Ragtime "Discord" and BGM from "What if KP Was Discord"

[Michael Picher 38]

My brother and I collaborated to create the music for ILoveKimPossibleAlot's latest video, which premiered at BABSCon 2015. Highlights include a ragtime rendition of Eurobeat Brony's "Discord" song along with some other musical references. Critiques are welcome. Enjoy!

 

 

[Mostavus_Doo 21]

Wow, what an honor to have your stuff premier at BABScon!  Not a lot I could say in terms of critique.  I wish I could play ragtime.  Or any piano at all for that matter^^ 

[Eddie Canter 22]

Sweet Celestia, where has your music been all my life?!?! This is the first time I've actually found ragtime/jazz pony music besides my own! Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this!

[Michael Picher 38]

Sweet Celestia, where has your music been all my life?!?! This is the first time I've actually found ragtime/jazz pony music besides my own! Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this!

 

You're welcome! I had a lot of fun arranging the music. Speaking of arrangements, I really liked the covers on your YouTube channel! My grandfather was a trumpet player in "Roane's Pennsylvanians" and recorded a version of "Chinatown, My Chinatown" in 1932, so it was neat to hear the ponyfied version of it.

Edited April 28, 2015 by MPVideoFun

[Eddie Canter 22]

Wow, your grandfather was with a dance band back in the day? I guess that explains how the musical talent got passed forward. I'm definitely going to try and seek out that recording now!

 

I'm glad to hear you found my silly little music interesting; your compliment is very kind. I hope the bawdiness wasn't too offputting in "When I'm Making Weather." I love making jokes like that, regardless of the subject, and i find them even funnier when they're in song form, so a lot of the pony songs I write (or rewrite, as it were) end up that way. I figure I might post about those videos here when I have a few more proper posts under my belt. Don't want to rush things...

 

I'll be setting aside some time to listen to the other pony music you have on your channel, ragtime or not. I listened to an orchestral piece you did and found it quite stirring!

Update:

 

I just found and listened to Roane's Pennsylvanians doing "Chinatown, My Chinatown," and would you believe what a small world it is? I had actually heard their version on SoundCloud only a few days ago, where somebody had posted it without properly crediting the band! I actually had been listening to your grandfather without even knowing it!

 

But it's a really great take on the song. The vocal is super-sentimental, which I think Jerome and Schwartz would have appreciated, but boy is that trumpet solo hot! And I love how the clarinet soloist quotes Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave" when he comes in for his say.

 

Do you know if your grandfather was a soloist with the group? Or was he a sideman?

Edited April 28, 2015 by Eddie Canter

[Michael Picher 38]

 

 

Wow, your grandfather was with a dance band back in the day? I guess that explains how the musical talent got passed forward.

 

The music is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. My brother has it... 

 

 

 

I'll be setting aside some time to listen to the other pony music you have on your channel, ragtime or not. I listened to an orchestral piece you did and found it quite stirring!

 

Hope you enjoy the other music I have on my channel. Unfortunately there isn't much stuff specifically related to MLP at the moment, although that's slowly changing. I've become a regular on ILoveKimPossibleAlot's team, writing/arranging music for her videos, so that will help increase my pony music output.

 

 

 

I just found and listened to Roane's Pennsylvanians doing "Chinatown, My Chinatown," and would you believe what a small world it is? I had actually heard their version on SoundCloud only a few days ago, where somebody had posted it without properly crediting the band! I actually had been listening to your grandfather without even knowing it!

 

Too funny!  

 

 

 

Do you know if your grandfather was a soloist with the group? Or was he a sideman?

 

 

I don't think he was a soloist, but I'm honestly not sure.

[OptimisticNeighsayer 478]

I would have commented on this earlier but I didn't think it was fair to critique the piece until I have heard the original "Discord" song and ILoveKimPossibleALot's video to give me a proper frame of reference.  I finally did so today.

 

As far as ragtime goes, it's no Joplin, but of course that misses the point-- it's background music, not intended to be a full-fledged rag. It certainly conforms to stereotypical perceptions of ragtime with its honky-tonk feel, but I can't fault it for that.

 

The choice of using ragtime for Discord is actually fairly interesting.  Many music critics and musicologists have interpreted the appeal of ragtime as a sort of commentary on the drudgery of everyday life (especially in light of its African-American originators), where the syncopated melody seeks to transcend the steadily accented bass line.  In this light, Discord's taste for chaos seems perfectly aligned with this music.  At the same time, however, ragtime is still a highly structured musical form, perhaps more so than Discord would like--especially since he does not cause chaos out of response to the drudgery of the world but rather because he is chaos incarnate.

 

But back to your music.  My commentary on the appropriateness of ragtime for Discord doesn't take into account the specifics of what your music is.  As stated before, it's background music.  That gives it a bit more flexibility in terms of structure.  And you do take advantage of this flexibility with your unexpected key changes and constant variations of the simple theme.

 

TL,DR:  I quite liked it, even though it's not quite ragtime in the strict sense.

[Saylor Scout 66]

SWEET CHRYSALIS, THIS IS GOOD. I had fun reading the dialogue, too.

[Michael Picher 38]

 

 

As far as ragtime goes, it's no Joplin, but of course that misses the point-- it's background music, not intended to be a full-fledged rag. It certainly conforms to stereotypical perceptions of ragtime with its honky-tonk feel, but I can't fault it for that.   The choice of using ragtime for Discord is actually fairly interesting.  Many music critics and musicologists have interpreted the appeal of ragtime as a sort of commentary on the drudgery of everyday life (especially in light of its African-American originators), where the syncopated melody seeks to transcend the steadily accented bass line.  In this light, Discord's taste for chaos seems perfectly aligned with this music.  At the same time, however, ragtime is still a highly structured musical form, perhaps more so than Discord would like--especially since he does not cause chaos out of response to the drudgery of the world but rather because he is chaos incarnate.   But back to your music.  My commentary on the appropriateness of ragtime for Discord doesn't take into account the specifics of what your music is.  As stated before, it's background music.  That gives it a bit more flexibility in terms of structure.  And you do take advantage of this flexibility with your unexpected key changes and constant variations of the simple theme.

 

 

Wow, thanks for the thorough critique! I relied a lot on my brother, Stephen, to help me through the ragtime bits. Neither of us are true experts, but we did our best. 

 

I like how you're reading between the lines. You actually make some very good points! In all honesty though, the only reason that particular style of piano music was chosen was because KP's only direction was that she wanted "fun piano music "during those silent movie-esque transitions. Ragtime was the obvious choice, but I was also considering something with theater organ. 

 

Thanks for your comments!

[Grepper 3,192]

I never thought of playing Discord in a ragtime style.

I like the song in that style.