Customer Reviews

The Carl Stalling Project, Volume 2: More Music From Warner Bros. Cartoons 1939-1957

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoy listening to the entire composition as an assembled piece. After hearing the segments on the first volume, I prefer the full-composition style of presentation on the second.

You are a toon-addict. Come on, admit it; you don't need a 12-step program you just need this CD. I know your type -- you watch cartoons every chance you get. While they're on, you'll clean the living room, mop the floor, change the sheets, clean the cat box. Why? Well, for one reason you've seen all the Looney Tunes episodes at least once before, but ALSO the background orchestra music gets your bod movin'...right? Well, if what I just said sounds familiar, then you MUST have this CD. Carl Stalling as a composer and performer is brilliant...perfection. The tracks on this range from long to short, rehersal recordings to final espisode quality. So much to enjoy. There are tracks with Stalling's voice instructing the musicians and some of the other tracks have the episode dialogue included. The majority is just fun, lively orchestra music. I listen to it at work because it keeps my mind alert and brings to mind all those great Looney Tunes moments that I grew up on. I was Looney then and I'm Looney now...will probably be Looney when I'm 80! We can always hope. :)

Carl Stalling is a great example of something I love; the artist who, simply by applying his craft and staying within his personality, produces work that is far more radical than self-conscious avant-gardeists out to change the world.

If the term post-modernism means anything, it is the great cartoon music of Carl Stalling. Wild, wonderful fragments, music that stops on a dime and goes off immediately into another dimension, diced and spliced classics . . . all done with pencil and paper and all played live by a great group of musicians who obviously enjoyed their work. If you're looking for one collection to buy, this is as good as the other, and if you want to know if Vol. 2 is as worth owning as the first, it is!

Carl Stalling. We all know who he is, but we don't know that we know. Who is he? The guy who did cartoon background music for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for more than 20 years, that's who. Maybe you're thinking, "Oh, come on! Cartoon background music??! How good could something so trivial be?!" The answer to that question is.. VERY. Very entertaining. I just love Carl Stalling's great "scores". When you take away the context of it's being CARTOON music and just sit and listen to the damn thing, it's WONDERFUL music in and of itself! He goes from violins and a piano playing "agitato" simultaneously to a single oboe note and back again in five seconds. Not only that. He does that and, as random as it may sound, he mannages to segue it together beautifully. Now, every time I watch cartoons, the thing I pay most attention to is what aural miracles Mr. Stalling sneaked in. Maybe, after listening to this, you will too. If anything will change after you listen to this, it would be that you'll never think of cartoon music as trivial again........That's a GOOD thing.

The biggest difference between this volume and the first of "The Carl Starling Project" is that Volume 2 presents more extended tracks of entire cartoons, whereas Volume 1 shuffles together briefer cues. Different listeners will favor different approaches; many can enjoy both. As others--including the discs' producers--have pointed out, a strength of this volume and its predecessor is to train the spotlight on Carl Stalling, not on the cartoon short he happened to be underscoring. Inferior or less well-known cartoons often brought out Starling's best: like all film composers, he could lift poorer product to something better. If the cartoon was not up to par, his music made you laugh, and his Warner Bros. collaborators loved him for it. Though the quality of musicianship was quite high, the music itself isn't an evening with Bach and never intended to be. This is your soundtrack for April Fool's Day, no matter what time of year.

I don't feel that this volume is quite as effective as Vol. 1, but it is a must have either way. I strongly suggest buying both to complete the collection, as you will find that every Stalling composition stands out and it NEVER gets old. The following is the review I posted for Volume 1:

I cannot pass up the opportunity to express my love for this music. If you are familiar with the cartoons, then the music is in your bones. The images fly by in your imagination, and you may even recognize the specific scenes that were married to the pieces; but the goal of this compilation is not to make you think of the visuals - it is to illustrate the point of just how strong the music is on it's own merit, and how important this music is in American culture. When separated from the cartoons, it is now all too clear how diverse and talented the composer, Carl Stalling really is. He holds his own in the world of American modern classical composers, and this may just be the one of the first times in history we have heard such a range of genres pulled off with such ease and grace.
In the liner notes, we find out that the Warner Brother studio used for these cartoons was just one big room, and the music was created side-by-side with voice actors and artists. The energy is there all the way, and the music is eventful, to say the least. Beyond the ability to effectively hit you with character-action assossiation, the music will likely be found referred to by many generations down the road as some of the most inspirational and complex compositions to come from the U.S. at that time in history. This record should sit in the collection of any music or art historian, amateur or professional, as well as those who just enjoy a good laugh or thrilling ride. Do not pass this up.

As well as Stalling Project Part I, These recordings are more modern fidelity, less classic and more musical techniques. The improvisations appreciate me more than Part I. I like all tracks especially one from "Zoom and Bored" Salute Maestro!!!!
jlipipun

I really did like the slice-and-dice format of the first disc : I think it helped keep that cartoon zaniness without the visuals. I would recommend both volumes - I listen to them alot while I'm programming!

If you love Bugs Bunny, you will love this and Carl Stalling Project #1. You will learn where all the Merry Melodies came from.

Are the names Mel Blanc, I. Freleng or Chuck Jones familiar to you? Then you will get a charge out of these albums as they remind you of Warner Brothers cartoons you saw. I even used these albums instead of "spooky music" for the trick-or-treaters at Halloween, and got appreciative comments from the parents who recognized the music. Definitely worth the price of admission.