Fascinating! Perhaps this is touched upon more in part two, but I couldn’t help but ponder the impact motion pictures had on music and the hero’s tale. Lyrics became expendable and even unnecessary as silent films became “talkies.” Modern heroic theme songs / scores are instrumentals that are the backdrop to dialogue and visual eye candy.
Star Wars and Lord of The Rings being two of my favorites.
For me, the most emotional always had lyrics to some degree or another:
Gonna Fly Now (Rocky)
Footloose (Footloose)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Wizard of Oz, talk about magic and the hero’s journey!)
Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me)
Stayin’ Alive (Saturday Night Fever)
Circle of Life (Lion King)
We Don’t Need Another Hero (Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome)
Tomorrow (Annie, stage to screen)
Conversely, you have anti-hero or villain theme songs that are just as powerful— did the bards partake in these delightfully chilling tales?
Jaws theme
The Emperial March (Star Wars)
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (stage to screen!)
Poor Unfortunate Souls (Little Mermaid)
I Want It Now (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory)
What an entertaining and enthralling topic to shed light on. Thank you!
This song did disappear after I wrote the above piece, when the school switched to an all-digital announcement system with outdoor speakers. Now it's just a beep.
Wow Ted, great book this is becoming, it's a gift to be able to read it here! " we do need to consider the debunked traditional hero, supposedly exiled from the literary world by the great novelists." This would make for a great tale, a fantasy (but so real) movie with its hero theme song, of course!
Do you see any connection between Myrddin and Enkidu? I remember reading the Gilgamesh epic back in high school and thinking, "This guy is Proto-Yoda!"
I’d love to be able to introduce these concepts, along with music appreciation in general, to my six year old granddaughter. Have you ever thought about writing children’s books?
From the time I was old enough to view and vaguely understand the Hollywood canon (the one that got interred on television as filler before/after the regular program schedules) I have felt the power of song by the Gershwins and others. But the 'heroic' part in me (if there is one) lands on Fred Astaire singing "They Can't Take That Away From Me" to Ginger Rogers as they take the fogbound ferry back to New York from their quicky marriage in Jersey. They married so they could legitimately get divorced. Fred hands Ginger his heart with that song. Thanks to Ted I now understand and can articulate how powerfully the music and the sentiment combine in that moment. How to live, how to be a true, upstanding person, all wrapped in two and a half minutes.
The 20th century dumped its worst on us humans, and heroism shown thru immeasurably, but for many (most?) of us the daily living was small potatoes. To honor that single human being he loves and cares most for by standing firm to see thru a commitment made to her, and knowing the unending regret and sorrow that will result...the little kid me was moved. It was and still is a Big Deal to me, heroic in the ordinary-life way. I've tried to live with that ever since. Nothing subsequent has convinced me I was misguided.
Fred Astaire: Hero of my 'age' (thanks to George and Ira).
Lovely essay! I was taught that the hero's theme song in modern music (and later in film) came from Wagner, who was himself steeped in this medieval literature and mythology.
What a great piece! Isn't it amazing how history holds so much - good and bad - lost through the ages? Also, etymology is a great key for revelation! I remember when I discovered the link between "author" and "authority" (like how you mentioned that link) - and it was powerful - but also when it dawned on me years ago: we say "muse" [audibly] when we say "music" [and its other forms]. What a connection!
Oh, how you touched on the present-day issue: "And this devaluing of music has been just as visible..." As a musician, it's sad how it's largely turned out over just a few decades alone. This topic particularly drew me in since I've released 2 hero theme tracks within the past few years. Straightforward enough, respectively, they're titled "Hero Theme: Dark Origins" and "Hero Theme: A Single Step". I wanted to tell a story through sounds, not lyrics - hence they're instrumental - and this eventually graduated to a desire to make an entire Hero Theme album in that spirit (like film score in the stead of dialogue or sound effects).
Funny enough, I somewhat recently read a funny yet inspiring short story called "Theme Music Man" from a book about alternate, denied, or the like superheroes. It helps drive home the point, Ted, that you make in this publication. It reminds me of, "What is worth most is often valued least".
