I discovered that the tune is actually from Bear McCreary’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower.” You can hear the tune i was talking about in this clip:
and you can hear Bear McCreary’s version here:
Mystery solved.
Alright, I finished BSG, and noticed the Jimi Hendrix (actually, technically Bob Dylan) reference (lyrically, and the song that plays at the end), but as far as the “tune” that was stuck in their heads, led them to discover each other, and privded Starbuck with the jump coordinates… how does that sound anything like “all along the watch tower?”
jump coordinates were:
1123, 6536, 5321
which translates to
C#, C#, D, E; A, G#, E, A; G#, E, D, C#
interestingly enough, the scale they’re playing in is actually the Pelog (listen to the soundclip here, your mind will be blown) scale from indonesian gamelan music, which again leads me the question… this sounds like All Along The Watchtower how??
I realize if you don’t watch the show, you have no idea what I’m talking about… but I’ve read multiple postings on the internet where all they talk about is how the tune is the same. I don’t hear it, can someone explain?
*** Upon a little more thought based on the notes used and the scale degrees listed, the tune is actually in the C# Phrygian scale (or mode). You see, if they were listing the numbers in a 12-tone scale, the numbers should actually be 1124, 9849, 8421. If we assume the pelog scale, the scale degrees would actually be 1123, 5435, 4321 because there are only 5 tones (yeah, yeah, technically 7) in the pelog scale. If we assumed they were playing in a regular major scale, the notes would actually be C#, C#, D#, E#, etc. The only scale that works with the scale degrees and intervals is the Phrygian scale, starting on C#.
Now, how starbuck (and Hera) grasped this mode without any #’s or b’s on the sheet of music is pretty amazing. God must really be talking to Starbuck!
So I was viewing the webalizer stats for my blog, to see how many people were viewing my blog (not very many) and how they got here. Most of them were through direct links or RSS feeds (presumably from my status message and whatnot), but there were a couple that were through Google Searches. There were a few that I expected, such as “Jag35 Test” or “Ben Powell.”
One of the other search strings was “doggie POV” which brought up my “doggie POV” post. Then I thought about it… if you were to type in Doggie POV into google, what search results would actually come up…?
26
Feb
Tom & Jerry Taught Me Everything I Know About Classical Music
by Ben Posted in General, Other Music, Thoughts
Haha, well, if that were really true I don’t think I’d be qualified to teach it. But it is true that pretty much my only exposure to classical music in my childhood was through Tom & Jerry. This episode I’m linking, where Tom plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody is probably my favorite Tom & Jerry episode ever. When I was young and living overseas, we didn’t have any TV to watch ’cause all the channels would be in Chinese or Polish or whatever. So what we did was tape a bunch of shows from the US and watch them on VHS overseas. So I saw a lot of muppet babies and Tom & Jerry while I was but a wee lad.
Anyway, that probably explains whenever I hear this Hungarian Rhapsody, I think it sounds very cartoony. Same goes for the Chopin Waltz. The piece isn’t highlighted in the same way as the Rhapsody (aka, it’s not the central point of the episode), but that melody stayed with me over the years, and it wasn’t until late in High School when I realized it was a Chopin Waltz, not just some random Tom & Jerry music cue (which are amazing in their own right)! You can hear the theme make its first introduction at around 2:37, and then really come into play at 3:17. I think it says something when you can watch something at 5 or 6 years old, and remember the melody AND which episode it came from two decades later.
I guess i’m saying that they don’t make cartoons like they used to…
Enjoy some retro cartoons and watch the episodes!
I noticed on TV now that the movie previews have text in the letterboxing. From a marketing standpoint I guess it makes sense. Why have empty space on the screen when you can fill it up with the information you want the viewers to absorb. But I just find it distracting and kinda like… I dunno, amateurish looking? I took a screen shot with my phone, not so good, but I’m sure you know what i’m talking about.
I think they’re really just advertising how good Asian people are with technology.
No, I’m not implying that women who are single are musical geniuses. And actually, saying that Single Ladies by Beyonce is a work of musical genius is probably going a bit too far. But, I will explain why I dig the song… and no, it’s not because of the female empowerment lyrics.
Actually, for those of you who know me, you’ll know that I’m not much of a lyric listener at all. So that leaves us with the music.
This song is primarily an electronic beat with vocals on top. Since there is no chordal accompaniment to go along with the vocal melody, our brains assemble what we think must be the key in which the song is sung (See my post below about Microsoft Songsmith and Bach).
Let’s take a look at what happens throughout the structure of the song:
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