Tag: soundtrack

Show Yourself (from “Frozen II”)

Featured in the 2019 Disney film Frozen II, “Show Yourself” recounts Elsa examining her past and the source of powers. The song has compared to the anthem “Let It Go” from the hugely successful 2013 movie Frozen, and hits on many of the same themes of self-acceptance and discovery. Composer Kristen Anderson-Lopez said that her 14-year old daughter was sobbing after the first time she heard the song. “It feels like you’re telling me I can follow my gut and find my own path,’” Anderson-Lopez remembered her saying. “That’s the success of this movie for me. If she can’t hear it from her mom in daily life, she can hear it from her mom through a Disney movie she wrote.”

The music combines cinematic depth and musical theatre sophistication, incorporating other motifs from the score and reflecting Elsa’s evolution over the course of the number. Beginning in F# major, a modulation to G major leads into the second verse at 1:51, followed by a shift to Eb minor at the bridge at 3:27. A modulation up to Ab sets up the final chorus at 3:51.

I’d Rather Be Sailing (from “A New Brain”)

“I’d Rather Be Sailing” is from the 1998 Off-Broadway musical A New Brain, with music and lyrics by William Finn. The show, which traces the story of a composer grappling with an illness he fears may be terminal, is autobiographical. Finn himself was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in 1992, and made a successful and full recovery. This song, performed here by Jonathan Groff and Aaron Lazar, is sung in the show by Gordon, the composer, and his boyfriend Roger, daydreaming about day spent on the sea. A half step modulation from F to Gb occurs at 1:32.

John Powers | Test Drive (from “How To Train Your Dragon”)

“Test Drive” is a cue from John Powers’ Academy Award-nominated score for the 2010 Dreamworks film How To Train Your Dragon, accompanying the moment that Hiccup first rides his dragon, Toothless. “I was certainly trying to get a bit more epic,” Powers said in an interview discussing his score. “I just felt the animation and the visuals were giving me a broader palette to play with. As a kid I remember watching The Vikings with Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas, and I always liked that score.

“[The directors] were really very specific a lot of the time. They did want size and depth and emotion. They wanted a feeling of the Nordic musical past. You could say the symphonic musical past was Nielson, the Danish symphonist. Sibelius. Grieg to a certain extent, although I think he was a little bit more Germanic than he was Nordic.

“We looked at all the folk music from the Nordic areas. And I’m part Scottish and grew up with a lot of Scottish folk music, so that came into it a lot.”

Multiple critics named it as the best score of the year, though Powell ultimately lost the Oscar to The Social Network. The cue begins in D major, and at 1:21 becomes somewhat tonally ambiguous before the sky clears into E major at 1:53.

Key + Peele | The Power of Wings

When it comes to comedy duo Key and Peele, “the title comedians are surprisingly good singers,” (Screenrant). The sketches on Comedy Central’s Key & Peele series “ran the gamut from touching on politics or race to skits on famous movies or TV shows. The pair also had some spot-on parodies of music artists, from the hilarious ‘Ray Parker Theme Songs’ – where the Ghostbusters singer reveals a catalog of horrible, unused themes for other movies – to ‘Outkast Reunion,’ where Andre 3000 and Big Boi awkwardly cross paths. Key & Peele remains a treasure trove of great sketches, with the show coming to an end back in 2015. While Keegan-Michael Key has continued to act, Jordan Peele has mostly retired from performing to step behind the camera, reinventing himself as a horror auteur with movies like Get Out.”

Wendell, a nerd and comic book fan of the highest order, is a recurring K+P character. But “Wings” took him to the next level of fantasy: If a Lord of the Rings Fandom Con had a baby with a power metal band, this video might be the result.

Unfortunately, the video’s modest budget is drained very visibly to zero dollars just before the bridge. Thereafter, even the half-step modulation at 1:53 and an “E for Effort” aren’t enough to save Wendell.

Theme from “Barney Miller”

The Boston Phoenix reviewed the sitcom Barney Miller (1975-1982) as best-in-class TV. “Aside from The Honeymooners, Barney Miller was the sit-com that most approximated a one-act play. Almost every episode took place in one room of a rundown, filthy police station in Greenwich Village. Barney Miller managed to develop its main characters without showing their home lives (or their bare butts), thanks to perceptive writing and scenes that were long enough for actors to breathe.”

