Carl Stalling

Carl W. Stalling ( November 10, 1891 in Lexington, Missouri, † November 29, 1972 near Los Angeles, California ) was an American film composer, who composed the soundtracks for more than 700 cartoons. Stalling wrote the music for the first Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies, Walt Disney films and was responsible for the background music for the Looney Tunes from Warner Bros. 1936-1958.

Life

Early years

Carl Stalling grew up in Lexington, Missouri. The son of a carpenter learned age of six years playing the piano, and later he played the church organ in his home town. With 17 years Stalling began a career as a professional pianist in a theater in Independence, Missouri, near the city of Kansas City.

Beginning of the 1920s led Carl Stalling the orchestra at the movies Isis Theatre in Kansas City. He improvised on the cinema organ, wrote at this time but still no own compositions down. In Kansas City Stalling first met Walt Disney, where he helped out with the music to some of his Laugh- O -Gram Films. When Disney went to Hollywood in 1923, contact with Stalling broke off first.

Disney

In the summer of 1928, Walt Disney Stalling a surprise visit to Kansas City. Disney was preparing the setting of Mickey Mouse cartoons Steamboat Willie and spoke with Stalling generally about the possibilities of sound film. He left Stalling two more Mickey Mouse films, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin ' Gaucho, were originally produced as a silent film, but still no lender had found. Stalling wrote the score for these cartoons and Disney followed in October 1928 to New York, where the soundtrack for the film was recorded.

After the great success of Steamboat Willie Disney took up an idea of Stalling to start next to the Mickey Mouse series, a second series of animated cartoons in which the visual realization of musical topics should be prioritized. Stalling had already proposed a cartoon with dancing skeletons at the first meeting with Walt Disney Together with Disney and animator Ub Iwerks was the responsible of this idea of the film The Skeleton Dance, which formed the prelude to the Silly Symphonies - film series.

Stalling worked with the designers to Disney a system that allowed for synchronization of music and action. In the storyboard drawings of musical rhythm has already been determined by markings on each sheet, so that in the setting of the films the requirements of the animators were respected and musically. The established by Stalling precise commentary on the action by the film music was later called Mickey Mousing.

As Ub Iwerks surprising his departure from Disney announced in January 1930 to open his own animation studio, also Stalling explained his departure. Stalling initially worked exclusively at Iwerks at the flip of the Frog films. In 1932, Stalling started his own business and worked as a composer and arranger for various studios. He worked in the meantime again for Disney; it is to hear the three little pigs, the internationally successful Silly Symphonies cartoon, Stallings piano at the Oscar-winning short film.

Warner Bros.

In July 1936, Carl Stalling of the producer Leon Schlesinger was hired as a composer for his cartoons. Stallings arrangements were first used in the pig - thick film Porky's Poultry Plant. Served Stallings music initially only as background music of the animated films, he quickly developed typical of the Looney Tunes sound in which the action is amplified and gags also be expressed musically. Stallings sense of timing made ​​sure that the music could follow the pace of the action. Often Stalling put the music together already based on the storyboard drawings.

As Schlesinger was the entire musical catalog of Warner Brothers available, Stalling could achieve comic effects through the short Preview of popular melodies. Often he joined the musical quotations with own -composed melodies. This corresponded Stallings music and the style of the Looney Tunes, where rarely a story was developed and are strung together instead gags. To the chagrin of the cartoon directors is Stalling while repeated very often, so Chuck Jones complained that he was referring to every time Allie Vrubel The Lady in Red as soon as a female figure appeared in a movie.

But Stalling used not only pop songs for his musical background, but also sat like motifs from the classical music one. Starting with the Fantasia parody A Corny Concerto in 1943 resulted in several animated films, in which opera designs have been implemented, such as the Bugs Bunny Rabbit of Seville film as a parody of Rossini's Barber of Seville.

For many years Carl Stalling was responsible as the sole composer of the background music for the animated cartoons from Warner Bros.. This meant that Stalling participated every year in more than 50 films. As an arranger Milt Franklyn him stood to the side, the rise in the early 1950s for the second composer and eventually became Stallings 's successor as music director of the Animation department of Warner Bros..

Carl Stallings last work was the cartoon produced in 1958 by Chuck Jones To Itch His Own. At this time he had written the film music for more than 700 films. Only one film, the Jack Benny comedy The Angel with the Trumpet in 1945, was a feature film.

Carl Stalling spent his final years in Hollywood Hills, where he died at the age of 81 years on 29 November 1972. The interest in Stalling as a composer was revived only two decades after his death, as compiled by Hal Willner two CDs with music published Stallings.

Music recordings

• Hal Willner: The Carl Stalling Project: Music From Warner Bros. Cartoons, 1936-1958. Warner Bros., 1990
• Hal Willner: The Carl Stalling Project Volume 2: More Music From Warner Bros. Cartoons, 1939-1957. Warner Bros., 1995