Can you hear these words hidden in theme tunes?
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
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How word stresses line up with musical stress, allowing composers to hide words in their tunes!
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Music rhythm & word rhythm
3:34 Music & words have to line up
4:50 Theme songs
9:34 Theme songs in comedy
10:53 John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Dr Who
12:46 Titles sequences that fit the music
14:00 The longest hidden titles?
15:58 My guesses!
The composers who appear in the video are DENIS KING (Black Beauty) and BILL CONTI (Dynasty), also the son of EDWIN ASTLEY (Danger Man).
Thumbnail USS Enterprise, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Thumbnail Tardis, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Taken from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
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I always sing along "Doc-tor Who! Doc-tor Who!" whenever the theme song comes on.
I mean, like the Bill Murray example, I'm usually just doing this for the comedy.
But, yeah, it fits so beautifully, it's got to be where the composer - Ron Grainer - got his inspiration from.
The other one I like doing is "it's Eee-eee-eee-eee-east-enders. From the BBC" at the end of the Eastenders theme tune.
Try it. It's a perfect fit, not just for the tune, but for the visuals, as the title "Eastenders" fades up at the right time and then the BBC logo fades in for the "from the BBC" bit.
(I'm annoyed that they subtly changed the Eastenders theme. In its original, the opening and ending music was different. The ending had a little "dah-dah-dah-dah" at the end. A little back and forth thing that signalled - and it actually literally fits these words - "this is the end".
So it was actually possible, from a different room, to tell from the music alone whether the show was starting or had just ended, by those final notes. If you heard those final notes then "oh, I've just missed it".
But they redid the theme and decided to drop those extra notes, so the opening and ending are the same now. The orchestration and sound of the remix, though, was barely any different, so I'm convinced they only redid it to purposefully drop the final notes.
Which is annoying, because I liked that - a show actually musically indicating "I'm about to start" / "I've just finished" in the theme - and it was actually useful, if I could hear the TV from another room.
But I wonder if they dropped the final notes exactly because you could tell that the show was over, from hearing them, and then, yeah, there were times where I thought "oh, I've just missed it" and therefore didn't bother to go into the TV room. But if you leave it ambiguous - no difference between start and end - then I had to go in and look at the TV to know if it was starting or ending, and the BBC want you to be watching the TV... and I suspect that's why they dropped those final notes.
They were "too useful" for the viewer, in a "not so useful" way for the broadcaster.)
It's not a theme tune, but given what you've said about your interests here, I think you'd get quite a kick out of "The Potato Song" by American singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler.
Bonanza
Dr Who says "A tiddly pom, a tiddly pom ... WOO WOOO".
I have always noticed this with TV themes. Some obvious like This Is Your Life or Who Wants to be a Millionaire and then others like...
Coronation Street, where people like to meet.
Emmerdale Farm, this show was called Emmerdale Farm
Die-nasty...it's Die-nasty.
It's Michael Parkinson, it's Michael Parkinson...it's Michael Parkinson.
Osman....Osman....Richard Osman's House of Games.
As someone who sings "Indiana, Dr. Jones, Indiana, Indiana Jones" in my head whenever I hear that theme, I feel really validated right now.
I've read somewhere that John Williams actually said that he does write themes that suggest important words like that- and it seems like the Jurassic Park theme was something like "you love this scene" or something like that. Wish I could remember where that was, some trade mag like cinematographer or something.
Thats freakin genius, joe.
Lol I honestly used to hum voyager to the voyager theme song
Yes! Thank you, I really wanted those three notes to fit in somehow. I'd already noted the five-note set (a climbing "Indi a na jones"), but fitting "Dr. Jones" in there is very satisfying.
@@michaelcrump5319 "It's a di-no-saur, it's a di-no-saur, it's a biiig di-no-sauuurrr!!"
When "Raiders" came out, it had a tagline: "If Adventure Has A Name, Then It Must Be Indiana Jones," which perfectly fits the start of the theme melody.
wow!
omg, this has to be correct!
For sure.
In-cred-i-ble, yes it is... In-cred-i-ble, that you heard that tune.
If adventure has a name, then it must. Then it must be, professor Indiana Jones.
The example of the Totoro song was fascinating. As a Japanese speaker, I hadn't thought about how the song would be heard by English speakers.
As far as I was taught in school, song-lyric correspondence in Japanese is more melody-oriented to follow the pitch accent of the language. Each "totoro" in the song is sung with a descending melody, the same way the name is spoken. Similarly, the 3-note descending pattern in Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme clearly sounds like the monster's name to Japanese speakers.
The "Godzilla March," as it's colloquially known (the real name is "Main Title," since it's from the first film), is intended to be Godzilla's name (Go-ji-ra). Same for Mothra (Mosu-ra), Rodan (Ra-don [Fun Fact: his theme used to be Varan's theme, but Rodan is more famous, & the more famous a monster is, the better music they end up getting lol]), & King Ghidorah (Kin-gu Gi-do-ra). Yuji Koseki composed the original Mothra theme (since he scored that film), but Ifukube's Mothra theme is very-much based on it. While neither a Toho kaiju, nor an Ifukube-scored film series, Showa-era Gamera is also the same.
One of the best examples of hidden words in theme tunes, has got to be the X-Files theme by Mark Snow. I couldn't tell you any other composer of any movie or tv show in existence. I can always remember X-Files theme was Mark Snow. It was on an episode of 60 Minutes I think back in the 90's. Where they asked the composer how he came up with the theme song. Mark Snow said he got really bad writers block and the only thing he could come up with was. "The X-Files is a show, with music by Mark Snow. The X-files is a show, with Music by Mark Snow...Mark Snow." No one believes me when I tell them this.
I want to believe
LMFAO
Came to say exactly this
Naaaah bro.
Ahh..crap. I’m a *massive* fan of X-Files. Watching it through again at this moment for, like, the x-hundredth time. The song just makes me warm and happy, in a nostalgic way, no matter how many times I hear it. Never knew this fact. Regardless if it’s true or not, I’ll never, ever unhear that.
