As promised in September, the blog is back with a vengeance! Hi all. It’s about two year since I’ve been regularly active, but we are back it’s going to be a grand ol’ time. Life has a funny habit of getting in the way (I’m sure you’ve read that on a hundred blog which have gone inactive), but let’s consider this the start of the change in that. In my time away, I’ve graduated college and started out on this “career” thing everyone speaks so highly about. But enough of that; let’s talk about the important things…the Titanic.
I’m jumping right back on this blog thing by rolling out a series of posts on day-to-day Titanic culture, specifically, how Titanic is represented in music, toys and games, and the other odds, ends, and affects that people might be familiar or not-so-familiar with. With any luck, others might read the posts and learn about something they are not familiar with and leave comments that I might learn about something that I am not familiar with. So here is a fun and post-filled rest of 2015!
In the many years since the Titanic disaster, a great emphasis in has been placed on what music the Titanic’s orchestras did and did not play. Since the mid-nineties, something around a dozen or so album have been released of “music played on the Titanic’, with various levels of authenticity. Here, I will keep a comprehensive list of albums, tracks, and historical and cultural references to authenticity regarding their performance onboard the Titanic.
This song is mentioned in Geoffrey Marcus’ “The Maiden Voyage” but no one seems to know what the original source was
4
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
-George Brereton
-Mrs. Jacques Futrelle
-Major Arthur Peuchen
5
Villia (from The Merry Widow)
6
Minuet
7
I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)
8
Maple Leaf Rag
9
Andante Cantabile
10
Song Without Words
11
Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2
12
Blue Danube
Other versions of this song are featured in A Night to Remember and James Cameron’s Titanic
13
Berliner Luft
14
Merry Widow Waltz
15
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
16
Fateful Hour
Composed for album
17
Nearer, My God, to Thee
Eva Hart recalled running out of church sometime after the disaster because they were singing Nearer, My God, to Thee. Eva Hart was a Methodist, so it stands to reason that she heard the Propior Deo setting.
This is the “Propior Deo” version, aka, the Methodist version. Nearer, My God, to Thee was reported as having been played, but which of three versions is unknown.
Titanic Serenade
1
At Southampton
Arranged for the album, includes brief selections from Gilbert and Sullivan and Rule Britannia
2
Chocolate Soldier Medley
Logan Marshall’s The Sinking of the Titanic (published in 1912) claims that selections from A Chocolate Solder were played as the ship sank, but no further reference is provided.
3
Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair
4
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
-George Brereton
-Mrs. Jacques Futrelle
-Major Arthur Peuchen
(See Music Aboard the Titanic, track 4)
5
Londonderry Air
Another recording of this song is used in the 1953 film Titanic
6
Spaghetti Rag
7
Beautiful Dreamer
8
To a Wild Rose
9
Danse Hungarienne
10
Salut d’Amour
11
Barcarolle
Lucy Noël Martha, Countess of Rothes
12
Temptation Rag
13
Song d’Automne
Harold Bride recalled a song he referred to as Autumn. Speculation exists as to whether he meant the hymn Song d’Automne (listed here), or a popular song by a similar name.
Hey all, this is just a catch-up post to keep any interested parties abreast of important updates in my professional life:
I just finished a show for Scene and Hurd Productions out of Eau Claire, which you can read about here. As of last week I am officially their Resident Scenic Designer and therefore will be designing at least as far ahead as their next two shows.
In a week I move to Spring Green to begin working with the American Players Theatre until October.
In my spare time, I have been working on one of four pet-projects:
My second 100 Day Project: A series of origami flowers based one way or another on music.
A minifig-scale Clue playing board made entirely of Legos. As of this post, all nine rooms and the playing space are built, five of the rooms are furnished, the exterior and foundation have not been started. At present, the project consists of 9,441 pieces, with an estimated 3,000 to go. Design to be completed by July 15, 2016. I’ll post about it soon.
An in-depth analysis of the many different outcomes of Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, vis-à-vis character interactions. A screengrab of my present working flowchart can be found below.
My magnum opus, a paper project about the Titanic. I am in the process of writing and designing my own theatrical production based on the tragedy of the R.M.S. Titanic. I know everyone and their brother who likes the Titanic is working on their own musical or movie or book or whatever, but I’ll get to why this one is special in a later post.
So that’s what I’m about these days. I’ll be updating soon about any of the above projects. Don’t forget to follow my Instagram for pics relating to any of the above project.
Cheerio!
The furnished model of the Conservatry
“Symphony”
“Spectrum”
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart”
My working flowchart for “Titanic: Adventure Out of Time”
Hello again! I’ve been less than regular about revisiting this blog, but not to fear; I’ve been doing other Titanic things. Let us jump right into today’s review. Last time, as you may recall, I took a look at Music Aboard the Titanic. Tonight we will be looking at Titanic Serenade: Music from an Age of Elegance.
