Classical Notes: June 21, 2008 Archive

Where Have I Heard That?

Posted at 1:54 AM on June 21, 2008 by Ward Jacobson (1 Comments)

Happy first full day of summer.

You hear a piece of music and it takes you some place, but you can't remember exactly where?

Happened to me this morning - Franz Liszt's third tone poem, Les Preludes. I knew that music was part of my past, way back there....but where?

A little research provided the answer.

Turns out several sections of Les Preludes were used every week in "The Lone Ranger" television series of the 1950s as background music for various sections of the drama (no doubt about the time the masked man was racing through the canyons on Silver looking to snuff out the thugs in black hats).

In the '70s I grew up watching those old Lone Ranger episodes on Sunday mornings. I couldn't tell you much about any individual show, but the music stuck with me all these years.

So there must be a few more examples of this marriage between classical music and old-school television. Feel free to share - the more obscure the better!

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