Lisa simpson listening to music11/13/2023 We were recording the music on a Sunday afternoon – rather unusual for us, but that’s the way the schedule worked out – so Al Jean dropped by the stage with his wife and daughter and some family friends of theirs – also unusual as we have recorded music for more than 530 episodes and a producer has stopped by the scoring session probably fewer than 25 times. I told him I’d find him a more obscure but suitable substitute.įinally, there was a surprise ending for us on the scoring stage the day we recorded the music for this episode. Al wanted some soothing classical music for the scene, but was firm that he did NOT want to use the opening strains of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (The “Pastoral”) as we have used that motif on more than one occasion in the past. Once again, my classical music training did not go to waste – at the very end of the episode, when Annie takes her mood-stabilizing meds, the world turns all unicorns and rainbows to the music of Beethoven’s First Symphony, Second Movement. “Shakedown Street” is used as psychological torture against Homer, further solidifying the notion (at least among non-fans) that “Dead” music is reaaaaallllly boring. Late in the episode, there’s even music from The Grateful Dead. Gayle has worked in Hollywood for many years and you have probably heard her playing on 9 out of 10 movie scores you’ve heard in the last 40 years. Lisa’s harp playing was provided by our magnificent harpist, Gayle Levant. I have no idea what’s next, but it’s always a pleasant surprise. Since then, Lisa has played classical violin, bluegrass fiddle, and now harp. Voila! A few weeks later, we’re at music spotting and there’s Lisa playing a tuba in the Main Title. This is the same process we use each week for the “fly-by” when a different character or object flies by “THE SIMPSONS” title at the very start of the show. ![]() I asked Al why not animate a template background of the students and band room without Lisa in it so that she could be animated separately and then composite her into the background? That way, if we wanted to have Lisa play a different instrument, the crew over at Film Roman would only have to animate Lisa and her instrument and drop her in over the background. It was quite time and labor intensive to re-create that scene. Apparently, the scene was animated with all the elements in a single shot – Lisa, the other students, the band room, etc. Everyone really enjoyed it, but Al said we probably wouldn’t be doing that again because is was quite expensive to animate. Al thought that was a clever idea and had Lisa animated playing a trumpet. During music spotting a few seasons back, Alf suggested to Al Jean that Lisa could play a different instrument in the Main Title now and then. Another nice performance for our show where a guest star gets to play a part and not just do a quick, one-line “walk-on”.įor our first Main Title sequence of season 25, Lisa gets to play a different instrument in the band room: a harp. Kristen Wiig guest starred in “HOMƎRLAND” doing her very funny take on the Carrie character from “Homeland”. Until FOX can figure out a way to pay all the musicians and composers and publishers involved with the music from our show, don’t hold your breath for individual downloads from iTunes or the like. Alas, as I have explained in other posts and comment replies on this blog, the only cues from the show that are currently commercially available are the ones that were released on our three CDs “Songs in the Key of Springfield”, “Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons”, and “Testify”. I’ve already received a few inquiries about where to find and download Alf’s cues from this episode. If you’d like to listen to the originals, here they are: In addition to Alf’s original theme, he also arranged and recorded music by two legendary jazz artists: we covered Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” and “Terminal 7” by Tomasz Stanko. Alf is right at home writing and arranging jazz music – it really is his forté – and the musicians are always happy to sink their teeth into some great jazz charts. ![]() The first cue of the episode is my edited version of the actual “Homeland” theme by Sean Callery, but for the rest of the episode Alf crafted his own take on Sean’s theme and that motif is woven throughout the rest of the episode. Written by Stephanie Gillis, it’s a parody of the popular, Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Homeland”. ![]() We kicked off the new season with episode RABF20 “HOMƎRLAND”. Of course, those of us fortunate enough to work on the music for the show enjoy having summer off – and I certainly did enjoy time spent travelling with my family this summer – but it’s nice to get back to work and a familiar routine and hearing some fabulous music performed by some of the greatest musicians in the world. Simpsons fans were treated to the start of our 25th season this past Sunday, Septembut we folks in the music dept.
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