Titanic Serenade was produced in 1998, and rereleased in 2003, by Andy Street for BCI. Titanic Serenade was part of the wave of Titanica that came out in the mid-1990’s. The liner notes indicate that, much like its peers, the album is giving the listener a musical taste of the music played onboard by the orchestra in approximately chronological order. On the whole, the album is quite nice, with an ample selection of pieces. Its primary faults, however, are in terms of performance/instrumentation and research. This does not stop the album from being very entertaining, luxurious, and one which provides the audience with a healthy dose of the early 1900’s.
Titanic Serenade features 14 tracks and runs about 46 minutes. It bears an interesting similarity to Music Aboard the Titanic in that it utilizes its first and final tracks to act as bookends for the whole album. Unlike Music Aboard the Titanic, however, the album is hardly broken down into sections, with the arguable exception of the first and final two tracks. This makes the order of the songs feel somewhat lumpy as the album jumps from style to style and back again throughout. This is not aided by the instrumentation, which I will get into later. The track list is as follows:
1.
At Southampton
2.
Chocolate Soldier Medley
3.
Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair
4.
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
5.
Londonderry Air
6.
Spaghetti Rag
7.
Beautiful Dreamer
8.
To a Wild Rose
9.
Danse Hungarienne
10.
Salut d’Amour
11.
Barcarolle
12.
Temptation Rag
13.
Song d’Automne
14.
Funeral at Colne
The first track of the album, At Southampton, is a sort of atmospheric piece. The track is two-and-a-half minutes of indistinguishable conversation, clapping, a small brass band, some water, and a ship’s whistle. To my mind, it’s the sort of track which starts up but doesn’t really go anywhere. The most climactic moment is when the brass band plays a snippet of Rule Britannia, though even that seems out of place because after it finishes there still lurks the sound of lapping water for half a minute. Altogether, it is an awkward first track.
The first musical track on the album is Chocolate Soldier Medley, though many online databases will refer to it as A Chocolate Soldier Medley. The Chocolate Soldier is an 1908 operetta written by Oscar Straus. Logan Marshall claimed in his 1912 book The Sinking of the Titanic that selections from the opera were played onboard the Titanic as she was sinking, but no reference or account is provided. The track is lively and energetic and sets a nice tone, though admittedly, some of the following tracks do not follow suit. Gears shift for the third track, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, by Stephen Foster. The song was written in the mid 1850’s and the only recommendation is has that it might have been played onboard the Titanic is that it was still somewhat popular; no reference to its performance onboard exist. The track is slow and lilting and its position between two upbeat numbers is perhaps a little ill-fitting.
Picking up the pace is the persistent Alexander’s Ragtime Band by Irving Berlin. The tune is a staple of Titanica, however, the instrumentation used on this album might be hard to swallow for the purists. The track is played by a brass section (or a synthetic brass section, as the case may be) and to anyone who yearns for the strings and piano of the Titanic’s band, this poses a problem. The track itself is still very fun and lively, but it easily removes one from the illusion of being onboard the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912. The next track is Londonderry Air, which has this whole pan-flute, synthetic accordion thing going on which is altogether very confusing and odd. Londonderry Air, was apparently recalled by some survivors as having been played onboard and was also featured in the 1953 film Titanic as having been played as the ship went down.
The album starts to shift from what I would call “afternoon tunes” into more of an evening repertoire. Spaghetti Rag, by George Lyons and Bob Yosco is next. The song originated in 1910 and, like many songs on the album, does not have a direct connection to the Titanic. The tune is a lively piano number and a lot of fun, though. Beautiful Dreamer, another Stephen Foster song, is next. The tune is played with a music box accompaniment which, although charming, does not suit the Titanic orchestra feel. To a Wild Rose, another lilting tune, follows. To a Wild Rose, also known as Edward MacDowell’s Op. 51, No. 1, originated in 1896. It was later made into part of a ballet in 1898 by Robert La Fosse, which accounts for parts of its popularity. Danse Hungarienne, which one might also know as Brahms Hungarian Dance 5 (there are 21, after all, so I feel the number is important). This track is one of the more delectable tracks on the album and in its way it is a shame there aren’t more like it.
Salut d’Amour follows. It is a lovely track and probably one of the better “slow” tracks on the album. Although I cannot find a direct reference to its having been played aboard the Titanic, Titanic Serenade is not the only album to feature it; Ian Whitcombe’s Titanic: Music As Heard On the Fateful Voyage is the other. Salut d’Amour was a popular tune by Elgar and it is reasonable that it may have been played aboard the ship. Incidentally, this recording of Salut d’Amour was (and perhaps still is) used in Premier Exhibitions’ touring exhibit Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. That seems to give it some credibility. Barcarolle, actually Offenbach’s Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour, from the third act of Tales of Hoffman (and formerly Die Rheinnixeni) is one of the few pieces on this CD with an actual connection to the Titanic. Walter Lord recalled in his book A Night to Remember that the Countess of Rothes remembered the piece being performed the night the ship hit the iceberg. Additionally, the Barcarolle has been heard in two Titanic films: the old miniseries and James Cameron’s film. The version on this CD is alright, though the version found on the special edition of the Cameron film soundtrack is arguably superior. The Temptation Rag by Henry Lodge follows and is another delectable track, despite its lack of authenticity. The rag was written in 1909 and is another fun and lively track.
