Toon-ful music by Carl Stalling

Synopsis

Today’s date marks the official birthday of a quintessential American form of 20th century music — for cartoons.

It was on November 18, 1928, that the first-ever animated cartoon with its own synchronized soundtrack debuted at the Colony Theater in New York City. This was Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie starring Mickey Mouse, who amazed audiences when he spoke up in a squeaky, falsetto voice provided by none other than Disney himself. Mickey pulled the whistle on his steamboat — a startling sonic effect in those days — and, oblivious of the impending animal rights movement, coaxed music from various squeezed and plucked barnyard colleagues.

That music was composed by a quiet, unassuming theater organist out of Kansas City named Carl Stalling, who was soon lured to Hollywood by Disney to work on subsequent Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. In 1936, Stalling joined the Warner Brothers studios, and for the next 22 years was the music director for classic Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons.

Stalling’s wonderfully wacky and endlessly inventive music was usually ignored by “serious” music critics as beneath notice. Ironically, his scores feature the same dizzying shifts of mood, tempo and instrumentation as the most complex avant-garde scores of the post-war period: Stockhausen and Boulez meet Tweety and Sylvester?

Music Played in Today's Program

Carl Stalling (1888-1974): Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals and To Itch his Own; Warner Bros. Studio Orchestra; Warner Bros. 26027

On This Day

Births

• 1786 - frequently cited birthdate of German composer Carl Maria Von Weber, in Eutin, Oldenburg (the exact date is not certain)

• 1836 - British playwright William Schwenck Gilbert, in London. Gilbert provided most of the witty librettos for the famous operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan.

• 1895 - Russian composer and pianist Sergei Liapunov (Lyapunov), in Yaroslavl (Gregorian date: Nov. 30)

• 1860 - Polish composer, piano virtuoso, and statesman, Ignace Jan Paderewski, in Kurylowka, Podolia/Russian Poland(see Julian date: Nov. 6)

• 1909 - American song writer and lyricist Johnny Mercer, in Savannah, Georgia

Deaths

• 1953 - American composer and folksong compiler, Ruth Crawford (Seeger), 52, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was also the step-mother of the famous folk singer Peter Seeger.

• 1999 - American composer and author Paul Bowles, 88, in Tangier, Morocco

Premieres

• 1875 - Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3, in Vienna, by the Hellmesberger Quartet, with the composer at the piano

• 1877 - Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Nov. 30)

• 1883 - Dvorak: Husitska Overture at the opening of the Czech National Theater in Prague

• 1891 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic balled The Voyevode in Moscow (Julian date: Nov. 6)

• 1953 - Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 6, by the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky

• 1968 - Paul Creston: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, in Montevallo, Alabama

Others

• 1741 - Handel arrives in Dublin for an extended stay, involving a number of concerts in the Irish capital, including the premiere of his latest oratorio Messiah the following Spring (Gregorian date: Nov. 29)

• 1928 - Mickey Mouse debuts in Steamboat Willie, in New York. This was the first animated cartoon with synchronized pre-recorded sound effects and music — the latter provided by organist and composer Carl Stalling of Kansas City. Stalling would later provide memorial music for many classic Warner Brothers cartoons.