I gotta stop browsing CZcams comments.
When I was younger, I used to 'hear' words in themes, but as I got older, I simply brushed it off as a sort of childish creative association, so to speak, which makes learning about the intended direct or subtle links between the many layers of musical pieces, and their respective titles to be incredibly fascinating. Little nuances of the human mind are always pretty cool.
Exactly the same perception and understanding of this I had. Maybe we should get rid of this “brushing off” thing from our heads!
That never occurred to me, even though it’s something I might have done as a child. Very cool!
Same with me. I guess we grasped more than we give ourselves credit for!
this is where my family's association with Law and Order came from, a seven year old cracking wise and singing, "Law and Order song, Law and Order song,
Not a theme tune for a show, but in Torchwood, Captain's Jack's theme is first heard when he breaks into a barn on a tractor. The composer is on record as saying that the rhythm of the main refrain is "here he comes in a bloody great tractor".
Yes! I sing it to myself every time I hear it!
This is from Countrycide right?
Ok now I have to go watch Torchwood lmao
That theme has been used in Jack's own spin off too. Will give it a proper listen later. Thanks for the mention.
@@toast99bubbleswait what? jack has his own spin off other than torchwood? What's it called?
This is a big focus of study in musicology. There's a direct link between a person's native language and the kinds of musical phrases that they prefer!
Wow, thank you! I'm Czech and I've always thought Antonín Dvořák's music has "a Czech accent" - it's composed by someone whose language has a stress on the first syllable. But I thought I was totally bonkers to think that!
I was always wondering if the fact that I find different but common musical vocabulary in asian pop has to do with the languages. I can almost recognize an asian pop tune from the music alone.
@@martavdz4972 Not crazy at all! 😀 And didn't Janáček go even further and deliberately base his music on Czech speech patterns?
Reference?
For me William Byrd’s settings of Latin texts have a very different flavour from his settings of English texts.
You and your editor’s blending of the Doctor Who theme sent chills. Very well executed. 👍🏻🖖🏻
It took me longer than I care to admit to realize the underlying four-beat motif is the heartbeat of a Time Lord. 😊
@@kj3d812 /the beat of the Master! (is that supposed to reflect the heartbeat of a time lord on purpose? I haven't watched in a while lol)
Inspector Morse surely deserves a mention here for spelling out the show's name in Morse code *and* building its theme music on that!
Yeah, that's what I thought too!
And "Some Mothers Do Have 'Em" was morse code too....
I was going to include Some Mothers Do Ave Em, which is much more impressive than Inspector Morse, but I just ran out of editing time.
And hiding the name of the perpetrator in each episode's theme as well, if I recall correctly.
Rush’s “YYZ” does the same thing with the Toronto airport code.
Always taken aback by the sheer breadth of sources and evidence you find for these sorts of things, it must take a lot of effort. Great vid as always!
And he nearly always manages to sneak some subtle humor in, too.
For sure. The man's a genuine scholar
On that note, Dr. Lindsey, if you see this, I'd love to see a video or read a post about how you think of the examples you use and which ones you decide to use for your primary focal points.
Where Eagles Dare?
Ron Goodwin.
JOE 90
Gotta remember with Doctor Who the newer composers most likely played into the idea a timelord has 2 hearts, or 4 beats. Thus the drum beat evolved into a 4 beat to indicate we are starting a story of his life, but the lyrics are still "doctor who" his overarching motif. The show's story creates motifs for the independent personalities.
As an American Doctor Who fan who came to the series with the 2005 relaunch and absolutely LOVES the four-note-rhythm version that emphasizes "the never-ending drums!", I can honestly say that I always thought the implied lyrics "Doctor Who" were very obvious, and I'm surprised you have trouble convincing anyone.
I can remember my dad pointing this out one night when I was a child and we were watching ‘The Good Life’ (I’m guessing you and I are around the same age so I know you’ll be familiar!). He then proceeded to sing the (wordless) theme tunes of all of the shows we used to watch, but singing their titles as you describe here. I have to say we thought he was a little crazy. There was no denying he was right in that the tunes seemed to fit the words, but we thought it couldn’t possibly be deliberate… could it? So for nearly 50 years I’ve carried this around like a sort of one-person conspiracy theory, occasionally trotting it out at parties if I felt like winding people up, because nobody ever believes it and they just laugh. So seeing this video out of the blue has BLOWN MY MIND. My dad died 25 years ago but my mind I can hear his voice saying ‘I knew it! I bloody knew it!’ Thank you.
I can surely tell you, that he's up there, jumping in happiness, over the fact that people *finally* figured it out.
"The good life, Tom and Barbara"
do-DO-do-DO
etc. :-)
I'm now going to go through my box sets of oldies I've got;
A Family At War / Bless This House / Carry On / Clayhanger / Faulty Towers / Full House / It Ain't Half Hot Mum / Land Of The Giants / Man About The House / Open All Hours / Please Sir / Porridge / Robins Nest / The Liver Birds / The Onedin Line / Till Death Do Us Part / Upstairs Downstairs / Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads
Some oldies I have, you can clearly hear the lyrics, so I've not included those ones...
@@PeterMaddison2483 you have Land of the Giants?? I LOVED that show!
@@PeterMaddison2483 I recognise nearly every one of those titles. How old I feel...
That Doctor Who theme song editing @12:22 was absolutely superb
Gave me goosebumps every time the theme expanded in dimension
In the 1980 theme, Howell used his voice to create the sound that I thought for years was an electric guitar.
I like the edit from Diamonds Are For--Your Eyes Only. Clever.
I know right?! The seamless transitions to and from the Howell theme were really good, considering that out of the 4 arrangements chosen, it was the only one to not be in the common key of E minor (Howell wrote his arrangement in F# minor). And yeah kanton4108, Howell used a vocoder for the 2nd part of the melody in addition to various little "ornaments" throughout the arrangement.
