# Anyone else get their start by watching Looney Tunes?



## SARDiver (Jan 6, 2014)

Most Saturdays will find me popping in a DVD with the old Warner Brothers cartoons and watching them with my kids (as I am right now), and I realized how my enjoyment (and awareness) of classical music began with Bugs Bunny. Wagner, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rossini...heard them before I knew who they were. I loved seeing my kids' faces light up over Christmas when they realized they'd heard The Nutcracker Suite prior to my playing it on ye olde gramophone.

I can't help but wonder if the disappearance of these cartoons from television will reduce the ability of future generations (of Americans, at least) to appreciate these great works.



Edit: Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong forum.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I was a 3 Stooges fanatic. Larry Fine was a pretty fair violinist, by the way.


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

There's many a Wagnerite who can't hear the Pilgrim's Chorus without thinking "Oh Bwoonhilde, you're so wovewy..."

I wouldn't worry too much about future generations of Americans. Future generations of Americans can watch all the Looney Tunes they want for free on YouTube.


----------



## Guest (Jan 11, 2014)

Go to IMDB and do a search for Tchaikovsky. You'll see how many other programmes The Nutcracker Suite is used in.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006318/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

ahammel said:


> There's many a Wagnerite who can't hear the Pilgrim's Chorus without thinking "Oh Bwoonhilde, you're so wovewy..."
> 
> I wouldn't worry too much about future generations of Americans. Future generations of Americans can watch all the Looney Tunes they want for free on YouTube.


...and don't forget the Disney Silly Symphonies, scored, but even there, two to four bars lifted from Mendelssohn's this or that, and other little scraps pop out of the musical fabric.

*But Most Importantly, where oh where would future musical theater and opera fans come from without all the Mighty Mouse full length Operas? *


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

The best one was the one with cats with bat wings


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Once "Pinky and the Brain" used the beginning of a Brahms cello sonata (the one in the minor mode, I forgot if it's #1 or #2 and what the key is). I was pretty impressed: while by no means obscure, it's not like the 1812 Overture or Beethoven's Fifth, etc.


----------



## stevederekson (Jan 5, 2014)

Suprisingly enough, it was West Side Story. I saw the musical when I was young and I researched a lot on the composer, Leonard Bernstein. I bought and watched his Norton Lectures at Harvard, and I was captured by his eloquent speaking style.

In any case, I would research the pieces mentioned in the lectures, and that turned into a snowball where I have been listening to classical music for decades.

I'd say the piece that truly first got me interested was Chopin's Mazurka Op. 17 N. 4. Haunting piece.


----------



## KenDuctor (Mar 7, 2014)

It is Greig's " Morning" that brings back the cartoon memories.


----------

