Elizabeth, the Royal Consort of King George VI (father of Queen Elizabeth II), was the last Empress of India, and only woman in history to have been the daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, wife, and mother of Soveregns of the British Throne.
Well, they got to the point where they were discussing the celebration of "The Queen Mum's" 80th birthday, and suddenly I heard Royal Coronation music in the background.
Out loud (to the Cat on the End of the Sofa), I said, "Now, is that Orb and Scpepter, or is that Crown Imperial?" I knew it had to be one or the other … it was one of the two marches written by Sir William Walton.
It was obviously the music for Edward VI's Coronation (that you hear in all those WW-II movies), but I couldn't remember the title because Walton also wrote the music for Elizabeth II's Coronation … the only composer in history to write the music for two of Corinations.
Anywho, I had to get my CD that has both, and confirmed that I had gotten it wrong for the umpteenth time … it was Crown Imperial. And since I'd gone through the trouble of finding it among my collection, I had to listen to both of them, because I laike them both … for different reasons.
And that got me to thinking about my favorite pieces of 20th Century music, and I realized that at the age of 52, I realized that my tastes in Classical music had been drawn to very short pieces (fanfares and marches) and passages or movements from longer works, such as ballets and operas. Is the MTV Generation's Short Attention Span (SAS) manifesting itself as part of my second childhood (thereby proving that the effect of changes is caused by the technological environment rather than a genetic predisposition, which would have implied that succeding generations would be even less retentive of large inputs)?
But let's not go there … the point is that I soon got into D.J. mode, and started coming up with a PlayList of my favorite pieces of 20th Century music.
…
Eventually, I remember seeing Chuck Jones' What's Opera Doc?" (the 1956 cartoon with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd) twice in the last 24 hours. This is the one with the very Wagnerian motif where Elmer sings, "Kill the wabbit! Kill The Wabbit! KILL THE WABBIT!!" while brandishing his spear and threatening Bugs with the power of his Magic Helment (with Viking horns on it, of course). Bugs disguises himself as Brunhilde (blond pigtails, hubcaps for a bra, and a helment with wings instead of horns), who captures Elmer's heart, and together they sing a love duet to Wagner's music.
Now I'm such a Wagner nut that I recognized (1) the opening overture is the one from The Flying Dutchman, (2) "Kill the wabbit!" is sung to the theme of the Valkuries from The Ring Cycle, (3) the dance in the middle is the Venusburg theme from Tannhauser, and (4) their love duet is sung to one of the Pilgrim hymns, also from Tannhauser.
So, it looks like a parody of Sigmund and Brunhilde from The Ring Cycle, but except for short, repetitious themes, little of its music is used … for the most part, it's Tannhauser and Dutchman.
Anywho, I got to looking for my Wagner CDs to add themes from What's Opera Doc?" when suddenly I remembered … I don't think I have any excerts from The Flying Dutchman … I know I don't have the complete opera, but I might have the Overture on one of my "music from films" discs.
Last update: 2002-04-09 by Dennette@WiZ-WORX.com