It was a FANTASTIC edit, full of seamless transitions, and addicting to hear.
From a musical novice; this was both incredibly interesting and new to me. Treasure hidden in plain sight. Thank you all involved.
Thanks! Not sure who 'all' refers to... it's just me and the wonderful composers
@Dr Geoff Lindsey
Deep thanks for sparking my intrigue further in such an entertaining manner. The "All" was encompassing a dear friend who compassed me here.
The Voyager theme is fun, because I've always heard the initial notes as the words "far from home". Which is pretty fitting with the theme of Voyager. But it also speaks to the fact that the human brain sometimes is good enough to pick up patterns that may not actually be there.
The Voyager Theme is pretty much Think of Me with Kindness by Gentle Giant.
@@yesyouamonly those three notes, though. You might as well say that "Starman" (David Bowie) is pretty much "Over the Rainbow."
Not quite the title, but John Williams used Close Encounters of the Third Kind's tagline of "We are not alone" to compose the 5-note melody that plays throughout the film (a message from the aliens).
I think he does this with a lot of his scores.
17:21 It's plausible John Williams was using the American title "The Sorcerer's Stone", but if you leave out "the" it still works with the original title "Philosopher's Stone".
My first exposure to this phenomenon was with the theme tune of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. It ends with a musical phrase that fits the title perfectly. I was kind of hoping you'd mention it but you found an impressive compendium of examples from movies and TV series already!
That one is good because it's not the same as the song the title came from. I guess the musical song sounds too carefree (given that it's meant to be followed up with "I don't!"). They gave it some extra gravitas.
Ludwig Göransson's theme for The Book of Boba Fett is worth mentioning here. I remember instinctively singing "FETT!, Boba FETT!" at the end of every episode. And then on the last episode of the series, there was the addition of the vocals to the theme that sent shivers rippling through my whole body.🥰
It's difficult to consistently churn out instantly memorable, catchy melodies, so this technique makes so much sense.
You seem to look down on this practice, when in fact it’s a masterclass in songwriting. These “theme songs” are ingrained in the minds of many
@@fshoaps weird take. I'm not looking down on it
@@MakoGo Get off your high horse
I have to say, I’m in a master’s for linguistics and hope to be a phonetician, and I love your videos! The presentation and explanation are just great
I think you're a few hundred years too late to join the ancient seafaring civilization
:)
@@RVBJohn Haha, yes. Still not too late to read Latin and Greek though, and not too late to see the continual decipherment of Etruscan!
(Even if that’s on the philological side of things)
@@RVBJohn What did we do to deserve being punished by your Punic puns?
@@allendracabal0819 He must just be a bit salty after what happened to Carthage ;)
For the Jurassic Park tune, I can’t help but hear the words: “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Jurassic Park”
Also that Mortal Kombat theme really takes me back to my childhood days in martial arts 😍
The last three notes in the classic game, Tetris, always plays in my head as "Tet-tris song" and I can't make it stop
Now that you have me listening for it, I'm pretty sure the E.T. theme goes even further than you showed. I think the tune actually fits the full title "E.T., the extra-terrestrial"
My favourite case of lyrics in an instrumental theme song is that the theme of Game of Thrones accommodates repeating "Peter Dinklage" over and over
I heard "ET" the way you did too -- when he put up that example, it seemed to clearly be "ET, the extra-terrestrial."
That's what I thought.
I am unable to hear the Game of Thrones theme without setting off on "Peter Dinklage, Peter Dinklage..." 🤣
It's "E.T, riding on a bicycle...E.T., riding on a bicycle!"
Same
The apocryphal story I've heard regarding the Indiana Jones theme is that it was intended to have the name "Indiana Jones" sung to it, but with the swear words "F-ing" and "MF-ing" in between Indiana and Jones in each of the main bars. I've never seen any evidence for this and assume it's probably a jokester recognising how well it fits but it certainly fits very well.
I think you can just make anything work at that point. Search for Jurassic Park Holy Fing S it's a dinosaur.
That Harry Potter one at the end is interesting as it's actual title is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and was only changed to Sorcerer for American audiences, however both Philosopher and "The Sorcerer" have the same number of syllables and thus fits regardless.
The book was published in the US in 1998 as the Sorcerer's Stone and has been known by that title there ever since, like the film. The project would have been presented to John Williams (who is American) with that title. John Williams might not even have known the other title. 'Philosopher's stone' doesn't really stand alone grammatically without 'the', as it's a count noun. Also the first note is missing on the first repetition, which would make it 'losopher's stone'. So if I'm right that it's not a coincidence, Williams would certainly have been thinking 'the Sorcerer's Stone'.
@@DrGeoffLindsey The book was first published in the UK in 1997, 1 year prior to the US under the title of Philosopher's Stone. So that is the actual title as intended by the author - just to nit-pick.I also notice that if you include the lesser up-beat, then the full number of syllables are present in each repetition: phi-LOS-u-pher's stone
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone
@@VaughanCockell John Williams wasn't hired to write the score for the book. The movie was always titled "...Sorcerer's Stone."
@@peterh2884 Not over here in the UK, it wasn't. Here the film is definitely "Philosopher's Stone". en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone_(film)#:~:text=Harry%20Potter%20and%20the%20Philosopher's%20Stone%20
Amercian publishers tend to be successful with re-titling British books! "It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet" didn't sell but "All Creatures Great and Small" did.
This is maybe the best ad integration I've ever seen. I've watched probably hundreds of skillshare sponsorships for years and this is the first time I've ever actually been tempted to get one. Seeing Jacob Collier do rhythm in 5s and listening to someone talk about how to write a film or video game score was actually quite cool and relevant to this video.
It's funny, it kinda works even when english is not your first language. Like, every kid here in France has been singing "Superman, le roi des bananes !" over the theme song x)
And it's not rare to "hear" lyrics in your language that weirdly fit for music composed by foreign composer, it has happened to me with Zelda music when I was a kid, for example.