Has anyone else wondered how much people in ancient times concerned over oral traditions, songs, and such being lost or forgotten vs. recording things in the written form? Maybe that was a factor in beginning to focus more on writing than relying on oral relay of information. Yet as you mentioned, Ted, music being "...marginalized and despised by elites...", it gives thought to our day where the privileged few have a tendency to throw their weight around and direct culture the way they see fit - followed by "or else".
That's quite notable - "...found that 61% of them involve some supernatural or miraculous occurrence" - since it'd make sense that a person would be inclined to memorialize such an experience, and what better way than to be immortalized in song! Also, it'd simultaneously serve as some form of historical record (disregarding up front facts vs. fiction of the experience), like you say "This too is an important historical legacy, and allows us to trace connections...". In short, music. is. powerful. (or, clearly, can be).
My parents, especially my mother, are big folk music fans. I was raised listening to a lot of folk music from many different countries and cultures. I recognize one of the songs from your list of Child Ballads, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road", because Steeleye Span did a version of that song. Steeleye Span's music was a mainstay in my house growing up, and they did a great version of that song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHqFyRT1AhU&ab_channel=WhackaWhacka
They're a great source for anyone interested in British Isles folk music.
We all owe a debt to Horace Walpole, that 18th century lover of the Medieval whose dream-born “Gothic novel” The Castle of Otranto launched the genre that would flow through the science fiction and fantasy of the centuries that followed and even wind its darkly romantic tendrils around the supposedly realistic fiction of the period.
There is also room for a study of the mythic undercurrents in seemingly realistic narratives like the film Casablanca and their intertwining with song. (“The fundamental things apply as time goes by.”) And it’s not just heroes who need theme songs — it’s also politicians, and the deadly serious legal battles over the right to use certain songs make clear the genuinely magical power they embody.
Fascinating! Perhaps this is touched upon more in part two, but I couldn’t help but ponder the impact motion pictures had on music and the hero’s tale. Lyrics became expendable and even unnecessary as silent films became “talkies.” Modern heroic theme songs / scores are instrumentals that are the backdrop to dialogue and visual eye candy.
Star Wars and Lord of The Rings being two of my favorites.
For me, the most emotional always had lyrics to some degree or another:
Gonna Fly Now (Rocky)
Footloose (Footloose)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Wizard of Oz, talk about magic and the hero’s journey!)
Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me)
Stayin’ Alive (Saturday Night Fever)
Circle of Life (Lion King)
We Don’t Need Another Hero (Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome)
Tomorrow (Annie, stage to screen)
Conversely, you have anti-hero or villain theme songs that are just as powerful— did the bards partake in these delightfully chilling tales?
Jaws theme
The Emperial March (Star Wars)
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (stage to screen!)
Poor Unfortunate Souls (Little Mermaid)
I Want It Now (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory)
What an entertaining and enthralling topic to shed light on. Thank you!
It's a powerful thesis, verified by genes. Human speech is shared with birds, who use it specifically as heroic theme songs.
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2019/04/bipedal-bugles.html
Work songs still pop out naturally in some circumstances!
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2021/03/john-henry-20.html
And vendor songs aren't entirely dead either.
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2011/05/crossing-song.html
This song did disappear after I wrote the above piece, when the school switched to an all-digital announcement system with outdoor speakers. Now it's just a beep.
Wow Ted, great book this is becoming, it's a gift to be able to read it here! " we do need to consider the debunked traditional hero, supposedly exiled from the literary world by the great novelists." This would make for a great tale, a fantasy (but so real) movie with its hero theme song, of course!
This sounds really interesting! Are you going to talk about the Finnish and the Kalevala at all?
Do you see any connection between Myrddin and Enkidu? I remember reading the Gilgamesh epic back in high school and thinking, "This guy is Proto-Yoda!"
Ted,
I’d love to be able to introduce these concepts, along with music appreciation in general, to my six year old granddaughter. Have you ever thought about writing children’s books?
Thanks Ted for your incredible writing and research. Love this book.
