Record of the day: Carl Stalling, “The Carl Stalling Project”

Carl Stalling, “The Carl Stalling Project” (Cd Warner Bros.926027-2)

We have reached Christmas Eve, preparations are in full swing and to keep children and grandchildren happy while awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus, they are often given a generous dose of cartoons: in case you belong to the bizarre category of those who carefully read the names in the opening credits of the films then that of Carl Stalling will sound familiar to you, given that this composer wrote the soundtracks for over 600 Warner Bros. Cartoons.

accompanying in their adventures beloved characters such as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Tweety Cat, Porky Pig, Wilcoyote, BipBip and dozens of others less known but equally hilarious (before arriving at Warner in 1936, Stalling had collaborated with Walt Disney, cutting his teeth in the Silly Symphonies and perfecting a personal synchronization technique between score and screenplay that allowed him to write the music based on storyboards while the films were being drawn).

The main characteristic of Stalling’s style (as John Zorn notes in the enthusiastic presentation of the CD) is his taste for the inclusion of quotes from any musical genre; popular songs, opera arias, famous themes of classical and folk music, Broadway songs, etc., all in an aesthetic vision in which there are no hierarchies between “high” and “low” music. In this Stalling anticipates the way of thinking of many composers today, inclined to absorb suggestions coming from very different worlds; for Stalling everything can be useful to ignite the imagination of the writer, from Wagner to Bing Crosby and Raymond Scott, even if most of the music has its own autonomous and easily recognizable style.

For 22 years Stalling set to music one Cartoon a week, thus accumulating an incredible amount of material that remained hidden in the Warner Bros. archives for decades. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Looney Tunes series, producer Hal Willner has prepared a wonderful CD containing some complete soundtracks (sometimes equipped with hilarious sound effects, such as the waltz warbled by the chickens in “The Good Egg”) alternating with anthological montages taken from from hundreds of titles, in order to faithfully restore Stalling’s bizarre artistic personality.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.