(Btw, the Indiana Jones theme aligns perfectly in French with how we'd pronounce the entire name, in 4 syllables)
Where im from its always been "Superman, le roi des étoiles !", so that made me laugh
It's not Roi de je sais pas quoi! Of course it is "Superman, choRIzo con paaaaan" and always has been in Spain :)
Nice example. French word setting is interesting. There are various tendencies, e.g. associating strong beats with content words rather than function words (roi, not le or des), and with the final phrase accent (-nanes).
That's a whole another iceberg of so-called "misheard lyrics" :) which are especially fun for mismatching languages ;) The notable example being Wes "Alane" song, which has an entire piece of alternative lyrics in Polish, basing on what the Polish people though that they sing in that song. There are some examples in English too with non-English songs.
@@bonbonpony I believe that’s called a mondegreen. It’s a wonderful thing that has led to some real weird transliterations of music.
Side note: I always liked how Rachmaninov signed lots his big pieces with the final emphatic tonic chords in the rhythm of his name!
The first contact I had with Star Trek was Voyager I really love the show. I'd always sing "Voyager" in my head and sometimes out loud while listening to the theme, 10 year old me feels validated :D
Yes, I've been doing this sort of thing since I was 10, but that was TOS era
@@DrGeoffLindsey It's just amazing :D
What's really interesting to me as a writer is how this will then turn around, and we writers will get super inspired by a song and title our story after the lyrics of a song. A few examples that I can think of are How To Save a Life by Sara Zarr, Carry on by Rainbow Rowell, and Across the Universe by Beth Revis. It's like we've learned to nudge the reader into "Hey, this is the theme song."
"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami too, though there is nearly always an implicit soundtrack to his novels
I feel so vindicated! I used to sing many of these in my head, but always thought I was just weird - Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie stick out the most.
Well, and of course Bill Murray's memorable lounge singer "Star Wars". Thank you for this!
I always supposed that the "Star Wars" theme was just "Born Free" upside down
I’ve been vindicated! For the last 26 years my husband has teased me about singing the Bewitched and Superman themes exactly as you presented them here. Thank you!
I often think of examples of this as just auditory pareidolia... Like how I'm seeing the figures on your sweater here as impostors from the renowned videogame, Among Us...
But with all of those interviews and the history of commercial music composition... Wow. This was really cool!
I like when instruments are used to make the music literally sound like words are kind of being spoken
I was hoping a Japanese would comment on the word play involved in the change of stress between TOtoro and toTOro. The Japanese language does have lexical stress, and it's distinctive. But Totoro isn't a Japanese word; it's a corruption of the Japanicized loanword tororo from English/Norwegian "troll". In other words, the word "troll" was brought into Japanese as "tororo", and the story is about a girl who mistakes a cat for a troll, but mispronounces it as "totoro". So perhaps the change in stress is there to underscore the fact that she doesn't know how to pronounce this word - that it's a foreign word AND that she gets it wrong. But it would be nice to hear confirmation by a native speaker.
Japanese stress isn't relevant here, since it affect pitch, not mora length.
I'm not a japanese native but I study the language; I think the issue here is that english speaking natives and other "stress accent" language natives can't really appreciate the fact that it doesn't exist in japanese
You can freely stress TOtoro or toTOro because in Japanese it's not going to sound weird either way (or rather it sounds incorrect either way so it ends up not sounding weird either way). Pitch accent languages or in the extreme side tonal languages already have to accept that when music and lyrics come together the pitch of the words will get messed up unless the author specifically goes out of their way to make the music fit the pitch of the words which is quite hard (and undesirable in a lot of situations since pitch patterns are generally very limited).
As soon as you put the word Totoro into music you already have messed up the pitch accent because in Japanese it is pronounced in a very "flat" way, not really musical sounding and each syllable takes the same amount of time as the others to be pronounced. to to ro. It really wouldn't sound nice, like 3 dots in morse code
@@zoroasper9759 That + the notes in the word "Totoro" are descending both times anyway
Reminds me of kitsune
Kitsu-ne "come and sleep"
Ki-tsune "always comes"
I'm wondering if Totoro has something similar?
@@zoroasper9759 No, you cannot freely stress in Japanese: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent
16:57 I feel like the second phrase of the melody fits the name much better, with those 3 stressed notes at the end fitting -a-na-jones perfectly
yes! i noticed that too!
Yes, I heard that too! To me it sounded like "Indiana, Indiana Jones!"
Same, I was surprised to not see the lyrics on the screen because I had them appear in my head
I’ve been aware of how theme songs fit movie or tv titles since I was a boy… and I’m thrilled that someone is discussing it finally!
My favorite example of this has always been in the Muse song Uprising. At the end of each verse the phrase "so come on" is sung, with the electric guitar matching the vocal notes perfectly. At a certain point the riff is played without the words and it sounds like the guitar itself is singing "so come on".
This guy never fails to expand my world. So many new things to pay attention to and obsess over! Thanks!
KLF's take on the Dr. Who theme ("Doctoring the TARDIS") was amazing in that it used a lyric composition that many people hadn't anticipated but worked so well and seemed almost like latent intension in retrospect.
You wot! (Bosh bosh bosh! Loudsa money!)
Hmm not so sure - it’s new words to an old theme of “Rock and Roll”, and the song happens overlay very nicely with Doctor Who (is this another “four chords” situation?)
Whereas when DWPoop use Contact Trolley Snatcha Remix by Foreign Beggars & Noisia & Noisia, that really does follow the 1-9-8 motif.
That wasn't KLF it was The Timelords, or is there another version I've missed?
@@TerryTheNewsGirl same duo.
@@TerryTheNewsGirl , i remember the film clip with someone running down daleks in an old HQ holden i think it was..?, But yes, i dont think it was klf.
