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Location
Rosen Classroom 111
Start Date
21-6-2024 9:30 AM
About the Presenters
Amy Hatch, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Music Theory at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research interests include Russian music theory, Tejano music, Disney theme park music, and theory pedagogy. She holds an effective teaching certification from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and participates in public music theory by creating original music theory “how-to” videos on TikTok and YouTube.
Description
Music from the Classical and Romantic eras and later, such as film music, incorporated ♭2 both melodically and harmonically to incite a variety of musical “associations” from exotic cultural representations to sadness and death. A clear example of this association occurs in “Sally’s Song” from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), in which Sally’s premonition of Jack’s death is harmonically alerted using ♭II. Not only does this example highlight ♭2 in film music, but also in intellectual property (IP) used throughout the Disney parks, particularly its connection to the Haunted Mansion as a seasonal overlay in Disneyland. Because Disney is known for using music to “create aural soundscapes” to achieve immersion, this begs the question: If a film from the Disney franchise used ♭2 to highlight death, does other original, dark themed Disney IP, specifically in pre-recorded attraction music, also contain similar features?
In this paper, I explore the use of ♭2 — melodically, harmonically, and through key schemes — in Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction and its relevance to the theme of death. Composed by Norman “Buddy” Baker in the key of A minor, Grim Grinning Ghosts includes the intriguing triadic bII harmony (B♭M), which becomes a central entity among other chords among the six-bar phrase. I conclude that the pitch B♭ is the symbol of death within the Haunted Mansion. To support this claim, I also analyze the progressions of Disney’s The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and recently shuttered Splash Mountain to find connections of purgatory and warning, respectively.
Recommended Citation
Hatch, Amy, "Death, Purgatory, and Warnings: The Use of ♭2 in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Splash Mountain" (2024). Theme Park Music and Sound. 2.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2024/friday/2
Death, Purgatory, and Warnings: The Use of ♭2 in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Splash Mountain
Rosen Classroom 111
Music from the Classical and Romantic eras and later, such as film music, incorporated ♭2 both melodically and harmonically to incite a variety of musical “associations” from exotic cultural representations to sadness and death. A clear example of this association occurs in “Sally’s Song” from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), in which Sally’s premonition of Jack’s death is harmonically alerted using ♭II. Not only does this example highlight ♭2 in film music, but also in intellectual property (IP) used throughout the Disney parks, particularly its connection to the Haunted Mansion as a seasonal overlay in Disneyland. Because Disney is known for using music to “create aural soundscapes” to achieve immersion, this begs the question: If a film from the Disney franchise used ♭2 to highlight death, does other original, dark themed Disney IP, specifically in pre-recorded attraction music, also contain similar features?
In this paper, I explore the use of ♭2 — melodically, harmonically, and through key schemes — in Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction and its relevance to the theme of death. Composed by Norman “Buddy” Baker in the key of A minor, Grim Grinning Ghosts includes the intriguing triadic bII harmony (B♭M), which becomes a central entity among other chords among the six-bar phrase. I conclude that the pitch B♭ is the symbol of death within the Haunted Mansion. To support this claim, I also analyze the progressions of Disney’s The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and recently shuttered Splash Mountain to find connections of purgatory and warning, respectively.