Track Teardown of Moment Musical - Raymond Scott

"Moment Musical" - Raymond Scott

Album: The Music Of Raymond Scott - Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights

Genre: Jazz

Style: Swing

Released: 1992

Background Information

"Moment Musical" is a track composed by Raymond Scott and is a track featured in his album, The Music of Raymond Scott - Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights. Raymond Scott was an American composer and is known to be "the man who made cartoon swing", due to his his melodies used in many cartoons since the 1940s (Chusid, 2012). In 1943, Scott sold his publishing rights to the Warner Bros. Music and WB music director, Carl Stalling, liked his music so much that he used his music in a lot of his cartoon scores. "Moment Musical" was used in the cartoon series Ren & Stimpy (Chusid, 2012) and many of his compositions were used in other famous cartoons such as The Aristo-Cat, Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, some of The Simpsons' episodes, and his compositions were also used for commercials.

Arrangement

Time Signature: 4/4 BPM: Approx. 128.55

This is a 73-bar track which goes for a length of 2mins and 14 seconds. It uses various combinations of the 7 different sections in the song which are the sections A, B, C, D, the Drum Break, Climatic sections and an outro. Using this method of mixing up different sections helps to engage the audience, as well as to suit a cartoon sound track, as cartoons tend to have fast paced and comedic actions going on all the time.

To make the arrangement a bit more organised, I've identified each section depending on what degree on the scale they are playing in. In section A, the 6th degree on the scale is played, B plays the 2nd degree, C playing the 1st degree in major, and D playing both 3rd and 6th degree.

In the first 11 bars of the song, we are introduced to Sections A and B. In section A (Bar 1-5, 0:00-0:07). Section A is played by 2 soft clarinets, a double bass, the light percussion at the back and later, joined by a muted trumpet. The double bass and the drum/percussion play in the back for the entire track to help keep the fast pace going as well as the tempo. This section helps the audience identify the feel of the song as it is fast paced, and with the instruments playing, it helps them to associate cartoons/animations to this track. Section B then joins after (Bar 5-6, 0:07-0:09) with the same instruments and has a descending chord progression to lead to section A again. This A and B section repeats twice for a total of 11 bars which end in section A, only playing for 1 bar.

Section C (Bar 12, 0:21) is then introduced and plays the 1st degree of the scale. The two soft clarinets drop out of the mix and a saxophone and the muted trumpet play for the first 4 bars of the section. For the next 4 bars, a clarinet then plays a solo while the 2 other instruments play as support in the background (bar 16, 0:28). This goes for a length of 8 bars which then leads to a new section.

In bar 20 (0:36), Section D continues with the clarinet playing the main melody while the muted trumpet and saxophone accompany the instrument but are now playing in the 3rd and 6th degree of a scale. This section is 2 bars long and then ties Section C straight after (bar 22, 0:39), with the same clarinet solo and accompaniment again. This 2 sections (Section D: bar 24, 0:43 Section C: bar 26, 0:47) repeat again but this time, with the saxophone being the main solo instrument with the clarinet and muted trumpet being the accompaniment. Section C is the last section to play before the drum break but is cut short, as the new section starts on the 4th beat of section C's last bar.

The drum break begins at bar 27.4 (the last bar of Section C, 0:50), and consists of a drum solo. This section is 8.1 bars long and the clarinet and saxophone play two short notes in three different parts of the section, to help keep up the fast pace of the song. The end of the drum section ends with hits on some cymbals for listeners to hear that the drum break is ending, which leads to the A section.

In bar 36 (1:05), the A Section is introduced again but in 3 semitones lower (B minor). Both the clarinet and saxophone are playing together for the first 8 bars of the section until a harsher muted trumpet then is introduced with its solo while the two instruments play as accompaniment for the rest of the section.

Section B (bar 48, 1:27), the same instruments from the previous section still play but play in the 2nd degree of a scale. This section lasts for 3.3 bars and is cut off 2 beats before the bar ends by the climatic section.

The climatic section at bar 51.3 (1:34) has all the instruments holding the G minor note (3rd degree of a scale), where then the clarinet plays the main melody over the others holding the note. This section is only 2.2 bars long and this section then leads to the A section again.