I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who and have studied the theme closely for a few years (primarily the Derbyshire and Howell arrangements from 1963 and 1980 respectively) and I think you're definitely right. One interesting coincidence is that the "diddly-dum" in the bassline is the same as the rhythm of a Time Lord's heartbeat. It would be cool if Grainer had that in mind when he wrote the theme, but when the show was created, I don't think the Time Lords had even been thought of yet. It's interesting how much of Doctor Who's lore has just been written by various writers throughout the show on the fly, even the whole 12 regeneration limit was created for the Day of the Doctor lol.
The theme for Stargate, composed by David Arnold, is one of my favorites because it not only fits the movies title of "Stargate," it (unintentionally) works even better for the TV spin off "Stargate SG-1." Makes me wonder if the TV title was influenced by the music...
Something like, Staaar-gaate, Stargate SG 1.. Stargate SG1, SG1, Stargate SG1....
Always sang “The Sweeney…The Sweeney” 😉
But as for “The Fall and and Rise of Reginald Perrin”…well, mind seriously blown. That is it from now on.
Top video, sir!
Japanese does a different sort of thing. Where we would stress words differently depending on the word, Japanese uses pitch intonation, so the pitch of each syllable has a proper consistency. Sometimes even homonyms are only differentiated by pitch intonation. A - me, is Rain, starting with a higher pitch, but a - ME, starting with a lower pitch and going to high, is Candy. (Luckily there aren't too many words like that, so it's not overwhelming for a student) So yeah pretty much how we use stressed syllables, they simply have a different way of doing the same thing. That means they can stress syllables however they want in music without it sounding weird.
In Chinese, every single syllable can have one of five or six pitch contours (up->down, down->up, flat, etc), and every different contour can carry a different meaning. And some languages like Cambodian are apparently even worse. I didn't want none of that junk; I'm learning Korean. ;)
@@gregmark1688 oh yeah I have heard chinese places even more importance on pitch; as opposed to Japanese where you have just a few words that could be confused depending on pitch.
I’ve noticed this with “machigai” being pronounced differently in different songs.
Additionally, the fact that Japanese is based on moraic (as opposed to syllabic) rhythms and that not only vowels, but also nasal consonants can fill a mora in Japanese means that you can have situations where consonant sounds carry stressed portions of the melody, which can sound pretty unusual to a Western ear. You can hear it in the theme tune to "Space Battleship Yamato" ("Uchuu Senkan Yamato" in Japanese) the first time the title of the show is sung.
A note on Hedwig's theme - I'm not completely sold on it being drawn from the title, in part because the original title is "The Philosopher's Stone", but it *does* scan very neatly to "The story of Harry Potter"...
I mean, they probably knew it would be used for the whole series, not just the first movie - so leaving out the specific title in favor of the repeated element might make more sense?
@@alext2695 Possible - but this is a John Williams scoring we're talking about; quite as plausible that they picked it as the whole opening after the piece was done.
The original title of the BOOK was "Philosopher's Stone" but Williams wasn't writing the theme to the book. The movie was always titles "Sorcerer's Stone" after the American title.
@@peterh2884Not true.
Also, in the Supmerman theme by John Williams, if you start from the overture, the trumpet notes sound like this: Look, up in the sky... SUPerman, look, up in the sky... SUPERMAN!!! Also from John Williams: IndianAAA!!! (The first three notes of the theme to the Indiana Jones theme.) That whole phrase goes: IndianAAA, mister Jones, IndianAAA, Indiana Jones!
I love this! My friends and I, later my kids, have been putting lyrics to themes that didn't officially have them for a long time. When we were kids we were sure it was, "E.T. only from Atari!" Another of Jurassic Parks themes goes well with, "In Jurassic Park, scary in the dark, I'm so scared that I'll be eaten." I heard Jeff Goldblum singing that on a late night talk show and now I hear it anytime the theme actually plays.
I know this was merely for purposes of showcasing consistency, but I really enjoyed that medley that faded between the Doctor Who themes, I'd love to see something like that for the 60th anniversary!
The only legit version of the Dr Who theme is the original one. They've grown more and more unlistenable ever since.
Looking at John Williams's themes, one that stands out in terms of meaning is the famous 5-note theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's specially noteworthy because it's the only one of Williams' major themes that is heard by the characters in the film, and because in the film's story it is intended to have actual meaning as language. A musical greeting, an invitation to humans from the alien visitors, or something of that nature. I've never heard it decoded literally into words, but the words that always came to mind were something quite child-like: "Come and be my friend!"
One minor side note: when Happy Days first aired, its theme tune was actually "Rock Around The Clock" by Billy Haley and his Comets. The "Happy Days" song was written to avoid paying further royalties on the original song, when the show was less profitable in its later years. So, fittingly enough, the too-on-point singing of the show's title was actually contemporary with the jumping of sharks. ;^)
And a PS for an OMG - I saw Reginald Perrin back then and again recently and I never would have caught that. That is amazing!
I think there's actually something similar to the Totoro example in the "Jellicles song" from Cats where in the chorus, the word "Jellicle(s)" is stressed in like 2 or 3 different ways throughout the whole song:
because JEL-licles can and JEL-licles do,
jelli-CLES do and jellicles CAN,
etc.
I hate that song with a burning passion, and that was before the film came out. I saw it on Bravo when I was a teenager, back when they showed a lot of theater. Just awful.
Singing variations in the stressed syllable of the same word, has it got a name? It would seem to be a playful technique. Lucio Battisti does it in 'superMARket, supermarKET'
Curiously, when I was a child and before I even understood English, I totally associated the words "Black Beauty" with the title tune, so much that I would sing these words. In contrast, it never occurred to me that "Voyager" was in the VOY title music, although I've heard it a thousand times (which is not an exaggeration). Maybe the more intellectual my connection is, the less likely I would make it through the hidden title? Regarding the Roddenberry lyrics for the original Star Trek, I used to rate it as unsingable, but then discovered that Jack Black had mastered it. This is worth checking out!
