17, 2011 at 10:58 PM

    I love Disney movies. If you think about it, our generation was really exposed to that type of music and culture when we were younger. Maybe that's why hearing African and Native American music isn't so foreign to us.

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  8. Kelly McElrath VanemanJanuary 29, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    I've mentioned this on someone else's blog, but I'm always fascinated by how Disney treats the music of other cultures. They somehow manage to use very real aspects from whatever culture they're representing, but the music always manages to stay very "Disney." It's actually quite impressive. And thank you for the "more information" links--great idea, and very helpful.

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