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A BIT ABOUT THE COMPOSER









 The music, as mentioned, is an arrangement of Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 by Franz Liszt (above). Liszt, like all the great composers began his musical tuition at an early age. From 6 years of age his father instructed him on the piano. His progress was such that by the age of 9 he had already given concerts and composed short pieces. Liszt is a principal figure of the Romantic period, his radical experiments in harmony often anticipated some ideas and methods of the Twentieth century. He was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time, and the majority of his works are written for piano. This piece is supposed to be a concerto. For those readers who are a little less musically orientated than others, I will include a brief over-view of what is meant by the term concerto. In short a concerto is a piece in which an orchestra and a soloist interrelate, by alternating passages, combining their resources or even competing against each other. Basically this involves dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra, which is the essence of concerto's. The soloist is often pushed to virtuosic limits in direct competition with the orchestra. The excerpt that can be heard by clicking the image of Tom at the top of page one, is the beginning of the concerto and you can plainly hear the piano and orchestra alternating passages, almost like the piano poses a question and the orchestra answers it.

But the work was originally a rhapsody, taken from a Hungarian form of dance :- Csårdås structure. The short history of this is that it used to be danced in country Inns by Inn-keepers daughters on Sunday afternoons. Later it was introduced to Hungarian Balls in the 1840's, from then being gradually developed to include a slow introduction(Lento a capriccio), and fast (sebes) and slow (lassu) variants of the dance. The music of the cartoon is almost identical to the original, the main difference being the rhythm and timing. There is even a passage that sounds like it has been adapted for the cartoon when Tom is banging at the piano trying to catch Jerry who is running on the keys. It is actually scored this way in the original, and I feel that it shows a great deal of ingenuity on the part of the directors and animators. It is little wonder that this cartoon won the Academy Award.









In this excerpt, Tom has just played a trill. (A trill is the rapid repetition of two adajacent notes). After he has stopped playing it, the keys still play on and he is confused. Then he looks inside the piano to find Jerry interferring again and so hits him on the head to make him stop, which is what you hear when you click the image. Jerry playing the piano, Tom is not pleased
In this cartoon the competition is more between Tom and Jerry than between pianist and orchestra. Jerry's anger gives him the driving adrenaline to repeat the difficult passage mentioned in page one, three times in succession at ever increasing speed, much to Tom's amazement and exhaustion. Just imagine playing chords in fast succession with your hands stretched to their full capacity, covering chords of which the orchestra take one note per instrument and you have to play them all. Perhaps the animators were not exagerating all that much when Tom falls in an exhausted heap on the piano at the end!!
So, does the music tell of the emotional content of the cartoon. From the excerpt I think that all would agree yes. The music is fast and fiery, depicting Jerry's angry mood, the anger also being captured in his animated body language, squaring up his shoulders and pouting disgust on his face. Jerry playing the piano with 2 hammers
This illustrates a new dimension of piano playing which many pianists wish was a realistic possibility!! Myself included! You can hear how far apart on the keyboard the highest note is from the others, and the method the animators have used to illustrate this is very humorous indeed. I haven't yet come across a pianist who doesn't at least smirk when they watch this clip of the cartoon!!!
But what about the rest of the cartoon. There is a very close link between the music and the action and the animators have brilliantly encompassed the mood and emotion of the music in the actions of Tom and Jerry. This is a classic cartoon which I highly recommend to all you cartoon and even music fanatics.

Drawing of child. What do the kids think?

Click the image to get an overview of the 'Kids' thoughts.

Example of questions asked:

  • Did you like the cartoon overall?
  • Did you like the action?
  • Did you like the music?
  • Did you think they went well together?
  • Do you think the music makes the cartoon better or worse?
  • Do you think more modern music would sound better?
  • If yes, what?

    • PAGE ONE