Whaaat??? This I have to hear! Lol
To be fair the voyager one felt like more of a stretch whereas black beauty really does pretty much beg to be sung like that it just fits too well not to instinctively be inclined to do just that.
@@seraphina985 I agree, in most variants of English the middle syllable of "voyager" gets shortened or obliterated: Voyger. Not quite as far as V'ger though.
@@seraphina985 Not to me! My partner and I sing along to the Voyager song every time. Can't help ourselves. "Voyager, it's voyager, voyager, the show ... look out, Voyager's on."
@@cymothoe5299 That’s awesome! I always thought of it as “There she goes, the Voyyyy-aaa-ger, journey on, the Voyager, to hoooome”
I usually use this interlink practically in writing poems. If it’s a rhythmic poetry, it’s much easier to compose a melody associated with lines and write the large poems by listening to that melody repeated. It provides the necessary context and mood for the text, and feels almost synesthetic sometimes.
Music, rhythm, speech, words… I’ve taken the mixture for granted without taking them apart. Yet, even as simple listeners, we feel what works and what does not.
I kinda intuitively knew this was the case with show theme songs. BUT I've always wondered why the intro to *"MURDER, SHE WROTE"* didn't fit. And then it hit me: while the first bar matched the video where Angela Lansbury is typing, the chorus lyrics should be saying *"It's J.B. Fletcher, it's Murder, She Wrote. La la la,"* etc. 😊
as a professional musician and big fan of this channel, this video tickled me in all the right places. thank you, Dr Geoff!
Great video! As a lit professor I’ve spent years teaching students to “hear” say iambic pentameter or trochaic or dactylic patterns - and to understand how stresses work in our spoken language and then in poetry (for example) and also of course music!
I enjoyed that a lot. My favourite of your selection was The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin - I've been a big fan of the show for decades and hadn't spotted how perfectly the theme fits the title. Frank Sidebotton (Chris Sievey) put a few more lyrics to Dr Who in his Sci-Fi Medley: 'Doctor Who, It's Doctor Who, Here comes Doctor Who and the Daleks...'
Interesting the the Harry Potter one fits with either “the SORceror’s stonel” or “phiLOSopher’s stone”, so both the UK and US titles for it
This is so wonderful! It reminded me an example of the opposite phenomenon in Handel’s Messiah: the phrase “For unto us a Child is born” where the English lyrics are completely at odds with the melody. It always bothered me until I found out Handel had borrowed the melody from one of his own Italian cantatas, where the lyrics were “No. di voi non vo’ fidarmi” which fits the melody perfectly.
Another fun one is “For we like sheep have gone astray”, where the singers only sing the first part of the words for probably 8 or so bars, so all you know is that the choir for some reason likes sheep.
Every time I hear the Messiah, I'm reminded again that English is not Handel's first language! The first words sung are "Comfort Ye", which I always hear as "Come for Tea", and then I'm just gone... Until "For We Like Sheep", which sets me off all over again
@@coleenocasturme come for tea, my peeps, Handel’s in da houzzzz
I’m a huge language nerd as a hobby, but I’m a professional musician and I compose. Was not expecting to get musical inspiration from your channel but I’m so glad I did!
Also, rad sweater
I'm a bit late here, but a "meta" example is how the Morse Code values for the letters "MI" are encoded all the way throughout the "Mission Impossible" theme. And it's about the catchiest thing ever, too.
i’m never gonna hear a theme tune without trying to fit the title in again. this is so fascinating!!!
weirdly, this came up in my feed after i watched a video on the evolution of the Nickelodeon theme - which started out with lyrics (simply “nick nick nick nick na nick nick nick, nickelodeon) and is just instrumental these days, and some people don’t realise that it was made to fit the channel name lol
and i just realised the disney channel theme has 4 notes…. dis🎶ney🎶cha🎶nnel🎶 IT FIIIIIIITS
Some Totoro tips.
I think that TO-to-ro, to-TO-ro tune was created to fit the title in Japanese. Because Totoro's pitch accent is on the first "to" syllable, which matches the melody.
The music pitch is:
TO-to-ro = G-E-C, to-TO-ro = G, F, D. in C major.
In both "totoro",the first syllable "to"is higher than the second "to".
The rhythm is:
TO-to-ro 1/4-1/8-1/8 to-TO-ro 1/4-1/4-1/8
In “to-TO-ro", TO syllable sounds stressed and the longest in Japanese lyrics, too. This pronunciation is unnatural but Japanese speakers feel comfortable probably because the pitch is right.
Totoro song is still very popular in Japan. Maybe the pitch matched to spoken language made the song more appealing. I never knew that “TO-to-ro, to-TO-ro” felt strange for English speakers. I learned a lot and even got some tips on how to learn English from this video! Thank you so much Dr. Lindsey.
I doubt most english speakers find it strange or even notice it, let alone consciously, but English technically isnt my native tongue, so what do I know
I always remembered an interview years ago for the X-Files and they said that the theme song was “This is the X-Files show, with music by Mark Snow”. After I heard that I used to hear those lyrics every time I watched.
Great video! Regarding your ending with Nina Van Pallandt singing, then she’s in Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” from 1973, which is scored by John Williams. The fun thing here is that the title is far from hidden in the score, but that the score repeats in all sorts of different versions throughout the film.
Mind Blown! It's a sign I've been watching way too many of your videos, that when I hear you say tunes (as chyunes vs my american toons) it causes me to start thinking about post-alveolar and pre-alveolar sounds
Two of them came to me in the shower this morning.
Laverne & Shirley doesn't have the title words worked into the song, but every time 'we're going to do it' pops up it might as well be just that.
Mission Hill, a short lived but fantastic animated series, features an acoustic version of Italian Leather Sofa from Cake. The band was supposed to write an original song but chose this one instead. It's pretty obvious why because you can hear the title over and over again.