The album takes a turn with Archibald Joyce’s Song d’Autumne. The track contains a lot of the water effects like the opening track, which somehow manages to appear both creative and tacky at the same time. I am not personally a Song d’Autumne-er, but the performance of the track with the water underscoring it only reinforces to my mind that Song d’Autumne could not have intentionally been the last song the band played because it is terrifying. This version retains a fast and haunting tempo which I would find hard to palette in comparison to other “last song” contenders. The track itself, though, is still quite good, especially if you let yourself get into it. The last track is Funeral at Colne, presumably an homage to Wallace Hartley, a native of the city. I could not tell you if the music played during the track is a piece composed for the album, a piece from the era, or a traditional number as there is no indication anywhere and I do not know the music from anything else. It is a mournful track and quite beautiful, though the rushing water makes a return, tying the song together with the first track and creating a bit of a distraction to the otherwise pleasant track.
Altogether, Andy Street’s Titanic Serenade is a pretty A-okay album. Although it does not accurately represent the performance style of the Titanic orchestra and the selection is largely in doubt, the album itself is not a bad representation of the era, nor of the people involved with the disaster. The highlights of the album are definitely Chocolate Soldier Medley, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Danse Hungarienne, and Temptation Rag. The album was not nearly as influential as Music Aboard the Titanic, nor is it as popular or well known as I Salonisti’s work with Titanic music, but it is still better than a few options and the song selection is at least interesting to someone interested in the Edwardian era.
BCI does not have a website, to my knowledge, but when in in doubt, one can always order a CD from Amazon.com or Ebay!
Today we feature a classic: the large Titanic Puzz3D by Wrebbit (Wrebbit made a smaller one as well) and how I think it just might have been based on the Titanic of James Cameron’s film. This 3D-puzzle came out in the late 1997, right around the time James Cameron’s Titanic came out. The puzzle measures 30-3/4″ long, by 3-1/2″ wide by 6-1/8″ tall and depicts a reasonably accurate representation of the Titanic. Like all of Wrebbit’s Puzz3Ds, the puzzle is made of foam pieces with stickers which when assembled create a three-dimensional structure.
Wrebbit’s Puzz3D Titanic
What is particularly interesting about Wrebbit’s 3D puzzle is it’s scale. The box lists the puzzle as a 1/350 scale replica of the ship and it is vaguely close. However, the ship looks too short for how tall and wide it is. In fact, if you crunch the numbers (which I did recently), you find that the length (30-3/4″ vs. 882′-9″) of the puzzle is actually 1/348 scale, the width (3.5″ vs. 92′-6″) is 1/317 scale, the height from keel to Bridge (3-3/8″ vs. 104′) is 1/369 scale and the height of the funnels (2-3/4″ vs. 71′) is 1/309 scale. So, this puzzle is all over the place, if you’re getting picky.
But Wrebbit is/was (they are a new company now) pretty accurate in their representations on 3D-puzzles, so how can we explain this? The height differences can probably be best explained as a compromise. The funnels are made out of standard-sized pieces, so they might have had to be larger so to keep the overall height consistent, they made the height of the hull shorter. Making the hull shorter might also have been an aesthetic choice, too. The puzzle depicts the area of the ship which is usually underneath the waterline, Wrebbit may have shortened the height on the hull so that the whole peice wouldn’t look “too tall” for those used to seeing it in the water (like, say, from a major block-buster movie).
However, I think the width-height scale difference was taken from James Cameron’s movie set. James Cameron’s set featured a similar difference and the puzzle was in development while the movie was being made. Although the set of James Cameron’s film was highly realistic, the giant ship set was shortened for reasons of budget. Martin Lang, Art Director on the film stated, “We took three slices of 20-foot out of the ship […] and just shunted it together.” Where these slices came from is illustrated in the photo below.
The set of James Cameron’s “Titanic”, indicating where slices of the ship were removed.
I crunched the numbers and although all of the decks on the 3D puzzle vary slightly in scale (this is do in part to the in-exactitude of using foam pieces), the biggest offender by far was the Boat Deck. The length of the Boat Deck of the Puzz3D is approximately 1/390, despite its width scale of 1/317. To me, that says that Wrebbit’s people just might have used James Cameron’s set as a reference, since it was also to a smaller length scale, despite maintaining the correct width.
Both of Wrebbit’s Puzz3Ds of the Titanic are great, and although not hyper-accurate, are still very cool to have, especially if you are into puzzles. It’s kind of interesting to think that Wrebbit might have used Jame’s Cameron’s film set and so their puzzle is the way it is. I suppose it is possible that Wrebbit’s designers and researchers just chose to do it differently for no particular reason, but I like my theory more.
