Many think the same of the SUPERMAN theme ("da-da-da-da-daaaaa, SU-PER-MAN"), as well as Williams' theme for NBC's Sunday Night Football ("It's Sunday Night Football, da-da-da-da-da-da"). And then there's Bill Murray's famous "STAR WARS, nothing but STAAAAR WARS!". In most cases, though, it's a matter of reading linguistic figures into the music that are unintentional from the composer, the aural equivalent of pareidolia, in a way.
On a serious note: interesting notion, although I think most of it is sheer coincidence. Goldsmith once commented how he couldn't write lyrics himself, calling lyricists 'magical' (or worlds to that effect). I'm sure he didn't write themes with words in his mind.
O the other hand, you can't imagine Williams writing the Superman march with anneals that ta-ta-ta ta-daaa SU-PER-MAN in his mind. There's even an anekdote in the liner notes of Robert Kral's Superman: Doomsday of how the four-note superman theme came to be. You couldn't sing Superman to it!
Can you imagine John Williams doing that to his orchestra to try and get the idea across to them?
Hehe, I was thinking the same thing.
By the way, I have heard stories of composers having to hum or whistle their themes to orchestrators because they can't do musical notation. I would love to hear those demos.
Some composers work that way. I'm sure I've posted this before, but here's Matt Berry talking about Ronnie Hazlehurst and mentioning that the theme from LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE incorporates the title into the melody.
I don't what came first but I grew up with that wild Bugs Bunny cartoon with Red Riding Hood and da-da da-da da da da dada..and only later in life added the lyrics, "The 5 O'Clock whistle's on the blink...", but to this day it's scotch the lyrics and go for the phonetics, esp. VERY LOUDLY when no one's around and I'm caught in the mood. Hey, Grandma LOL!
Some composers work that way. I'm sure I've posted this before, but here's Matt Berry talking about Ronnie Hazlehurst and mentioning that the theme from LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE incorporates the title into the melody.
I wonder what John Williams's inspiration was when he wrote substantially the same theme for The Reivers
I for one am glad you did. Can't speak for everyone, though!
So am I
Okay. Here's a theory.
Some curse words work better than others. I've always thought that that's mostly because of the sound they make. And it's why certain euphemistic alternatives won't work.
After seeing this, I truly think that the reason why the 'WTF' works so well is because of the same reason the Jurassic Park themes conveys wonder and suprise. John Malkovich use of it in Burn After Reading may be proof of that as well. It's almost like a musical motiv.
On a serious note: interesting notion, although I think most of it is sheer coincidence. Goldsmith once commented how he couldn't write lyrics himself, calling lyricists 'magical' (or worlds to that effect). I'm sure he didn't write themes with words in his mind.
O the other hand, you can't imagine Williams writing the Superman march with anneals that ta-ta-ta ta-daaa SU-PER-MAN in his mind. There's even an anekdote in the liner notes of Robert Kral's Superman: Doomsday of how the four-note superman theme came to be. You couldn't sing Superman to it!
We're missing out a small yet significant example of this process - James Bernard's oft-touched upon theme for his score to the Hammer classic, Dracula.