On a commentary track for the Superman Animated Series, the composer mentioned it was tradition to fit the word "Superman" into every Superman theme song. The Fleisher Superman shorts had it, the old George Reeves show has it, the Donner Superman has it, and the animated series has it.
Once I heard a parody band sing "You built a time machine out of car?" to the theme song of Back to the Future, and I found it hillariously fitting, because Marty says almost the same line in the first movie (originally it's "Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a Delorean?")
The original plan was that the time machine would be a refrigerator and they would get back to the future powered by a nuclear test. The nuclear explosion was nixed as being too heavy for a comedy and the fridge was seen as too similar to the Tardis. Thus the Delorean.
Was this it?
czcams.com/video/GheAd59anbU/video.html
@@Bacopa68 Then they saw a DeLorean and thought "dang that crap looks cool"
@@Bacopa68 I imagine you wouldn’t want to encourage children to watch the movie and start climbing into refrigerators. Although, Indiana Jones was propelled in a refrigerator by a nuclear explosion in his 4th movie…
What an amazing present for those of us who are equally in love with linguistics and music!
Thank you! ❤
Merry Christmas, happy holidays and congratulations on 100K and your first sponsorship!
nice share. Happy New Years!
John Williams theme for "The Accidental Tourist" (1988) also "sings" the words "Accidental Tourist" over and over.
I just listened to an interview of Derek Wadsworth who created Space 1999 Season 2 theme state that the syllables of the title match up to notes with the hopes that one day a singer could put vocals over it. It reminded me of this video.
This concept never occurred to me on a conscious level, but I have always sang "be-witched" along with the theme as well as a few other examples like that.
There's a theory that in the more modern Dr Who themes that have a 4 quaver bassline rhythm as opposed to crotchet quaver quaver is the rhythm of the doctor's heart beat - lub dub lub dub - two hearts
Which might sound like a stretch if you didn't know that rhythm has been used and had attention called to it in the show. I always thought it was supposed to be lub lub dub dub though, much healthier heart rate.
It also corresponds to the drums that the Master hears in their head for years, and to the "knock four times" prophecy in the Tenth Doctor's final episodes.
That’s a retroactive interpretation, given that the original bassline from 1963 varied between three notes (dum di dum), and four notes (di di di dum or dum dum di di). The idea of the Doctor having two hearts wasn’t even a thing until Pertwee. It does seem likely however that the Master’s drums, and the revelation that they symbolise the heartbeat of a Time Lord, was created to mirror the theme’s bassline, which is pretty cool. So the music likely inspired the drums, rather than the reverse.
I’m currently ill in bed (possibly COVID, we’ll see), so this has served to cheer me up. Regarding the Superman March in particular, I think the reason that incorporating his name into his theme is effective is that it tonally matches the character. It’s so on-the-nose, bordering on cheesy, but it perfectly fits this earnest guy whose uniform is designed to make him identifiable and thus trustworthy. And the build up to it in the fanfare feels like a question and answer, as one can imagine the first phrase raising said question and the second answering “Superman!” Then the name is re-announced over and over in the main theme, almost like an assuring “Don’t worry everyone, he’s here to save us.”
I actually get quite emotional thinking about it. The world feels so horrible and corrupt, and yet we dare to imagine a friend who always fights for our best interests - if only to have the strength to be that friend for others, as much as we can. The Superman March, a theme unapologetically bright and triumphant yet tender at times, embodies that fully.
It doesn’t need to be said, but John Williams really is magnificent.
(Though I’ll never know why he wanted to write a new Mission: Impossible theme to replace the classic original in that first film. I’m glad Danny Elfman took over and put the OG at the centre where it belongs.)
The theme tune to Grange Hill made so much more sense to me when I eventually heard its original use in an early episode of Give Us A Clue.
As an avid Trekkie, I adored that little jab at Roddenberry's motives for writing theme lyrics to be "unethical", as with much of his life on and off the set.
Growing up watching nickelodeon/cartoon network cartoons around the 2005-2015 era, one cartoon's opening that really stuck out was that of Regular Show. Most cartoons would open with lyric-laden musical numbers that would last anywhere from 20-50 seconds; think Spongebob or Teen Titans. But when regular show dropped in 2010 it's very short opening with no lyrics was memorable at least to me because of how subversive it was from what I was used to.
Its brevity comes form the fact that the tune is only four notes long which I'm now realizing just so happens to be the number of syllables in the name of the show: re-gu-lar-show. I haven't looked into this at all so who knows whether it was intentional or not?
I apt to believe that most of the examples probably do incorporate this, simply because it's such a simple trick for both generating a quick musical hook, but also because it gives a nice tie back into the medium it's written for... it's a fun little detail I'll be looking for in themes from now on, thanks.
This was an astounding look into the subject, and I'm kinda blown away by the examples.
I'm a Troper (TV Tropes), and there was a time I almost proposed a trope about how music mimics the words. But I stepped back and thought "but that's, like... everywhere" (and a ubiquitous element like "people sit on chairs" is not tropable), so I didn't ultimately try. But I've definitely heard the words of a song within the way the music plays, especially in an instrumental chorus; I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I've noticed it a lot, which is why I thought of troping it to begin with.
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood definitely starts this way, and I don't think I ever even noticed until I looked it up just now. I'm also starting to wonder about game theme songs... do Mario, Zelda, Sonic do this sort of thing?
Trying to think of examples threw my brain straight to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which of course isn't hidden behind music but right there sung front and center. And yeah, maybe it's child-centered to sing/shout the title (Darkwing Duck! Rescue Rangers! Gummy Bears! heck, I have had part of the TaleSpin theme stuck in my head for weeks, just comes and goes and I'm not sure what's been triggering it so consistently)... but on the other hand, maybe that's a bit like the adults trying to hide that they're doing the same thing just more subtly. Makes me wonder if there are other obvious distinctions between the way themes are written for kids' shows vs. adult/family shows and whether this has shifted over the decades.