Two years ago I did a blog post on the two different promos CBS used to lead in to the Hallmark miniseries Titanic in 1996. Not too long after that, the YouTube account associated with the videos I linked to was abandoned, but I never took the time to fix the post. Here is the re-pressed (not “repressed”) post with a video from my YouTube channel. The original post regarding the promo for Part Two from November 28, 2012 with edits to reflect the new video follows:
00:20, Before I get into the preview, here’s a little fact about this scene. This is the only presentation which shows this scene exactly like this. The glass slides off, music plays and the words “To Be Continued” appear before the fade out. The VHS version has the glass fall, the music play and the video cuts to black after the strain of music. The original DVD cut to black right after the glass falls, and the second DVD has the glass fall, the music play, the words, and the fade-out but the audio is out-of-sync and the hue of the entire DVD is different than the hue of this original airing, the VHS, or the original DVD.
00:34, The same alternate view of the Titanic that was at 00:12 of the first video.
00:46, Visible and audible camera flashes are added to this shot of Jamie Purse (Mike Doyle) entering the first-class Smoking Room.
01:12, The hue of this shot is different than in the movie. The sea in this shot appear much more gray here whereas in the movie it is very blue.
01:13, It is hard to tell, but Officer Boxhall’s mouth does not sync with the words he is saying. In the film, the lines he says are said while we are still looking through the binoculars.
01:17, The steel hull of the ship appears brown or dark orange here. In the film it appears to be grayish blue.
01:36, A different hue on the scene
01:37, The same as 00:31 from the previous video, a shot of a man running into a wall of water. Like the above, the film version has a different post-filming color filter and slowed down in the final montage.
01:38, First Officer Murdoch (played by Malcolm Stewart) says, Ladies and children, this way!” in the preview. He does not say this at any point in the film.
01:39, A shot of the Titanic sinking which has a different hue than the shot used in the film.
01:40, A VERY different shot of the Grand Staircase flooding that neither the movie or the first preview featured. From this vantage point, the flow of water from the Boat Deck level looks less severe, but I wonder if this is the same take but a different angle than the shot used for the first preview.
01:41, This shot, and I believe the audio take, of the Allisons approaching Captain Smith was not used in the final film.
01:42, Two things here. One, this shot of the ship sinking made it into many previews and bumpers for the film, but in the film itself is part of the final montage and shows Jamie’s face. Two, the “How long to you think they would last; that water is 28 degrees!” is the same audio cue from 00:37 of the other preview. It is a line paraphrased from Officer Murdoch and is not the actor’s voice.
01:43, Different hue than the shot in the film.
01:44, The break-up is shown at full speed and without the montage here.
01:46, like 00:40 last time, Isabella Paradine (Catherine Zeta-Jones)’s, “There aren’t enough boats,” is not said the same as it is said in the film, but is also different from the cue in the other preview. Also, there is a different hue.
01:47, Different hue.
01:48, Different hue.
01:49, Different hue and in the film is part of the montage.
01:51, Different hue and in the film is part of the montage.
01:52, Ken Marschall’s painting appears again.
So, there’s that. Kind of neat, isn’t it? Makes you wonder how much more footage from the miniseries was filmed that we haven’t seen or heard,
Two years ago I did a blog post on the two different promos CBS used to lead in to the Hallmark miniseries Titanic in 1996. Not too long after that, the YouTube account associated with the videos I linked to was abandoned, but I never took the time to fix the post. Here is the re-pressed (not “repressed”) post with a video from my YouTube channel. The original post from November 17, 2012 with edits to reflect the new video follows:
In an age before instant video, when a movie or a show premiered on the the television, it was kind of a big deal. The same is true for the Hallmark miniseries Titanic which premiered on CBS 16 years ago to this day. Before and during the airing, CBS added special previews and bumpers which, since a movie can have only one premiere, would never be seen again. Like many previews, these would contain a handful of alternate shots not shown in the film. With no behind-the-scenes features or anything resembling them on DVDs, seeing these in previews is kind of a big deal to compare and contrast with the finished product.
I had the premiere of the miniseries on tape for a few years until it got recorded over and when I realized how that meant I would never see the whole show like that again, I was heartbroken. I remembered as a kid noticing a handful of things which were different from the film, but without the VHS could never critically look at it. Over the past couple of years I would habitually search YouTube and other sources for videos or references to the premiere in hopes of seeing something from it again, to refresh my memory and perhaps to learn something new.
This promo aired right before the first half started 16 years ago tonight. From this preview, we can learn/see/notice:
00:11, An alternate shot of people waving to the Titanic.
00:14, A shot of Titanic, which in the film erroneously has no rudder, but in this preview shot correctly does!
00:17, A very CGI-looking Titanic.
00:20, One of many shots with a slightly different hue/filter than the finished product.
00:28, Mr. Phillips (Matt Hill) says, “We’ve struck an Iceberg,” but in the film his line is, “We’ve struck a berg.”
00:29, A shot of Mr. Ismay, which in the film is severely filtered in post and actually used in a montage with many other shots in slower motion.
00:31, A shot of a man running into a wall of water. Like the above, the film version has a different post-filming color filter and slowed down in the final montage.
