Powerhouse (instrumental)
"Powerhouse" | |
---|---|
Single by The Raymond Scott Quintette | |
B-side | "The Toy Trumpet" |
Released | 1937 |
Recorded | February 20, 1937 |
Genre | |
Length | 2:56 |
Label | Master Records Brunswick Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Raymond Scott |
"Powerhouse" (1937) is an instrumental musical composition by
History
In scripted comments read on the First Anniversary Special of CBS Radio's Saturday Night Swing Club, on which the Raymond Scott Quintette performed, host Paul Douglas announced that "Powerhouse" had been premiered on that program in January or early February 1937.[1]
Scott's Quintette (actually a sextet) first recorded "Powerhouse" in New York on February 20, 1937, along with three other titles. This recording was first commercially issued on the
The personnel on the February 20, 1937, version are:
- Raymond Scott - piano
- Dave Harris - saxophone
- Pete Pumiglio - clarinet
- Dave Wade - trumpet
- Louis Shoobe - double bass
- Johnny Williams - drums
"Powerhouse" and "The Toy Trumpet" remained in Scott's repertoire for decades, and both were
The United States
Structure
Structurally, "Powerhouse" consists of two distinct – and seemingly unrelated – musical themes, played at different tempos. Both have been used in numerous cartoons. The first theme, sometimes referred to as "Powerhouse A", is a frantic passage typically employed in chase and high-speed vehicle scenes to imply whirlwind velocity. The slower theme, "Powerhouse B", is the "assembly line" music, which sometimes accompanies scenes of repetitive, machine-like activity. "Powerhouse" in its entirety places "B" in the center while "A" opens and closes the work (ternary form).
Use in cartoon works
The first use of "Powerhouse" in a cartoon occurred in the 1943
The "Powerhouse A" section is featured prominently during Bugs Bunny's altercation with a gremlin in Clampett's 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon Falling Hare. Stalling's lengthiest adaptation of the "Powerhouse A" section is interpolated during the beginning and end of the rocket travel sequence in the 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (directed by Chuck Jones). It starts at roughly 2:20, clocking in at one minute and twenty-five seconds.
Other Warner cartoons which contain excerpts from "Powerhouse" include Birdy and the Beast (1944), Cat-Tails for Two (1953), Early to Bet (1951), Falling Hare (1943), His Bitter Half (1950), House-Hunting Mice (1948), It's Hummer Time (1950), Jumpin' Jupiter (1955), Rocket Squad (1956), Sheep in the Deep (1962), Compressed Hare (1961), and dozens more.[6]
In the 1960s, producer Hal Seeger and composer/arranger Winston Sharples adapted "Powerhouse" and other Scott compositions in dozens of episodes of their Batfink cartoon series.[7]
The original Raymond Scott Quintette recordings, including "Powerhouse", were licensed in the early 1990s for
"Powerhouse" has been used In
A remix is used in Madness Combat, a Newgrounds series.
In the
"Powerhouse," with added lyrics and a new arrangement, was used as a recurring song in the Looney Tunes animated series Bugs Bunny Builders entitled "Hard Hat Time" by composer Matthew Janszen.[12][13]
Recent performances, recordings, and usages
In recent years, Powerhouse has been recorded by jazz clarinetist Don Byron on his album Bug Music,[14] jazz pianist Ted Kooshian on his 2009 CD Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog, and other Stories...,[15] pedal steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse, The Metropole Orchestra, The Beau Hunks Sextette, The Coctails, and jazz guitarist Skip Heller. The title, as arranged by Michelle DiBucci, has been in the repertoire of Kronos Quartet since 1994.
The
In 2006-2007, the "assembly line" theme was used in a highly
In August 2009, Sinking Ship Productions staged a musical portrait of Raymond Scott entitled Powerhouse at the New York International Fringe Festival.[18] The composition "Powerhouse" was used as a recurring theme. Sinking Ship presented a revised and fully-staged version of the production at the New Ohio Theatre in Manhattan in 2014.[19]
On August 8, 2013, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette performed an arrangement of "Powerhouse" to accompany Dance Heginbotham's choreographic work Manhattan Research at New York's Lincoln Center Out Of Doors summer concert series.[20][21]
"Powerhouse" was also used in some PBS commercials in 2000 urging viewers to shop.
In 2014, the Dubuque, Iowa, Colts Drum and Bugle Corps included "Powerhouse" as part of their show, "Dark Side of the Rainbow".[22] In 2016, Bethesda Softworks used the Scott Quintette's original 1937 recording in a showcase presentation for their Fallout 4 and Fallout Shelter games.[23]
In 2017, Chapo Trap House utilized the piece for their Call of Cthulhu Tabletop Game series.[citation needed]
The "assembly line" section was used on Neil Cicierega's 2020 album Mouth Dreams in the song "Whitehouse", in which it was matched up with the vocals to The White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl".
In April 2021 the tune was used in the CBS TV show Young Sheldon, in the opening scene of the episode "Mitch's Son and the Unconditional Approval of a Government Agency" (season 4, ep. 14).[24]
References
- ^ Amazon.com Saturday Night Swing
- ^ 78discography.com MASTER Records numerical listing discography
- ^ Biography for Carl W. Stalling at IMDB
- ^ "Private Snafu: Spies". Internet Archive. 1943.
- ^ Index of Raymond Scott titles in Warner Bros. cartoons at RaymondScott.net
- ^ Warner Bros. cartoon montage featuring "Powerhouse" adaptations
- ^ RaymondScott.net Raymond Scott's Music in Other Cartoons
- ^ RaymondScott.net Raymond Scott music in Ren & Stimpy
- ISBN 9781569764121. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
- ^ "Matt Groening's 100 Favorite Things". ilxor.com. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ "SpongeBob SquarePants (TV Series): Broken Alarm/Karen's Baby (2019) Soundtracks". IMDb.com. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ^ "Hard Hat Time" song adapted from Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in Bugs Bunny Builders
- ^ "Bugs Bunny Builders".
- ^ Amazon.com Bug Music
- ^ "Amazon.com: Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit, Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog, and Other Stories...: Music". amazon.com. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ ViolinJazz.com Quartet San Francisco
- YouTube
- ^ "At the Fringe: 'Powerhouse' - The New York Times". artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ^ Seibert, Brian, "Would Daffy Approve? Perhapth", New York Times review of Manhattan Research, August 9, 2013
- ^ Irwin Chusid (2013-08-11). "Raymond Scott Archives Blog: Would Daffy Approve?". raymondscott.blogspot.com. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ 2014 Song Listing for Colts Drum and Bugle Corps
- ^ Fallout 4/Fallout Shelter/Skyrim Special Edition: 2016 #BE3 Showcase Presentation, June 12, 2016 (music begins at 0:36)
- ^ Episode soundtrack listed at Tunefind.com
External links
- Montage of "Powerhouse" in Warner cartoons on RaymondScott.com's YouTube channel on YouTube
- Raymond Scott performs "Powerhouse" on TV's Your Hit Parade, April 16, 1955 on YouTube
- Seventy-five "Powerhouse" adaptions and performances compiled on YouTube by the Raymond Scott Channel
- Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" at Jazz.com
- Choreographed sketch on YouTubefrom Sinking Ship Productions' theatrical presentation Powerhouse, recorded during the New York International Fringe Festival Opening Press Conference, August 12, 2009
- A trailer for Sinking Ship Productions' Powerhouse at their website, which uses "Powerhouse", along with other Raymond Scott compositions