The theme is introduced by and built around the electric bass. NoTreble, one of the internet’s most comprehensive sites for all things bass-centric, profiles the session musician whose sound was featured: “As a member of the Wrecking Crew, Chuck Berghofer helped change the sound of popular music. His big, warm bass sound has laid the foundation for artists from A to Z with recordings by Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Christina Aguilera, Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, and more. It has also set the mood on over 400 movies like Rocky, True Crime, Bird, and The Majestic.”

ArnoldFaberVibeman.com adds: “The team of Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson wrote this theme. Elliott was musical director for the Grammys for thirty consecutive years, Judy Garland‘s musical director, and creator of the Henry Mancini Institute as well as composer of many, many television and movie scores. Ferguson was among the founders of the Dick Grove School Of Music, musical director for Julie Andrews, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Johnny Mathis, as well as scoring for countless TV series and movies … When you heard that funky solo bass line, you knew what you were in for! (It) has all the elements of the show in that opening line and then, as soon as you get into the groove, all hell breaks loose with that trumpet. It’s hip, cornball AND nostalgic all at the same time.”

Clocking in at just over a minute, the theme features two modulations. At both 0:42 and 0:52, there are minor third shifts upwards.

Laura Osnes, Meghann Fahy | My Heart Is Split

“My Heart Is Split” is from the experimental 2007 musical The Freshmen Experiment by Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk. Envisioned as a story based on the lives of two young bloggers who are sharing the story of their first year at college, the show was not ultimately produced, but the songs that were written continue to be performed. The song modulates from F to G at 3:18.

Cross That Bridge (from “Schmigadoon!”)

Schmigadoon!, a comedy TV series that premiered on Apple TV+ last month, is a parody of and homage to Golden Age musicals from the 1940s and 50s. “Schmigadoon! is nothing if not corny,” said Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk in her review. “It is a backstage musical (like Cabaret or Follies, a musical about putting on a show) that’s stuck in the world of integrated musicals, shows like Oklahoma! or Sound of Music, where songs are naturalistic extensions of the narrative’s emotional arc. In other words, it is a show where the only real way to register your feelings about being trapped in the aesthetics and the morality of a Golden Age musical is to burst into song about how weird and frustrating it all is. And really, what could be cornier than eventually giving in and singing about the transformative power of love (and also musicals)?”

“Cross That Bridge” is from the third episode of the show, and takes its inspiration from the Frank Loesser songs “Brotherhood of Man” (from his 1961 musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying) and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat” (from the 1950 musical Guys & Dolls). The tune features modulations at 1:58 and 2:14.

So Much Better (from “Legally Blonde”)

We conclude our week-long series on Legally Blonde with “So Much Better,” the Act 1 finale. After breaking up with Elle, Warner proposes to his new girlfriend Vivienne right in front of Elle, leaving her devastated. Immediately after, however, Professor Callahan posts the list of who has been selected for his highly coveted internship positions, and Elle makes the cut. She realizes that life is about more than just one guy, and she has more potential than she previously knew. Key changes at 0:38, 0:51, 1:03, 1:29, 1:41, 2:04, 2:28, 2:37, and 2:50.

Legally Blonde (from “Legally Blonde”)

The fourth installment in our week-long series on Legally Blonde:

The title song from the musical comes in Act 2. After Elle makes a discovery in the courtroom that is crucial to helping Callahan’s case defending Brook Windham, he asks the rest of his defense team to leave and forcibly kisses Elle; she responds by slapping him, and Callahan fires her from the case. Elle starts to question if Callahan ever really respected her for her intellect and whether she should stay at Harvard. Key changes at 0:49, 1:06, 1:23, 2:07, 2:23, and 2:42.

Whipped Into Shape (from “Legally Blonde”)

“Whipped Into Shape,” the third installment of our Legally Blonde series, opens Act 2 of the show and introduces us to Brooke Windham, a fitness instructor who has been accused of murder and is being defended by Elle’s tutor Professor Callahan. Key changes at 2:34, 3:06, 3:13, 3:21, 3:29, 3:37, and 3:54.