00:33, HOLY GOODNESS this is a BIG ONE! A shot of the Titanic sinking that is NO WHERE in the film! Is it a model? To me, it looks different than the CGI Titanic they have, but it might just be because the shot has the natural yellow hue to it and not the filtered blue hue most of the sinking sequence gets.
00:33, ANOTHER BIGGY! A shot of people sliding down the side of the ship which A, corresponds to a shot used in the film but from a different angle and B, CLEARLY shows a studio lamp in the top right corner. WHAT?! Six-year-old Cade NEVER noticed this!
00:38, “How long to you think they would last; that water is 28 degrees!” is a line paraphrased from Officer Murdoch (played by Malcolm Stewart) in the film. The line that Stewart delivers is much softer, as he is trying not to attract attention, so it makes sense that a more urgent one recorded by someone else was used for the preview
00:40, Isabella Paradine’s, “There aren’t enough boats,” is not said the same as it is said in the film. THis time, though, it sounds more like the original actor doing the dub.
00:42, TWO THINGS!! One, as a kid I noticed that this is NOT Sonsee Ahray saying the line, “We can’t leave all hose people,” as Ahray’s line in the movie is much quieter and less urgent. Two, this is a totally different shot of the staircase flooding that is used in the film. I don’t mean just a different post-filming filter or a speed change like :30 and :31 were, I mean the men are falling in different ways, the water is moving differently, and the staircase is not breaking apart. That means they flooded that staircase set at least twice. James Cameron’s was flooded once. Of course that destroyed his set, but still interesting to think that they sank this one multiple times!
00:44, This is a weird one and I am not sure it counts. As a kid I always thought Mr. Phillips said, “Go away, sir,” to Captain Smith in this preview but in the movie clearly says, “Right away, sir.” When I got older I dismissed the idea of “Go away, sir,” as my childhood ears betraying me, and of course then I had no video to prove one way or another. Upon finding this video though, I am again unsure. It sounds a LOT like, “Go away, sir.” That would be immensely disrespectful and wrong of Mr. Phillips to do that, and I am sure that he never did or would have done, so it may just be the preview heightening the moment (like it did dubbing other lines). It may also be me incorrectly hearing it.
00:45, A FULL SPEED of the ship breaking apart after the group of people runs up the deck. In the film this is slowed down and used in the final montage, so much of the shot is distorted by Sonsee Ahray’s face smack in the middle and a number of crossfades happening.
00:51, This is a harder one to detect. beyond the narrator’s voice saying, “Discover the truth behind the disaster…” we hear the a stock sound effect of screaming. It was also used in the game Cyberflix made, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time.
00:56, The shot of this child and mother is altered for the movie via the filter and having been part of the montage.
00:57, You thought artist Ken Marschall was only involved in James Cameron’s Titanic? You are wrong. The background of the title shot here is T1982c of his (hit the right-pointing arrow a couple of times to see it). This painting would also be used on promotional materials as well as the cover of the Australian DVD release of this miniseries. Marschall also supplied photographs for the film. You can read that in the credits.
Look at all that! Isn’t that crazy?!?! From one minute of video, we have seen so much more of the miniseries that we might have expected! There are a handful of other videos which show some other interesting things as well, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The filter thing happens in a few shots that I did not list. I only listed the ones which appear significantly different for other reasons as well.
Two years later, I still think this preview is pretty neat for setting the mood to the miniseries, even if it does use a lot of material not in the final product. Part two is next!
To start off the revamped Titaniac blog, I’m taking a look at a classic piece of Titanic Culture, Music Aboard the Titanic. A goal for posts like these (and maybe I will come up with a name for them in the fullness of time to keep them unified), is to review the topic in question, provide some critical insight, and maybe generate a conversation or two about the differences between different pieces of Titanica in the world today.
Without further ado, let’s go over the basics and specs of Music Aboard the Titanic. Music Aboard the Titanic is a music album, produced in 1997 by Inside Sounds from Memphis Tennessee. It features 17 tracks of music meant to evoke the voyage of the Titanic in one way or another. It is a suburb album, with a solid selection and style.
Culturally, Music Aboard the Titanic is very significant for a couple of reasons. It was one of the first (if not the first, I am not sure yet) in a series of albums consisting of Titanic– and Titanic-era music which became very popular in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Others include Titanic: Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage (1997), Titanic Serenade (1998), And The Band Played On: Music Played on the Titanic (1998). We’ll get to those and others in later posts. Part of the popularity and influence of this album comes from Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. Anyone who saw Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition in the late 1990’s likely saw cassette tapes of this very album (as my family did in 1997/1998) and may have snagged a copy. To anyone who did, it was well worth it.
Music Aboard the Titanic is also very important because of its overall sound and representation of the music played aboard the Titanic at a time just before the Titanic reentered the public’s consciences in a major way (through James Cameron’s film). The overall sound of the album is very good and arguably very accurate (mind the last sentence of this paragraph). The tracks were performed by the Memphis Jazz Orchestra in a similar orchestration to what one would have found in the Titanic’s orchestra. I don’t know that the producer took into account the fact that the eight men of the Titanic’s band played separately in two groups of five and three, but I think that can be overlooked in this case.
