# Earworms



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

German has a word for everything, like ohrwurm. Translated literally as "earworm" in English, it's the word for songs that get stuck in your head and won't go away. What earworm of a song do you most dread burrowing into your head?

Mine is "The music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera.


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## Lang (Sep 30, 2008)

I am currently working on a MIDI transcription of Poulenc's Banalités, and the Chanson d'Orkenise has been circulating in my skull for the last week or so. That leads on to what could be an interesting thread subject. In fact I think I will start one rather than carry on here.


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## DanL (Jun 3, 2013)

I am practising these for my finals recital and a midi file would be incredibly useful as otherwise Bernac reminds me what the words are! Do you think I could possibly borrow yours for this week if you still have it?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

I have it on good authority that the way to banish earworms is to do something that requires you to hold a lot of information in your mind at once. Doing anagrams works well, for instance.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

It's true! 'Doing anagrams works well' anagrams to 'a a a dell minks grow wrongs'

Now I got Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence out.

Ta.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

This one torments me. The song is too isorhythmic - the verse, the chorus, and even the bridge have one rhythm each repeating over and over. Put that together with dead-eyed teenagers cranking it out in church without much inspiration behind them, and it's intolerable.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Sid James said:


> Mine is "The music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera.


Mr. Weber has written many earworms. I think it's the formula he uses: phrase one, phrase one repeated, new phrase, then a sudden, perfunctory coda. He does it with this, with Pie Jesu, and others that I don't want to think of right now.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Manxfeeder said:


> Mr. Weber has written many earworms. I think it's the formula he uses: phrase one, phrase one repeated, new phrase, then a sudden, perfunctory coda. He does it with this, with Pie Jesu, and others that I don't want to think of right now.


I actually don't mind him now, quite like Lloyd Webber, but I do make the point of not listening to him all the time. Can become mega earworm territory there. He also tends to rehash tunes of other composers. But I still think he's a great composer in the stage musicals genre. One of the greatest, maybe even the last great one. Its one thing to write earworms but its another to write a musical with songs that sound all the same or (a trend that's been happening for ages now) just a case of stringing some hits together by different songwriters and fashioning a musical around them (pastiche). So compared to those things, I think Lloyd Webber is pretty good in his chosen field.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

you can get rid of an earworm by humming another earworm.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)




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## Guest (Jun 4, 2013)

Sid James said:


> I think Lloyd Webber is pretty good in his chosen field.


I guess it's his chosen field that I'm not keen on!


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Arsakes said:


>











encore!

.........


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Sid James said:


> He also tends to rehash tunes of other composers.


There's a fine line between 'rehash' and 'plagiarize'. Mr. Lloyd Webber has, at times, pole vaulted over that line.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Anthemic music? Any one of hundreds of Thai songs over the last decade. Presently....


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

The opening duet between Susanna and Fiagro in Marriage of Figaro. Was memorable before, then when I actually watched the scene it became a definite earworm.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

"Let's have some fun this beat is sick, i wana take a ride on your disco stick"
One of the most evil lyrical earworms ever.

Guess who wrote it?!?!?


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Note the use of prepared piano.

Also, I don't _hate_ having this stuck in my head, because it's fantastic, but still.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> Note the use of prepared piano.
> 
> Also, I don't _hate_ having this stuck in my head, because it's fantastic, but still.


I love the notion of someone walking through the urban landscape, or the countryside, with this stuck in their head, or playing via a device and earbuds: I love the same notion but replaced with Stravinsky's Les Noces or Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet being heard.

Fun track. Thanks.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

MacLeod said:


> I guess it's his chosen field that I'm not keen on!


Yeah well I can understand that, on this forum there don't seem to be many fans of musicals, or maybe they don't talk about it much. Goes with the territory. But I can't think of a musical that doesn't have some sort of "earworm" catchy tune. Well, not a musical that made it big. Even more 'highbrow' ones like my favourite _Cabaret _(by Kander & Ebb) or the ones Kurt Weill did in the USA, they got tonnes of tunes (and maybe wise not to overdose on them, even if you happen to like them?).



ahammel said:


> There's a fine line between 'rehash' and 'plagiarize'. Mr. Lloyd Webber has, at times, pole vaulted over that line.


Yeah and gotten taken to court for doing it by the Puccini estate (and I think he lost!).


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I love the notion of someone walking through the urban landscape, or the countryside, with this stuck in their head, or playing via a device and earbuds: I love the same notion but replaced with Stravinsky's Les Noces or Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet being heard.
> 
> Fun track. Thanks.


This music was taken from the third episode of Ashley's "TV opera" _Perfect Lives_ and then elaborated upon. In context it's a song that plays on a car radio and recurs throughout, that episode isn't on YT afaik but the first episode has been posted in its entirety.


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2013)

Sid James said:


> Yeah well I can understand that, on this forum there don't seem to be many fans of musicals, or maybe they don't talk about it much.


Depends on your flavour of musicals. ALW have a niche flavour, and anything that smacks of 'show' is a turn off for me.

But _Top Hat_, _Two Weeks With Love_ and _Singin' in the Rain:_ now you're talking!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Right now it's A Token Of My Extreme by Zappa. Which reminds me that I have to go buy the new DVD today.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

MacLeod said:


> Depends on your flavour of musicals. ALW have a niche flavour, and anything that smacks of 'show' is a turn off for me.


Well I agree, I don't like every musical, just like I don't like very "serious" classical piece. My taste varies in this areas as in any. Some I love, others I don't mind, others I'm not interested in much (eg. the tendency of the genre in recent years towards a kind of homogeneity and becoming a kind of pastiche of various tunes from other sources).



> ...But _Top Hat_, _Two Weeks With Love_ and _Singin' in the Rain:_ now you're talking!


You bet! That was the golden era of musicals. They don't make them like that anymore! I think Lloyd Webber - despite his tendency to rehash etc. - was the last in the line of great musical composers, which early on included the likes of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe and so on...


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I don't know what happened but I was walking down a street today and all of sudden Martinu's _Symphony No. 4_ just popped into my head out of nowhere. The _Allegro vivo_ movement is the earworm that crawled around my eardrum.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Ella Mae Morse - The Blacksmith Blues (1952)






Best song ever!


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

This piece, from "The Gay Divorce" is featured in several places in the film. By the time it's over, it's so in there! 
But, as earworms go, I quite like it.






Doesn't it make you wanna get up and dance?


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Whenever I listen to Mahler's Fourth Symphony the theme will stick with me for days.


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Space earworms. You're welcome.


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