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Did you ever think you believed the innocence of the subject of “Making a Murderer” because the theme music said you should? The Ramble takes a look at documentary soundtracks, and veers off into something you might not have considered: the Golden Age of Objective News Fanfares.
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I start to think it’s me who ‘s finding a political slant to everything but what else can one think but that to network news people Americans winning a war easily is considered a tragedy that should bring on melancholia . Very enjoyable podcast, the 9/11 thing at the end made reading rather difficult.
James, thank you for a unique and thoughtful podcast sorbet. I really needed to cleanse my palate, so to speak, of politics and this was perfect.
The NY doc theme was beautiful in its transcendence and lyricism. Just beautiful. As for the Making a Murderer theme, I must admit it was a piece I looked forward to hearing ( having three kids who play cello might make me biased). My one son wants to find the sheet music. The style is quite similar to Break of Reality (cello/percussion group). If you check out the group, try to forgive their one song entitled Che. What can we expect from a group formed at the Eastman School?
Thanks for the talk and music, enjoyed it all. I think music is very powerful too.
I am always reminding my emotion driven friend whenever, after watching some so called news show, she becomes totally absolutely convinced of some story as being 100% completely true, and factual (yes, her words), to please remember, that if there was music playing it wan’t a news program; it’s either “paid to provide”, indoctrination or propaganda.
This was a lot of fun…
Thanks for listening! More to come. And thanks for the recommendation, Nerina – I’ll look them up.
Kind of surprised you didn’t mention the use of Ashokan Farewell in Ken Burns’ Civil War. I will never not hear that music when I see pictures from that time period.
A lot of folks think Ashokan was a “civil war-era song”, when it of course was written for the show.
I don’t think it was written for the show, but the mood it evokes is a perfect marriage with the material in the show. Of course, hearing it about a thousand times over the course of the show may have some effect, too!
Thanks for the correction. I had heard a different version of the paragraph where Burn’s first hears the tune.
Wonderful podcast. The NYC serenade at the end has echoes of Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine – it steadily encloses your heart and just sighs.
Yet another amazing Ramble. The news fanfares were just so evocative of the 1970’s (and a bit of the 1960’s) for me. We’re left to wonder if the news was more serious, objective and solid back then, or whether we just thought it was…
I’m looking forward, hoping, for a Ramble about music used for radio and tv advertising. There are certain songs and jingles I remember hearing, used again and again in commercials. I’m sure Mr. Lileks can shed light and entertainment on this subject…