The album’s sound is very lush, sophisticated, and fun. I contend that this is important for two reasons. Firstly, this pleasantness and accuracy of the sound makes it palatable to both the casual and the serious listener. Secondly, just a year later I Salonisti would make waves playing music in James Cameron’s film and anybody who saw the movie would develop a very particular idea of what music aboard the Titanic ought to sound like, based on I Salonisti’s performance. I Salonisti’s and the Memphis Jazz Orchestra’s performances are reasonably similar in their sophisticated and pleasant approach to the music. Although unintentional, this coercion of styles thus forms a stronger impression to the audience of what music sounded like aboard the ship. This will stand in contrast to my review of Titanic: Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage, whose style and arrangements of some of the same material is altogether different and jarring when compared to the Memphis Jazz Orchestra’s album or to I Salonisti’s three albums of Titanic– and Titanic-era music.
On to the song selection! Music Aboard the Titanic boasts 17 tracks: fifteen of which are period selections, two of which are composed especially for the album to act with the first and last tracks as bookends. The liner notes, which are very good and succinct, break down the tracks into the following sections:
1.
2.
Paddy O’Carroll
Leaving Queenstown
3.
4.
Oh, You Beautiful Doll
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
5.
6.
Villia (from The Merry Widow)
Menuet
7.
8.
I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad
Maple Leaf Rag
9.
10.
11.
Andante Cantabile
Song Without Words
Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2
12.
13.
14.
15.
Blue Danube
Berliner Luft
Merry Widow Waltz
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
16.
17.
Fateful Hour
Nearer, My God, to Thee
Cover of “Music Aboard the Titanic”. Cover image: “Titanic Leaving Southampton” by E.D. Walker
The album opens with bagpipes and a traditional tune called Paddy O’Carroll. Although obviously not meant to be played by the orchestra, the short song does remind us of the importance of Irish culture and Ireland to the Titanic as the setting for her construction and as the source of a fair portion of her passengers. Paddy O’Carrol’s bagpipes contrast sharply with the strings of the rest of the album, but appropriately so. Ultimately they remind us that the Titanic left Queenstown, Ireland before turning toward the United States and entering the wide open ocean. The next song, one composed for the album by Wolfe, is called Leaving Queenstown (see what he did there?). The song is a fitting, and graceful tribute to a Titanic ready to triumph. Imagine James Horner’s Leaving Port or Take Her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch, but much slower and more graceful. That is the feel of Leaving Queenstown. Now, in my case I always think of the Cowardly Lion singing “I’m the king of the forest” over the motif of Leaving Queenstown. For some reason the two musical phrases have always sounded similar to me. And somehow I feel like it is somewhat appropriate. Paddy O’Carroll and Leaving Queenstown create a suitable Prologue for our musical voyage.
The Luncheon in the 1st Class Dining Saloon features Oh, You Beautiful Doll by Nat D’Ayer and Alexander’s Ragtime Band by Irving Berlin. This is one of two mainstream Titanic albums to feature Oh, You Beautiful Doll.Titanic: Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage is the other. Oh, You Beautiful Doll was also featured for a moment in James Cameron’s film Titanic, but has never made it onto album associated with the movie, which is sad because the film’s version sounds very nice. The Memphis Jazz Orchestra’s Oh, You Beautiful Doll is whimsical, lively, and fun. Tragically, they chose only to perform the chorus twice for the album, as opposed to a verse and chorus (contrast this with Titanic: Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage, where it feels like they play the song ad infinitum, despite it only lasting a shade over two minutes). Alexander’s Ragtime Band, one of the most important songs in Titanic’s story is next. This light-hearted piano solo is fast and full of joie de vivre. Both songs were very popular in 1912 and are believed to have been played on the night of the disaster as reported by Major Arthur Peuchen and others. Alexander’s Ragtime Band appears on a majority of Titanic albums. This version is one of the better ones in terms of listenability and accuracy. All in all, this is a fast and fun and classy section of the album.
Villia from Lehár’s The Merry Widow is next. This is the first of two of Lehár’s Merry Widow songs to make it onto this album. The Merry Widow is a German operetta written by Franz Lehár and first performed in 1905. It would likely have still been popular in 1912 and I have seen a couple of secondary sources which indicate that selections from it might have been played aboard the Titanic. Menuet (either a foreign spelling or a misspelling of the word “Minuet”) by Paderewski follows. It is actually his Minuet in G which is performed. Another solo piano track, this one is slow and lilting. I have no references to Paderewski being played on the Titanic, but it is not unreasonable to believe that he may have. Together, these songs in the Tea in the Palm Court section form a “lazy afternoon” feel aboard the liner sailing westward.
The album picks up with two ragtime hits from the era: I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad and Maple Leaf Rag. I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad, by Harry Von Tilzer, was another popular song from 1911. The piano and strings track is another bout of short whimsy and, if you don’t bother to look up the lyrics, you need not be bothered by the Oedipus complex they suggest. The Maple Leaf Rag is a perennial tune. Written by Scott Joplin in 1899, the song was very popular, influential, and likely played on the Titanic, either formally by orchestra members, or casually by pianist passengers. The music of this section, 2nd Class Lounge, is basically in line with the Luncheon in the 1st Class Dining Saloon, albeit a shade less posh for the era.
