Bob Draper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>There was a Nazi propaganda film producer (name unknown to me). He
>produced all sorts of stirring films on topics like eugenics. The one
>that sticks in my mind was produced to convince the populace that it was
>right for people (German citizens) with congenital diseases to be put down
>in their own interests and of course improving the gene pool. This file
>made extensive use of Les Preludes as background music. ...
Just about everyone used Les Preludes at one point or other: it provided
the primary music behind Flash Gordon & about two dozen Lydecker Bros.
cliffhanger serials & documentaries (propagandist; & otherwise) around the
world. Frankly: it became a cliche of epic proportions. Same was true
of the Hungarian Rhapsody (for the purposes of this argument there was -
apparently - only one): Bugs Bunny played it (interrupted by a telephone
call for Franz Liszt, as i recall - M.Bunny's response: "Never heard of
him" reflected the attitude of most of the cartoon's audience, i suspect...
the set-up gag for the film's finale - when Bugs sees the final page of the
score; & how he responds to it - is a classic); as did Tom & Jerry; while
Sylvester caterwauled to it.
The trouble was: this was _all_ of the Abbe's music which was heard prior
to the foundation of the Liszt Society (by Searle & others). Things have
certainly improved; but great slabs of the composer's most interesting
music (vocal & choral works in particular) remain terra incognito....
All the best,
Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>