Mickey-mousing – the close synchronisation of music and image, as in classic animated films – has a bad reputation for being a simplistic and pointless duplication of the image. But it becomes interesting when we ask ourselves how exactly the music relates to the world of image and sound.

00:00 Intro
00:35 The cinematic functions of sound
03:00 Breaking through the sound barrier
08:40 “Harmful duplication”
12:18 Tom-and-Jerrying
15:47 Rhythm for ears and eyes
19:11 Animated patterns

Music fragments:

04:34 Cathy Berberian. Stripsody. The Unforgettable Cathy Berberian. Classic Options CO-3505.
07:28 Wilfred Jackson en Bert Lewis. Steamboat Willy. Walt Disney Animation Studios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4
10:26 Hanns Eisler. Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben op. 70. F.-C. Erben, Kammermusikvereinigung der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin. Berlin Classics 0092552BC 1997.
12:50 Scott Bradley. The Invisible Mouse. Hanna and Barbera. Tom en Jerry: De collectie dl. 3. Turner s.a.
19:00 Zez Confrey. Kitten on the Keys. Z. Confrey (piano), 1921. https://www.loc.gov/item/00694031/
20:42 Emmanuel Chabrier. Joyeuse Marche. E. Ysaye, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, 1919. Eugène Ysaÿe, violinist and conductor: the complete violin recordings. Sony Classical MHK 62337

Quoted text:

Th.W. Adorno and H. Eisler. Komposition für den Film. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2006.
E. Hanslick. Vom Musikalisch-Schönen: ein Beitrag zur Revision der Aesthetik der Tonkunst. Leipzig: Weigel, 1854.

See also the references to these posts:

The Acousmatic Experience https://lodewijkmuns.nl/2020/11/19/acousmatic-experience/
The Archaic Ear https://lodewijkmuns.nl/2020/11/09/the-archaic-ear/
The Fine Art of Mickey-Mousing https://lodewijkmuns.nl/2020/12/06/mickey-mousing/
Rhythm for the Ears and for the Eyes https://lodewijkmuns.nl/2020/12/23/rhythm

The fine art of mickey-mousing – On music and film (2)

Lodewijk Muns, musicologist, composer and pianist, discusses topics such as music and memory, music and language, and the limits of music, with the piano at his fingertips.

Beyond the Bony Labyrinth: because the sound that enters our ears only becomes music when we recognize it. Music appeals to our memory, emotions, imagination, and capacity for language.

Philosophy: because it deals with the connections between music and other aspects of life, with clarification, and dispelling smoke screens.

This is the English version of the Dutch podcast Voorbij de oren.

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