Moving into evening, Concert in the 1st Class Lounge brings with it two Tchaikovsky tunes and a Chopin. Andante Cantabile (the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1) is a very slow classical piece. Truth be told, it is probably my least favorite song on the album. It is not bad; it is just a slow, 6-minute song on an album of upbeat 3-minute-or-less-ers. Song Without Words is an interesting selection for this album as it is a song which would later be featured in James Cameron’s film Titanic, but one for which I have no reference for having actually been played on board ship. This version is another piano solo (there are a lot of those on the album, now that I notice it). Needless to say, Song Without Words’ appearance in Titanic means that it is another song which can be found on a number of other albums. Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 ends the section very sweetly and pleasantly with another piano solo (see, what did I say?). Musically speaking, this section is a calm before the storm.
The next four songs create the Dinner Dance 1st Class Restaurant portion of the album. Ignore the “dance” bit in there, since we know there was no organized dancing onboard. I like to think that first class passengers may have enjoyed some impromptu dancing, but I do not know how much I am stretching history by thinking that. This section, specifically the first two songs, is my personal favorite on the album. Up first is Johann Straus’ The Blue Danube (more formally referred to as On the Beautiful Blue Danube). The performance of The Blue Danube is full, luxurious, warm, and inviting. It is the classiest track on this album of classy-molassy music. The full rendition of the song is not present on this album, which I suppose is par for the course. There is a strange clicking sound which appears in the track, but I only notice it when I am being critical. The Blue Danube is another recurring song featured on this album and thanks to the films A Night to Remember and Titanic (1997), it is forever a part of Titanic culture. Fun side note, when I was a child and first heard this song on this album I made the decision that this song would be my favorite song forever because I recognized it from the Woody the Woodpecker episode Banquet Busters. Watch it and tell me that the idea of Woody the Woodpecker and his friends eating to the tune of The Blue Danube on the Titanic doesn’t make you smile. Berliner Lüft is next and arguably the most fun song on the album. Berliner Lüft is German for “Berlin Air” or “Berlin Scent”, depending on the context of your translation. The song comes from Paul Lincke (whose song Glühwürmchen, aka, Glowworm is another perennial Titanic piece, albeit missing from this album) and was written in 1904 for a burlesque and later used in his 1922 operetta Frau Luna. The song is great fun and very quirky and if you listen to someone sing the German lyrics, you are bound to enjoy yourself immensely. The song is the unofficial anthem of the city of Berlin, incidentally. I bet Berliners know how to have classy fun. Merry Widow Waltz is next. The Merry Widow Waltz by Lehár ties back to Villia from earlier as it shares the same source material. This version of the Merry Widow Waltz is probably the better of ones which appear on a Titanic album. Let Me Call You Sweetheart by Leo Friedman ends the section nicely and amiably as passengers wind down for the night.
The album comes to a close with the Epilogue which consists of Fateful Hour, another of Wolfe’s pieces for this album. It is eerie, majestic, and grim. Tying back nicely to Leaving Queenstown, it uses a similar instrumentation, and the sharp and staccato use of strings near the end of the song is practically terrifying. Last, but by no means least is a rendition of Nearer, My God, to Thee. The track begins with ghostly echoes of Paddy O’Carroll and Alexander’s Ragtime Band before moving into the actual piece of music. Any Titaniac worth his salt knows that there are three versions of Nearer, My God, to Thee and that the debate over which version was performed (if any!) is a critical part to our understanding of the disaster. For this album Wolfe selected Arthur Sullivan’s musical setting, the “Propior Deo” tune. To my knowledge, Wolfe’s album is the only one featuring this version to date. Many operate under the misapprehension that the Lowell Mason version was performed, though this is certainly false (the tunes bear a striking resemblance to each other, however, adding to the confusion!). And only one album contains the John Bacchus Dykes tune, though even that tune is more likely to have been performed than Mason’s. Regardless, it is the opinion of this author that Sullivan’s Propior Deo tune was likely the one played, making this album the most accurate in terms of selection for that song. However, the album does depart from reality for a moment in the track when, as the song is building up, the instrumentation switches from mournful strings to an organ. The liner notes explain that this is for dramatic effect, so I’ll buy it! It is a transcendence from the traditional sound of the rest of the album, and a fitting tribute. The track ends with a solo violin playing the last strains of the tune.
There we have it, Music Aboard the Titanic. At the end of the day, this is one of the best Titanic albums out there. In terms of song selection, accuracy, performance style, literature, and packaging, this album is one of the best. If you are interested in the Titanic or the Edwardian era and don’t have this album, I highly recommend you get it. It is a beautiful sampling of music from a variety of sources and all likely to have been played onboard the Titanic in some context or another. Culturally, it is also important to our understanding of the ship and her era as its representation is reasonably accurate and proves highly influential, even nearly two decades since this albums release.
