Well, the mystery has been solved, as least, it seems so. Once again, my friend Buffy has saved the day. You may remember her sleuthing skills from the mystery of the Infernal Gallup. Now, she's helped us figure out what the hell that spooky, sneaky cartoon music is. A ringtone of the song is listed as "Cartoon Creeping Music" at AudioSparx. The real title turns out to be an appropriately-named composition called The Villain's Theme, and Amazon.Com credits it to Al Weber (and his Repetitious 88 Keys). However, the packaging on the "Memories" collection "Silent Film Music" available at Amazon credits him as Al Webber (with two b's).
Thing is, I don't think that Mr. Web(b)er is the originator of the piece, since this album, released in 1995, features music from other composers, all credited to Al (I don't think he can take credit for the William Tell Overture, for example). I think Webber and his Repetitious Keys performed all the tunes in this collection, but the piece was penned by somebody else. We also don't know how old it is yet. It could have been published anywhere from the late 19th Century to the early 1930s if it did feature in silent films.
The internets don't seem to have anything on this Al Webber guy, nor his 88 Repetitious Keys. Searches yield results for "A.L. Webber," but I don't imagine that the high-profile Andrew Lloyd Webber had to do compilation CDs for extra cash in the '90s. If anyone has any feedback or more information on this composition, please leave a comment!
Artist: Al Webber (and his 88 Repetitious Keys); composer unknown
Year: c. 19th Century to 1930s
Rating: Warm
Thanks, Buffy, for your ever present diligence, curiosity, and mad research skills!
im amazed how she found the al weber connection. how the hell do you id songs? i am frustrated by the radio esp when driving. (recently i drove a rental and the digital signal somehow encoded the artist and title and displayed it while playing. love it!) anyway, doing other searches based on buffys findings saw that its possible that there is no composer for the villains theme. its possible that it was a sort of collective melody passed on from one composer to the other...
ReplyDeleteHey Hahna! Yeah, Buffy is a gem with internet research. She thinks outside the box. I came up with nothing looking for "spooky cartoon music," etc. but she nailed it. I love those digital tuners too!
ReplyDeleteWhat gives you the impression that the song may have a collective origin, or that it's unclaimed? Curious...
quote 1: "I think if it were a straightforward classical lift one of us would have found the source. My best guess is that it evolved out of Zamecnik's "Mysterioso - Burglar Music 1" in Sam Fox Moving Picture Music Volume 1 (scroll down for link to MIDI), which was published in 1913 and was apparently the first widely distributed collection of silent film music. I'll be interested to see if someone can do better!"
ReplyDeletequote 2: Before my grandfather went to work for the Warner brothers as their accountant (and later Exec. VP Treasurer), he played nickelodeon piano for silent films in New York. He played only for a short period of time but really well, and he couldn't read a note of music. Most of the silent movie piano players in the city would share and swap themes, learn from each other, steal from each other, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I'm guessing it was passed around during those early formative days, just like a folk song was passed around. A note was changed here, a melody line there, and eventually it crept into the public conscience as a "known ditty." Yet, nobody knows exactly where it came from or who wrote it.
source of both quotes from this forum page: http://bit.ly/aMpI5u
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking more deeply into it, Hahna! Fascinating stuff. I love hearing about origins of songs/memes etc that just evolve through use and repetition.
ReplyDeleteIt is originally known as "Mysterioso Pizzicato" possibly written by James Bodewalt Lampe, 1914)
ReplyDeletehey, Anonymous! Thanks for the additional information about the possible authorship! And my regrets for missing this comment when you posted it back in August!
ReplyDeletehttp://illfolks.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/ill-ustrated-songs-27-villains-theme.html
ReplyDelete