Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune

Subject: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 31 May 03 - 08:03 PM

This tune is familiar but I can't place its name or composer. Can anyone identify this tune?
X:54
T:Looking for Identity of this Tune
M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:240
S:Warsaw Ed
K:C
CEG|CEG|CEG|EGc|BA(G|G3)|zGF|DB,G,|B,DA|GF(E|E2)z:|
AFC|A,CA|GEC|G,CG|FDB,|G,B,D|FED|C3:|
CEG|CEG|CEG|EGc|BA(G|G)GF|DB,G,|B,DA|GF(E|E3):|

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 09:12 PM

Post again after Mudcat shutdown

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Jun 03 - 09:30 PM

I pasted it into Tune a Tron and don't recognize it. Site will play a MIDI while you watch the sheet music.

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 12:07 AM

Well, that link didn't work, I'll try again for the main site.

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 12:10 AM

Main site--Tune a Tron Paste in this, not the above.

X:1
T:Unknown
M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:240
K:C
CEG|CEG|CEG|EGc|BA(G|G3)|zGF|DB,G,|B,DA|GF(E|E2)z:|
AFC|A,CA|GEC|G,CG|FDB,|G,B,D|FED|C3:|
CEG|CEG|CEG|EGc|BA(G|G)GF|DB,G,|B,DA|GF(E|E3):|

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 01:51 AM

It sounds a lot like
Music Box Dancer

Not exactly the same but similar in a lot of ways.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 02:07 PM

Another Mudcat success and, as usual, in a minimum of time. Thank you Helen, that's the tune I was looking for.   It was played as background on a joke and cartoon site [Debs Fun Page] but not identified, and an Email to the web site drew no response.   My ABC notation isn't all that great, but it got the job done.    Can that tune be played on the harp [or two harps]?    And thanks to you Sorcha for your efforts.    Maybe this ABC notation is a closer effort to the tune. [Taken from the NoteWorthy Player screen of the MIDI link from Helen.

X:57
T:Music Box Dancer
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:240
S:Frank Mills MIDI
K:C
V:1 clef=treble
z7c|cGcecegc|c'bagg2z2|gfdBGBdf|ecagg2zc|
V:2 clef=treble
CEGEcGEG|CEGcEGcG|FAcfCEGc| G,B,DGB,DGD|CEcGEGcG|
V:1
cGcecegc|c'bagg2z2|gfdBGBdB|cGecc2zc|
V:2
CEGcEGcG|FAcfCEGc|G,B,DGB,DGD|CEGcEGcG,|
V:1
cGcecegc|c'baggg2z2|
V:2
CG,[CE][CE]G,G,[CE]C|F,F,[A,C]G,CG,[CE]D|

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 06:23 PM

Ed,

I was thinking the exact same thing when I listened to the tune again. In fact I was going to print it out and give it a go on my harp today.

Yes, I just looked at it in Noteworthy and there are no accidentals, so I think it would work pretty well on the harp.

I often listen to music box music and wonder how it would sound on the harp. The arrangements are simple but effective.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 07 Jun 03 - 04:51 PM

Helen - Let us know how the harp session goes. Ed

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 07 Jun 03 - 11:40 PM

Yes Ed, I just had a quick try-out of the tune and it works well on the harp. Easy melody and chord patterns.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 12:19 AM

Has anyone else noticed that if you play it backwards it's almost Glenn Miller's In the Mood?

John

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: GUEST,Jeger
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 01:11 AM

Just gotta say that this is the melody that one of the Ice cream vehicles plays when it goes through our neighborhood. I am not sure whether it is Good Humor or another brand. There are a couple of different ones. The other uses "It's a And it has been hot here, for western Oregon. It was a must have been 98. I always wondered what tune that was. Because in spite of hearing it frequently I like it.   COOL!
Thanks

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: GUEST,Jeger
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 01:14 AM

Sorry about the typos. I am not used to posting and hit the button to fast on the last post. I think the other Ice cream melody is "It's a grand world after all" or something like that. I am not sure that is the exact title. But this melody is better if you have to here it again and again as the truck drives through.

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 05:58 AM

"It's a small world after all"?

One of our ice cream vans plays a tune I don't recognise, but the recording is a bit tinny and it sounds terrible. The tune is okay but the sound quality makes it sound funny/comical.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 08:41 AM

It doesn't sound like anything I know. I think it's missing several bars, but it definitely enough to get a feel for the tune. I'd agree with Helen that it sounds like something on a music box (or ice cream truck?). Sounds like a Viennese waltz a music box I once had played.