"musicians show us how to be heroes"
From the time I was old enough to view and vaguely understand the Hollywood canon (the one that got interred on television as filler before/after the regular program schedules) I have felt the power of song by the Gershwins and others. But the 'heroic' part in me (if there is one) lands on Fred Astaire singing "They Can't Take That Away From Me" to Ginger Rogers as they take the fogbound ferry back to New York from their quicky marriage in Jersey. They married so they could legitimately get divorced. Fred hands Ginger his heart with that song. Thanks to Ted I now understand and can articulate how powerfully the music and the sentiment combine in that moment. How to live, how to be a true, upstanding person, all wrapped in two and a half minutes.
The 20th century dumped its worst on us humans, and heroism shown thru immeasurably, but for many (most?) of us the daily living was small potatoes. To honor that single human being he loves and cares most for by standing firm to see thru a commitment made to her, and knowing the unending regret and sorrow that will result...the little kid me was moved. It was and still is a Big Deal to me, heroic in the ordinary-life way. I've tried to live with that ever since. Nothing subsequent has convinced me I was misguided.
Fred Astaire: Hero of my 'age' (thanks to George and Ira).
Lovely essay! I was taught that the hero's theme song in modern music (and later in film) came from Wagner, who was himself steeped in this medieval literature and mythology.
What a great piece! Isn't it amazing how history holds so much - good and bad - lost through the ages? Also, etymology is a great key for revelation! I remember when I discovered the link between "author" and "authority" (like how you mentioned that link) - and it was powerful - but also when it dawned on me years ago: we say "muse" [audibly] when we say "music" [and its other forms]. What a connection!
Oh, how you touched on the present-day issue: "And this devaluing of music has been just as visible..." As a musician, it's sad how it's largely turned out over just a few decades alone. This topic particularly drew me in since I've released 2 hero theme tracks within the past few years. Straightforward enough, respectively, they're titled "Hero Theme: Dark Origins" and "Hero Theme: A Single Step". I wanted to tell a story through sounds, not lyrics - hence they're instrumental - and this eventually graduated to a desire to make an entire Hero Theme album in that spirit (like film score in the stead of dialogue or sound effects).
Funny enough, I somewhat recently read a funny yet inspiring short story called "Theme Music Man" from a book about alternate, denied, or the like superheroes. It helps drive home the point, Ted, that you make in this publication. It reminds me of, "What is worth most is often valued least".
Has anyone else wondered how much people in ancient times concerned over oral traditions, songs, and such being lost or forgotten vs. recording things in the written form? Maybe that was a factor in beginning to focus more on writing than relying on oral relay of information. Yet as you mentioned, Ted, music being "...marginalized and despised by elites...", it gives thought to our day where the privileged few have a tendency to throw their weight around and direct culture the way they see fit - followed by "or else".
That's quite notable - "...found that 61% of them involve some supernatural or miraculous occurrence" - since it'd make sense that a person would be inclined to memorialize such an experience, and what better way than to be immortalized in song! Also, it'd simultaneously serve as some form of historical record (disregarding up front facts vs. fiction of the experience), like you say "This too is an important historical legacy, and allows us to trace connections...". In short, music. is. powerful. (or, clearly, can be).
My parents, especially my mother, are big folk music fans. I was raised listening to a lot of folk music from many different countries and cultures. I recognize one of the songs from your list of Child Ballads, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road", because Steeleye Span did a version of that song. Steeleye Span's music was a mainstay in my house growing up, and they did a great version of that song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHqFyRT1AhU&ab_channel=WhackaWhacka
They're a great source for anyone interested in British Isles folk music.
It's a good one
Hi Ted, in my angry letter to Paul Krugman at the NYT tonight I noted that the Dems today have no song... Hope it spurs :)
We all owe a debt to Horace Walpole, that 18th century lover of the Medieval whose dream-born “Gothic novel” The Castle of Otranto launched the genre that would flow through the science fiction and fantasy of the centuries that followed and even wind its darkly romantic tendrils around the supposedly realistic fiction of the period.
There is also room for a study of the mythic undercurrents in seemingly realistic narratives like the film Casablanca and their intertwining with song. (“The fundamental things apply as time goes by.”) And it’s not just heroes who need theme songs — it’s also politicians, and the deadly serious legal battles over the right to use certain songs make clear the genuinely magical power they embody.
Marvelous. Not sure how you do it? My dad famously played Beethoven during surgery.
As the little guy on the tricycle from SNL might say: " . . . veeeeerry, uh perceptive!"