This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll begin the mercurial month of March with an hour of animated music. Tune in for a sampling of the artistry of cartoon luminaries Carl Stalling (Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, Silly Symphonies) and Scott Bradley (Tom and Jerry, Droopy Dog, Barney Bear), alongside contributions from perhaps an unexpected source – Dmitri Shostakovich.
Shostakovich was about 27 years-old in 1933, when he was hired by experimental animator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky to supply the manic underscore for “The Priest and His Hired Worker Balda.” Visionary though he was, Tsekhanovsky probably didn’t count on just how manic Shostakovich could be. The composer’s inspiration flowed like water down the Neva, and Tsekhanovsky struggled to keep up, all the while pushing himself to create images worthy of his collaborator.
Then, in 1936, following the debut of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Shostakovich was condemned by the Soviet authorities in an infamous “Muddle Instead of Music” denunciation in Pravda, and the composer decided he had better cool his jets. The potentially inflammatory Symphony No. 4 went into a drawer, and he halted work on the film, which he had already been involved with, on and off, for nearly three years. When the denunciation came, he was in the process of wholly reorchestrating the existing music, at the studio’s request, for smaller forces.
While the feature would remain unfinished, Tsekhanovsky compiled what he had – some 40 minutes in all – and the work was put into storage at the Lenfilm archives. Unfortunately, nearly all of it would be destroyed by fire during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1941.
Only the bizarre bazaar scene survives. I’m willing to bet this clip will haunt the rest of your day.
We’ll hear selections from Shostakovich’s score, shorn of the nightmare carnival imagery. We’ll also hear music he composed for the 1940 short “The Tale of the Silly Little Mouse.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETGWHc2-ziI
The hour will conclude with excerpts from Disney’s groundbreaking “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” featuring songs by Frank Churchill & Larry Morley and underscore by Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline.
Aaa-OOOGAH!! That’s an hour of music from the golden age of animation on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)
Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!