You can visit Inside Sounds webpage here. And if you ever write to them for any reason, experience tells me that they respond in like fairly quickly. It’s a small organization, in the grand scheme of things and the people who run it are fantastically nice. The Memphis Jazz Orchestra can be found here. They have a very fun body of music. Lastly you can purchase the CD here. Do it. It is worth it.
So that is the first of what I hope will be many informative and interesting posts on the ways Titanic’s story is told culturally. I hope you found it as informative and interesting as well! I will probably refrain from reviewing movies for a while, as I feel that those posts would be even lengthier than this. Have a great night, all, and don’t forget to give this album a listen!
So, it has pretty much been two years since I actively worked on this blog, owing largely to life and work rearing their ugly heads (Isn’t that every blogger’s excuse?). A lot has happened in that time (including the creation of my professional blog, here), but I am glad to say that I am back here and will be updating and fixing this blog a lot more frequently now; I have some cool ideas, but more on those later.
The immediacy of this post is to comment on something a reader posted on here a couple days ago. On my post Carpathia, By Jesse Lee Kercheval, A Quick and Dirty Analysis from October 19, 2012, I posted the text and an analysis of a piece of prose featured in a literature class I was taking at the time. Eflows commented that I was missing that last sentence of the piece. Holy bologna, it’s been two years! I haven’t taken the time to dig out the original piece of paper from my Lit class (from which I would have typed the original post), so I cannot say that I missed the sentence or if the document my professor gave us was missing the sentence. I admit that the sentences sound familiar, so I am guessing that I neglected to type them in the first place. In any case, the last sentences ought to have read:
She was the one drowning. But there was no one there to rescue her.
Kind of totally important, no? So, thank you, eflows for pointing that out!
So, the upshot of this post is to acknowledge that correcting and to announce that I am coming back, though now that two years have past, I cannot say how many eyes peruse this blog anymore. We shall soon see!
I planned to do this earlier in November…but life didn’t like that idea. So, here is the next installment of really interesting things that can be found in previews from the 1996 miniseries “Titanic”. This preview is from November 19, 1996.
12:40, Before I get into the preview, here’s a little fact about this scene. This is the only presentation which shows this scene exactly like this. The glass slides off, music plays and the words “To Be Continued” appear before the fade out. The VHS version has the glass fall, the music play and the video cuts to black after the strain of music. The original DVD cut to black right after the glass falls, and the second DVD has the glass fall, the music play, the words, and the fade-out but the audio is out-of-sync and the hue of the entire DVD is different than the hue of this original airing, the VHS, or the original DVD.
13:04, The same alternate view of the Titanic that was at 00:12 of the first video.
13:15, Visible and audible camera flashes are added to this shot of Jamie Purse (Mike Doyle) entering the first-class Smoking Room.
13:41, The hue of this shot is different than in the movie. The sea in this shot appear much more gray here whereas in the movie it is very blue.
13:43, It is hard to tell, but Officer Boxhall’s mouth does not sync with the words he is saying. In the film, the lines he says are said while we are still looking through the binoculars.
13:47, The steel hull of the ship appears brown or dark orange here. In the film it appears to be grayish blue.
14:06, A different hue on the scene
14:07, The same as 00:31 from the previous video, a shot of a man running into a wall of water. Like the above, the film version has a different post-filming color filter and slowed down in the final montage.
14:08, First Officer Murdoch (played by Malcolm Stewart) says, Ladies and children, this way!” in the preview. He does not say this at any point in the film.
14:09, A shot of the Titanic sinking which has a different hue than the shot used in the film.
14:10, A VERY different shot of the Grand Staircase flooding that neither the movie or the first preview featured. From this vantage point, the flow of water from the Boat Deck level looks less severe, but I wonder if this is the same take but a different angle than the shot used for the first preview.
14:11, This shot, and I believe the audio take, of the Allisons approaching Captain Smith was not used in the final film.
14:12, Two things here. One, this shot of the ship sinking made it into many previews and bumpers for the film, but in the film itself is part of the final montage and shows Jamie’s face. Two, the “How long to you think they would last; that water is 28 degrees!” is the same audio cue from 00:37 of the other preview. It is a line paraphrased from Officer Murdoch and is not the actor’s voice.
14:13, Different hue than the shot in the film.
14:14, The break-up is shown at full speed and without the montage here.
14:16, like 00:40, Isabella Paradine (Catherine Zeta-Jones)’s, “There aren’t enough boats,” is not said the same as it is said in the film, but is also different from the cue in the other preview. Also, there is a different hue.
14:17, Different hue.
14:18, Different hue.
14:19, Different hue and in the film is part of the montage.
14:21, Different hue and in the film is part of the montage.
14:22, Ken Marschall’s painting appears again.
Isn’t that crazy! The things you notice when you look twice. Chances are I will be doing more posts like this, comparing one thing to another that is supposed to be “the same,” so keep watching for them; you never know what you might learn.
thetitaniac 