For an overview of most of the key themes I grew up on (late eighties/early nineties), FreddeGredde does a great medley. (Offhand I don't recall if he covers Lamb-Chop's Play-Along and I'm almost certain he doesn't do The Big Comfy Couch or The Puzzle Place, but then again I discovered all of those when I was a wee bit older than their typical demographic. Don't think he does Beetlejuice.) Also, either version of the Carmen Sandiego theme song (the game show or the animated show from that timeframe) is great.
P.S. I am very, *very* glad that the Star Trek themes stayed pure music (until *Enterprise* took a random pop song, at which point I just knew it had lost the class its ancestors had had).
OMG, I just gave this theory a try in Polish language and started singning my favorite movies and series themes and they fit so perfectly!
For fellow Poles: Noce i Dnie, Miodowe Lata
The I Dream of Jeanie theme is something that I recognise as a melody, without ever having seen a single episode of the show. Had no idea until today that was what it's from.
Stephen Foster was there over a century earlier
I was fully expecting the Superman theme in this video even without looking at the thumbnail. It seems people noticed it long ago: there's a decades-old song in Spain which goes "Superman, chorizo con pan" set to Williams's tune. The theme for the 90s Superman animated series was apparently also based on the syllables of "Superman".
Also, at 11:17, I'd swear I can hear the full title "E.T. the extra-terrestrial" in the melody!
You're right! it says it three times.
Me too -- I hear "ET, the extra-terrestrial."
I've checked a bunch of generics from cartoons i used to watch as a kid, and i can fit the title in at least one part of the beat in all of them. 🤯
This is definitely one of the most original/interesting videos i've seen on CZcams.
In all but the final season of That Girl, the theme had no lyrics, and two strong pulsing notes start the composition off, repeated three times with differing tones.
That makes a strong case that the music is based on the straightforward two-word title.
In the final season, lyrics were added, and though they are colorful and captivating, the repeating twin note pulsations are devoted to metaphors describing the title character: “Diamonds, daisies, snowflakes, That Girl.” That changes the apparent reason for the note pattern, but four out of five seasons still go with your type of interpretation.
And thank you for this eye, or ear opening look at some music devices hidden in the open. I had never thought to look for this pattern.
I think the Harry Potter one actually fits better with the British title of Philosopher's Stone.
While since that was the original title that makes sense. Now it's another issue that the title changed for US. Although philosopher's stone is an historical story, I don't think that UK children would be any more aware of it than those in US so the idea that it was OK in UK but needed to change to sorcerer in US because the children would understand better seems strange.
They both work.
phi LOS o pher's STONE
the SOR cer er's STONE
@@resourceress7 you left out 'the' in the philosopher's stone lol
It's an unstressed syllable before that. "the" and "phi" together take up the same beat. 🥁
It was there in my head lol, but I left it out to show how the two words matched up in the rhythm pattern. 🙂
Ha, I knew it!! Thanks for proving I'm not insane ; ) Btw, you missed one whole "In-di-a-na-Jones" in between/after the other Indianas.
Great video(s)!!
OK I was totally skeptical... but once you hear these you can't un-hear them... BRILLIANT !
Brilliant! Honestly I make up words to instrumentals for fun on a regular basis. I have always wondered if composers had words in mind when I hear themes because I always come up with something fitting and I think, I wonder what the exact words would have been. So glad I found this!
You blew my mind in your book English after RP, and now you've done it again 😄 I shall now maniacally chant DOCtor WHO! DOCtor Who! DOCtor WHO! every time I watch the TV series.
I only learned about stressed syllables after 12 years of learning English and it was pretty much too late for me by then. So this video is pretty hard for me 😂 but I want to say, Japanese language does have stressed syllables. It helps differentiating between words that are otherwise the same, like kaki (persimmon) and kaki (oyster), or hashi (chopsticks, edge, bridge depending on the stress). Maybe it's called something else than stress in linguistics?
It’s pitch accent. Stress involves saying a syllable louder and slightly longer than the ones around it; pitch accent is just (as you might expect) a difference in pitch. Japanese spoken with stress accent is the purview of the [implied American] “Westerner in Japan” stereotype.
On that note, the two occurrences of "totoro" in the theme song *do* have the same pitch pattern.
@@steffahn Really well noticed! This is so cool.
Thanks for the clarification everyone! Just goes to show I still don't understand stress 😂 I thought that as people say the syllable louder they also said it higher. Oh well 😅😭
@@lanasinapayen3354 As far as I know, stress accent is indeed often accompanied by a higher pitch. But it's also more volume and sometimes held for longer. Pitch accent in Japanese on the other hand is distinguished only by pitch and more consistently by pitch.
I think One example would be the interplay with other changes in pitch, e. g. to express emotion or in questions. In English, questions often have their last word in a falling pitch to emphasize the slight rise in pitch at the very end. Or like... ordinary non-question often end in falling pitch even if the last syllable is the one being stressed in the last word. In Japanese, the pitch accent would be preserved in such situations, and rising tones for questions are added as a short thing at the end of the last syllable without influencing the relation of the pitch of that syllable to the previous ones.
I have never noticed this. I'm 55 and this is blowing my mind. How have I not noticed something so obvious? Thank you so very very much for giving me that!!
You made me so happy with the Voyager theme. Honestly the best Star Trek theme songs of any Trek series.
I think my favourite theme tune word trivia is the theme to 70's series"some mothers do 'ave 'em". Another Ronnie Hazlehurst classic in which he spells out the entire title in Morse Code using only two piccolos. Genius.
Maybe the theme to Bod is like that too.
Oh wow
I love when people explain things I've thought about, but never put into an actual thesis myself.
the doctor who one cracked me up so bad. this video is amazing
I remember thinking that the 'Hill Street Blues' theme sounded out not only the programme's title, but also the names of the main cast members as it played over the opening credits.