Editing Carl W. Stalling (section)

==Composing style==

Although Stalling's composing technique followed the conventions of music accompaniment from the silent film era that were based on improvisation and compilation of musical cues from  catalogs and cue-sheets, he was also an innovator. Stalling is among the first music directors to extensively use the [[metronome]] to time film scores. He was one of three composers, along with [[Max Steiner]] and [[Scott Bradley (composer)|Scott Bradley]], credited with the invention of the [[click track]].

His stock-in-trade was the "musical pun", where he used references to popular songs, or even classical pieces, to add a dimension of humor to the action on the screen. Working with directors [[Tex Avery]], [[Bob Clampett]], [[Friz Freleng]], [[Robert McKimson]] and [[Chuck Jones]], he developed the ''Looney Tunes'' style of very rapid and tightly coordinated musical cues, punctuated with both instrumental and recorded [[sound effect]]s, and occasionally reaching into full blown musical fantasies such as ''[[Rabbit of Seville]]'' and ''[[A Corny Concerto]]''.

Stalling's working process involved meeting each animated short film's director or directors before the animation process began. Together they set the time signatures to which the short was to be drawn. The animators of the film were measuring animation frames per beat. After the animation process was completed, Stalling would receive the animators' exposure sheets or bar sheets. The sheets broke the animation, dialogue, and sound effects into musical bars, which Stalling would then use to create his score for the film.<ref name="Strauss"/>

When working on a film score, Stalling would incorporate his musical puns. He chose popular songs whose titles fit the on-screen gags. His music quotations were often brief, sometimes not lasting more than four seconds. [[John Zorn]] has described Stalling's sense for quotation as "Ivesian", in reference to composer [[Charles Ives]] and his innovative musical quotation techniques.<ref name="Strauss"/> His musical cues, the unedited periods between the commencement and end of a single musical take, had varying lengths. At the short end of the spectrum, they would last no more than two seconds. At the long end, they would last two minutes.<ref name="Strauss"/> Stalling would often use music quotations from the themes of the live-action films of the [[Warner Bros.]]' studio.<ref name="Strauss"/>

Most of his film scores involved 500 measures in ten sections. His compositions were performed by Warner Brothers' fifty-piece orchestra. Neil Strauss notes that this orchestra was often employed for relatively undemanding film scores for live-action feature films. When working for Stalling, the orchestra would find itself burdened with more challenging and taxing work.<ref name="Strauss"/> Stalling recorded many variations of the opening themes of the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' series. The theme of the ''Looney Tunes'' series was "[[The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down]]" (1937), a minor hit from the team of [[Dave Franklin]] and [[Cliff Friend]]. Franklin and Friend were members of the [[Tin Pan Alley]].<ref name="Strauss"/> The theme of the ''Merrie Melodies'' series was "[[Merrily We Roll Along (song)|Merrily We Roll Along]]" (1935). An [[electric guitar]] provided the song's initial sound effect.<ref name="Strauss"/>

Stalling was a master at quickly changing musical styles based on the action in the cartoon. His arrangements were complicated and technically demanding. The music itself served both as a background for the cartoon, and provided musical sound effects. The titles of the music often described the action, sometimes forming jokes for those familiar with the tunes.

Stalling made extensive use of the many works of [[Raymond Scott]], whose music was licensed by Warner Bros. in the early 1940s.<ref name="Strauss"/> According to Strauss, Stalling relied heavily on the music Scott composed during the 1930s. For example, the reportedly "fast and wacky" "[[Powerhouse (instrumental)|Powerhouse]]" (1937) by Scott was frequently used to accompany animated scenes involving conveyor-belts or chases.<ref name="Strauss"/> Scott's works had a cartoon sensibility and brought visual images to mind, elements which Stalling needed for his compositions. Due to Stalling's frequent use of his works, Raymond Scott was eventually considered a "cartoon composer" in his own right. But Scott did not actually compose his works with the intention of using them as film scores.<ref name="Strauss"/>

Stalling's cues are always tied to the story on the screen. For example, he often used "[[The Lady in Red (Allie Wrubel song)|The Lady in Red]]" and "[[Oh, You Beautiful Doll]]" in scenes with attractive women or characters in female drag, and "[[California, Here I Come]]" for scenes where characters make hasty departures. Scenes involving automobiles were often accompanied by "[[In My Merry Oldsmobile]]", and scenes involving airplanes were often accompanied by the theme song to ''[[Captains of the Clouds]]''. Raymond Scott's "In an 18th Century Drawing Room" is usually associated with [[Granny (Looney Tunes)|Granny]] in the [[Sylvester (Looney Tunes)|Sylvester]] and [[Tweety]] shorts, and his "[[Powerhouse (instrumental)|Powerhouse]]" pops up in scenes of machines, factories or mechanical devices. Stalling composed music for the [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]-derived short ''The Rabbit of Seville'', and linked [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana's]] "[[The Bartered Bride|The Dance of the Comedians]]" to [[Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner]]. Stalling is remembered today for the scores of cartoons that remain popular, and are often remembered for their music. His melodies are heard through most of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, and imitated in new ''Looney Tunes'' compilations and features such as ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]''.

Film critic [[Leonard Maltin]] pointed out that listening to the soundtracks of the Warner cartoons was an important part of his musical education; the use of the full Warner Bros. Orchestra resulted in a richness of sound that is often lacking in more modern cartoons.

[[Allan Charles Neuwirth|Allan Neuwirth]] considers Stalling's work style in the Warner Bros. films to be highly recognizable. It consisted of "lush orchestrations", [[sampling (music)|sampling]] of popular songs, and "hair-trigger shifts in pacing". The pacing of the film score could quickly change from manic and furious to slow and gentle, and back again. Stalling's music would match the mood required for any given scene. Neuwirth argues that the music managed to enhance the mood set by these scenes. This was what made Stalling's work so effective.<ref name="Neuwirth"/>