Oh where are our Viennese (or Austrian or German or Swedish or...) waltz experts?

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 11:08 AM

We don't have an ice cream truck anymore.........sob, sob.

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 12:53 PM

OK, John, I'll bite - how did you get it to play backwards?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 02:09 PM

Day late and a dollar short. I completely missed Ed saying it WAS Music Box Dancer. Swear I read the thread, but I must have zoned out while doing so.

I don't think it sounds like in the mood, but it's rather nice backwards. Joe, just type the tune part of the ABCs in backwards. Like this:

X:1
T:Unknown
M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:240
K:C
|(E3|E)FG|ADB,|G,B,D|FG(G|G)AB|cGE|GEC|GEC|GEC|GEC:|
C3|DEF|D|B,G,|B,DF|GCG,|GEC|ACA,|CFA:|
z|(E2|E)FG|ADB,|FGz|(G3|G)AB|cGE|GEC|GEC|GEC:|

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 04:01 PM

Joe -

One of our guitarists happens to like the "Music Box Dancer" tune, but can never remember how to get it started. I couldn't either, until I happened to notice the similarity - it's a 3-note sequence down a chord riff, repeated in 4-beat time, to give a beat that shifts relative to the "run." Same thing as "In the Mood," except ITM goes up on 3 notes of the triad - in 4/4 time.

It's more of a "mental exercise," but it lets me get the first 4 or 5 bars out so he can pick up the tune. Of course, if you wind your music box backward...(?).

John

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 07:05 PM

Just when I think I know something about music, someone comes along and confounds me (grin):

'it's a 3-note sequence down a chord riff, repeated in 4-beat time, to give a beat that shifts relative to the "run."'

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 07:11 PM

Well, yes, Jeri, one could type the whole thing in reverse - but I was looking for a less teejus way of doing it....
[grin]
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jun 03 - 08:48 PM

Guess you found it then: get someone ELSE to type it in backwards!

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 01:00 AM

I seem to recall one of our members has a program that will do strange things like playing tunes backward and upside down. Something like "Harmedly?" or somethin'. Guess I should look it up again, since I never gave it much of a tryout.

Inspired by the thread, I did a quicky Google on the tune, and find that it's apparently written by Frank Mills, ca. 1974, as noted in Warsaw Ed's MIDI above. Mills seems maybe(?) to be a "living artist," and there are scores available in a couple of his books. His stuff seems to be mostly published as "easy piano pieces," (One of which is named "Music Box Dancer") so I'll hold onto the good intention of looking for it on my next trip to the fancy music shop that might have such stuff. I'm curious about how much the "bluegrass" version my jam group plays has been mangled from the "original."

John

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 02:54 AM

John,

I wouldn't worry too much about potential "mangling" because as I recall, Frank Mills and His Orchestra specialised in dance music, i.e. popular ballroom type of dancing, as enjoyed by my parents and their contemporaries. Mills was never considered to be a composer or practitioner of music of an extremely *serious* nature, and Music Box Dancer is a good example of a simple melody and effective arrangement which appealed to a very wide range of people. I consider it to be a very clever piece which crossed a lot of musical boundaries. It's main problem was that so many people fell in love with it that it got overplayed ad nauseum when it was released, so it's charm began to wear thin.

Believe me, I am not trying to cast nasturtiums on his work, but just trying to put it into context.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: GUEST,Jeger
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 03:28 AM

If the melody means Ice Cream on a HOT day to a bunch of kids, then it is suddenly not so nauseous. I just heard the melody at a distance again this afternoon. :-)

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Warsaw Ed
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 12:40 AM

Helen - "cast nasturtiums" Now that's a classy, cultured phrase. I wonder how that phrase originated. The phrase dictionary say it's a pun on "cast aspersions" But there is a flower "Nasturitium" and there's nothing particularly derogatory about it - Maybe this aside belongs in the non-musical group. Ed

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: Helen
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:53 AM

Ed, it's just a play on the similar sounds of the two words, but I like it because I always see a mental picture of someone throwing red, orange & yellow flowers on someone else.

Helen

Subject: RE: Origins: Looking for Identity of this tune
From: GUEST,Jeger
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 04:31 AM

it's a 3-note sequence down a chord riff, repeated in 4-beat time, to give a beat that shifts relative to the "run."
This is interesting. I wonder how it would be with lyrics.
It would be an interesting exercise like writing down a sentence and stressing different words each time.
I can do it
I CAN do it
I can DO it
I can do IT.