Familiar Themes

Dont you hate it when you come up with a theme/melody and although you may love it, it sounds too familiar?

I'm in this situation right now.

So could someone help identify these themes?

sounds like it would be in a movie about baseball. And you're right, it does sound familliar.

I put this on to listen to it, and I went to work on my research paper, not even realising your little midi has been playing over and over, maybe I've just too lazy to open the window and turn it off, but I'm glad I didn't, because after over two hours of mindless listening while working, it finally dawned on me that the first five notes are straight, and I mean straight out of a song I heard in the original Shrek movie. It's a popular song, but I can't find it anywhere for the life of me, I don't even know what it's called. It's a happier song...

Somebody, please tell me the name of that song! It's gonna drive me nuts and tear me to pieces...

Anyways, this also sorta reminded me of Fanfare for the Common Man, a rather famous piece by Aaron Copland.

Wow, thanks for giving it that much thought! I don't remember any of the songs in shrek being like that though.

I think I found what I was thinking of:

YouTube - Robert Redford in The Natural - The Final Homerun

its a pretty famous theme.


Ya, when I first played the theme on piano, the first thing I thought of was Fanfare for the Common Man.

With the exception of a slight rhythmic inaccuracy, the first little bit is extremely close to the theme song for Star Trek: Voyager.

YouTube Video

Star Trek Voyager: Opening Sequence

(Original Source)

Since I'm posting this anyway, I should mention that I consider this to be a particularly brilliant example of good scoring. I love the theme.

Wow, I'm surprised I never noticed the Voyager link myself, I'm a fan of all Star Trek music through and through.

Anyways, I found what I was thinking of from Shrek. It was the 80's hit in America, "Funky Town". I couldn't find it from the Shrek film (it sounded different from the 80's version), but I thought people would get a kick out this remake made for the Alvin and the Chipmunks video, it made me chuckle.

YouTube Video

Funky Town Soundtrack: Alvin and the Chipmunks Movie

(Original Source)

If you listen closely, you'll notice five notes from your theme are directly from the pickup and 2nd measure from this song. Don't worry, you don't have to listen even 12 seconds in to hear it.