This A section in bar 54 (1:38) plays again but now in a semitone higher (C minor). The clarinet plays solo which began in the climatic section and flowed through to this section, with the saxophone and the muted trumpet playing as support again. This Section A is shorter than the previous A as it only goes for 2 bars, and has Section B following again (bar 56, 1:42) but only for 1 bar. This then leads to another climatic section (bar 57, 1:44) where the clarinet still plays as solo and where it goes for a length of 3 bars.

The drum break is introduced again after the climatic section at bar 60 (1:50) and only the hi-hats are being played both closed and open. All three instruments play 1 sharp notes in two places within this section and in unison, like the previous drum break. This drum break goes for 2 bars and ends with the drums played on an open hit hat and leads straight to the original Section A.

In bar 62 (1:53), Section A plays once again but in its original key of D minor and the 2 soft clarinets are brought back into the mix. Halfway through this section, the muted trumpet plays a solo part again which then leads to the B section again in bar 66 (2:01) which is in the 2nd degree of a scale. After the 1 bar of the B section, Section A is brought back again at bar 67 (2:03). This same pattern with the B section following right after happens again with the same instruments.

After the B Section, an outro is played at bar 72 (2:12) and goes for one bar, to end the track. In the beginning of the outro, all the instruments except the muted trumpet is cut for the trumpet to play the last couple of notes, until all the instruments come back to play the one D note on the 3.5 beat of bar 72, to end it with a clean one-hit finish.

Breakdown of Instruments

This track has about 8 instruments playing with majority of them being woodwind or brass instruments. The instruments in this track are the drums/percussion, double bass, the 2 soft clarinets, a solo clarinet, a saxophone, a muted trumpet and a harsher muted trumpet. These instruments as well as how they were being played are some of the most common elements in Jazz as this tracks seems to use a bit of improvisation in some of the instrument's solos, and also change melodies quite often (Barlar, 2018), as not a lot of the sections sound the same. Because this is a jazz track and jazz was from the 1920s, this has an analog, lo-fi sound to it and sounded like it was from a vinyl record, which gave it that jazz 1920s aesthetic.

This track also has a cartoonish feel to it as the tempo is up beat, it's in both major and minor chords, and it's repetitive. The switching between major and minor chords associates with cartoon characters as they can be adorable but can get up to mischief at times so this tracks helps portray that. Brass instruments such as the muted trumpet are a common instrument used in cartoon music and throughout this track, there are a lot of descending notes, which are also a common characteristic in cartoon music.

There are 3 key changes throughout this track with the climatic sections to divide them. They serve to heighten the tension and for the audience to recognise that something big or unexpected is about to happen each time it changes key, which there are many scenes in cartoons that show this. For the drum breaks, they also help the climatic sections to divide the different key changes that happen within the track. They also seem to suit the action/fighting scenes in cartoons as well as the the little sharp notes that instruments play, which together helps build tension.

In all, the use of instruments and how they were arranged in the track were all appropriate for the genre and the platform that Raymond Scott was aiming for.

Summary of Teardown

"Moment Musical" by Raymond Scott would be an excellent reference track for anyone looking to compose soundtracks for cartoons or any animated films as this track along with many of his compositions help to exploit humour in cartoons. For my 2nd Main Project, I'm working with some games students and I've got given the task to compose a theme song to play in the background of the game and from analysing this track, I feel this would be a good track to use as a reference. I've also learnt from this track teardown that cartoon music doesn't have to be boring or have to be in major chords and that it's common to have instruments improvise, as I used to think no one would pay attention to background music of a cartoon so everything had to be bland. I'm about halfway through completing my composition and it's been fun trying to create music for a different media as I haven't done it before. I appreciate music compositions for cartoons more now and am starting to like composing for animation.

References

Barlar, N. (2018). What Is Jazz? - History, Characteristics & Instruments. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-jazz-history-characteristics-instruments.html

Chusid, I. (2012). Raymond Scott. Retrieved from http://www.raymondscott.net/faq/

Chusid, I. (2012). The Ren & Stimpy Show. Retrieved from http://www.raymondscott.net/cartoons/ren-and-stimpy-show/

Chusid, I. (2012). Warner Bros. Cartoons. Retrieved from http://www.raymondscott.net/cartoons/warner-bros-cartoons/

Discogs. (2018). Raymond Scott ‎– The Music Of Raymond Scott - Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights. Retrieved from https://www.discogs.com/Raymond-Scott-The-Music-Of-Raymond-Scott-Reckless-Nights-And-Turkish-Twilights/release/8811759